Kmflett's Blog

Whatever happened to the Tory Party? The Times calls out Liz Truss’s Irish Whiskey promotion

I posted on BlueSky on 2^nd June that I’d passed over further comment on a story about Liz Truss on the grounds that it suggested she needed help rather than further ridicule.

However the matter has escalated to a Times Editorial (3^rd June) which suggests further issues.

The Times has an issue about how former PM’s pursue their post No.10 careers. It cites the case of Alec Douglas Home who was Tory PM for a bit over a year before losing the 1964 Election to Harold Wilson. After leaving office he spent his time salmon fishing.

Of course the post No.10 careers of more recent PMs have had their controversial moments, one thinks of Cameron and Blair.

The Times concern however is Liz Truss’s involvement with the launch, last month, of a brand of Irish Whiskey. The launch took place in Scunthorpe, and featured Dougie Joyce who had been jailed for 19 months for beating up a 78 year old man. Truss commented that supporting the rehabilitation of offenders was important. No doubt but perhaps not by recent former PMs.

The Times concerns appear under stated. The Editorial suggests that a period of silence from Truss would be welcome. And very unlikely to happen. It might have asked what kind of state the Tory Party is in if  a recent ex-leader and PM can behave in public as Truss does, not just the whiskey but the conspiracy theories. It might also have asked why Kemi Badenoch has not expelled Truss if she is still a Tory member

On Tuesday June 11th 2024 the Tories launched their General Election Manifesto in Towcester. Tory Chief Simon (now Lord)Hart covers the moment in his political memoir Ungovernable (2025).

He notes:

‘Right wing’ Tories (who the press unsurprisingly name as Braverman and Jenrick) are threatening to publish a ‘rebel manifesto’ if ours doesn’t meet their requirements. This is another example of wilful mischief, the fall out from which is a public reminder we cannot agree with each other on anything. Seasoned campaigners know manifestoes make no polling difference but divisions do.

The mostly right-wing media historically and in the present focus on splits on the left of politics. Hart’s point above is that Jenrick at a key moment of an Election was not someone who sought unity but was a splitter.

Make GB Great Again. About as effective a slogan as Lee Anderson is an MP.

As a former Labour member he might recall Harold Wilson’s I’m Backing Britain campaign, often with the addition of ‘over a cliff’

Thanks to Mike Wohl who alerted me to the fashionista hat

Vote Leave Aaron Banks a key figure in Reform’s UK DOGE

Zia Yusuf unelected ‘Chair’ of Reform UK has claimed a team of ‘software engineers, data analysts & forensic auditors'(mostly blokes Farage met down the pub no doubt)are a UK DOGE & will investigate the Reform ‘led’ Kent Council. Local media(if it exists) will need to keep an eye on what many might regard as political chancers & crooks are up to.

Vote Leave figurehead Aaron Banks is the totemic person in the Reform DOGE. Readers of this post who are interested will already be aware of Mr Banks track record and reputation.

Actually heading up the team is Nathanial Fried, described as a crypto-populist.

Nathanial Fried and the Crypto Populist Pivot: Reform UK’s New Face of Disruption

What exactly Mr Fried’s reported specialisms can do about the financial and service challenges that local councils including Kent face is something of a mystery. More certain is that based on Elon Musk’s DOGE, Mr Fried has just comprehensively torched any future business activity he might have been planning.

Meanwhile Farage and Reform, who most recently were claiming to be worker friendly have been issuing threats to Kent Council staff that if they do not comply with Reform’s diktats they will be deemed to have committed gross misconduct. They no doubt will be consulting their union on that

Keir Starmer was an active socialist when E P Thompson spoke the words below from the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury. Thompson a key figure in CND wanted an end to nuclear weapons but he was not a pacifist. He has been a tank commander in World War Two and sometimes wrote of some form of European federal defence force (not NATO of course)

Starmer’s was part of the Editorial Board of Socialist Alternatives which had broadly that perspective.

A generation (or perhaps two depending how you count) has passed and Starmer is promoting a military focused future for Britain. As E P Thompson knew that is a central part of British history. He hoped for a different future…

Likening the crowd to a medieval army “with its tents, all over the fields” he argued “this has not only been a nation of money-makers and imperialists, it has been a nation of inventors, of writers of activists, artists, theatres and musicians. Looking directly at the assembled crowds he told them “it is this alternative nation which I can see in front of me now.”

E P Thompson, Glastonbury, 23^rd June 1984

a battle-ready, armour-clad nation

Keir Starmer, Govan, Glasgow, June 2^nd 2025

The above image was posted on social media by long time Arsenal fan Michael Rosen. To be absolutely clear he is not responsible for the graffiti. Myself as a long time Spurs fan and Michael have long campaigned for a North London Super League where the key feature of the football season is Arsenal v Spurs games.

Liz Truss has been running down Britain again, this time in Hungary at a hard right political conference.

Kemi Badenoch does not seem to have expelled Truss from the Tory Party but traditionally Tories claimed to be patriotic and stand up for the UK. This is not the page Truss is currently on. The left of course, internationalists, have a different perspective based on class more than nation

Truss according to her own X account said:

British institutions have been captured by leftist ideology. They hate Western civilisation. They hate the family, they hate the nation, they hate free speech. … Underneath all this is a very powerful network, a globalist network, who are very well funded and well organised, and are pursuing their own ideology.

She does not say who is running the ‘globalist network’ but the far right have traditionally had a clear view on this

1st June

contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has expressed concern about an article which demeans the BLF in the Sunday Express, 1st Jun 2025.

The main thrust of the article is the BLF’s concern about the wearing of false beards in early Harry Potter movies

The article claims the BLF is ‘bizarrely named’ but the films the article writes about were made over 20 years ago.

The article concludes by attacking the beard of BLF Organiser Keith Flett

Meanwhile, Keith’s own bushy Karl Marx style beard has been taunted publicly and even called a “garden gnome affair” by the Evening Standard.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, its an odd story even by the standards of the Express. The underlying issue seems to be around JK Rowling and transphobia. For the record since one of the BLF’s founding principles is that people should be able to dress and appear as they want we are of course fully in support of Trans Rights.

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/2062330/Harry-Potter-Robbie-Coltrane-boycott-decision

Ambridge Socialist

June 1^st

Helen and Dane: Panto season returns

The official Ambridge Panto was in January but late May has seen a reprise. Helen met Grey Gables manager Dane via the dating app and had a meal with him at the hotel. Cue, Ian, Adam, Lily etc….

The charging station, the village shop & Underwoods Local

The units at the charging station have eventually opened. The Grab & Go coffee place is clearly no threat to the tearooms. However a new Underwoods Local (staffed obviously by Clarrie Grundy) may cause issues for the village shop. Its seasonal offers undercut the prices the shop can charge.

According to the Professor the shop faces an existential crisis, although how many Sartre devotees listen to the Archers is unclear

Cue a three page paper based village shop customer survey the main conclusion to which seems to be that service is a bit grumpy, and why not? The Ambridge Socialist suggests that a new sign is erected: Ambridge Village Shop: Local People Only

Alice & Martha

Martha is due to start school but Alice and Chris have been called in to the nursery to discuss the view that Martha sometimes lack attention and focus. Alice seems to think this is due to her drinking while pregnant. To the Ambridge Socialist it sounds a bit like biological determinism but we are not doing our own research on it

The Archers in 1950

75 years ago this week 5 pilot episodes of the Archers were broadcast on BBC Midlands. No recordings are extant but the transcripts are. Discussion on R4 Today from around 2:54. Mention of Peggy whose Will is being discussed this week 75 years on www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/…

DO NOT attempt to listen to any of the rest of the programme

Ambridge T20

This took place on Bank Holiday Monday and Bazball was mentioned…

Farage likes Truss because she is a political disrupter. He also liked Musk for the same reason.

The words of F Scott Fitzgerald in the Great Gatsby cover it

They were careless people — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

10 times Nigel Farage praised Liz Truss

1. “Today was the best Conservative budget since 1986” – X, 23 September 2022.
2. “This is the Great British growth rally, starring Liz Truss … there is a genuine buzz here … even more importantly, it’s the message. It’s about helping small business, reducing taxes, and actually getting growth … I’ve got to tell you, this is more exciting than anything happening in the conference hall – Youtube, 2 October 2023.
3. “I absolutely, 100 per cent believe in her’, said Nigel Farage, speaking about Liz Truss at Tory Party Conference in 2023 – Telegraph, 2 October 2023.
4. “In rhetorical terms, I loved it…it was all there…if this was the first, not the thirteenth year of Conservative government, I would have given it three cheers”, Farage wrote about one of Liz Truss’ speeches as Prime Minister – Telegraph, 5 October 2022.
5. Mr Farage said, of Truss’s mini-budget, “Kwarteng was right to cut taxes. Of course, he was right. Right to set up investments zones…and yes, taking a risk – increasing borrowing to do it.” – Express, 29 September 2022.
6. “Thank goodness Liz Truss now backs onshore gas exploration. She is miles better than Johnson already” – X, 8 April 2022.
7. “Interesting Daily Mail campaign on VAT-free shopping for tourists. Kwasi wanted to do that. He and Truss did have some good ideas” – X, 24 April 2023.
8. “Farage said there was much to ‘admire’ about how Truss was not afraid to ‘fight for radical change’ … I think this woman has shown – in some areas – she is prepared to show up, take the abuse and fight for radical change and that I do admire.” – HuffPost, 2 October 2023.
9. “Truss may well have been a late convert to all of this but hey that’s what she stood up and said so I welcomed much of the budget.” – YouTube, 8 February 2023.
10. Failed to include Liz Truss in a list of Tory leaders who “broke Britain’, suggesting he backs her disastrous policy platform – HuffPost, 13 May 2025.

Source, Mirror, 31st May 2025