Pipper Middleton and the Earl of Hogwarts

Everyone seems to adore Pipper Middleton, so much so that when a British newspaper announced that she was in a serious relationship with one of Britain’s richest men, George Percy, 30 newspapers and television stations around the world pounced on the story and ran with it.





Heir to the ancient Duchy of Northumberland, 27 year old Earl Percy will inherit Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, better known as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. The family’s wealth is conservatively put at around 300 million pounds and includes more than 100,000 acres of land as well as an estate in Surrey and Syon Park in London. His parents, Ralph, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, and mother Jane have withheld much of his inheritance to stop him going off the rails.





But a Royal source said yesterday that the claims of a serious love match are unfounded. They met at Edinburgh University and have been close friends ever since and because George has been helping Pipper get over her love affair with banker Alex Loudon, people have jumped to the wrong conclusion.


But the rumour persists. An unnamed source said the Earl has always been in love with Pipper and insiders say that their relationship blossomed at a New Year's Eve party hosted by the Middletons. Pippa sat next to Earl Percy at supper and was at his side throughout the evening.


The Middleton family ancestry is interesting, lawyers on Mr Middleton’s side and coal miners and labourers on Mrs Middleton’s. A cynic might suggest that the robust working class genes from mother are responsible for this ordinary middle-class family being able to produce such clever, good-looking children. History has proved that royal progeny sometimes leaves a lot to be desired and an injection good working class genes is undoubtedly beneficial.





You might remember Kate’s younger brother James who made such an impressive speech for someone so young at his sister’s royal wedding. Like his parents, he is also making money hand over fist with his Cake Kit Company and has launched three more companies – Nice Cakes, Nice Wine and Nice Group London. All three have been registered to the family’s Berkshire trading headquarters, home of the successful Party Pieces firm which has made the Middletons a fortune. A friend of James said “There is no doubt about it, James would like to be the next Richard Branson.”


When Pipper’s long term relationship with banker Alex Loudon ended last year, it was rumoured that his parents thought Pipper’s pedigree was ‘not good enough’ for their son and one wonders if the Duke of Hogwarts and his wife might feel the same way. So could the old ‘class system’ still be alive and well in the UK? Oh course, it never went away.

Gina Rinehart's Family Fued

Langley Hancock became a very rich man when he discovered the world’s largest iron ore deposit in 1952. Towards the end of his life, he employed an attractive maid/housekeeper, Rose Porteous, 39 years his junior, who he later married, much to the disgust of his daughter Gina Rinehard who handled her father’s business affairs.


Lang was infatuated with Rose and built her a mansion modelled after the Tara Plantation from Gone with the Wind overlooking the Swan river in Perth. He also gave her money, jewellery and investments in real estate. After his death, legal battles ensued between Rose and Gina over many years but today, Gina Rinehard is respected for being a very clever business woman. In June 2011, Citigroup estimated that she was on course to overtake Carlos Slim, the Mexican magnate worth 46 billion pounds (US$74 billion) and Bill Gates who is worth 35 billion pounds (US$56 billion), mainly because she owns her companies outright.


Now Gina Rinehart’s dirty laundry will be aired in public after she tried unsuccessfully to suppress details of her family trust battles. Three of Rinehart's four children, Hope Rinehart Welker, John Hancock, and Bianca Reinhart took their mother to court over a commercial dispute relating to a family trust fund and want their mother removed as trustee. Her youngest daughter Ginia is the only child still on side with her mother.


Personal emails from two of her daughters were tendered in the Supreme Court yesterday and they make interesting reading.


From: Hope Rinehart
Sent: Saturday, 30 July 2011 8:30PM
To: Gina Rinehart

Hi Mem,

I need a few things for my birthday (cook so you can be sure April is fed right, bodyguard so the kids are safe and housekeeper that is good w kids so if I need to go out I can) and I found a great agency here that sources the best, here are the descriptions and costs, I would buy them myself but I’m down to my last $60,000 and your only paying my husband $1 a year.

Chef/Cook

Description: A Cook or Chef prepares detailed menus and food for most or all family and social events. A Cook or Chef may also prepare meals for the staff. The household Chef is responsible for anything food or kitchen-related, including organization, clean up, shipping for all food-related supplies and menu planning. There are many levels of cooks from the basic family cook to the school trained gourmet chef.


Annual Salary Range: $40,000 to $225,000+

Bodyguard

Description: Protects clients when in public and helps maintain their privacy. A Bodyguard may be the driver, a chaperone or remain at the house, possibly working with a team. He or she is usually physically fit and trained in personal protection techniques and martial arts. A Bodyguard may be required to carry a firearm. Past experience as a police officer may be required.
Annual Salary range: $55 000 to $100 000

Housekeeper

Description: A Housekeeper in charge of running the home, which may include overseeing other employees, cleaning, doing the laundry, ironing, dusting, silver polishing, vacuuming and running errands. Housekeeper duties may also include some meal preparation and/or childcare duties. Housekeepers can live-in or out.
Annual Salary Range: $35 000 to $55 000+


From: Hope Rinehart
Sent: Sunday, 31 July 2011 1:14AM
To: Gina Rinehart
Subject: RE:

I can’t live in Australia or Singapore, it’s not fair on me to have to live there and horribly unfair for me to have to expose the kids to that. It’s hard enough being a kid, let alone the peer pressure that comes from being the wealthiest one in the country.

I love America, the girls love it. I’m happy here. Your media is minimal and positive here. I really do need a safer apartment but ironically I can’t afford it! I don’t want to have to move back to one of your `desirable’ countries again just to save every cent I can to finally live here where I’m happy, my children are happy and I can offer them the best school and universities in the world. It’s not fair you are selfishly pressuring me to move to Singapore and Australia just because you hate America.

I don’t think you understand what it means now that the whole world thinks you’re going to be wealthier than Bill Gates – It means we all need bodyguards and very safe homes!! Especially the children who are small and easily targeted for kidnap. No country (not even Singapore) is safe. I don’t have the money to protect myself or my children and it scares me. I should have enough money to have a bodyguard, housekeeper and cook. Even my friends who have nothing compared to your wealth have more staff.

I hate that we can’t be happy and do our own thing and spend the holidays together. I hate that everything is conditional. I’m tired and I don’t want to fight and I just want to make the most our of everyday I have left.

From: XXXXX

Sent: Thursday, 4 August 2011, 11:40AM


On Wednesday Gina Rinehart closed in on becoming the single biggest shareholder in Fairfax Media Ltd., the country's oldest newspaper publisher. This gives her a 12% stake in Fairfax, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and other newspapers, at a cost of 152 million Australian dollars (US$161.6 million), up from her previous stake of just under 5%. Last year, Ms. Rinehart bought a 10% stake in Channel Ten Network Holdings Ltd, she said she was interested in "making an investment towards the media business given its importance to the nation's future." So should the Labor Party be worried? Definitely!


And from Ms Rinehart’s point of view, the nation’s future isn’t looking good. Her opposition to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd’s policies is well known, especially the planned new taxes on the mining industry and the carbon tax. As boss of Hancock Prospecting, this clever lady watches over a mining empire so vast, it brings tears to the eyes and she is thinking of branching out into coal, uranium and base metals.

London Stock Exchange Bomb Plot

Four Muslims have admitted plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange by placing a bomb in the toilets. London Mayor Boris Johnson was also on the list of targets, together with two rabbis, the American Embassy, the London Eye and Westminster Abbey. Nine men admitted various terror crimes yesterday at Woolwich Crown Court and will be sentenced next week.


Lynchpin" Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, and his London accomplice Shah Rahman, 28, were followed by undercover detectives in November 2010 and their plans were thwarted before firm dates could be set. They were all members of radial Islamic groups and stayed in touch with each other by computer, mobile phone and at meetings held in parks to make surveillance difficult.


And here’s the kicker – although admitting their guilt, their barrister said their intention was not “to cause death or even injury but the intention was to terrorise, damage property and to cause economic damage.”


The nine men were not members of al Qaida but were inspired by its former Yemeni boss, American-born Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed last year in a drone strike in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) use internet propaganda to inspire radicals to carry out attacks against the countries they live in and had in their possession the al Qaida magazine Inspire, which contained a feature: "Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom."


The planned threats were not just facing London, the group planned to leave homemade bombs in the toilets of their local pubs at various other locations throughout the UK.

Most generous boss in Australia

Melbourne man Ken Grenda and his sons Geoff and Scott have been named Australia’s most generous bosses after they surprised 1800 staff with a bonus for hard work and loyalty.


Fifteen million dollars was shared with everyone - from drivers to senior executives, with some finding an unexpected $30,000 in their bank accounts. Shocked employees rang their banks to say there had been a mistake, but were later delighted to find out that it was real.


Family owned Grenda Corporation recently sold their transit operations to Melbourne operator Ventura and are in the process of selling their bus building business Volgren to a Brazilian company tomorrow.


Mr Grenda 79, the major shareholder, said "We have grown from just four bus routes in Dandenong in 1945 to operating 1300 buses in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. You only get there if you have good people. A business is only as good as its people, and our people are fantastic," he said. “We have had people here who are second generation, and one fellow in the same job for 52 years.”


Nice one Mr Grenda.

Andrew Wilkie's Revenge

This year has started very badly for Prime Minister Gillard with the latest poll showing that support for her government is at it’s lowest level on record – Labor 30% compared to the Liberal-National coalition 45% and with her parliamentary majority at just one seat, anything is possible.


She will also have to contend with Andrew Wilkie, waiting in the wings to wreak revenge on the PM for not following through on her promise to tackle poker machine reform.


Then we have the Australia Day fiasco when a member of her own staff tipped off Aboriginal protesters about Tony Abbott’s whereabouts, deliberately hoping for a confrontation that would embarrass him. But it all went horribly wrong, the PM's staffer got the sack and the Labor Party has egg all over its face – again.


Today, Simon Crean warned Labor must not change leaders again in a desperate attempt to increase popularity in the polls. The PM’s backers have started counting heads among MPs so they must be worried about a Kevin Rudd challenge. The rumour is that the powerful NSW right faction is not happy and are thinking that Kevin Rudd as leader could be the only way back, and out of 18 MPs, Ms Gillard now has only 5 behind her. Mr Rudd has eight MPs already commited with the remainder undecided.


Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis says the Opposition suspects a cover-up of the Australia Day riot and it’s clear they will be relentless is keeping it at the forefront of everyone's mind. And now they have a potential trump card - Mr Wilkie said it was "inconceivable" the PM's former adviser, Tony Hodges, acted alone.

Djokovic beats Nadal

It was the longest men’s final in Grand Slam history, a gruelling 5 hours and 53 minutes. On Monday, July 4, 2011, the day after he won his first Wimbledon, Kjokovic realised his life’s dream - he became the best player in the world, and after last night, he's still the best. The stamina of both Kjokovic and Nadal was amazing to watch, they put on a super-human performance that went on until 1.37 in the morning.




Nadal said it was the toughest match he has ever played. “I think we played a great tennis match, it was I think a very good show, my opinion, I enjoyed being part of this event and this match, that’s the truth, no? I wanted to win, but I am happy about how I did.” He added “I really had a fantastic tournament, I will never forget this match, even though I lost, it is something special, I will come back for many, many years.


Novak Djokovic was four when he took up tennis, and eight when he was spotted by the eagle-eyed Jelena Gencic who said at the time ‘This is the greatest talent I have seen since Monika Seles.‘

Burning the Australian Flag

Paul Coe (centre)


Aboriginal activist Paul Coe, a disbarred lawyer, said yesterday “Either you respect us as a sovereign people or piss off out of our country.” Then, surrounded by little children, the group ceremoniously burnt the Australian flag, spat on it and a child wiped his feet on the ashes. I felt sorry for the kids, they didn’t have a clue what was going on but those images will remain with us forever, and no amount of back-pedalling or apology from other Aboriginal groups will make any difference, the damage was done.




Tony Hodges


Paul Coe doesn’t know it yet, but he’s only added to the resentment Australians already feel towards Aboriginal people, especially their ability to live out their entire lives on free handouts, never having to work a day in their lives.


“It’s not fair” people say, and it’s not. Why should a 60 year old widow have to keep applying for a certain amount of jobs to qualify for the NewStart benefit, when an Aboriginal person does not? Mr Coe has been knocking around with like-minded people for so long, he’s lost touch with reality and badly needs a wake-up call. This pillar of the community and example to the young was banned from practising law in 1997 for lying about his income, and was later found to have accepted money for offering legal advice.







Now we learn that Tony Hodges, a member of the PM’s staff, rang the tent embassy and told them that Tony Abbott wanted to close them down and that he was attending a function just down the road.

Aboriginal activist and former Greens candidate Barbara Shaw revealed she had been tipped off about Mr Abbott's comments and the location of the function and admitted to whipping up the tent embassy crowd gathered in front of Parliament House to celebrate its 40 year anniversary.



Barbara Shaw


Now the question needs to be asked – did Tony Hodges deliberately try to embarrass Tony Abbott and did the PM know about it?