Kmflett's Blog

Even Keir Starmer who has a few other things on his mind has noticed that the price of Cadbury’s mini eggs has gone up while also noting that he can’t do anything about it.

The price of chocolate Easter eggs has gone up by 9% in the last year. A key reason is the cost of the raw material cocoa. The main global suppliers are in West Africa and poor harvests in 2025 saw prices rocket. According to the FT (4th April) most producers brought beans in May-July 2025 for 2026 Easter Eggs and paid a premium price.

Since then cocoa prices have dropped by 70% meaning that Easter Eggs should be cheaper in future. The FT notes that this is unlikely since prices mostly only go one way and its not down.

Marks and Spencer have reported that neither the weight or price of their Easter Eggs have changed in the last four years (they are still expensive of course).

Perhaps an Easter thought might be that while a little chocolate may be OK, more really isnt. Another thought might be how much of the increased cost of Easter Eggs in 2026 found its way into the finances of West African producers. On this the FT is silent.

Eric Hobsbawm on the FA Cup

The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote about the link between a working class identity and culture and the rise of professional football. Hobsbawm himself was certainly a football fan and was suspected of being an Arsenal fan.

In the Invention of Tradition (jointly with Terence Ranger) Hobsbawm argued that the history of football cup finals tells the historian more about the development of an urban working class culture than more conventional sources.

In the Making of the Working Class 1870-1914 (a nod and a critique of E P Thompson as Hobsbawm notes) he argues that an increasing secular tendency saw working class support for unions and the Labour Party but it was also characterised by fish and chip shops and cup finals.

Where that culture is on the first weekend of April 2026 which saw four FA Cup quarter finals played is perhaps worth discussion.

The voice of BBC cricket Jonathan Agnew is 66 on 4th April

He announced in April 2024 that he would be stepping down as the BBC cricket correspondent at the end of that summer, a job he had been doing with some distinction for many years. It seemed prudent. With the ever extending global nature of cricket, changing formats and often audiences too, it was time for others from a new generation to grapple with the challenge of the new. It’s not entirely clear who has filled Aggers role, perhaps in the context of unfortunate at best BBC budget restrictions. Perhaps also several people have, particularly in the context of the welcome coverage of women’s cricket now.

The good news though is that Agnew continues to host Test Match Special until at least 2028. I’ve been listening to TMS since the 1960s and it has evolved and changed over the years. Indeed it had to or it wouldn’t still be on air. Agnew has been an important part of the journey. Someone who shares the curiosity of the late Brian Johnston about what people are like and why they do what they do, a sense of basic humanity too often lacking in the world of 2026.

Agnew as a commentator very largely avoids what has unfortunately become the style of too many sports commentators, the shouty and the hyperbolic. He is mostly calm and thoughtful and above all someone who can be listened to as perhaps in some ways a voice of an English summer.

Of course now he is 66 it really is time for him to heed the generously given advice of the Beard Liberation Front and add even more gravitas to his commentaries by growing a beard.

Beard Liberation Front

4th April

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

Mark Chapman shaves Michael Rosen to win Beard of Spring vote

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that broadcaster Mark Chapman has shaved author Michael Rosen to win the vote for the coveted title of Beard of Spring 2026.

It was one of the closest votes of recent years, held on Blue Sky and Twitter with Mark Chapman just shaving Michael Rosen and Michael Sheen.

The list comprised a range of people who have worn a beard during the first quarter of the year, not necessarily full-time, and whose facial hair has had a positive public impact.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it’s a first time win for Mark Chapman reflecting the reality that his beard is omnipresent in sports broadcasting across a number of platforms

There were two Close Shave Rounds with the highest and second placed from both going to a Final Beard Off vote.  The winner will be announced on Easter Saturday.

Michael Rosen, author through to the Beard Off Final

Michael Sheen, actor through to Beard Off Final

Joe Wilkinson, comedian

Emmanuel Gregoire, Mayor of Paris

Zack Polanski, politician 

Mark Chapman, broadcaster through to Beard Off Final

Steve Bell, cartoonist

Pearce Quigley, actor through to Beard Off Final

Allister Heath is the Editor of the Sunday Telegraph and this is a New World random headline generator.

Even so doesn’t Allistair have a point…

A perhaps largely forgotten Labour leadership election took place 50 years ago

The resignation of Harold Wilson as PM was on 16th March 1976.

For those of a certain age it may be recalled that the resignation gave rise to any number of conspiracy theories involving MI5 the KGB and so on. The reality was probably more mundane. Wilson feared signs of the Alzheimers that ran in the family. He had after all won 4 Elections for Labour, 1964, 1966 and 1974 twice.

Tony Benn records in his Diary that Wilson’s announcement stunned the Cabinet and it led to a leadership Election.

It being 1976 the election was confined to Labour MPs.

The first round on 25th March 1976 saw the following results:

Foot 90

Callaghan 84

Jenkins 56

Benn 37

Healey 30

Crosland 17

All of the contenders were men(!) with considerable political and Ministerial experience who had run Government departments.

The second ballot on 30th March produced the following result:

Callaghan 141

Foot 133

Healey 38

Callaghan became leader and PM. It was a victory for the Labour right, though Healey arguably played a key role once Callaghan was in No.10. Foot became leader after Callaghan lost in 1979 and duly lost in 1983. Crosland sadly died in 1976, Jenkins left for the SDP and Benn continued to tack left.

Perhaps the lesson from all this 50 years on is that for the wider public while WIlson’s resignation was a complete surprise those who sought to replace him and their record in Public Office over some years was well known (if not liked). A Labour leadership election were it to take place in 2026 would be a rather different matter.

Nigel Farage is a very well weathered 62 on Good Friday. There is no news yet of celebrations but it seems likely that a PFL (Proper Fucking Lunch) inviting much wine and meat featured somewhere.

Farage doesnt run his own social media except it appears the recently curtailed Cameo videos but a Reform UK Good Friday message appears on his Twitter account. Farage has been clear that he is not a great church goer (unless of course its a pub in a former church) but it is important period in a number of religions that deserves respect.

At the same time there are plenty of non religious Easter traditions including pace-egging (essentially collecting money for beer but actual eggs are also involved) and mystery plays. One of the figures that features on such occasions is Old Tosspot, who gets a mention in the final passages of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

It might be thought that this is the kind of Easter tradition that Farage would wish to celebrate. Reports awaited…

Simon Dudley was summarily purged as Reform’s Housing spokesman on 2nd April after making some, for him fairly typical, comments about Grenfell.

Dudley only recently defected to Reform from the Tories and had been Mayor of Maidenhead. He had a falling out with then local MP Theresa May in 2018 after going on about what he claimed was ‘aggressive begging’.

Less well known is that Dudley was the Chair of the Governance and Ethics Committee at Middlesex County Cricket Club. He has been purged from that role too without any public statement. That leaves Andrew Cornish as the head name on the list of the Ethics Committee. Cornish who is Middlesex CEO is currently suspended.

Not perhaps the best start to the cricket season for Middlesex.

The start of the First Class Cricket Season in 1968

The County Cricket season gets underway on Good Friday. The weather predictably is not great. The refrain of shortage of spectators and lack of money can be heard in some quarters. In addition plans to mess around with the structure of domestic cricket continue to be on the agenda despite considerable controversy. The general focus is around how to get more people to watch and hence how to get more money into the game at local levels.

While researching quite different matters recently I came across a piece in the Daily Telegraph about the start of the County cricket season, 58 years ago, in 1968. Strangely it seemed rather familiar.

1968 was a year when the Australians visited but the piece started by noting the ‘enduring problems of making ends meet’. It goes on to mention ‘reduced gates and falling membership’ in many Counties and questions how County Cricket continued to survive.

According Wilf Wooller of Glamorgan ‘cricket had been tottering on the edge of bankruptcy for 90 years’.

The article ponders how clubs like Gloucestershire which ‘has had little success in recent years’ survive. The answer in 1968 was partly through indulgent bank managers but mainly through the work of supporter’s clubs.

However the Telegraph reports that ‘County Secretaries hope that the Sunday League due to start in 1969 will inject greater interest’. Meanwhile Michael Turner of Leicestershire thought that financial stability would only come when the ‘valuable acreages’ around the grounds were developed for multi-purpose activities that took place year round.

58 years on there are some enduring themes here and supporters are still keeping the Counties going. The interesting thing is that in the main they are not same ones as those in 1968 but new generations. How did that happen? Perhaps someone should investigate

Thanks to the Iran War which Trump started with Netanyahu but still expects others to clear up the mess (that is thousands dead btw) his US approval rating stands at -20 down 1.1 points in the last week. 36% approve and 57% disapprove.

Instead of attacking Starmer and Macron perhaps Trump should look to form an unpopular leaders club