Donald Trump is in Scotland visiting his Aberdeenshire & South Ayrshire golf courses. Its a private trip paid for of course by the US public. He has been sounding off about windmills his latest obsession and has been caught on video cheating while ‘playing’ golf.
All very much as usual for Trump then.
The FT (26th July) revealed the details of Trump’s acquisition of Turnberry. The art of the deal it was not. In effect the Dubai state had acquired the golf course in 2008 but following the financial crash decided it would need to sell it.
Trump paid $60m for it in 2014. The FT reports that Dubai state employees dealing with the sale valued the course at $20m and thought Trump would try to pitch for a sale price of $40m rather than $60m. However Trump was told that Dubai’s Emirate had approved a $60m sale price that could not be changed. Trump paid off, keen to have the golfing trophy of Turnberry. Whose money exactly was involved is not clear but the FT mentions sports agent Chubby Chandler as an in between figure.
Her name is Daniela Kuruczová. She is a Roma rights activist and brilliant Antifascist. She was a speaker at #Epping and absolutely fearless in the face of the far right. Louise Raw on FB
I wasn’t able to be there but an impressive and well organised protest by Stand Up To Racism and trade unions easily outnumbered a fascist mobilisation in Epping on 27th July. The boiling point narrative of GB News, Farage, Matthew Goodwin the Telegraph and others was at least dented. The fascist Homeland Party which has been behind anti-immigrant activity in Epping had a bad day
Historic drawn Test Match as India deploy anti-Bazball
In 2024 across the world of Test cricket there were only two drawn games. I’m not sure what the running total for 2025 is but England’s draw with India at Old Trafford on 27th July was only the second in the Ben Stokes era dating back to 2022. The only other one was also at Old Trafford but that was due to bad weather.
The draw saw some unattractive examples of imperial preference, the assumption being that India could not possibly bat five complete Test sessions and only lose two wickets. They did however and it was Test cricket at its best. It concluded with centuries for Jajeda and Washington and what media reports have described as chuntering from England.
Bazball after all doesn’t do draws and it can be understood why. Draws can be nothing games where both sides score big runs in the first innings and there is then not enough time left to get a result. It happens and it is still happening.
The England v India series is not like that. England are two one up in the series with the final match at the Oval from Thursday (the restricted time span of the five Test series due to the Hundred is an issue in itself). Both sides are closely matched.
England rely a lot on captain Ben Stokes who is likely in the final period of his career and Joe Root who appears able to go on at the highest level for quite a while.
Where Bazball goes next is an important question, as is how much of a force a young (in the main) Indian team can become in world cricket particularly away from home
England cricket captain Ben Stokes is one of the great cricketers of all time with the ball, the bat and as a captain. Without him currently England are a lesser side.
The 4th England v India Test at Old Trafford on 27th July ended in a draw the first 5 day draw of Ben Stokes Captaincy back to 2022. The final few overs when it was clear the only result could be a draw had some rancour. India declined an offer from Stokes to shake hands and end the game wanting Jajeda and Sundar to get their centuries, which they duly did.
The Telegraph report described it thus
England took the draw worse than a defeat, not covering themselves in glory as they reacted to centuries by Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar with churlish cynicism.
It went on to suggest that Stokes needed a dictionary to check the meaning of a ‘draw’.
Alastair Cook on Test Match Special thought India were right to bat on as more surprisingly did Geoffrey Boycott in the Telegraph.
It was a sort of ‘spirit of cricket’ issue which historically has meant whatever England thought was appropriate.
The Telegraph is a very class conscious paper however and there was another meaning. Namely that Ben Stokes in the pre-1963 Gentleman v Players era would have been a Player (that is a Professional). If a Gentleman was in charge the churlishness would not have happened.
The world however has moved on . Stokes’ attitude was part of Bazball an approach to cricket not dissimilar to management consultancy. Gentleman v Players is from a previous era even if the Telegraph still lives there
No Bank Holiday but does a Saint Monday (& Tuesday) beckon after England Women’s Victory in the Euro Final
Pub hours were extended until 1am on Sunday by the Home Secretary (who probably isn’t in Stoke Newington pub herself tonight) with the reasonable aim of allowing people to celebrate a win for England Women (‘girls’ Nigel Farage on X) in the Euros Final.
Of course there is a downside to that as racism and domestic violence are well known consequences of major England football games.
For the majority however the game will have been enjoyed perhaps particularly the penalty shootout.
There have been calls for a Bank Holiday which won’t happen. However Saint Monday seems likely.
Until the 1871 Bank Holidays Act there was a tradition known as Saint Monday
The daily routines of working life are well-known and they date back to the imposition of industrial disciplines on what had been previously an agricultural workforce during the nineteenth century.
Labour was required to work machines and if it wasn’t available money was being lost.
There was a battle over hours and time (there still is of course) and artisanal and craft working practices were only slowly given up.
EP Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class records employers complaints about the working practices of weavers. They did not work on Sundays, or Mondays (Saint Monday) or often on Tuesdays either. Towards the end of the week and on to Saturday they worked ferociously hard.
Saint Monday was a day of leisure to rest and to drink.
Thompson speculates in his essay Time Work Discipline that bursts of hard work followed by periods of idleness and drinking, while not what employers want, may well conform to a much more natural working pattern than the daily grind of economic reality most now experience.
So perhaps it’s just human for many to enjoy a football related beer on Sunday evening and mark Saint Monday as a result and possibly even Saint Tuesday too.
Harold Wilson’s 1966 record remains safe. England only win football finals under a Labour Government
The only time England have won the World Cup was in 1966 just months after Harold Wilson had led Labour to a 97 seat majority in the March Election of that year, Wilson noted:
Have you noticed how we only win the World Cup under a Labour government”
He may well have got the line from comedian Mike Yarwood
Wilson was also privately, and correctly, concerned about the impact England’s failure in the 1970 World Cup would have on Labour’s chances in the June General Election of that year. Labour lost.
Keir Starmer attended the Women’s Euro Final between England and Spain on 27th July and with England beating Spain on penalties Harold Wilson’s 1966 dictum remains in place. It may be the best proof after a year that Starmer can offer that he does head a Labour Government..
With the new political formation of Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn getting hundreds of thousands of sign ups and the Green Party electing a new leader, the electoral space to the left of Labour appears significant. In a first past the post electoral system the precise impact is difficult to fully understand. One point is that the long held Labour assumption that left voters have nowhere else to go no longer applies.
Of course this is about a lot more than electoral politics. If it turns out not to be the impact will be less than the potential at Westminster and beyond
Each summer the Ambridge Fete which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lynda Snell Ltd takes place on the village green. In 2025 the village green according to BBC reports is in a state of disrepair and Grey Gables has volunteered to host it instead. The hosting seems to extend to sponsorship and control with some concessions granted to Lynda Snell. There could be trouble ahead.
On Line Safety Act
The Act became law on 25th July and if you were wondering what the discussion between Pip and Stella about whether Rosie should be allowed to have a mobile phone and fool Rex was advocating, wonder no more. And by the way safeguarding is important as Stella at least has underlined.
Tracy’s 50th
Tracy partly boycotted her own 50th birthday party because Martyn Gibson was in attendance. Martyn later mislaid his trousers & it seems a good time was had by most. What substances may or may or have been involved is not known.
Chelsea & Amber
Amber has claimed that she can’t be in the same space as Chelsea because she bullied her at school. Relationships can be complex but the power of the collective can help to resolve individual disputes. In short ACAS
Security and The Bull
There continue to be security issues at The Bull caused officially by persons unknown. Perhaps time to employ a night watcher funded by a community subscription…
July 21st 1994. Blair elected Labour leader. Benn’s Diary reveals the Starmer template
Few readers of this blog will need reminding that when Keir Starmer was elected Labour leader in 2020 his platform was essentially Corbynism without Corbyn. Five years on not a trace is left.
A template can be found in Tony Blair’s election as Labour leader on 21st July 1994 and Tony Benn’s reaction as recorded in his Diary.
Benn writes of Blair’s speech:
It was really quite radical. He talked of ending quangos and ending hereditary peers, about right and wrong, and I think he drew on part on Caroline (Benn)’s Keir Hardie, which he had reviewed very sympathetically… I don’t know he’s going to do any of these things…but he did give people hope and vision.
Clement Attlee, pipe smoker. Elected Prime Minister 26th July 1945
Clement Attlee was elected Prime Minister 80 years ago. Part of his image was that of a pipe smoker, a reassuring small ‘c’ conservative image arguably.
I’m not sure how widespread pipe smoking was amongst radicals in the nineteenth century, men and women, and more research is needed.
In the twentieth century Raph Samuel noted in the Lost World of British Communism that Stalin who was a pipe smoker, or at least pictured with a pipe, inspired at least some Communists to smoke a pipe. My late father who was a CP member smoked a pipe throughout his life, the Balkan Sobranie tobacco as pungent as cannabis (although it didn’t smell the same). Samuel notes a war time verse written by Hamish Henderson: ‘Hitler’s a non-smoker/Churchill smokes a cigar/but Uncle Joe smokes a workman’s pipe/and he wears a taxi drivers hat.
Nick Thomas-Symonds in his recent biography writes that Wilson switched from cigarettes to a pipe not because of a love of Stalin but because the process of filling and lighting a pipe gave him more time to answer questions and make comments.
In the 1960s Wilson’s pipe smoking, along with his liking for HP Sauce was a symbol that he was a politician in touch with the ‘common man’. Thomas-Symonds recounts how Wilson argued that people who smoked pipes lived longer than those who smoked cigarettes.
However Thomas-Symonds touches on the issue around Wilson and pipe smoking that has caused comment over the years. The statue of Wilson outside Huddersfield station shows him without a pipe. Mary Wilson noted that Wilson’s hand was in his pocket reaching for his pipe. Thomas-Symonds suggests that in private when no journalists were present Wilson might more usually smoke a cigar, his preference. The pipe was important for his public image.
Certainly in the 1960s pipe smoking amongst men on the left was far from unknown, influenced by Stalin, Wilson or simply preference. Eric Hobsbawm is pictured smoking a pipe and Tony Benn was an inveterate pipe smoker.
Attlee then was in a tradition of left-wing pipe smokers, although in 2025 things have changed, rightly so.
