Not clear if this will form part of the pre-match prepartion for the England team on Wednesday but surely it will be good to know that it is an M&S World Cup.
I of course tried it. £5 which is the standard price for most M&S sandwiches, subs & rolls. It was decent…(if you like chicken clearly)
Picture: The Times
Tony Blair was at the annual Order of the Garter Ceremony at Windsor on 15th June.
The Order which dates back to 1348 has a maximum of 24 members at any one time plus the King and Queen and assorted Royals (but not Mountbatten-Windsor who is banned)
I voted Labour in 1997 but I don’t remember anything about this being part of the New Labour project
I more usually post menus from Royal Banquets but since Trump thinks he is King this doesn’t seem entirely inappropriate.
For those who might have noted Trump’s eating preferences previously no incinerated steak or cheeseburger can be found…
The salad seems perfunctory, French beans with the turkey a nod to some distant view of healthy eating (if he ate them) and, well, a birthday cake should be indulgent.
The wider political point (as you’d expect) is that as Trump sees himself in Churchillian leader mode, both Churchill and the wider British ruling class were devotees of French fine dining (tho Churchill like Gruyere). French beans do not fill the gap
16th June is of course Bloomsday and sticking with tradition I’ve compiled a version of the sandwich that Leopold Bloom is described as eating in Ulysses.
Gorgonzola on white bread (soda bread being unavailable in M&S) with Dijon mustard & Isle of Wight tomato.
It was tasty and fairly beard friendly..
Jo Cox 10 years on. A morbid symptom of Brexit Britain
Gramsci wrote in the Prison Notebooks of the morbid symptoms that appear when the old order is dying but the new one cannot be born.
The murder of Jo Cox MP on June 16th 2016 was certainly a morbid symptom. The murderer had long term connections to violent hard core fascist groups something which some of the media rather predictably tried to ignore. Instead they emphasised mental health problems (quite possibly inadequately dealt with by an underfunded NHS) but there is no particular or obvious connection between that and murdering an MP.
The Brexit Referendum took place one week later on 23rd June 2016.
There is no reason to despair.
Yes Farage, the Tory right and the gutter press whipped up racism and division in society for their own ends ten years ago and continue to do so. Farage in particular looks increasingly like someone playing to the fascist gallery.
There isn’t much evidence to be gathered that this plays well to younger generations in Britain who, on polls, are more tolerant on issues of race, sex and sexuality than earlier generations. This is the Britain that is struggling to be born and to find a political voice. Ten years on whether in support for Palestine or Green and left politics it is finding one, as the old order continues to fade.
Of course there are young people who are bigoted and there are old people who are tolerant if grumpy (it comes with age). I’m 70 this year and no one I know in a similar age bracket is a bigot. Then again of course I’ve spent a life on the left.
Remembering Jo Cox and here murder ten years underlines the importance of organising and building a new politics and opposing the racist and fascist politics that led to her murder.
Andy Burnham has done it and so has Keir Starmer. Written a long substack on their take on current matters that is. Politicians often employ speech writers but whether or not Burnham and Starmer actually wrote their own Substacks, there is no doubt they could have done.
The founder of UKIP Alan Skedd in 2014 told the Guardian of his view of Nigel Farage and words.
“Behind that image is someone who isn’t bright,” says Sked, who recalls trying to give the public school-educated Farage remedial grammar lessons: “I spent two hours trying to explain to him the difference between ‘it’s’ with an apostrophe and ‘its’ without and he just flounced out the office saying, ‘I just don’t understand words.'”
So the fact that Farage has now produced a lengthy Substack suggests the Reform Co-Pilot has been working overtime.. Subsequently Farage has claimed its the first in series of essays on Britain. No doubt AI can produce any number and it means Farage can avoid public scrutiny about his £5m bung.
Michael Grade former Head of Ofcom has been speaking to the Guardian about why he did nothing on GBNews while he held the position.
He claims complaints come from an Islington liberal consensus and also manages a reference to the London Metropolitan Elite for good measure.
While many including one suspects many Reform supporters think GBNews is Reform TV, Grade claims its the voice of a ‘white majority. No such concept exists of course except in the minds of racists.
Meanwhile one wonders how familiar with Islington Grade actually is. It certainly has some wealthy inhabitants and lots more who are not wealthy at all
We talked about education. He takes an absolutely hardline about banning all private education. On health he is in favour of banning any private health provision because it will destroy the Health Service. It was a very enjoyable talk.
May 27th 1976
Benn lost a Labour leadership election in March 1976
The Ambridge Socialist
14th June
So, Farewell then Prof Jim
After 20 years Jim Lloyd is leaving the Archers. The most well know atheist in Ambridge and certainly the only classicist. A full tribute featuring Jazzer and Alastair can be found in this week’s Archers’ podcast The Archers Podcast – 88. Jim Lloyd and a journey into the archives – BBC Sounds
Adam is taking legal action against Brian but he claims he hasn’t ‘lost his marbles’
Brian has had one of the Trump style medicals to prove that he absolutely knows what he is doing and has now banned Adam from Home Farm. This will of course end in administration.
Changing places
A week of transition in Ambridge. After much deliberation (see TV cooking programmes) Tracy has decided she will become the new Cheese Supremo at the Diary, which seems to please Helen. That will mean less time for Tracy at The Bull which might be regarded as more of her natural social habitat…
Meanwhile Ed has started work at Home Farm although Adam is still working there, even though Brian thinks he has fired him. A meeting between Brian, Adam and Martyn Gibson on the Borchester Land contract offered little enlightment.
Farm Sunday and the Borchester Show
Farm Sunday arrived in Ambridge unheralded and while Brookfield did not join in this year Bridge Farm did. Meanwhile another event in the Ambridge agricultural summer calendar, the Borchester Show, is occupying the time of David and Amber…
Pip’s Genomic Test and Kirsty’s 12 week check
Pip has gone private with the genomic test but then decided not to actually take it until after the wedding with Stella, date uncertain. Meanwhile Jakob has accompanied Kirsty to her 12 week scan and check for her pregnancy, with the expected rather awkward impacts from Jakob. Outside of Ambridge (The Archers Podcast) Jacob and Erik are apparently great friends so who knows where this is going…
At the cricket
The Archers expedition to the T20 England v Sri Lanka at Edgbaston seems to have gone well as did the game for England
Tim Martin the boss of Wetherspoons has given a lengthy interview to the Telegraph.
Much of the content is familiar Tim Martin material, and when it comes to the difficulties of running pubs, far from all ill founded.
Wetherspoons has never recognised a union but the new Employment Rights Act will make getting union recognition easier if Spoons workers are so minded. Of course this matter passes both the Telegraph and Martin by.
He is enthused however about the appearance of broccoli on the Spoons menu. He claims that staff are talking about it (he doesnt note what they are saying). Hitherto the only green vegetable Spoons have served is peas but now broccoli features in several new chicken dishes.
Unsurprisingly Martin, who appeared on Brexit platforms with him, praises Farage as an effective politician. Unfortunately this might be one point I’d be forced to agree with him on. More interestingly he declines to back the idea of a Reform Government perhaps belately recognising that his previous political thoughts have put a lot of people off visiting Spoons.
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