The above billboard reportedly appeared on a Hackney street at the weekend. Whether its still there probably depends on which street, since Hackney is a sizeable Borough.
It focuses on alleged links between Nigel Farage & Vladimir Putin and is very much in the style of German photomontage artist John Heartfield. In particular the third frame echoes Heartfield’s famous photomontage of Hitler facing a crowd in front of him while receiving money from a businessman behind him, titled millions are behind us.
Its not known who is responsible for the billboard although the geographical location may offer a clue.
Powder Monkey acquires North-East brewery Maxim. An interesting business model?
Gosport based Powder Monkey has acquired North-East brewer Maxim. The brewery produces classic beers previously associated with Sunderland based Vaux.
Powder Monkey has grown considerably In 2025. It acquired NE brewer Castle Eden which specialises in contract brewing and Empress based in Leamington Spa. The brewery features in the restaurant trade but the beer is contract brewed.
Powder Monkey has a brewery and bars in Gosport and also has brewing and bar interests in Sydney Australia.
On the face of it the business mix appears eclectic and its unclear where the capital for the acquisitions is coming from.
Given the struggles of Keystone Brewing a private equity outfit that has acquired a range of breweries and brands from Black Sheep to Brick, Magic Rock, Brew By Numbers it’s an interesting development.
I’ve been a fan of Elusive’s Oregon Trail West Coast IPA and its variants for a good while. So I was intrigued to try the beer re-imagined by Surrey brewer Terra Tempo. The description is here:
A blend of 70% white Rioja barrel aged ale & 30% fresh Elusive Oregon Trail West Coast IPA ; a legendary beer that needs almost no introduction winner of 2025 CAMRA champion beer of Britain & 2021 world beer awards.
This is completely reimagined, remixed, resinous, sour, fruity, lemony and zesty super easy drinking. A wild interpretation of a UK classic.
I tried it at Pop and Hops in Cardiff (Whitchurch Rd). While I’m not sure I could easily spot Oregon Trail in the mix it was a very decent easy drinking beer, both sour and hoppy
Palestine Action supporters on remand in prison, some of whom are on hunger strike, should be released on remand. David Lammy is not just the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary but also the MP for Tottenham. Many in his Constituency have powerful and historically based understanding of the impact of racism, discrimination and prejudice originating from Government level. David Lammy born and brought up in London N17 knows that.
As a former Chair and Secretary of Haringey Trades Union Council I have worked with David Lammy over the years. He has a decent record on core issues in Tottenham such as poverty, housing and jobs as well of course as racism. Disagreements of course there have been, perhaps particularly in recent times over the direction of the Labour Government.
However when it comes to the issue of hunger strikers the Christmas message to him must surely be: do better.
ENGELS TO JENNY MARX IN LONDON Manchester, 3 January 1868 Dear Mrs Marx, I must apologise for leaving your letter unanswered for so long. But the Christmas period is the only time in the whole year when, apart from business, I am made to feel that I stand with one foot in the bourgeoisie, and here in Manchester this entails a lot of eating and drinking and upset stomach, and the obligatory ill humour and waste of time. This is now fairly well over, and I am beginning to breathe freely again.
The ‘Them & Us’ divide in Dickens’ Christmas Carol remains with us 182 years on
Charles Dickens Christmas Carol was published on 19th December 1843. Eleven days later the Chartist Northern Star had this response which was headed a Christmas Carol
According to annual and praise-worthy custom the unfortunate inmates both of the workhouse and prison throughout the metropolis, will, upon Christmas-day be regaled with the usual good fare of the season. The proportions of the allowances will vary slightly in different institutions, but in all & good dinner -will be provided.”— Morning Chronicle
There followed a poem noting that on one day a year Workhouse inhabitants ate decently but for the other 364 days it noted ‘Come to-morrow how it will; Diet scant and usage rough’
The message of a Christmas Carol remains perpetually relevant in a market capitalist society and several updated stage versions of the Dickens classic are being performed around the country this year.
Before the 2019 General Election at a hustings Jeremy Corbyn was asked what he would give Boris Johnson for a Christmas present.
“I know Mr Johnson likes a good read,” he said, “so what I would probably leave under the tree for him would be A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and he could then understand how nasty Scrooge was.”
Dickens story focused on Scrooge in his City of London Counting House seeing the error of his ways and ultimately through a familiar device of festive fiction-ghosts-making amends. His employee Bob Cratchit’s family did get a Christmas turkey.
However the attitudes that the liberals of the 1840s displayed on helping the less well-off and indeed on turkeys remain at the centre of right-wing thought
The Times reported in 2022 that researchers think Henry V111 was responsible for bringing the turkey to Britain. Its Editorial rightly noted that it is the bird of choice for those who eat poultry and that it features in Dickens Christmas Carol. It missed the point perhaps deliberately about why Dickens had Scrooge buy the Cratchits a turkey. The poor in the 1840s would eat goose at Christmas if they could afford it. Turkeys were unaffordable except for the rich. Dickens was attacking a market system that rationed food by class.
Dickens also focused on the wider attitude of the wealthy to the less well off
Scrooge is visited by ‘two portly gentlemen’ seeking to collect funds for the poor at Christmas. They tell him that ‘many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts’.
Scrooge asks the charity collectors if by some chance the workhouses and prisons are no longer operating. He goes on to make it clear that he will be contributing nothing to the less well off at Christmas:
I don’t make myself merry at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned (prisons and workhouses): they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there’.
While exact policies do vary a little it’s a reminder that Scrooge remains with us at Christmas 2025 with politicians from Labour, Tory and Reform
This post was originally published in the Morning Star
Its that time of year again when people, mostly beer writers, produce their list of the best beers of the year. Pete Brown has one in the Sunday Times (21st December) which focuses on beers newly produced or beers he has come across for the first time in 2025. As you’d expect it’s a well chosen list and several beers on it are also favourites of mine.
Several caveats are required. Firstly, I’m not a beer writer. I’m a socialist historian who enjoys beer but writes about it from a political/historical angle. If you’re expecting detailed beer tasting notes, look elsewhere..
Secondly can I remember what beers I was enjoying in January and February 2025. Not really. There are beers, not new, which I regularly enjoy when I drink at home (that is when I’m in Cardiff where pub/public transport options can be limited-in London I walk to or catch a bus to the pub and don’t drink beer at home) Pressure Drop’s Pale Fire remains an excellent beer as does St Austell’s Proper Job. Both are quite widely available and Proper Job is bottle conditioned (although also in can).
Otherwise its really beer styles of the year that I think of. I’m drinking a lot more stouts and porters on draught and in can/bottle. I’ve never liked draught Guinness, although the bottled versions remain decent (if bottle conditioned only in ancient memory). However I do like Anspach and Hobday’s London Black Porter and Kernel’s Stout, both intro beers. I’ll always drink the annual release of Burning Sky’s robust porter and as Pete Brown notes the Fuller’s 180th anniversary porter is good too.
While I still drink and enjoy them I’m less enthused by murky IPAs (NEIPA) and keep an out for, perhaps what are styled West Coast IPAs but more particularly the original UK version of the IPA style before it went to the US and came back again. Sometimes these beers- see Fullers- are badged as ESBs.
But above all I just like to try new and hopefully interesting and tasty beers. For my generation brought up on a very limited beer range before CAMRA got to work in the mid-1970s, the choice of beer styles and strengths (nothing much above 5% in those days) and the ability to have thirds or two-thirds is worth celebrating.
Preparations for the village Tractor parade continue. Again we say, annoying as Lynda Snell’s Christmas productions were they were still better than this. Meanwhile Tony has been in the shed with his tractor.
Turkeys
It’s the last week for Eddie’s turkeys sales. Notably Jazzer has to wear an allegedly sales enhancing turkey suit at the market. Anyway at least Avian Flu did not make an appearance.
Wales
Ben and Esme went off to South Wales to pick up some silage (etc) while Tom and Natasha are headed off to the same general location for Christmas. Ambridge is not that far from South Wales even though the BBC doesn’t seem sure on this.
Martyn Gibson. Relationship Counseller
After Carla ditched Chris (who could blame her) Martyn Gibson has been offering him relationship counselling. What could possibly go wrong..
George
There will be trouble ahead. Happy Christmas from all at the Ambridge Socialist
McCullum & McSweeney. The King Midas in Reverse men?
On the face of it there isn’t any specific connection between England cricket coach Brendan McCullum and Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney except that both have beards.
The connection however is in their approach to turning around the project they are tasked with managing, from failure to success.
McSweeney has been Starmer’s key advisor since 2020 and was responsible for the strategy that saw Labour turn around its 2019 Election defeat into a remarkable victory in 2024. McSweeney’s method was not to build the Labour vote in core seats but to do just enough to win seats across a much wider area. It worked but as the period since July 2024 has underlined it also carried within it the seeds of failure. It left Labour’s core seats open to challenge from the left and sometimes the right but did not build anything substantial in most of the wider layer of seats that were won.
Could Labour have won without this strategy? Given the unpopularity of the Tories it seems likely.
There was a further element to the McSweeney method which was that it was relentlessly factional. The left were cut out and only those who were on board with the McSweeney project were welcome.
Brendan McCullum took charge of the England cricket team in May 2022 and after a period of poor results it was clear a change was needed. He introduced what the media (not McCullum) himself termed Bazball. It brought an initial period of considerable success.
However since the beginning of 2024 results have dropped off as other teams worked out strategies to counter Bazball, or sometimes adopt parts of it. The current Ashes series in Australia is the most recent unhappy result. Again like McSweeney, McCullum built a team not particularly always of the best or most suitable players but rather those that followed his approach. Again the factional approach was important.
The point, and it remains an arguable one, is that while winning is important, how you win is also important. Winning in the wrong way can lead to later defeats. Or as it’s known in popular culture the King Midas in Reverse approach
Winter Solstice heralds start of festive beard growth
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the Winter Solstice on 21st December, is also the start of the traditional winter beard growing season.
A beard started on the Winter Solstice is traditionally left untrimmed until Twelfth Night.
The Solstice is traditionally marked by Druids at Stonehenge, often with significant facial hair on display, at the first sunrise of the Solstice, which is on 21st December
The day is traditionally one of celebration for beard wearers who take the chance to toast their hirsuteness with an appropriate beverage.
BLF organiser Keith Flett said, December 21st marks the start of the beard growing season. The reality is that at this time of year it is simply too dark in the morning to shave
