Bloodsuckers and Bloggers

The London Times quoted Daphne Guinness in yesterday's paper calling Victoria Beckham "an ugly pig ... downbeat miserable and awful." Guinness continued (allegedly), "Of course she's going to make money — she's backed by Simon Fuller. I don't have anyone! She annoys the shit out of me." She later took to Twitter to vehemently deny she said these things, accusing the paper of not fact-checking the story, and writer Camilla Long (who she met through the late Isabella Blow) of betraying her trust. "And for the record I not only admire Victoria Beckham but know her and like her. My point was that I do most things alone without a backer," she adds. It would seem strange for Guinness — heiress to the Guinness fortune and owner of a $15 million pad in New York — to so publicly slam someone for having financial support. But is that stranger than the possibility of the Times fabricating the quotes, as Guinness claims? During New York Fashion Week, t...

OVER 40 per cent of mums have been attacked while pushing their children in a pram - in a shocking new crime known as "buggy rage". While 42 per cent of those attacked suffered verbal abuse, over a third have had prams deliberately blocked and one in five have been physically attacked. One in 100 suffered a serious assault - but only 1.2 per cent reported the attack to the police. Unlike most crimes, attacks on tots in prams are mostly to be carried out by OAPs and women. Almost two thirds of mothers quizzed in a study by parenting site Netmums said they were attacked by an elderly person, and 17 per cent suffered at the hands of another mum. Under a quarter of abuse came from teens and just 15 per cent from groups of people. Incidents were most common in shops, followed by the pavement, buses, restaurants and trains.

The Reverend Brian Shipsides and the Reverend Elwon John are alleged to have organised approximately 200 fake marriages at the All Saints Church in Forest Gate, east London. The pair are accused of arranging the marriages, mostly between EU residents and Africans, to circumvent immigration laws. The Rev Shipsides, who appears in the Guinness Book of World Records for officiating at the wedding of the world's tallest married couple in 2001, was arrested in August last year at his vicarage. The Rev John was arrested at the same time at his home, in Barking. The pair have been charged with conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration. If found guilty they face up to 14 years in prison. They will appear at Stratford Magistrates’ Court on Friday 25 March. Andrew Hadik, the Crown Prosecution Service London reviewing lawyer, said: “Having considered a full file of evidence in this case, I have decided that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute ...

Time to ditch the blood-sucking social media gurus - Telegraph: "On the outskirts of a regional city in Britain - Bristol, perhaps - two hundred people gather to discuss 'radical engagement strategies'. They are oddballs: a mixture of chippy girls with unruly fringes and sweaty, overweight blokes with bits of burger stuck in their beards. They fire cheap jibes at the Microsoft event they're sharing a building with, and from which they've nicked a few chairs - a fact they crow about on Twitter as if it were some sort of victory over the 'evil' corporation. These are the social media gurus, a rag-tag crew of blood-sucking hucksters who are infesting companies of all sizes, on both sides of the Atlantic, blagging their way into consultancy roles and siphoning off valuable recession-era marketing spend to feed their comic book addictions. They claim to be able to improve your relationships with your customers by 'executing 360 degree reignition programs...

Spain to rescue its banks - Telegraph: "Forty out of a total of 45 Spanish cajas will merge or form operating alliances with each other as the authorities look to prevent fears over the banking system from morphing into a wider market run on the country as a whole. Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, Spain's deputy prime minister, said: 'The government is preparing a plan, the aim of which is to increase the solvency and the credibility of the savings banks.' It is hoped that private investors can be found to put money into the cajas. However, Spain's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring could take stakes in those that are unable to attract outside investment. Spain's main IBEX index of leading shares closed up nearly 2pc on the back of the news, which helped calm fears of a banking crisis brewing in the country. Shares in Spain's two largest banks, Banco Santander and BBVA, led the rebound, each rising more than 3pc."