He’s back.
All aboard! Winston McKenzie
Winston McKenzie, the serial political loser who was unable to fulfil his ambition to become Mayor of London for the English Democrats when he couldn’t raise enough dosh for the deposit, has now gone into the event promotion business, with a grand event later this month staged on board a luxury yacht.
Don’t worry if you’re apprehensive of being stuck on board a boat with McKenzie while it’s at sea. The yacht’s a bit like McKenzie: it’s going nowhere.
It’s been a bit of a rough year for Croydon’s most notorious political bed-hopper, who could not get on to the ballot paper in the London elections, not for UKIP or even the English Democrats. McKenzie’s inability to fill in a form made Steven Woolfe appear vaguely competent.
Those knock-backs followed the latest disaster in McKenzie’s career: his (thankfully brief) appearance on “Celebrity” Big Brother, when he was chucked out of the house very quickly when his bigoted views were revealed. It remains the only time in McKenzie’s failed political career when he has managed to get an overwhelming majority in a vote.
Docked: £135 per person for a three-course meal with Winston McKenzie. Wine not included
But now McKenzie and Marianne Bowness, the former wife of Lord Bowness, the one-time leader of Croydon Conservatives, are staging “summer dinner” on August 19 on board the Sunborn Yacht Hotel. All for a cool £135 per person.
The Sunborn sailed up the Thames in 2014 and is the “super yacht” which claims to be “London’s first floating hotel”, moored in the Royal Victoria Dock, close to the ExCel Centre. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this will be a really classy event: McKenzie and Bowness have been busy leaving their leaflets in South Croydon’s best fish and chip shops.
If you cough up your £135 for your baked salmon supreme main course, you can then give Bowness a call for her to give you the special discount code so you can book a room to stay on board the yacht, where cabins, some with their own jacuzzis, can cost up to 450 “British pounds” per night. We think we know where Winston’s staying on the night of August 19, and it’s not a sheltered housing flat in Waddon…
There is a catch, though. Someone seems to have gone overboard on the ticket prices. Compared to similar dinners staged in 4-star or better hotels elsewhere in central London, there could be a mark-up on the cost of a ticket close to 100 per cent by our enterprising English Democrats.
And, apart from the “champagne reception”, the £135 ticket prices doesn’t include any drinks…
All at sea: A night out with Winston McKenzie. What’s not to like?
If you pick up one of his flyers, don’t be put off by the July 31 ticket booking deadline on the form. When we spoke to McKenzie today, he told us that, “We’ve still got about 15 places left.” He didn’t say whether that’s on a table for 20, but you never know with Winston…
The programme for the night does look a bit all at sea. There’s Robin Tilbrook, the founder of the uber-UKIP English Democrats, giving a talk on his party’s future post-Brexit (so that shouldn’t take too long then), and there’s someone called Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills, described by McKenzie’s promotional leaflets as “Chariman” of the British Monarchist Society, speaking on “The Queen’s Birthday Year”. And there were we thinking Her Maj had at least one birthday every year…
They’ve also gone to the trouble of booking a comedian, even when they’ve already got Winston McKenzie in the room. Boom! Tish!! We’re here all week.
If Inside Croydon‘s loyal reader wants to take advantage of this terrific opportunity to break bread on board a 4-star boat in a room that includes right-wing fantasists, royalists and bigots, drop us an email and we can give you McKenzie’s Halifax account details, which have been helpfully included on his leaflets…
- Still Croydon’s only independent news source, and based in the heart of the borough: 1.97 million page views 2013-2015
- Inside Croydon: Named among best regional media campaigns, 2014
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event to publicise, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Have the English Democrats got 15 members (even if you count Chancellor Winston?)
Looks like McKenzie will have to phone up and cancel the date to get the deposit back. Will be the only time he will get the deposit back in his political career ( if you can call it that).