Kmflett's Blog

The Ambridge Socialist

30^th November

The Business of Beavers

The Beavers have been unleashed and according to the BBC it’s the first time they have been resident in the Am since the seventeenth century (when the Archer Dynasty survived Cromwell). To the dismay of Kirsty, Justin who has provided the capital for the project, is not interested in beavers. He is however interested in the business of beavers and rewilding and is thinking of a second project

George: there will be trouble ahead

The Archers has long looked down on the proletarian end of Ambridge from the Grundys to the Horrabins. George is fed up, to the extent of pushing Ed down the stairs, of being wrongly accused of stealing some funds Eddie had collected for turkey sales. George is also fed up with Amber because she thought he might have done it. In short George perhaps unsurprisingly is pissed off.

Listeners to the BBC account may have seen a connection between the attempt to cover up George’s actual role in the Am car crash and the aim now of trying to make sure that news of him being violent to Ed does not gain wider currency.

There will be trouble ahead and for those interested the Archers plot synopses to early January provide an indication of a perhaps less than happy new year.

In Other News

Tractors

There will apparently be a tractor parade through the village at Christmas. Not perhaps very exciting radio or indeed exciting full stop but we shall see

Leonard

To the relief of some Ambridge Socialist readers Leonard does not have an open relationship with Jill he is simply doing some decorating

Norwich 29th November

The Campaign for Real Santas has condemned the arrest of a Santa in Norwich on Saturday 29th November. The Santa was apparently offering solidarity with protests about continuing events in Palestine.

The irony given the Biblical story was no doubt lost on the police officers

Campaign for Real Santas organiser Keith Flett said, the arrested Santa appears to be wearing a fake beard which we do not of course support. However it seems very unlikely that police officers would bother with a distinction between genuine and fake beards when it comes to arresting Santas

Its a story that won’t go away, that related to Farage at Dulwich College, racism, anti-Semitism and bullying. This appeared in The Times on 29th November

photo @gdpreston.bsky.social

The Pig’s Ear is often the last CAMRA beer festival of the year but not in 2025. The Cambridge Winter Beer Festival is back at the Corn Exchange a week later

Even so the Round Chapel is an impressive place for a beer festival

https://www.roundchapel.org/about

Full details of the Pigs Ear Beer Festival including the beer list are here

http://www.pigsear.org.uk/pigs%20ear%20festival.htm

Heard on the news that John Major has won the leadership of the Tory Party with 185 votes against 56 for Hurd and 131 for Heseltine; as he was only two votes short of an overall majority Hurd and Heseltine had immediately withdrawn. So he becomes the youngest Prime Minister this century. A competent person from a simple background, like the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. He is a new type of Thatcherite really; not strident, probably slightly less ideological, more sympathetic to Europe, a hard man in terms of financial policy, but confident.

Tony Benn, Diary 27th November 1990.

Steve Bell had a different view and its his images in the Guardian that defined the Major era, particularly the underpants

Workers at the Guinness brewery in Belfast, members of Unite the Union, are set to take strike action from December 5th to December 13th. They are seeking pay parity with workers at a factory in Runcorn which is also owned by Diageo who also own Guinness.

The Belfast brewery is the major producer of Guinness Zero, the UK’s biggest selling alcohol free brand, and the strike if not resolved will lead to Christmas shortages

The industrial action is a reminder that despite the reality that big drinks companies like Diageo have a questionable public image as global operators their sheer scale means that they often have little choice but recognise trade unions

https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2025/november/christmas-guinness-drought-as-workers-announce-eight-days-of-pay-strikes

As the BBC flounders in the backlash of the hamfisted edit of Donald Trump’s January 6 speech (Reith lecturer accuses BBC of cowardice for censoring his remarks on Trump, 25 November) we have lost sight of the fact that Auntie Beeb has long been tethered by a political leash. I’m sure examples abound. My blinkers were removed when my father, EP Thompson, was asked to give the Dimbleby lecture in the mid-1980s. I well remember Jonathan Dimbleby and Bel Mooney discussing the project over lunch at my parents’ house outside Worcester.

Edward was disappointed, though hardly surprised, when the lectures were vetoed by the BBC’s top brass. It’s a shame. He was an inspired wordsmith. Not for the first or last time, nation was prevented from speaking peace to nation.
Mark Thompson
London

Australia have announced an unchanged team for the second Ashes Test, a day/night game. That means no Cummins or Hazelwood. However the Test doesn’t start until next Friday so this may be a PR exercise.

The first Test lasted just two days but as the graphic above shows Tests in Australia have been getting shorter with batters scoring less runs.

Several factors seem to be involved. Firstly a reworked Kookaburra ball which helps bowlers for longer into an innings. Secondly pitches are being prepared to avoid a draw game. There have been very few drawn Tests in Australia in recent years and of course the draw is anathema to Bazball, England would rather end in glorious defeat.

A factor less mentioned is the impact of short form critic. Without wishing to reinvent Geoffrey Boycott for the 2020s are there batters who are mentally prepared to bat all day without scoring a triple hundred?

BBC Cricket’s view is here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cz7nq3e9ygno