Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Steve Pound on Brian Sedgemore
Labour MP Brian Sedgemore recently defected from the Labour party to the Lib Dems, a move that doesn't seem to have impressed Steve Pound much, who described Mr Sedgemore as "immensely pompous, incredibly self-important and stupefyingly boring". Full story available here.
Friday, April 22, 2005
Ealing North Candidates Round-Up
The Ealing Times has just published a round-up of the six candidates standing in the Ealing North constituency. You can read it here.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Question Time
Steve Pound will be present at a question time for residents at 8pm at Petts Hill Primary School, Newmarket Avenue, on Thursday, April 21.
More details at the Ealing Times.
Monday, April 11, 2005
The wit of Stephen Pound
An extract from the Pendennis column in The Observer:
"If only every Labour MP had the wit of Stephen Pound, a third landslide would be in the bag. On the return flight of Virgin Atlantic's inaugural trip to Mumbai, the affable Pound quaffed rather a lot of champagne and fell into conversation with a hack who was also enjoying Sir Richard Branson's lavish hospitality. 'So, Stephen, how long have you been an MP?' the great man was asked. Turning to the very attractive Virgin Tour Operator on board, Steve gave a wink and replied: 'About five foot seven and a half.'"
From here.
Friday, April 08, 2005
Updates
Now the election date has been confirmed, I'll be updating this site more regularly. I'll scan and post any relevant campaign material that I can, and keep an eye on all the local papers.
Also, this site is now ranked number 2 in google for the terms Steve Pound in Google, behind Steve's official site. Which is nice.
Electioneering
With the election date confirmed as 5th May, all of the Ealing-based candidates have been out campaigning. Steve Pound "went on a whistle-stop tour of as many of the borough’s Tube stations on Tuesday evening to rally support", according to the Ealing Times.
Steve Pound on Michael Howard and abortion
Speaking on GMTV, Steve Pound has the following to say on Michael Howard's stance on abortion:
"This is the George Bush agenda. Michael Howard has seen there’s a hard-right fundamentalist, anti-abortionist, tax-cutting agenda that’s worked in America"
From this Times Online article.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
MP opens football pitch
Steve Pound opened a new football pitch on the Gurnell Grove estate in Greenford. The Ealing Times article is here.
Assyrians in Iraq
A letter sent by Australian Assyrians to George W. Bush highlighted some of the efforts Steve Pound has made on behalf of the Assyrian community in Iraq.
You can read the text of the letter here.
Steve Pound on Ken Livingstone
In this This Is London article, Steve Pound is quoted as saying "Anyone who has known Ken for 10 minutes will know he is not anti-Semitic. But he should have apologised the moment the Standard reporter said he was Jewish and offended."
It is perhaps unsurprising that this article was on the This Is London website, the online wing of the Evening Standard, whose reporter took such offence at Ken's comments.
Commenting on Michael Howard's grandfather,
Steve Pound had the following to say:
"There is a certain element of 'do as I say, not as I do'. Michael Howard's grandfather was extremely lucky in two things, one in finding asylum in Britain and two that Michael Howard was not Home Secretary when he came here."
From this Telegraph article.
Parliament smoking ban
In an Independent article, (40 a day smoker) Steve Pound describes the banning of smoking in parliament as "a profound culture shock".
I'm afraid I can't link to the article as you have to pay to view it.
Assyrian Referees
Assyrian immigrants have shown "...prowess as football referees in the Middlesex amateur league..." according to Steve Pound, quoted in this article.
Stephen Pounds long lost daughter
There have been many articles concerning Stephen Pound's long-lost daughter, but this BBC article sums it all up neatly enough.
The essence being that Steve Pound fathered a child in the 1960s, but the mother kept the pregnancy a secret. The daughter tracked her father down via Friends Reunited. Mr Pound's family, and the family of his daughter have all been very supportive. Mr Pound described it as "...a pretty horrible thing with a pretty happy ending."
Lack of updates
Apologies. I've been busy with other things. I'll attempt to catch up with things this afternoon.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Stephen Pound MP and Opus Dei
In an article in today's Independent Review section (available online here), Steve Pound is mentioned as being a guest speaker at Netherhall House, an intercollegiate hall of residence run by Opus Dei, the Catholic organisation that has come to prominence recently as a result of the way it was presented in Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code. The tone of the article seems to imply that Steve Pound, as well as several other public figures, are associates of Opus Dei. This is echoed in a statement (apparently) from the National Secular Society, available here, citing The Mail on Sunday as a source. I couldn't verify this as the MoS website requires paid registration, and it will be a cold day in hell that I give that particular publication any of my money.
As far as I can ascertain from a good many web searches, in 2001, Steve Pound MP gave a talk at Netherhall House, entitled "Where Does the Left go from Here?" (as listed on the Netherhall House website here), but has no other obvious connection to Netherhall House or Opus Dei that I can find.
Whilst Opus Dei has rightly complained about how they were presented in The Da Vinci Code, I'm sure that Mr Pound can understand that an association with Opus Dei could be a cause for concern for many of his constituents, especially in the light of the media furore over Secretary of State for Education Ruth Kelly's publicly stated association.
I have emailed Mr Pound regarding this, and, with permission, will post any response here.
UPDATE: In response to an email on the subject of Opus Dei, Mr Pound had the following to say (quoted with permission):
I gave a talk to the students at Netherhall House some years ago and
have certainly never been inclined to join nor, more significantly, have
I been offered the opportunity.
I actually have considerable admiration for the principles of Opus Dei
but as one who is on the liberal wing of the Roman Catholic Church I
doubt that I could adhere to the practices.
Which I guess shows that a) it's really not that difficult to check facts with those concerned before publishing them, and b) the internet is not always the most reliable source of information. Not a surprise, perhaps, but worth bearing in mind.
