Kmflett's Blog

The English & Welsh Men’s cricket Test Season started on Thursday, once again on golf

The English and Welsh Men’s Test cricket season started on Thursday with a one-off Test against Zimbabwe. Sky have been labelling them as ‘unpredictable’ a label which could well apply to England too.

With the US PGA Major golf concluding on Sunday 18^th May we can be sure that one group of people who were watching was the England’s Men’s Cricket Team.

Golf has become an issue for the team since Kevin Pietersen complained the team spent more time perfecting their golf game than training for cricket.

Simon Wilde (Sunday Times 18^th May) has reported that England cricket boss Rob Key has banned players from talking about golf but not playing it. Wilde found that most Men’s teams around the globe were keen on golf and also that golfing has been a cricketing pastime for a very long time- Bradman was a keen player.

The reasons are a little more intangible. Wilde suggests that the length of a game of golf can replicate being in the field in a cricket match, and that it allows players time to reflect.

He also notes that as recently as 20 years ago players were banned from taking their golf clubs on tour- not that this stopped them obviously.

The last word should surely go to England bowler Mark Wood who recently complained about the golf culture and said he had no interest in golf. Wood comes from Northumberland and golf in England is a middle class not a working class game in the main. Eric Hobsbawm charted the development of golf courses from the 1880s as a specifically class phenomenon. That said 150 years on golf may have a wider appeal…

One thing Wilde doesn’t say is that the preponderance of public schoolboys in the England team (albeit sometimes because they can be one of the few places that a teenage player can develop their game) may be linked to the golf

The Sunday Times Rich List 2020-2025. The fortunes of Brewdog  founders Dickie & Watt & Wetherspoons Tim Martin

The media is very bad at history so while the Sunday Times 2025 rich list looks back to 2024 further historical comparison is absent.

I’ve had a look at 2020, just as the pandemic hit

Brewdog’s Martin Dickie was worth £228m and was 537th and James Watt by contrast had £262m and was at 495th on the list.

The Times list in 2020 was more extensive and is now capped at the top 350. Neither Dickie or Watt would have made the 2025 list based on their 2020 performance.

In 2025 James Watt with partner Georgina Toffolo has re-entered the list at 304 with an estimated wealth of £425m

Martin Dickie is a new entry at 317 with an estimated wealth of £398m

The last 5 years have clearly been very good financially for both Dickie and Watt although perhaps less so for Brewdog itself. As neither is now directly associated with the brewery & pub co, its worth remembering that both have done well financially in the past.

Meanwhile in 2020 Tim Martin of Spoons was at 416 on the list down from 310th and is worth £311m which is £126m down from 2019 which itself was £11m down on 2018.  In 2025 he doesn’t feature in the top 350. Whether this is an accurate reflection of his current wealth only he will know but he is probably quite relieved not to feature on a list with Dickie and Watt

The methodology behind the annual Sunday Times Rich List can be questioned, but at least there is one. Obviously the Murdoch owned paper has various lines it wants to spin out of the list none of which include the point that taxing the rich is a good thing.

The list is now confined to 350 people (the last 50 are on-line only). When it was longer (from memory) James Watt former CEO of Brewdog made an appearance in the lower echelons but co-founder Martin Dickie did not.

In 2025 both appear

James Watt with partner Georgina Toffolo has re-entered the list at 304 with an estimated wealth of £425m

Martin Dickie is a new entry at 317 with an estimated wealth of £398m

Clearly Punk is profitable for some

The Rich List magazine also carries an interview with Toffolo and Watt but I suspect those that have interest in Brewdog have already heard quite enough…

The Ambridge Socialist: £278.94 *each*?. The ruling class at war as the search for Peggy’s Magic Money Tree continues

Peggy’s Will

There has been much to discuss on the Archers social media chat sites. How much wealth Peggy had to leave is unknown. But she did give £500,000 to the ReWilding project, sold her home (probably) but had to pay the cost of social care at the Laurels (substantial).

As Peggy would have wanted, her Will has led to war amongst the Ambridge ruling class. Details are being drip fed. Brian is apparently looking for ideas for an art work Peggy has sponsored (how about a statue of Joe Grundy on the Village Green?) and Lilian has details of a foreign jaunt for all the Archers next year, which sounds like an Ambridge version of the Traitors. Meanwhile there are suspicions that someone may have received more than £278.94

One possibility is the mysterious ‘vicar’ Crispin who Peggy has named as the person who should officiate at her future. A reminder perhaps that Peggy was a right-wing bigot who disliked the liberalish Alan Franks

The Ambridge Socialist calls for early release from prison for George Grundy

At a meeting of the Editorial Board of the Ambridge Socialist in Hackney on 16^th May it was agreed that given the crisis in prison spaces, the demand should be raised for Georg Grundy to be released. He was not convicted of a violent crime and is arguably as much of a danger to himself as to others

Blessed are the peacemakers

Alan has been rehearsing his Sunday sermon on the subject of blessed are the peacekeepers. Whether the ruling class of Ambridge will listen is another matter.

Farm Sunday

David wants to ban Farm Sunday at Brookfield because he says vegans are out to get him. This seems a little unlikely and as much to the point its continuing BBC demonisation of those campaigning on meat and climate.

Cricket crisis

After Lynda took the high moral ground over Vince covering Rex’s lost earnings so he could play in the cricket team (as the star player) he has withdrawn. A crisis of principle and pragmatism for Lynda may follow…

The Things They Say ‘We all love a rebel’ Brian Aldridge

Beard Liberation Front

18th May

The above was published by Guinness 25 years ago and is still around.

Its not clear who the ‘scientists’ were who did the research and suffice to say *if* their conclusions were correct Guinness drinkers with moustaches would be losing a lot more than £4.58 a year in 2025.

The research feeds a little into Roald Dahl’s the Twits which features the well known prejudice of beard wearers keeping some of their breakfast in their facial hair for later.

It is of course possible that some moustache styles do interface with the head on a pint of Guinness but in this case its likely that the drinker sucks the stout from their facial hair while drinking. Not perhaps a process worth dwelling on.

More likely, as is the case with many Beard Liberation Front supporters, the moustache is trimmed on the top lip to avoid the issue arising.

There have been regular London demonstrations for Palestine and Gaza and against what has become an Israeli genocide since October 2023. They have been regular not weekly and there has been very little in the way of issues. The Met Police reported 7 arrests on 16th May, one for someone attacking a marcher, and six for what appeared to be, at best, minor infractions of the very restrictive conditions the Met imposes on these occasions.

Of course the right-wing media (which is most of it) and many (but not all) politicians hate the idea of marching for Gaza and vary between ignoring a march and condemning it and trying to get it banned.

In fact the BBC completely ignored it (they have reported at least some previous marches) as did most other print media, aside of course from Socialist Worker and the Morning Star

The 16th May demonstration marked the 77th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, Israel’s first attempt to force Palestinians out of their own land and homes. A second Nakba is clearly underway. The marches in London have a particular importance because after the First World War Britain had the mandate for Palestine.

The fact that the marches continue, and May 16th was one of the biggest, reflect serious grassroots opinion and organisation across the country. They call out Israel’s genocidal actions but they are changing the face of British politics and will continue to do so, from below

History is being made on the streets but as Gil Scott-Heron sang the revolution will not be televised and as Michael Rosen wrote recently the genocide and protests against it won’t be televised in any sustained way either

I lay in bed
hardly able to breathe
but there were people to sedate me,
pump air into me
calm me down when I thrashed around
hold my hand and reassure me
play me songs my family sent in
turn me over to help my lungs
shave me, wash me, feed me
check my medication
perform the tracheostomy
people on this “island of strangers”
from China, Jamaica, Brazil, Ireland
India, USA, Nigeria and Greece.

I sat on the edge of my bed
and four people came with
a frame and supported me
or took me to a gym
where they taught me how
to walk between parallel bars
or kick a balloon
sat me in a wheelchair
taught me how to use the exercise bike
how to walk with a stick
how to walk without a stick
people on this “island of strangers”
from China, Jamaica, Brazil, Ireland
India, USA, Nigeria and Greece.

If ever you’re in need as I was
may you have an island of strangers
like I had

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/17/my-island-of-strangers-poem-michael-rosen

The picture was taken opposite the RNLI station in Penarth, South Wales on 13th May 2025. The RNLI of course is focused on saving lives without fear or favour, and the Friendship bench represents that spirit. Something Sir Keir Starmer might keep in mind

How the activities of MI5 have helped socialist historians

Aside from Christopher Hill, both E P Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm had MI5 files. Those for Hill stop in 1962 when started at Balliol. Whether all the material on Thompson and Hobsbawm is in the public domain is much less clear

For some years after 1945, the British security agencies kept tabs on Hill’s doings, as they did on other known party members. It must be doubted whether MI5 ever intended to provide invaluable assistance to future historians, but its obsessive logging of various suspects’ everyday doings (recording, for example, that Hill lent his car to a party organiser ‘to give a talk in Banbury’) has resulted in a small goldmine of sources in the National Archives, well exploited by Braddick as by Richard Evans in his biography of Hill’s comrade, Eric Hobsbawm. In this respect, biographers of leading left-wing figures have an advantage that those who write about less suspect individuals can only envy.Stefan Collini, review of Michael Braddick, Christopher Hill, The Life of a Radical Historian, London Review of Books May 22nd 2025

Gaby Hinsliff notes that many graduates of the class of 2024-25 may struggle to find appropriate employment. That is true, although those who do get jobs will get better salaries over time, albeit with student loans to pay off. Hinsliff also raises the issue of whether studying for a degree is worthwhile. It is an argument put forward by the culture-war right – namely, that graduates who can’t get jobs become highly educated troublemakers.

Indeed, while my first degree, nearly 50 years ago, did lead me into a professional job, it also taught me how to write a leaflet, organise a protest and speak at mass meetings. None of this was of course on the official curriculum. A reminder, and something Hinsliff misses, that there is such a thing as a liberal education, something beyond monetary value.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London

Guardian 16th May 2025

‘Gold has long been the financial refuge of the terrified racist’* One of Farage’s jobs is promoting the sale of gold coins

Aside from his actual job as MP for Clacton, Nigel Farage continues to drone on as a commentator on Reform UK Ltd’s broadcasting arm GBNews, amongst numerous other ‘jobs’

The Guardian revealed at the end of 2024 that he is also acting as an ambassador for Direct Bullion. Although words like grift immediately come to mind with Farage in fact it is a perfectly legitimate company which promotes the sale of gold coins.

As Farage notes the value of gold has maintained and is capital gains tax free in the UK.

The coins are produced by the Royal Mint and can be acquired direct from them at a current cost of £2,139 a coin

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/27/nigel-farage-working-paid-brand-ambassador-gold-firm-direct-bullion

*(gold has long been the financial refuge of the terrified racist)

David Runciman, review of Hayek’s Bastards, the Neo Liberal Roots of the Populist Right (London Review of Books 22^nd May 2025)