Beard Liberation Front
17th May
The New Statesman has published a list of what is claims are the Top 50 most powerful people on the British left. It is paywalled but suffice to say that Rachel Reeves is No.1 and Keir Starmer No.2
The good thing about it is the gender balance which might not have been the case in the past.
It must also be allowed that the New Statesman’s definition of ‘left’ is arguable. Is the Archbishop of Canterbury really a figure of the left for example and Tony Blair will always be a controversial choice.
However if we take it that the list represents at least a version of a Broad Church, of the kind currently out of fashion with the Labour leader one might expect at least most on it to sign up to campaigns to oppose, for example, racism and Tory Old Corruption.
There is however one area of particular concern to the Beard Liberation Front,which is that there are far too many clean shaven white men in suits on the list.
BLF researchers have identified only seven people on the list who might be classified as full time beard wearers:
Morgan MacSweeney
Humza Yousaf
James O’Brien
Jeremy Corbyn
Gary Lineker
Roger Hallam
Matthew Doyle
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the New Statesman list has only partly recognised the diversity of the modern left and has significantly underplayed the impact of Beard Power
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