#millionaire minister

[honeylullaby]

“You belong to me.”

(Rivals) Rupert Campbell-Black x Reader

Suggestion by a sweet anon 🫶🏽 / Whilst attending the village ball, Rupert cannot stand to see you as the centre of attention…

18+ FANFIC / Angsty, smutty, hot — Not mega long! Reader character aged 21. As always, hope you enjoy and leave more of what you wanna see in my ask box 💋

Rutshire Village Manor was hosting its annual ball, and was pivotal for networking, socialisation and, of course, infidelity. Tonight, you had pulled out all the stops. Your chestnut hair was coiffed into bouncy curls, your flamboyant red dress hugged your figure and your shoulders were covered with a cream faux fur shawl, complimenting your crimson lipstick perfectly. Lady in red, as Rupert Campbell-Black would call you. The bewildering attractive man had asked you to be his girlfriend a few weeks ago now, and your relationship maintained a steady, yet passionate pace. However, he urged that you maintained the upmost discretion. In his words, it would be frowned upon the Minister of Sport to be courting such an attractive young lady. Well, fuck him, you thought. If he wanted to keep your relationship a secret, a secret it shall be. Tonight, you were a free woman.

“Champagne, ma’am?” The server offered, and you promptly picked up two glasses, gulping one down like a shot and placing the glass back onto the plate. Scanning the room, you rolled your eyes observing the sultry women in extravagant ball gowns fluttering feathery eyelashes at millionaires in tuxedos. You didn’t really know a single person here, you recognised a few faces perhaps— Lizzie Vereker, Sarah Stratton… Maud O’Hara. Fuck them all. Your plan for tonight was to get as inebriated as possible, drop the jaws of all the yearning men and solidify yourself as the most eligible bachelorette.

The concert band begun to play The Edge of Heaven by Wham!, as a soft hand clasped across your shoulder. “I must say, you look incredible.” The man eloquently tittered. He was slender, breathtakingly tall and incredibly handsome. “Why, thank you.” You reply, swigging your drink awkwardly and shooting him a gentle smile. You offered the man your hand, to which he placed a gentle kiss upon it. Across the hall, Rupert & Declan O’Hara were engrossed in deep conversation. Or, at least, Declan was. Rupert’s eyes were firmly affixed on you, hands visibly trembling with envy. Your new mysterious man snaked his arm across your waist, closing the gap between you both and leading you to dance. “You won’t be leaving alone tonight.” He whispers to you, and you shudder at the thought. His wandering hand continuing to snake, he gives your arse a gentle smack, making you playfully yelp. You can’t decide whether his forwardness is charmingly delightful, or utterly creepy.

Pulling you apart with enough force to make your ankles wobble unsteadily, Rupert pushes himself towards the man so close that their noses almost touch. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, old chap?” He asks, keeping one hand behind him— almost ushering you away. The man chokes over his words as Rupert glares hard enough at him to burn fiery holes into him. “Listen, pal, stop being a cockblock. You didn’t get to her first, so move on, there’s a good lad.” The man spoke, almost immediately regretting his words. You couldn’t help but wince as you anticipated the subsequent scene.

Without hesitation, Rupert raised his muscular arm and delivered a firm, unyielding punch— potent enough to threw the man to the floor, dazed and clutching his face in agony. “Rupert!” You gasp, clapping your slender hands over your mouth in mind bending shock. Unsure of what his next move would be, you looped your arm through his and dragged him through the back door and into the well-lit garden, where a smattering of people sat, drinking and chuckling amongst each other. With his left hand, Rupert lit a cigarette. His right hand was in yours as you gently rubbed your fingers across his already-swelling knuckles, coaxing a sharp wince out of him.

“Fuck.” He spat, chuckling to himself and teetering the cigarette being his lips. You took it from him momentarily to take a drag of your own before returning it to its rightful owner. “I’ll have to ice that tonight.” You shake your head disapprovingly, suppressing the urge to smirk at him— feeling completely seduced by his jealousy. “What on Earth were you playing at?” Rupert asked you, ignoring your comment.

“Me? What was I playing at? You wanted to keep us a secret, Rupert. Don’t forget that. That was your choice. Don’t be surprised when people take an interest in me.” Honestly, do you really have to explain this? He was absolutely unbelievable at times. “You belong to me, angel.” He replied, maintaining eye contact with such vigour that the hairs on your neck stood up. Backing you against the brick wall and placing gentle kisses from your shoulder blade to your neck, his hot breath stirred inside of you, catching the breath in your throat.

“Rupert…” You begin, but he shushes you softly. “There won’t be a single man on Earth that will lay his fingers on you again, except me. Please know that, darling. You’re mine.” He growls, and you bit down on your sultry lip, knowing you can take care of him however he pleases tonight.

“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey’d monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” - Othello

[blorbocedes]

Blorbo doing an ask game?? day officially made. cheating a little bit but can I ask for norstappen and arranged marriage or crying?

okay only cause you were so nice about it

Lando is sitting in his veil, looking glum, when Max enters. He manages to muster a glare at Max.

His little wife. Something glowers in Max's chest at that, that they're finally married. Not that Lando is too happy about it.

"Help me get this stupid corset off." Lando demands, getting up and turning his back to Max. There's a tangled mess where he's clearly tried to undo it himself and failed. The pristine ivory white boning is taut, fitted to him like a glove. Where Lando didn't have much of any breast to push, it certainly cinched his waist to an impossible degree. And made it harder to run, if he had been planning on it. Nevertheless, Max thought he looked absolutely lovely the entire ceremony, even if he did get out of breath at times.

Max diligently untangles the knot, then taking the two free separate ends he pulls as tightly as he can - cinching it. Lando, not expecting it, gasps as his back is straightened.

"Sorry," Max says, going back to undoing it. He carefully unties every hook in repetitive movements - each one loosening it ever so slightly. Max's fingers brush against the soft flesh of Lando's back and he can see where the bodice has made indentations on the skin. Lando has a gorgeous flush spreading down to his neck, as Max finishes -- revealing his bare back splattered with freckles like constellations.

Lando is all pink when he turns around again, kicking off the bustle without much care. He's just in a silk petticoat and his veil. Without being asked, Max gets to undoing the clips hidden in Lando's curls to keep the veil in place. The additional height he has over Lando helps. When Lando's looking down, there's the slightest hint of sparkle on his eyelids -- although he has no need for blush.

"Why'd they put roses everywhere? How're we supposed to sleep?" Lando whines. Their complementary Hilton honeymoon suite came with the bed decorated in rose petals shaped into a heart. Max thought it was quite romantic.

"The idea is we wouldn't be getting much sleep, no?" Max teases him.

"Don't get ahead of yourself and think we're doing anything tonight." Lando grumbles, self-consciously crossing his arms over his bare chest.

"That's alright." Max hums agreeably. He's in no rush. They have the rest of their lives to get to that.

Lando's not the happiest bride on his wedding day. He was still reeling from the betrayal. This old silver haired American, some multi-millionaire, was ready to invest millions in their family business for Lando's hand in marriage and his grandfather was all too agreeable for the bride price. Old moneyed families are quite old-fashioned like that, what Lando wanted wasn't even in the question.

Max put up an alternative offer and he had Lando's reluctant acquiescence. Better than being sold off to some geezer. But Lando showed up to the reception wearing Doc Martens under his dress and Max was not about to let his bride runaway in front of his entire family, friends, industry leaders, and the Prime Minister. So he kept a hold of Lando's hand from their First Dance until they made it into the limo, with Just Married~ painted on the back, with Lando digging his nails and refusing to look at him.

His parents always said marriage is hard work.

With the veil off, Lando runs his fingers through his curls and making a disgruntled face that it is stiff with product.

"I feel... gross." Lando goes to the two person sized shower + bath + jacuzzi bathroom and pointedly clicks the lock shut.

Max thought he made the prettiest bride. Stumbling through reading the vows, not being able to look Max in the eye -- too embarrassed. Their kiss was chaste, respectful, and not at all encompassing of all the things Max wanted but it was enough; he was kissing his lawfully wedded bride.

Max undoes his cuff links. He was completely at ease, in his bespoke black suit and bow tie.

Max is almost asleep when Lando rolls on top of him. All the makeup scrubbed off, in his comfortable pajamas. "I've changed my mind. Let's fuck."

"Is this going to happen a lot?" Max laughs, hands easily finding Lando's waist, reaching for the bare skin under his shirt.

"I dunno. You signed up for it."

[kayas-kosmos]

Because of what's happening on Twitter...

I've made a little diagram to demonstrate why billionaires and the ultra-wealthy are bad for society.

(Text in Image)

"If we view society as a body, every sector is like a different organ within the body that serves a function and works in harmony with other organs to maintain balance. Every part of the body is important for the whole thing to function."

"The ultra-wealthy want you to believe they are the beating heart and thinking mind of the society – they are the innovators who create our jobs and their brilliance drives society forward. They deserve to be at the top of society because they have earned that. Without them, the body won’t function because they are the most important part."

"In reality, they are more like a malignant tumour, sucking all of the blood (resources) away from everything else (people and the planet) to fuel its own infinite growth, depriving the rest of the body and slowly killing it. Workers create all of the innovation and keep things running, the ultra-wealthy take all the credit."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a public domain image so feel free to pinch it for whatever.

Elon Musk has put the careers of thousands of small business owners who depend on Twitter (myself included) in jeopardy by completely running it into the ground. Before this, Mark Zuckerberg had already been doing the same when he started pursuing Metaverse, making Instagram and Facebook much more unusable for artists. Do I really need to go into other examples of CEOs and very normalised practise of wage theft?

Meanwhile, the UK currently has the richest Prime Minister in its history. What is this man doing with this wealth? Continuing the Tory legacy of austerity in order to line his pockets and the pockets of his crony friends. This has resulted in a devastating cost of living crisis that continues to ravage the country as people's energy bills skyrocket out of control.

My diagram is pretty basic and lacks nuance, there's definitely more I could elaborate on with this comparison but I really don't have time. I just want people to get the basic point of how billionaires view themselves vs what function they actually serve. I'm also not here to debate whether some organs are more important than others since I'm not a doctor, that's not really the point here. And no, I don't care if people think I'm being harsh by comparing billionaires to a tumour. If they don't want to be compared to one they should stop acting like one. Jeff Bezos could end world hunger right now and chooses not to.

Also, I know a lot of people are going to come at me with the argument that billionaires give away massive amounts of money. First off, people like Jeff Bezos only give large sums of money to charity a.) for the sake of improving their public image and b.) because giving to charity allows them to write it off in their taxes. Also, charities in of themselves have a lot of problems, but that's a blog post for another day. Mutual Aid is a better way to help people directly. Really, the ultra wealthy need to be taxed, of course they do everything within their power to avoid taxes.

Also:

"Earning a lot of money" and "holding onto a lot of money" are two different things. You cannot be a multi-millionaire unless you hold onto that money. If you give away massive chunks of it to enrich society, you cease to be a billionaire.

Oh and this is worth a watch, too.

Furthermore:

Also before the inevitable great man comments:

Being a billionaire is a moral failing. Nobody needs that much money.

[Slight edit here - I made the assertion that a billionaire could not spend all of their money in their lifetime, but as someone in the comments pointed out it's very easy for them to completely waste billions in no time. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have shown that].

Anyway, if you would like to see more anti-Capitalist art from me, I am currently working on a webcomic called "Flowerpunk" - a story about a group of anarchists who are trying to save the city of Wyrdon from a supernatural plague known as "the rot." The comic heavily discusses disaster Capitalism and how the rich will use mass death and destruction as an opportunity to further line their pockets.

I also like to do little anti-Capitalist doodles relating to this project, which I plan to make into posters at some point.

Please consider donating a Ko-Fi also if you would like to help support this project. I am really struggling at the moment because I've basically lost a massive chunk of my client base due to this Twitter implosion and also because of the AI BS that has made it impossible for me to get any reach nowadays. The last year or so has been an absolute nightmare for my career because of all of this.

Thank you all for your continued support! Hopefully I can re-establish my audience here on Tumblr and wherever else I decide to go.

[salvadorbonaparte]

Recently moved back to the US after living in germany for a bit, but I've been trying to keep up with german politics. Unfortunately I speak german at like an A2 level and don't have the reading comprehension to understand most news/memes/general conversation online. Would you be willing to just briefly explain the whole thing going on right now? I've sorta got the general idea from some American news outlets but I'm still quite confused.

Okay I'm probably missing a lot of Nuance as well but:

The current German government is a three party coalition between SPD, FDP and Green Party (traffic light coalition). Christian Lindner was minister of finance. As a FDP member he was a neoliberal piece of shit. He kept blocking government budgeting because he wanted to lower taxes for millionaires, lower retirement and unemployment benefits etc.

In a surprising turn of events our chancellor fired Lindner on Wednesday evening. He gave a speech that was absolutely scathing - for his standards. Our chancellor is known to have zero backbone or charisma and a monotone voice that puts you to sleep.

Now people find this pretty hilarious because 1) Lindner is a piece of shit 2) we've never seen our chancellor act like this. There's been plenty of memes about him being unemployed and several journalists have already asked him things like "will you apply for unemployment benefits" and "what do you think about people calling you Germany's cheekiest unemployed person".

But unfortunately the FDP didn't find this funny so now all other FDP ministers stepped back - except for one who left the party to save his job. This was also really unexpected and is also leading to lots of memes. Without the FDP, the coalition is broken and there's no longer a ruling majority. The current government will spend some time taking care of urgent stuff now and then in the beginning of next year there will be a "vote of confidence". A strategic vote of confidence will trigger a general election, which will happen next spring.

Unfortunately² the current coalition was not very popular in the first place and conservative and right wing parties are gaining lots of influence. We also have a new party called BSW funded by a former Leftist party member who is singlehandedly proving the horseshoe theory by being so leftist she's right wing. So there's a good chance the election will have pretty bad consequences.

But since it's been a really hard week for everyone we're all just enjoying making fun of Chrissy Lindner losing his job #unemployed.

If you want I can translate some of the memes as well.

Hope this helped!

[dtmsrpfcringe]

The BBC has secured the appearance of A-list actor Michael Sheen for Saturday night favourite The Wheel. The 55 year old star, who famously played former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire presenter Chris Tarrant, will appear on an upcoming episode.13 June 2024

The Assembly - Michael Sheen on facing the grilling of a lifetime: “I really had no idea what I was going to be asked”

Thirty-five interviewers who are autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled, question an A-list celebrity for one extraordinary TV interview You really do pull shit out of your arse to fit whatever you are trying to spin. You don't even bother to check your facts. Everyone knows Michael Sheen is A-List for fucks sake.

so, fun fact, in Britain he may be considered an A-lister, but internationally he is solidly b-list with notable credits like masters of sex, good omens, and staged🙃

so there ya go ig

[divinekangaroo]

Still can’t get over Tommy as a mid forty-something year old gangster, international businessman, killer, sometimes assassin sometimes spy, multi millionaire from nothing, minister of parliament elected twice, innovation sponsor, patron of the arts, etc, actually canonically writing a list of ‘My Top Regrets’ and putting his wife’s name at the top of the list.

[girlactionfigure]

🔅TERROR THWARTED, INFILTRATION ALERT, US AID FUNDED ISRAELI PROTESTS - Real-time from Israel  

⚠️INFILTRATION ALERT - GAN NER (near Jenin, Samaria) - 12:44 - Dear residents. Due to an unusual event in the area, please enter your homes and lock your doors until further notice.  A man in his 60s claims he was attacked with an axe in Gan Ner by a suspicious person who fled the scene.  Suspected terror, though some reports say the attacker was an Israeli.

🔪TERRORISM - THWARTED - TAMRA area - a man was arrested with an explosive belt on him, update: eliminated after being uncooperative (other reports say arrested). The matter is under investigation by the police.

▪️TERROR SUPPORTERS PAYING - protestors to come to a protest in New York.

▪️AID - According to estimates, the 600 trucks entering Gaza a day will fill Hamas' warehouses for many more months - four or six, depending on who you ask.

▪️US (AID?) FUNDED ISRAEL PROTEST MOVEMENT - (Amit Segal, Ch. 12) The Blue and White Future Association financed the anti-Judicial-reform protest with NIS 120 million shekels, an unprecedented amount in the country's history and an average of NIS 13.5 million shekels per month during the months of the struggle. 

More than half of the money came from an American entity (via USAID?) that served as a conduit for transferring donations, and the rest came from Israeli multi-millionaires and billionaires. 

The PR and campaign budget for the judicial reform struggle was NIS 56 million shekels and the field budget was NIS 50 million. For comparison - this is equivalent to the election budget of the Likud, National Unity and Yesh Atid combined in the last elections.

The organization in question was founded to work "for the establishment of the State of Palestine" alongside the State of Israel.

( A massive and successful foreign effort to manipulate Israeli society, that made Israel appear weak and available to attack. )

🎗️HAMAS’s DEMANDS MET?  According to Hamas's information office, caravans (a small number of units) and heavy equipment were already brought into the Strip yesterday. A senior Israeli official tells me in response to Hamas' claim:  Nothing was introduced yesterday and let's be clear: no one is going to blink.

🎗️🎗️CONFLICTING REPORTS continue on whether Israel is pushing President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demands for ALL live hostages to be released (and in particular all American hostages), or will accept a return to the 3 per week agreement.  

For example: The message sheet that the ministers received from the National Information Service suggests that Israel is not demanding the release of any more hostages at this time:   "Israel insists on fulfilling the agreements as they stand."  Yet this directly contradicts the Prime Minister’s public statements.

And Al Jazeera says: Negotiations to continue implementing the deal have been successful, an official announcement will be made soon.

Now being reported Islamic Jihad will release Russian-Israeli Alexander Tropanov tomorrow - though that is not (yet) from an official source.

🌎WORLD NEWS OF NOTE.. UKRAINE announces that a Russian fired Iranian built drone HIT THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER CONTAINMENT DOME.  At the moment no reports in any change in radiation levels at the site.

 ✡️Erev (before) Shabbat - Parshat Yitro - Exodus 18:1 - Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, hears of the great miracles which G‑d performed for the people of Israel, and comes from Midian to the Israelite camp, bringing with him Moses’ wife and two sons. Jethro advises Moses to appoint a hierarchy of magistrates and judges to assist him in the task of governing and administering justice to the people.

The children of Israel camp opposite Mount Sinai, where they are told that G‑d has chosen them to be His “kingdom of priests” and “holy nation.” The people respond by proclaiming, “All that G‑d has spoken, we shall do.”

[turneradora]

NEW 💯💯💯💯💯💯

Here below is the written transcription of the new press article, with a new Aidan's interview

From The Waitrose & Partners Weekend magazine, issue of today, October 3rd

Thanks to Emma Jones ! 🌹❤️😘

Note : I choose to repost, as the magazine did, this wonderful pic of Aidan (a zoomed version, with no improvement), taken last year, during the promotion of "Fifteen-Love".😍😍😍😍

"Aidan Turner looks back on Poldark-mania and tells Paul Kirkley why Disney’s racy all-star adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals is the most fun he’s had on a set

There was a time, not so long ago, when Aidan Turner thought his days of playing romantic leads might be behind him. Or at least, that’s what he’d started telling people. “I say these things… I mean, I say dierent things in every interview, but don’t believe any of it,” laughs the man who set millions of hearts aflutter as the dashing Captain Ross Poldark.

“You go through phases,” he reflects. “You play a character for a while, and if you’re lucky, that show might be a hit, and you might do it for a number of years, and then you just get a pain in the a*** with it for a while, don’t you? It’s the trajectory of every actor I know: you get bored with something, you move on, you try something else. For now, [a romantic lead] doesn’t seem like something that greatly interests me. But it’s dangerous to say I’ll never play those kinds of characters again. I never say never in this business.”

It would certainly be a stretch to call the 41-year-old Dubliner’s latest role – in Disney’s hotly anticipated, ludicrously star-studded TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 80s bonkbuster Rivals – a romantic lead. But there’s a certain nobility to the character of Declan O’Hara, a crusading TV interviewer who’s forced to take a big money job hosting a talk show for a regional broadcaster in Cooper’s fictional county of Rutshire. “He’s a straight shooter,” says Aidan. “He’d consider himself quite a serious, hardline political journalist, and then he finds himself hosting a sort of fluy chat show, which he’s not happy with at all.”

Cooper’s racy Rutshire Chronicles have sold million s have sold millions of copies (ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed himself to be an unlikely fan), and recently earned their creator a damehood. But if sex and scandal among the moneyed, polo-playing classes of the Cotswolds – not to mention the rivalry between 1980s ITV franchises – seems like a left-field choice of material for an eight-part series on Disney+, the result is an absolute riot.

“Yeah, it’s a riot – I’d agree with you there,” says Aidan “Jilly is a great writer – and very British. It’s going to be interesting to see how this lands to an overseas market. But her stories are very accessible – they’re fun, they’re witty. And obviously they’re sexy. I read the scripts before I read Jilly’s book, and you get such a good sense of who all these well-rounded characters are.”

Those characters are brought to life by a veritable Who’s Who of Brit acting talent, including David Tennant as Declan’s boss, the ruthless Lord Tony Baddingham, and Danny Dyer as Freddie Jones, a likeable self-made electronics millionaire. There are also juicy roles for Katherine Parkinson, Emily Atack, Rufus Jones, Claire Rushbrook, Lisa McGrillis and Victoria Smurfit, while Alex Hassell takes on the mantle of Rutshire’s most disreputable cad, Rupert Campbell Black.

With a cast like that, the backstage gossip must have been o the scale, suggests Weekend. “I don’t really follow industry gossip – you probably know more about that than I do,” says Aidan. But, as someone usually cast as a series lead (romantic or otherwise), he relished the fact there was no real pecking order on set. “It’s a great thing when you feel something is equally shared. It really does feel like an ensemble piece.” Hanging out in a series of lavish country houses – including Chavenage House in Gloucestershire, which had previously doubled as the Poldark family home – also started to infect the cast’s behaviour, he admits. “They smell different, they feel different under your feet – and as soon as you’re in them, you do tend to start walking a bit differently. Which I think can only help the actors.”

As something of a pool shark (he’s heading o to play after our interview), Aidan bonded with Danny Dyer and Alex Hassell over the green baize. David Tennant also helped organise him a 40th birthday party, while Dame Jilly threw one of her famously boozy soirées at her own country pile. “I forget what we were celebrating – it could have been her birthday,” says Aidan. “Or maybe just general good times.”

Little wonder he’s described it as the most fun job of his career. “I feel a little embarrassed about saying that, but it’s true. It just happens once in a while, where all the planets align and there’s a dozen or so people you get on really well with. We all share a similar workload, we’re all staying in Bristol, which is a fun city. We’re working on great material. Also, it’s such a funny show, and I haven’t really done a lot in that genre. I mean, now that I say it out loud, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like this.”

As Declan, Aidan also rocks an impressive, Tom Selleck style 80s ’tache. A decade ago, such face furniture might have been a talking point, he says, but in the hipster area of east London he now calls home, no one batted an eyelid. “You do forget you have it, though. And then suddenly you’ll pass a shop window or something, and give yourself a fright.”

There are times in Rivals when the moustache is the only thing Declan is wearing. Because this is, let’s not be coy, a show with an awful lot of sex (or bonking, as Dame Jilly would no doubt call it): one that required the services of two on-set intimacy coordinators. For Aidan, who’s spent the best part of a decade trying to move the conversation on from that topless scything scene in Poldark, isn’t this a little awkward? Was there a part of him that thought: ‘Oh God, here we go again?’ “No, not at all,” he insists. “It’s all part of the job. There’s a different tone and cadence to almost all the sex scenes in our show,” he adds. “So having good intimacy coordinators is a real addition. They were great.”

At one point, Declan asks a guest on his chat show to comment on “those James Bond rumours” – which is something of a sly in-joke, as Aidan’s name was regularly in the frame as a potential 007 at the height of Poldark-mania. “I think that’s stopped now,” he smiles. “But if your name’s in the mix, it’s probably not going to be you – isn’t that what they say?”

Five years after hanging up his tricorn hat, how does Aidan look back on the whole Poldark circus (which at one point saw his hair get its own fan Twitter account)? “It was a really positive experience,” he says. “The more you work, the more you realise

not everything you do is going to be a huge hit. But Poldark was. It had mass appeal, and a big audience. I enjoyed doing it, I made some good friends, and I’m proud of the work.” He’d been in popular shows and films before, playing a vampire in the BBC’s cult classic Being Human and a dwarf in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. But the BBC’s revival of Winston Graham’s Cornish saga made huge stars of Aidan and Eleanor Tomlinson, as Ross’s fiery wildcat bride, Demelza.

Did it take some adjusting to? “That’s a good question,” he ponders. “I remember being surprised by a lot of the attention. But by the time it came out, we were already working on the next series. So we just sort of rolled on with it. It’s a personal thing: some people might feel the need to make big adjustments to their life, but I really didn’t want it to change me. I didn’t want to be affected by how successful it was. Because if we all became aware of that, it might slip out of our hands. So my attitude was, ‘let’s keep cool heads, crack on and get the work done’.”

These days, if he’s approached in the street or on public transport, “people are lovely and sweet”, he says. “But it doesn’t happen often. It happens more when you’re on the telly, and as soon as the show is finished, it tends to go away a bit. I’m not at the level where it’s constant. I know some people who can’t get on the Tube, and I don’t ever want that.”

It probably helps that Aidan is nothing like the brooding, saturnine Poldark. Talking to Weekend over video from his sofa, he’s lively, animated – positively giggly, in fact. (And much more Irish, obviously.) He’s just returned from Canada, where his wife, American actor Caitlin Fitzgerald, is filming a TV show. The couple’s two-year-old son is also still in Canada, which may explain why he’s so perky, even though it’s 9am.

Becoming a dad has changed him “in the way it would change anybody”, he says. “It’s a momentous thing, but it’s incredible. We’re really happy.”

Growing up in the Dublin suburbs of Clondalkin and Walkinstown, the second son of an electrician father and accountant mother, Aidan got his first taste of performance as an elite dancer. “I represented Ireland in ballroom and Latin American dancing for about 10 years. It was very competitive. It wasn’t just a bit of fun. It was probably something I thought I was going to do professionally, but it’s really tough, and I wasn’t good enough.”

Even so, it probably rules him out of Strictly? “I think I rule myself out of Strictly,” he smiles. But not Bond? “I’m happy to pass on both of them,” he confirms.

On leaving school, he briefly worked for his father as an apprentice electrician, and considered becoming a snooker professional, until the day he spotted a notice for Dublin’s Gaiety School of Acting. After graduating from the school in 2004, he combined theatre work with a regular role in RTÉ soap The Clinic, before heading to London and landing his first leading screen role as Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the BBC’s Pre-Raphaelite drama Desperate Romantics.

Does it feel like 20 years since he started? “It’s a crazy thing,” he says. “Because this is a fickle business, so to still be working 20 years in… There are times when you think, ‘this is something I’m sure I’ll be doing forever’. But at the same time, you never know. There are ups and downs in every actor’s career. I know some who have big moments, then they disappear for a while and maybe do smaller projects, and then come back again. That’s just the nature of the business.”

The trick, he says, is to not to shoot for the moon every time. “You might want to do the bigger projects, with the bigger names, but the air is thinner up there, and you can’t always get those jobs. So you have to be patient. But to still be in the conversation 20 years later? Yeah, I’m proud of that.”

[dasha-aibo]

A big rant about the Russian opposition

Well, you said you wanted it, so here it is.

Be warned: this will be long, rambly and unfocused. But I will try to split it into several parts.

Where it all began. The 90s.

Following the collapse of the USSR, Russian opposition was left in a weird state. Big Soviet-era opposition figures like Yeltsin now held all the power, yet, at the same time, the government was full of ex-Soviet party members. See, ol' Boris didn't want to do a lustration. I don't have his exact motivations, but, if I was put at a gunpoint and forced to guess, it was because Russia, even without all the states that left was a BIGHUGE country and needed people who knew how it all worked. And all of them happened to be party apparatchicks.

Yeltsin also left the KGB eseentially untouched. This is not well-known, but KGB were actually supportive of the fall of the USSR. Now, late-Gorby KGB is not the same as KGB during Stalin or even Khruschev. They were de-fanged and forced under too much supervision. Which they didn't like. So they were allowed to change their name, had some reshuffling and re-emerged as FSB. Ostensibly, just there to fight crime and protect the state, no disappearing people allowed anymore.

This is important to understand as we go forward.

90s were, overall, a time of terrible, terrible poverty and unimaginably, unprecedented freedom in Russia. If you knew what to do and was willing to do it, you could become a millionaire overnight. If you didn't have a particuarly marketable set of skills or was just unwilling to adapt, you'd be on the brink of starvation. And that's me not even touching the organized and disorganized crime which was absolutely rampant.

Then there was the privatization. Essentially, Yegor Gaidar, the prime minister during Yeltsin's first term decided that the best course of action was to take this lumbering 70-yo communist system and crash it head-first into capitalism. It was even called "shock therapy".

Now, in hindisght, we can say that his policies very much saved Russia and lead to economic prosperity later on. But man, shit was HARD for regular people. Especially hordes of state workers.

His most infamous project, however, was the privatization. Essentially, since EVERYTHING in USSR was state-owned and we were moving towards a capitalist system, someone needed to become the owner of all this state property. Privatize it, so to say. Of course, regular people could privatize their cars and apartments, which most everyone did. But the big bucks were in all the factories and natural resource mines. And this was done in the most ass-backwards way possible. People with connections got to bid on very lucrative property in the dead of the night with only one announcement in the local newspaper nobody read. Shit like that.

Everyone disliked that.

This is how Russia became saddled with it's giant oligarchy class.

I promise all of this is relevant.

Another really important thing happened in the 90s: the 1996 election. Yeltsin wanted a second term and he REALLY didn't want commies, his main opposition, to win. So he played dirty. Unlike what many later said, he didn't outright steal the elections. He did, however, do everything in his power as a prez to ensure a victory.

Everyone disliked that. Which is how we got Putin.

But 90s also saw the rise of several important opposition figures. And there really was actual freedom of speech and very little crackdown on opposition and protests. It still happened, don't get me wrong, but it was so minor compared to what's happening today, that it's barely worth mentioning. Anyway, back to opposition figures.

I will note three main one. Boris Nemtsov was the biggest - he was a favorite of Yeltsin's, was even a Deputy Prime Minister at one point and was considered as Yeltsin's heir at the same point. Things didn't work out. But he was the big face of liberals and democrats of the era. A guy who's "against everything bad and for everything good".

Then there was Mikhail Khodorkovsky. An oligarch and a philantropist, he was genuinely interested in the future of Russia and making it a big important country on the world stage through education and commerce.

Lastly, Gennady Kasparov. Yeah, the chess guy who lost to a computer. He wasn't really political in the 90s, but I still consider him part of the "old guard".

Part 2 in a reblog, because this is getting unreadable.

[edwordsmyth]

"Good morning Gaza, get up, drink my coffee, and rise. Our funeral has arrived.

Good morning Gaza, get up and recite the verse of return to a land we have carried like a tattoo on the hand.

Good morning, you stranger to your house. Not all God’s earth is Rome even if your flesh is a window-shop for the masters of words. Your flesh, is it Christ’s brittle bread?

Good morning, you offering on the altar of the Mediterranean basin, cut your path short. You’re a prayer rug for idolators, a cave of ancient civilizations, a tent for bedouin rulers, you’re the armor of the poor and the alms of millionaires. They auction you as surplus to the market’s demands. And you are the dream of Palestinians on the streets, a river of bodies in one.

Good morning Gaza. Get up. Gather your one arm. The one you have left. Good morning Palestinian flesh on the tables of ministers and presidents. You’re a stone of solidarity and balance among your executioners. Not even your language protects you, so take a short cut. Your flesh legitimates the police and the saint, they swap names, take turns, merge, bond, and sometimes split into two kingdoms that war over you, but when you rise, they reunite over your flesh.

You’re the geography of chaos, the history of this East, so take a short cut. You’re a field of experiments for both heavy industry and light. An encyclopedia of gunpowder, from the age of the catapult to the rage of missiles that were manufactured in the West. Palestinian flesh, in tribal nations and suited states that disagree over the price of potatoes, leather shoes, beets, crude oil, but agree on expelling you from your blood,

gather in one arm, gather as one, and write the verse of return." -Mahmoud Darwish

[happypedrohours]

Most likely to....game

Pick a most likely to from the list (or even your own!) and two Pedro Boys from what I'm sure is *not* an exhaustive list below and send an ask to another Happy Pedro Hours partaker to ask their opinion:

Most likely to list

Most likely to break a world record? 

Most likely to become a millionaire? 

Most likely to have their own reality show?

Most likely to eat something off the ground?

Most likely to marry a celebrity?

Most likely to win the Nobel Prize?

Most likely to get lost in their own hometown?

Most likely to write a bestseller?

Most likely to go on Love Island?

Most likely to become prime minister?

Most likely to join a cult?

Most likely to have a threesome?

Most likely to fake their own death?

Most likely to get thrown out of the club?

Most likely to become an influencer?

Most likely to intentionally give the wrong directions to tourists?

Most likely to forget the name of a person they hooked up with?

Most likely to accidentally poison someone with terrible cooking?

Most likely to take a week to reply to a text?

Most likely to become a TikTok star?

Most likely to join the mile-high club?

Most likely to be a stripper?

Most likely to get car sick?

Who is most likely to replace salt with sugar while cooking?

Who is most likely to have the best Zoom background?

Most likely to turn up to work hungover?

Most likely to eat something off the ground?

Most likely to get lost in their own hometown?

Most likely to be the first one at the mic at karaoke?

Most likely to fall asleep during sex?

Pedro Boys list

Joel Miller

Pero Tovar

Din Djarin

Frankie Morales

Marcus Pike

Marcus Moreno

Javi Pena

Javi Gutierrez

Oberyn Martell

Lucien Flores

Tim Rockford

Maxwell Lord

Max Phillips

Dieter Bravo

Jack "Whiskey" Daniels

Ted Garcia

Clint (do we know his last name)?

Fink

Marcus Acacius

Silva

Twist version: you can play this with any two celebrities or fictional characters related or not to Pedro if you're so inspired

Don't forget to tag your replies #happypedrohours so we can see them!

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Lula Government Considers Creating a Minimum Tax for Millionaires in Brazil

The idea is to use the tax to fund the increase in the income tax exemption threshold to $896

The Ministry of Finance is studying the creation of a minimum tax for individuals to ensure effective taxation of millionaire incomes in Brazil.

The debate on the topic is being conducted discreetly within the team of Minister Fernando Haddad as a potential countermeasure to fund the increase of the IRPF (Personal Income Tax) exemption threshold to R$5,000 ($896).

Adjusting the tax table is a campaign promise of President Lula. The current exemption value is two minimum wages (R$2,824).

Continue reading.

[eaglesnick]

The NHS will last as long as there are folk left to fight for it” – Aneurin Bevan

I’m no fan of Keir Starmer or Rishi Sunak. Sunak is completely out of touch with ordinary people and Starmer will promise just about anything to get himself into power and then break those promise when it suits him.  However when it comes to the future of the NHS I feel it will be safer under a Labour government than one run by free market, neo-liberal Tories.

From a purely selfish perspective  - something the Conservative Party excels at - the NHS saves all of us a small fortune. When your child needs medical care it is free at the point of use; when your parents need medical care it is free at the point of use; and when YOU need medical care it is free at the point of use.

Of course we pay for this through taxes and national insurance contributions but the clue is in the phrase “national insurance”. Medical treatment in Britain, is, at the moment, paid for through collective funding. It is a system based on community, social responsibility, and the old fashioned concept of caring for your neighbour. . Aneurin  Bevan, the "Father of the NHS” said:

“No society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means."

It is a sad fact that Conservative Party members, many of them rich individuals who can afford private medical treatment, have been undermining the NHS because of their unwavering adherence to the ideological belief that all things run by private enterprise are good while all public sector institutions are bad. . The Tory’s will, of course deny this, claiming the NHS is save in their hands and that they have no plans to privatise it.

 Lets look at the facts.

Despite Prime Minister David Cameron promising there would be no cuts to the NHS this was the headline in the Daily Mirror when the Conservatives took over from Labour in 2012.

“David Cameron cuts NHS spending by £500million.” (06/11/12)

Two years later and we have this headline from the Guardian:

“David Cameron accused of hypocrisy over £1.4bn ‘raid’ on NHS funding." (06/07/2012)

By 2014 NHS staff were on strike because of the Tory government refused to give them a 1% pay rise. Rows over poor pay and under-funding continue to this day.

While Jeremy Hunt was Health Secretary patient experience and staff moral took a dramatic turn for the worse. Despite presenting himself as a “champion of patient safety”, targets were missed, waiting times increased, and the very fabric of some hospitals began to crumble, leading to Hunt being labelled “the man who ruined the NHS”. (Open Democracy: 08/07/22)

In 2016 The Independent ran this headline:

“Jeremy Hunt co-authored book calling for NHS to be replaced with private insurance.” (10/02/2016)

Is it any wonder the NHS has been seriously under-funded and run down when the man in charge was an advocate of private medical health insurance? Millionaires like Cameron (£40m) Hunt (£15m) and Sunak (£651m) can afford to pay for expensive medical care but the rest of us are not so fortunate.

This brings me back to the purely selfish reason we should vote for the party most likely to protect the NHS. Below are some AVERAGE costs for private medical procedures and treatments in the USA provided by Statistica 2021

Heart valve replacement…….$170,000     £133,390

Heart bypass………………….......$123,000     £96,518

Cornea (per eye) ……………......$17,000       £13,339

IVF treatments ………………......$15,400      £12,084

Hysterectomy ………………….....$5200          £4,080

In addition, Americans have to pay for their stay in hospital. This fee is on top of medical treatment costs. According to Debt.org (30/11/23) the price for the average stay in hospital of 4.6 days is $13,262. (£10,406)

Whatever your political leanings, the protection and restoration of the NHS should take precedent over all other electoral considerations because we will ALL need medical treatment at some stage in our lives be that as a child or as an adult.

We know the Tory mantra "private sector good public sector bad” just doesn’t live up to reality: we only have to look at our polluted waterways to realise this. Whether Keir Starmer would be any better at protecting the NHS from profit motivated private companies is a moot point.

With headlines like:

“Can Wes Streeting’s private sector plans save the NHS?” (Guardian: 14/04/24)

and

“Labour’s Wes Streeting just used the SUN to talk up NHS privatisation” (Canary: 08/04/24)

we cannot rely on the Labour Party leadership to protect the NHS from the profiteering private sector, not least because Wes Streeting has been paid £175,000 from donors linked to private health firms. (National: 14/04/24) There is no such thing as a free lunch so one doesn’t have to wonder to hard what these “donors” might want in return for their money!

Even so, I feel there are those within the Labour Party who would work very hard to stop the leadership of the party from running down the NHS to the point of collapse, as is the Tory plan, so with great reservation I will be voting Labour in the coming elections.

Save Our NHS

[kingmabry]

Morarji Desai, Prime Minister of India (March 1977 to July 1979), was President of Ramana Kendra, Delhi, 1968-70.

I had the privilege of seeing Ramana Maharshi in August 1935 in the hall in which he usually sat. He was sitting on a sofa and wore only a loincloth. I could see an aura on his face, which was glowing with peace and joy. I sat opposite to him but did not ask him anything. He too did not say anything to me. I sat just over an hour and just looked at his face. Till today I have not seen that aura, that joy or peace on anybody else’s face. That hour of perfect stillness in that silent presence has been a precious memory ever since.

While I sat there, no questions arose in my mind, nor did I feel any desire to ask anything. I was at complete peace with myself. It was this experience that convinced me that Ramana Maharshi had realized God or Truth. Some of his disciples who were present asked him some questions, which he answered. He, however, said nothing of his own accord.

I had to leave the place next day by train at about twelve. About an hour-and-a half before the time of departure, I approached Ramana Maharshi for permission to leave. He told me that I should go after I had eaten. We sat down for lunch along with the Maharshi, at about eleven O’clock. After lunch, I bowed down to him and left.

The visit left an abiding impression on me and convinced me that Ramana Maharshi was a realized soul and that the ideal of ‘action in inaction’ as propounded in the Gita is really attainable.

Presiding over the 99th Jayanti celebrations of Ramana Maharshi at Ramana Kendra, New Delhi, on 13th January 1979, Morarji Desai as Prime Minister, said:

The Maharshi seemed to know everything. He knew the language of the animals. He listened to their complaints. He treated every being in the same way, whether it was a cow or a dog, a crow or a monkey. All were equal in his eyes, the beggar and the millionaire. He never went out of Tiruvannamalai. He refused to go out and preach. He said, “If I am a jnani, I consider everybody else a jnani too. What is there to give?” He regarded everybody as himself. He made no attempt to convert anybody. One got transformed by his very presence.

Many civilizations have flourished and then disappeared. But in this country, you find our old culture and the ancient religion still alive. And it is this that keeps the country alive. It is persons like the Maharshi who keep it alive...All learning should come from within. That is the way the Maharshi showed. He did not criticize others way of life. He said, “Stick to your own religion and follow it properly.” Ramana Maharshi taught that one could do sadhana in one’s chosen way and reach the goal.

- Face to Face

[not-poignant]

Hi hi :D Hope you are having a good day!

I was rereading UtB and I got to chap 24 and there was this part:

"‘Jesus,’ Dr Gary said."

And at first I was like 'huuuhuuhu I wonder if Jesus is an omega, beta, or alspha in the Underline-verse'

But then I was like 'gaaaasp, what if he was a peak alpha!' And I started thinking about the influence of peak alphas on things like religion, as religious figures. I know they're very rare, but I also remember Augus saying that it should be illegal for Ash to be a lawyer as a peak alpha. So then I started thinking about how would peak alphas would impact religion. Or cults! Or royalty! Or politics! Or just the course of history in general! Maybe they would stay the fuck away from it, or maybe they would crave having that control? I spent a very enjoyable hour daydreaming about it, which felt a bit like splashing around in the paddling pool of someone elses worldbuilding, which was maybe a bit rude lol, sorry if it was. And maybe Gary saying 'jesus' was just a throwaway expletive, and you didn't even mean much by it, but I was wondering about your thoughts! <<33

Hi anon!

This is something I've thought of. It's hilarious to me to low-key imagine Jesus in this world as an omega, though I haven't invested too much thought into it because I don't really care much for religion in general.

But generally speaking I liked the conflict of omegas being treated as second-class citizens and how that gets justified against Jesus being an omega etc. And then I was like 'I don't care about this enough to keep thinking about it, it's just amusing to me.' And that's about where I'm at. Enough to be sacrilegious and not enough to have fleshed it out further because I'm very idc about that stuff.

So then I started thinking about how would peak alphas would impact religion. Or cults! Or royalty! Or politics! Or just the course of history in general! Maybe they would stay the fuck away from it, or maybe they would crave having that control?

Oh no they totally crave that control. A tiny percentage of the world's population is peak alphas but they're overwhelmingly likely to be found in positions of power.

Tbh this is... intentional. I was trying to think of how to account for the absolute fucking monsters that end up as all-powerful billionaires in the world. Utter twats like Elon Musk, who you just know are too pathological to have hold of that much money, and yet no one on the planet is holding him (or the Zuck etc.) accountable.

And to me it gave me some comfort in my omegaverse, to imagine these asshats as being peak alphas. People who attain their power not because the governments have no regulations to stop them (which they should), but because they just have too much ardolphogen influence / power for anyone to stop them from getting this powerful.

And just like it's a huge issue in our world, it's a huge issue in this world too. The millionaires but especially the billionaires in this world are likely to be peak alphas. Generally speaking it's frowned upon for them to become Presidents and Prime Ministers, but they are found in other levels of court and parliament, as royalty, etc. They're less likely to make cults and more likely to go into business where they can control a lot of people at once.

It is a huge, huge issue. And it was planned for as part of the dystopia in advance.

Peak alphas crave controlling communities, not individuals. With the exception of Augus, the peak alphas we meet all have significant control over large amounts of people, whether it's Crielle and Fenwy Laboratories, or Temsen and Gary and Hillview, etc.

They don't need intimate relationships or love, because they form a bond to a much larger group. Historically that would have worked for small micro-communities - one person drawn to controlling and looking after the community while alphas were drawn to omegas. But in a globalised society and runaway exploitation re: billionaires, it's just become completely dystopian and it's partly how you end up with a world that favours alphas so much in the first place.

[justforbooks]

Asil Nadir

Businessman whose meteoric rise in the 1980s at the head of the Polly Peck empire ended in scandal and prosecution

Asil Nadir was the stock market poster boy of the 1980s who conned City bankers and private investors, not to mention the Conservative party, then staged a dramatic escape to spend 17 years as a fugitive before returning to the UK to face trial.

A Turkish Cypriot immigrant, Nadir, who has died aged 83, was for many years feted as a success in the UK and Turkey. A 1991 biography of him was entitled The Sultan of Berkeley Square. Charismatic, charming and stylish, with playboy looks and lifestyle, plus an air of Midas mystery, Nadir had gone from running a family “rag trade” business in the East End of London to a £2bn global business empire, offices and homes in Mayfair filled with millions in art and antiques, a Palladian mansion in Rutland and another country estate.

Few queried how Nadir made his millions �� certainly not Tory party fundraisers. Between 1985 and 1990, he secretly donated £440,000 to the party, most of it derived from Polly Peck, the textiles company he transformed into what appeared to be one of the most successful firms of the 80s. This gave him access to Downing Street receptions, senior ministers and a personal letter of thanks from Margaret Thatcher, but not the knighthood he anticipated. When Polly Peck imploded, and Nadir was prosecuted for theft and fraud, the Tories promised to return the money if it was found to have been stolen.

In northern Cyprus and Turkey, Nadir bought first influence, then protection, through money looted from Polly Peck to buy banks and media interests. Polly Peck had expanded into hotels, as well as manufacturing televisions and video recorders, and for a time controlled the well-known brands Del Monte, Sansui and Russell Hobbs. This growth relied on manipulating the share price, through a covert offshore share support operation, to persuade bankers and investors to continue providing finance. That was needed to hide the “black hole” that in 1990 finally swallowed Polly Peck, leaving creditors owed vast sums and shareholders with nothing.

The only son of a Turkish Cypriot police constable turned businessman, Asilkan Nadir was born in Lefka, in the then united colonial Cyprus. His father, Irfan, ran a bus company, his mother, Safiye (nee Sevki), a grocery shop. In 1959, amid growing intercommunal tensions between the majority Greek and minority Turkish populations, the Nadirs left for London. Irfan Nadir started a clothing manufacturing business and his son was sent to study economics at Istanbul University.

Asil did not complete his degree but instead married and returned to London in 1963 to help run the family business. Ten years later he was heading his own clothing group, Wearwell, which was quoted on the stock market, and living in the Bishops Avenue, Hampstead – known as “millionaire’s row”. Wearwell ultimately developed a profitable Middle East export trade, making clothes cheaply in northern Cyprus. The company’s rise, near collapse and comeback in the late 1970s illustrated Nadir’s ability to spot opportunities but also his propensity for over-borrowing and manipulating share prices. This put him on the City regulatory radar.

Turkey’s invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974 – prompted by the threat of a rightwing Greek-backed coup – offered Nadir a much greater money-making opportunity. The Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was desperate to revive the moribund economy. Nadir negotiated the acquisition of citrus groves and an abandoned warehouse, plus generous tax breaks. These fruit and packaging activities were injected into Polly Peck, the loss-making clothing company he bought in 1980.

Suddenly Polly Peck International and its colourful chairman were hot. The shares soared on City predictions of millions to be made out of oranges, cardboard boxes and, later, TVs and bottled water. The share price rocketed from 5p to £35 by 1983. As the largest shareholder, Nadir was worth £100m. By 1990 that figure more than doubled and Nadir was ranked among Britain’s 50 richest as Polly Peck became the London stock market’s star performer.

Scepticism from those who visited northern Cyprus and new operations in Turkey was ignored. So too were questions about profitability or that Polly Peck was effectively audited by a tiny firm in northern Cyprus. Nadir accused his critics of being in the pay of Greek Cypriots desperate to smear a Turkish Cypriot success story.

Between 1984 and 1989, sales increased to more than £1bn. Profits went from £61m to £161m. Nadir expanded into the US, acquiring the Del Monte fruit brands, and Japan, with the first foreign takeover of a major listed Japanese company, Sansui. But he was always reliant on bank borrowing and raising cash from investors.

A secret share support operation was orchestrated by Nadir using companies and bank accounts in Jersey, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and northern Cyprus. Cash diverted from Polly Peck bought the shares, which were sold when the price rose. Polly Peck took all the risk, Nadir all the reward. This undisclosed insider dealing triggered Nadir’s downfall. An Inland Revenue investigation into City stockbrokers stumbled across the share support operation in 1988. This resulted in an investigation into Nadir’s personal tax affairs, which estimated the tax evaded at £50m. It revealed what a Revenue investigator described as a “massive share ramping exercise”.

When news of the tax investigation leaked in August 1990, Polly Peck shares went into freefall. Banks that had rushed to lend now demanded repayment. Others sold Polly Peck shares held as security for loans. The Stock Exchange authorities, long suspicious of Nadir, called in the Serious Fraud Office. In September the SFO raided South Audley Management, the organisation set up to handle Nadir’s personal affairs and the nerve centre of the share support operations. Polly Peck collapsed the following month. In December Nadir was charged with theft and false accounting and bailed for a record £3.5m. He was made bankrupt in 1991 with debts of £375m.

Nadir’s response to the SFO investigation was again to suggest that Polly Peck was the victim of an international conspiracy: the Turkish president Turgut Özal wrote to Thatcher blaming Greek Cypriots for Polly Peck’s problems.

Nadir’s political connections paid off with behind-the-scenes lobbying. The ministers Michael Heseltine, Michael Mates, Peter Lloyd and Peter Brooke were among MPs who contacted the attorney general about the case. Mates gave Nadir a birthday present watch inscribed: “Don’t let the buggers get you down.” They were left red-faced (Mates resigned) when, after protesting innocence, Nadir fled in May 1993 before the fraud trial due to be held that October. He was flown in private planes to France and from there to northern Cyprus, which has no extradition treaty with Britain.

Over the years, Nadir regularly promised to return to clear his name but failed to do so. However, by 2010 he was running out of money and influence in northern Cyprus. A man often seen as lacking courage took a desperate gamble and returned to Britain. The man who arrived at Luton airport in August 2010 still talked of plots and a “burning sense of injustice”.

Nadir hoped a trial would prove legally impossible. No major fraud trial had taken place so many years after the event; potentially it would be an abuse of process. Then there was his age and his cardiac problems. If no trial took place, he would sue the SFO for millions, thereby restoring his riches and reputation. The gamble failed.

Nadir gave evidence at a seven-month Old Bailey trial. His defence – funded with £2m in legal aid – was that the £150m he was accused of stealing had been replaced by cash deposits from his family, taken in suitcases to banks in northern Cyprus. But, as Mr Justice Holroyde remarked, Nadir produced not “a single piece of paper” as evidence. He had stolen out of “pure greed”.

In August 2012, Nadir was convicted on 10 specimen counts of stealing £29m between 1987 and 1990 and jailed for 10 years. He was ordered to pay £5m to Polly Peck creditors. A Turkish airline owner reportedly paid this, because Nadir was “a hero to his generation”.

After pressure from the Turkish government – plus repayment of the legal aid and surrendering his British citizenship - Nadir was released in April 2016, supposedly to serve out his sentence in Turkey. After being held overnight in Istanbul, he was released and flew to northern Cyprus, where he still had business interests.

Nadir is survived by his second wife, Nur, and six children.

🔔 Asilkan Nadir, businessman, born 1 May 1941; died 9 February 2025

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?