RSGOLD-RUNESCAPEGOLD

Cyril Mills also booked him into the Christmas circus at the Belle Vue amusement park, Manchester in the winter of 1958/59.In the 1950s, as the early post-war euphoria for entertainment began to subside, Borra's appearances with Mills kept business from flagging, and rocketed his salary into a superstar bracket. His earnings at the Mills show later enabled him to buy a whole street of houses in Austria, which was named after him, the Borraweg.Borra's talents depended wholly upon his charm, skill and humour to deceive his "victims" from the audience. Using the beauty and guile of his wife Ilse to distract them, he would deftly relieve them of watches, wallets and other valuables, ties, braces and even reading glasses. By the time he caught up with Borra's act at an amusement park theatre in Gothenburg, Sweden, he had lost out to Knie and in signing Borra up for the following year, lost his wrist watch, twice.Borra's debut with the Bertram Mills Circus in April 1952 was an instant success with the public. Billing and programme-matter were quickly changed to place Borra as the top-of-the-bill attraction, and he toured triumphantly with the Mills Circus for three years.

Fredy and Rolf Knie, directors of the Knie circus, spotted Borra's potential drawing power early in his career and were one step ahead of their friend, the British circus owner Cyril Mills, when they first engaged him. Continental friends had mentioned Borra's act to Mills but he failed to see how a close-up act such as a pickpocket or magician could be featured in a large tent or building before audiences from 3,000 to 6,000 people. For 60 years he was billed as "the King of Pickpockets" and encouraged his son, Charly, to follow in his cunning trade, his offspring being billed as "the Prince of Pickpockets". As the King of Pickpockets or the Thief of Baghdad, Borra was the headline attraction of the Swiss National Circus Knie, Europe's most revered travelling circus, no fewer than five times, making his debut there in 1951, and returning with equally great success in 1956, 1963, 1971, and 1980 to delight new generations of circus-goers. BORRA, THE most famous stage pickpocket of all time, became the highest-paid European performer in circuses during the 1950s. The Leader of the House of Commons, Margaret Beckett, who knew him well, paid tribute to him as a hard-working MP. "He worked tirelessly for the low- paid," she said.Thomas William Torney, trade unionist and politician: born London 2 July 1915; Derby and District Area Organiser, Usdaw 1946-70; MP (Labour) for Bradford South 1970-87; twice married (one daughter); died Derby 21 October 1998.. Then, in 1977, he was strident in the support of the efforts of Reg Underhill, then the National Agent, to expel so-called Trotskyist infiltrators who had tried to get rid of him.After leaving Parliament in 1987 he retired to his native Derby.

In August 1976 he asked about a shapely blonde woman photographer "cavorting about in the nude with sailors" on the submarine HMS Otter in Nassau. In September 1975 he mounted an attack on motorway lavatories as a "national disgrace". In May 1976 he demanded an inquiry into the British army offering training for a private Fascist army. As chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party group on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food he complained bitterly that he was not made chairman of the Select Committee.Truth to tell, in his last years in the House of Commons he took up a number of issues which gained him considerable publicity but also alas held him up to ridicule.