Kmflett's Blog

Farage has invited union leaders to Reform’s ‘conference’ in September. They have declined.

The Rule Book of the National Union of Grifters has only one clause. It reads the General Secretary determines and implements policy as he decides…

The graphic above is page 5 of 7 page brochure on James Watt’s LinkedIn account.

Watt notes that 19,000 Equity for Punks bond holders from the Brewdog days have signed up to be part of his yet to be launched Second Best beer venture.

In the same post Watt says he hopes that Second Best will be the vehicle that allows him to buyback Brewdog from new owners Tilray.

The page extracted above sets a very different and more realistic tone than in Watt’s Brewdog days. Perhaps reality has intervened or perhaps his lawyers told him not to overclaim..

Liz Truss was appointed earlier in the year to run the UK wing of Conservative Political Action, a far right group, largely funded by US figures.

A London conference in July will find Farage joining Truss, along with a cast of conspiracy theorists, far right popularisers and maverick Tories.

The Guardian has further details

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/09/nigel-farage-liz-truss-uk-cpac-conference?CMP=share_btn_url

British Rail was privatised by the Tories in 1993, although the privatised mess that they created took several years to happen.

The Blair Governments from 1997 could have renationalised the railways but didn’t. Starmer by contrast has.

Its a welcome move. Not because any great improvements on train services. I do recall the old British Rail days. Hopefully Starmer does not plan a Beeching Mk 2.That said at least public money is no longer being diverted into the pockets of the shareholders of rail privateers.

The GBR train I caught from Brighton today (after a union conference) arrived in London on time, but the wifi wasnt working. Modest progress in history.

Several comments have underlined that the actual trains are still leased from privateers. I amended the head to include ‘service’. My expertise in respect of trains lies in travelling on them and some of the social history.

The two parties who voted against the Employment Rights Act both claim to be the workers party.

One of Nigel Farage’s operatives has posted an invite on social media for unions to ‘affiliate’ to  Reform. Quite how any union can affiliate to Farage’s political business is unclear notwithstanding that has nil democratic structures and processes anyway.

The TUC and major unions such as the GMB and Unite have rejected Farage’s call pointing out his policies which oppose workers’ rights.

It’s certainly true that there are trade unionists who back Reform but they are late to the Party as it were.

The Tories have occasionally used slogan that the Tories are the Workers Party in the past

I have been a trade union activist nearly 50 years and I can well remember a time when Tory trade unionists had a reasonably serious presence as activists in the movement. They would traditionally oppose the involvement of Unions with ‘politics’ and were often to be heard saying that they wanted lower taxes because they could decide themselves how to spend money.

There is a well-known study of the working-class Tory voter by McKenzie & Silver, Angels in Marble (1968):

This is often seen in the same framework as the deferential voter and until the 1950s the Tories controlled some large northern cities such as Liverpool (the last time was 1972)

Some trade unionists still do vote Tory, but perhaps more voted Reform in 2024.

Most recent Tory thoughts on unions have been around issues like raising the bar on how many must vote for strikes or bashing the facility time of union representatives in the public sector or trying to make sure that workers have no employment rights until they have done two years in the job (now much lower under the new ERA)

Several Tory leaders ago there was some attempt to engage with genuine representatives of workers in the form of trade unions

Even before he came to Office David Cameron appointed Richard Balfe [a former Labour politician turned Tory MEP] as the Tory trade union envoy.

Mrs Thatcher who was a trade union member herself when working in industry had pursued a similar angle but the approach had lapsed.

Balfe was of course not universally popular in the labour movement. The link here gives a flavour of his views:

http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2011/06/richard-balfe-we-shoulds-not-demonise-the-public-sector-unions-but-continue-negotiating-with-them-in.html

Balfe is now a Lord and the role of Tory trade union envoy appears long defunct.

Perhaps one of the ideas of the Tories as the workers party is that they aim to represent those [far too substantial] sections of the working class who are not trade unionists.

In reality the workers party boast in 2026 whether Reform or the Tories is just an empty slogan. To give it any substance both would have needed to back the Employment Rights Act. Given that the current  Reform and Tory leadership, elected or otherwise, see one of the key reasons for leaving the EU, as a chance to have a bonfire of employment rights, it seems an unlikely scenario.

To be clear if Reform or the Tories or a combination of them, win the next General Election they will not protect or extend workers rights, they will abolish them. It underlines the need to build union organisation at the grassroots to push for better pay and working conditions. Something neither Farage of Badenoch will be found doing.

For Tilray the current owners of Brewdog, James Watt is a recurring nightmare. An Insta post on Monday saw Watt claiming that he planned to use the not actually existing beer brand Second Besf as the way to buy back Brewdog. He has previously talked to Modella Capital about financing this.

Private Equitèers Modella specialise in taking over failing companies and extracting what value they can from them, Currently they are planning to close 150 TG Jones (WH Smith) High St locations.

As for Watt, don’t believe a word..

Farage has claimed he is banned from Desert Island Discs, in reality just not invited.

He has spoken briefly to the Spectator about what his choices would be.

Music. Something from the 1960s. Buffalo Springfield, For What It’s Worth perhaps

I’m too sexy for my shirt(from his I’m a Celeb appearance)….

Luxury, fishing gear, Farage owns a fishing boat..

Book. Works of PG Wodehouse. Presumably Farage is a fan of Roderick Spode, leader of the black shorts, a parody of Oswald Mosley

Pre-Victorian hair care

The Lord’s between England and New Zealand ended in four days which would have been three were it not for rain on day three.

The pitch was widely criticised for being sub standard, providing no balance between bat and ball.

Lord’s response was primarily to blame the weather. It had been too wet and then too hot. Hmmm fair enough as a recognition of climate change except it wasn’t mentioned ..