Kmflett's Blog

That this House extends its warmest congratulations to Arsenal Football Club for winning the Premier League after 22 years; celebrates the incredible contribution made by every player in the team; commends the captaincy and leadership of Martin Ødegaard; further celebrates Max Dowman as the youngest person ever to win the Premier League; recognises the work that goes on behind the scenes by cleaning staff, coaches, caterers, kit managers – both present and former – and all those who made this possible; applauds the support of Arsenal fans across the city and country; thanks the work of Arsenal In the Community in delivering social and education programmes to young people; wishes the team success in the Champions League final; further congratulates Arsenal Women’s Football Club for their historic victory in this year’s FIFA Women’s Champions Cup; and acknowledges what an unbelievable achievement this is for everyone involved at Arsenal Football Club.

Arsenal Football Club, Premier League champions – Early Day Motions – UK Parliament

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that for only the third time in its history it is permitting supporters to temporarily shave their beards due to hot weather in parts of the UK which is forecast to continue for at least the next week.

The campaigners say that there is a precedent in beard history for the move. When Marx travelled to Algeria in 1882 just before the end of his life he found conditions so hot that he shaved his iconic beard.

However the advice is a guideline only and the BLF says that some may simply wish to trim their beards a little as this can protect against the sun and have a general cooling influence

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the problem is that in the kind of hot weather that is forecast the strength of the sun can damage the follicles and cause serious harm to the beard. By trimming the area of follicles exposed to the sun this can be reduced.

He continued, alternatively as an exceptional measure we are permitting shaving of the beard this week. It is really up to individuals whether they follow the example of Karl Marx

Farage & the British tradition of heckling

Rachel Reeves was heckled by a Reform supporter in Leeds on 20^th May. There are ample reasons for criticising the Chancellor but the male Reform supporter seemed more interested in shouting profanities at Ms Reeves. That is not heckling. Its abuse.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Farage then tweeted that he’d like to buy the abusive Reform supporter a pint while Zia Yusuf promised him a Peerage. We probably should not read too much into this because these tweets are not done by the individuals but by an intern at Reform HQ on Millbank.

Farage however has a record on heckling.

He was speaking at a Reform meeting on Doncaster on 26^th March 2025 when he was interrupted by hecklers from Stand Up To Racism. Farage claims to stand up for British traditions one of which is certainly heckling. However instead of an effective riposte Farage merely mouthed abuse calling one heckler a ‘loser’ which is Trump-speak and called security

It reflects the reality that while there are still very good public speakers out there, very few are to be found in Parliament, where MPs have mostly given up on the idea of engagement with a mixed audience.

Arguably the tradition survives virtually with the social media riposte.

One master of how to deal with the political heckler was Harold Wilson. Addressing a crowd in Birmingham in 1966 Wilson was talking about his public expenditure plans when a heckler cried, “What about Vietnam?” – the burning issue of the day. “The government has no plans to increase public expenditure in Vietnam,” rejoined Wilson. Heckler: “Rubbish!” Wilson: “I’ll come to your special interest in a minute, sir.”

The key to it is both an immediate response, but also a witty one that demeans the heckler and gets the audience on the side of the platform speaker.

I’m no great fan of Wilson, but in a democracy, both heckling and responses to it have a role to play that doesn’t involve calling security.

Allister Heath is the Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, given to dramatic right-wing headlines. Andy Burnham is just made for Heath’s world view.

The New World who created this random headline generator is a centrist comment site, underlining perhaps that not quite everything centrists do is dreadful…

The graphic was posted on Twitter by @diamondgeezer

After May Elections, the Greening of North-East London (Hackney, Haringey, Waltham Forest)

With the election of the Green Party’s Mark Blake as Leader of Haringey Council on 20^th May the Greening of North-East London Councils is complete.

The Greens have majority control in Hackney and Waltham Forest, but in Haringey they will form a minority administration with 27 seats to Labour’s 20 and the LibDems 8. There are two By-Elections pending which are likely to be tight contests between the Greens and Labour, although a Haringey Socialist Alliance candidate Alison Davy took almost 30% of the vote in Northumberland Park (North Tottenham) on May 7^th.

Those with long memories may recall the days when the link was between leftish Labour Councils in Camden, Haringey and Islington.

An interesting point about the Haringey results is that the Greens did well in the working class Wards in Tottenham but less well in the relatively more prosperous areas in Hornsey and Muswell Hill where Labour and the LibDems prevailed.

People are looking for political change and in North-East London they are looking to the left rather than to Reform which polled badly across the three Councils. Whether that will be enough given the financial constraints Councils have remains to be seen, but as ever campaigning pressure from outside the Council Chamber will be key.

Jonathan Gullis was defeated as a Tory MP for Stoke on Trent at the 2024 General Election. He then spent some time complaining that he could not get a job, perhaps because a reputation for yobbish behaviour counted against him.

Now however he has returned. He switched parties to Reform and on 20th May was elected leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Council which Reform gained from the Tories in the May Council Elections.

The salary for the role is just short of £120K

New Reform UK council leader Jonathan Gullis promises to be ‘bold and radical’ – Yahoo News UK

Since questions about what exactly a £5million payment from a Thai based Crypto billionaire was meant to be for were raised Farage has not been much in evidence.

He resurfaced in Makerfield on 20th May to support the Reform candidate in the forthcoming By-Election. In true Reform vetting style the candidate has wiped his Facebook and Twitter accounts and his new X account is based in the US.

There are three places where Farage will not be found this week. Clacton, obviously. Also his actual place of work Parliament since awkward questions about the £5m might be asked and finally the Chelsea Flower Show.

In some ways this may seem odd. In 2026 Chelsea is the place for enlightened flower and garden displays. It is also a place for networking with the wealthy-something Farage is particularly interested. As usual the King and Queen showed up and spent time touring the displays, including a King Charles gnome.

A further reason why Farage swerves Chelsea is that its Woke. The above picture from one of the show gardens show a working from home desk, designed for those work meetings amongst the flowers. Not really Farage

Michael Rosen who was voted Beard of the Year 2025 last December is also a well known poet and broadcaster. Along with that he is a long time supporter of Arsenal.

Arsenal were declared Premiership Champions on 19th May 2026 and to mark the occasion Michael Rosen posted on social media that he had been playing in his usual position of left back in the dressing room.

The Beard Liberation Front has said that while Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta was the Stubble Supremo in the technical area, there is no question that Michael Rosen’s follicle dialectics contributed to the on field ambience that saw Arsenal over the line.

I’m a lifelong Spurs fan and live a few minutes from the ground in central Tottenham.

While Arsenal won the Premiership on Tuesday, Spurs need a point from their last game against Everton on Sunday to be sure of staying in it.

The only surprise is that it took so long to get there. They almost did it last year but winning the Europa League compensated (and typically for Spurs got Ange Postecoglou the sack to be replaced by Thomas Frank, who frankly was not up to navigating life at Spurs).

The FT takes a rather different perspective (19th May 2026). Noting that the new Stadium has brought in revenue from concerts and NFL games, it points to the reality that while Spurs are the ninth richest club in the world, they have been in debt for the last five years. Being in debt costs money and if Spurs do end up in the Championship they will lose around £270m in revenue, mainly from TV rights.

Any way COYS as ever…