Kmflett's Blog

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

Beard Liberation Front

21st December

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

Beard Liberation Front

20th December

The following from Private Eye may solve Xmas present issues for the hirsute people in your life.

While the Beard Liberation Front does not recommend the use of beard oil, preferring imperial stout, there is no question that a personalised beard oil tag will appeal to some.

Cheese Football Defence League

20^th December

Concerns over availability & cost of 2025 Cheese Footballs

The Cheese Football Defence League exists to monitor the moral economy of KP Cheese Footballs.

They are once again available in some shops in the run-up to Christmas after a prolonged absence. There availability appears to be limited with Iceland perhaps the most reliable retailer

Cheese Footballs consist of a football shaped wafer filled with a soft cheese like substance. They are sometimes held to be a near equivalent to marmite in that some find them very moreish while others cannot abide them at all.

Concerns were raised as far back as 2018 that the box or ‘caddy’ that the cheese footballs comes was shown to have a weight of 142g whereas previously it was 150g. However the 2025 version has retained a 142g weight.

The key concern in 2025 is that along with many other food items the price has been considerably enhanced. Iceland has been at the lower end of pricing for cheese footballs but in 2025 is selling them for £2.75 whereas a price of around £2 was far from unusual in quite recent years.

Cheese Football Defence League Convenor Keith Flett, we have quality tested the 2025 iteration of cheese footballs in a traditional setting- the Cock Tavern in Hackney- and found no issues. The price hike is however concerning

Cheese Football Defence League: Where We Stand.

1] No further reductions in box size.

2] The size of cheese footballs to be maintained as is.

3] Cheese footballs to be made available throughout the year without further price hikes.

The Flying Pickets were actors coming from John McGrath’s 7:84 company (7% of the population earn 84% of the wealth) but also political activists who had been active in the 1972 and 1974 miners strikes. The flying picket, outlawed by Thatcher, was an age old industrial tactic of moving from workplace to another to shut it down and bring the workers out on strike.

While the NME interview brands the song as a novelty hit it was just three months until the 1984/5 miners strike where the flying picket- Orgreave-played a central role.

Only You was top of the singles charts throughout December 1983

The Top of the Pops performance is here

The lead vocal is from the sadly late Brian Hibbard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Hibbard

CAMPAIGN FOR REAL SANTAS

Organised by the Beard Liberation Front

20^th December

Contact Keith Flett @keithbeard.bksy.social

Campaign for Real Santas says banning fake Santa beards is authoritarian overreach

The Campaign for Real Santas, which promotes Santas with genuine organic beards, has said its 2025 initiative to promote real Santas with genuine beards by warning people to be aware of absurd false bearded Santas is in its busiest and final pre-Christmas weekend.

2025 has seen some controversy over Santas with fake beards. There have been instances of police arresting Santas with fake beards even though this is not an offence. There have also been reports of stewards at a Northampton v AFC Wimbledon game on 19^th December ordering Santas with fake beards to remove them.

The Campaigners say that with unemployment and under-employment amongst mature men over 50, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to use an assistant Santa who does not have a real beard.

At the same time the Campaign is also keen to encourage more female Santas with organic knitted beards.

Campaigners are urging parents and children to demand that Santas vigorously tug their beards as a definitive test as to whether they are in the presence of a real Santa or not.

CFRS organiser Keith Flett said, our task of exposing false bearded Santas is more important than ever. However campaigning for Santas with real beards does not mean we support the arrest of Santas with fake beards or demands that they be forcibly removed. That is an authoritarian over reach. Confiscating false beards may be understandable depending on the specific context however but we would this would be an exceptional occurrence.

THREE STEPS TO SPOT A GENUINE SANTA

1 Ask the Santa to tug their beard. If it comes away, then the Santa is FAKE

2 If the beard remains intact ask the Santa to tug their beard again. If the Santa swears then they are genuine. If they simply repeat a ‘ho ho ho’ mantra they are FAKE

3 The Campaign for Real Santas says that genuine Santas must have just the right mix of bonhomie and grumpiness and a real organic beard.

Notes

The Organic Santa of 2025 vote concluded on 18^th December with Michael Rosen and Zack Polanski sharing the annual accolade

The Campaign for Real Santas is organised by the Beard Liberation Front

Megan Davies 1958-2025. Guardian Obituary & details of London celebration 18^th January 2026

Guardian Obituary 18^th December 2025

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/18/megan-davies-obituary?CMP=share_btn_url

Earlier Guardian letter

While I agree that there is much to be done to improve end-of-life care (Editorial, 29 October; Letters, 2 November), in Megan’s case, she was able to stay at home and enjoy many of the things she liked until a final two-day stay in hospital, where she also received good care.

This was achieved by a combination of support from family, friends and her local GP, together with targeted assistance from hospice-based palliative care nurses.

It was not, of course, perfect and sometimes required chasing up treatment and medication, but that web of care seems to me an important matter, if, of course, it can be achieved with a stretched NHS and still austere Britain.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London (letter in the Guardian)

Donations in Megan’s memory may be made to Medical Aid for Palestinians online. Thanks to those who have donated including from the Pop and Hops Pub Quiz on 18^th December https://www.map.org.uk/?form=FUNFXHDCJPK

A recording of the funeral service is below, available until 2^nd January 2026.

Streaming details for the service of Megan Davies (No name on screen) at 14:00 (GMT) on Friday 5th December, at Thornhill – Briwnant Chapel, run by Ivor Thomas Funerals Ltd. are as below.

Watching Live & On Demand

Website

https://watch.obitus.com

Username

zalo2103

Password

906615

A London celebration of Megan’s life will take place at the Cock Tavern, 315 Mare St, London E8 1EJ. The Cock is very close to the Hackney Empire and Hackney Town Hall. Hackney Central BR is 5 minutes walk. Numerous buses stop nearby including those that serve Central London such as the 38 and 253. However due to never ending road works in central Hackney a check on the precise stopping place is important. Further there is no car parking at all in the immediate area (many locals use Lime Bikes!)

Sunday 18^th January at 3pm. All welcome. The Cock does not sell food but you can bring your own and there is an M&S a short distance away. It has an extensive range of independent cask & craft keg beers and cider & perry. It was one of Megan’s favourite London pubs

More details to follow

Many thanks to Megan’s sister Bronwen Davies for invaluable assistance and help

I’ve long argued that More in Common (and there are others) is a polling organisation that promotes not psephology but what the late socialist historian E P Thompson called Ephology. That is it seeks to mould opinion rather than report it.

This poll is in one sense a bit of seasonal fun but is it really the case that people who played a sheep or donkey in their school nativity play are more likely to vote Reform? I doubt it. In fact it just reflects a condescending attitude to ordinary people’s voting preferences.

I think those voting Reform are wrong, badly so, but the hardcore aside, they won’t be won by ridicule but by discussion, argument and practical examples of what Reform’s politics actually mean.

Plum Pudding & Holly. Seasonal labour in the Victorian festive season

The Plum Pudding was a staple of the Victorian Christmas, even for the poor. Henry Mayhew described how much seasonal employment the pudding and decorating them with holly provided.

It’s a reminder of how much the seasonal trade in December was relied on by those who knew that the months of January and February would be tough.

Victorian capitalism and capitalism in 2025 both rely on a casualised labour market. We still eat lots of plum pudding too- it’s another name for the Christmas pudding, and signified simply that dried fruit was involved. On the market for holly I’m less sure

“Well, then, consider,” said another informant, “the plum-puddings! Why, at least there’s a hundred thousand of ’em eaten, in London, through Christmas and the month following. That’s nearly one pudding to every twenty of the population, is it, sir? Well, perhaps, that’s too much. But, then, there’s the great numbers eaten at public dinners and suppers; and there’s more plum-pudding clubs at the small grocers and public-houses than there used to be, so, say full a hundred thousand, flinging in any mince-pies that may be decorated with evergreens. Well, sir, every plum-pudding will have a sprig of holly in him. If it’s bought just for the occasion, it may cost 1d., to be really prime and nicely berried. If it’s part of a lot, why it won’t cost a halfpenny, so reckon it all at a halfpenny. What does that come to? Above 200l. Think of that, then, just for sprigging puddings!”

Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor

Beard Liberation Front

23rd December

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

Traitors stars make Beard of the Year Final vote

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has unveiled the final four contenders for the Beard of the Year 2025.

12 names were reduced to 8 through three preliminary rounds of on-line polling. Final voting rounds reduced this to four and the Beard Off Final vote takes place between 22-24 December with the Beard of the Year announced on 28^th December

The campaigners underline that the shortlist is not about beard styles or beard lengths but rather the positive impact the beard wearer has had in the public eye during the year.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as ever we expect Beard of the Year 2025 to end up being a close shave.

Beard of the Year 2025 Contenders and Finalists

Joe Wilkinson, Comedian, Faithful Beard Off Final

Joe Marler, Rugby player, Faithful Beard Off Final

Michael Rosen, author & broadcaster Beard Off Final

Alexei Sayle, comedian Shaved

Gary Lineker, Woke Icon Shaved

Zohran Mamdani, New York Mayor Beard Off Final

Zack Polanski, Green Party leader Shaved

David Olusoga, Historian, Faithful Shaved