Kmflett's Blog

Fish & Chips, Revolution & Brexit

Fish & Chips, Revolution & Brexit

George Orwell had quite a bit to say about fish and chips in the Road to Wigan PierIt is quite likely that fish-and-chips, art-silk stockings, tinned salmon, cut-price chocolate (five two-ounce bars for sixpence), the movies, the radio, strong tea, and the Football Pools have between them averted revolution

Fast forward to 2025 and a new study has looked at a possible relationship between the areas of England and Wales that voted for Brexit and the number of fish and chip shops in those areas.

The study suggests a link between areas with higher concentrations of fish and chip shops and a higher level of Brexit voting. In many cases this will transfer in 2025 to higher levels of support for Reform UK.

The data for restaurants is taken from Yell (the old Yellow Pages) and the suggestion also is that the wider the range of restaurants there are, the lower the Brexit vote.

The one issue that the study rather misses is that doesn’t look as if the authors have actually been in a fish and chip shop recently and discovered how much they cost. It will be well above £10 in many cases, which is a lot for those on lower incomes. As interesting would be a look at the correlation between  Brexit (and Reform) support and the concentration of Wetherspoons pubs. There are around 800 in the UK. Prices vary but the price of fish and chips and a beer (outside of central London) is often a more affordable £10 or so. A warning however on stereotyping. Farage may frequently be pictured in Spoons pubs but in most places the clientele is very diverse by age, gender and ethnicity

A taste for deprivation? Fish, chips and leaving the European Union

This graphic is from the Urban Cycling Institute. I am not a cyclist but I have never driven a car. Rather I walk and use public transport. Living in the inner city it is something that is still possible- less so elsewhere.

Even so the rise of what might be called the urban tank is very noticeable. Roads that should be two way become one way at a time due to the size of cars and potholes abound partly due to the weight of the vehicles.

Progress in history would be better affordable public transport, less urban tanks and definitely no Teslas

The Fletter below appeared in the Guardian earlier in the week. I am pleased to be proved right as Farage’s pub crawl election campaign is continuing. The Guardian (26th April) has a picture of Farage drinking Molson Coors Doombar in Wetherspoons Ramsgate.

The Spoons, the Royal Pavilion, in question currently has several cask beers brewed by independent brewers, including Thornbridge’s Jaipur but super patriot Farage of course has opted for the one produced by a global beer company. However Farage’s beer drinking is a ‘man of the people’ act like Harold Wilson’s pipe. He is a fine wine drinker. Spoons has a reasonable choice of wine but when I stopped by one the other day I heard the bar person asking a customer if they wanted red or white wine. Not Farage’s style..

As the 1 May local elections near, Nigel Farage’s campaign is featured in every media outlet. The reports seem to suggest that it consists of a pub crawl around the country. I wonder if Farage is aware of the Alex Glasgow song As Soon As This Pub Closes (The Revolution Starts)?
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London

26th April

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has nominated Paul Gallagher, as a candidate to replace Pope Francis.

Gallager has been responsible for the Vatican’s foreign affairs since 2014.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there has not been a hirsute Pope since 1700 and 325 years on we think now is the time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gallagher_(bishop)

Keir Starmer who seems to love dressing up as a soldier or in this case a sailor spent the night on the Royal Navy ship the Prince of Wales during the week. It was heading out on a joint military mission for a spot of sabre rattling at the Chinese.

The Telegraph which seems to have the embedded report notes that Starmer likes to see what people are doing at work for himself rather than just be briefed on it. Not an entirely bad idea so perhaps he will spend a day with someone struggling on benefits while holding down a low paid job as well.

Once on board Starmer had dinner and then headed to the Wardroom, the Senior Officers Bar, for a beer (or two). The choice of Molson Coors Big Beer hardly seems great but Starmer was also presented with a ‘Beer Starmer’ meme which apparently is passed around on board on a Friday. The Telegraph also reports that Starmer departed (via helicopter) with a bottle of the (very expensive) Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky.

The Telegraph reports that the last PM to spend time on a Royal Navy ship was Harold Wilson in the 1960s, though Wilson’s project unlike Starmer was to cut defence spending and exit UK operations east of Suez.

*The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.” Gramsci

For monsters see Nigel Farage

Observer’s first ever website launched. Some progress in history?

The last edition of the Observer under the ownership, or perhaps more accurately the guardianship of the Scott Trust, was published on the 20^th April. The first edition under the ownership of Tortoise will appear in print on 27^th April.

It’s worth keeping in mind that the NUJ chapel at the Guardian and Observer took strike action on the change and as a trade unionist and a reader of both papers since the 1960s I made it down to the Kings Place picket in December 2024. The general view I think was that whatever the shortcomings of the Guardian’s stewardship the move was likely to be ill advised. Private Eye has reported that most of the existing Observer staff who were FTE have taken redundancy leaving only a minority to transfer.

The Observer has always, in the years I’ve been reading it, and in my view, been a little to the right in its Editorial line to the Guardian. That doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been some very good content down the years.

The new website is features heavy which underlines the Tortoise statement that they certainly won’t be competing with the Guardian as a daily news site (they don’t have the journalists for that anyway) but the test will be the print edition.

The website is decently designed and easy to navigate although perhaps it should be pointed out (there is a lengthy interview) that Lord Glasman of Stoke Newington is not Labour’s alternative to Farage. He is just Labour’s Farage although without any of the charisma that some may find in the veteran grifter..

The Observer | News, culture and style

Below is an extract from the latest Blue Labour programme, publicised this week by the New Statesman.

It goes on full on Trump and the key figure in Blue Labour Lord Glasman of Stoke Newington is reputed to have the ear of Starmer’s key fixer Morgan McSweeney. It might be thought that its just another culture war but eliminating DEI also seriously undermines the still to be won fight for equal pay, to give one example.

We are proud of our multiracial democracy and we utterly reject divisive identity politics, which undermines the bonds of solidarity between those of different sexes, races and nationalities. We should legislate to root out DEI in hiring practices, sentencing decisions, and wherever else we find it in our public bodies.

https://www.bluelabour.org/about-us

France does May Day properly. Selling of baguettes is banned for the day

The Times (& tbh where else, given its very long standing obsession with French food) reports that France’s 3,535 workplace inspectors are cracking down on bakeries that open on May Day and make employees work.

There is a fine of 750 Euros for each worker at work on May Day. The remit includes bakeries and the selling of baguettes. Essential activities  are allowed to continue including transport and of course cafes and restaurants.

The Chair of France’s National Bakery Confederation has complained about the enforced closure of France’s 34,000 bakeries describing the country as the ‘Land of Bread’

However the General Secretary of the CGT union said that a day off on May 1^st is a ‘fundamental right’ noting that the Socialist International met in Paris in 1890 to declare May Day a day off in memory of the 1886 Chicago Martyrs.

Meanwhile Britain will have an official Bank Holiday on May 5^th when baguettes will still be available, although not up to French standards clearly.

I’m not sure the Times report should be taken too seriously (like much else in the Murdoch owned paper) but a tradition of taking May Day seriously remains a good one.

Thornbridge Jaipur on cask in Wetherspoons: No Direction Home

Thornbridge one of the most well known UK ‘craft’ brewers is marking its 20^th anniversary. No doubt someone will tell me I’m wrong but my experience was that it took a while to reach the London market.

Indeed today is the 15^th anniversary of the first ever pint of cask Jaipur I tasted at the Jolly Butchers in Stoke Newington. I have of course had it many times since, although as Boak and Bailey have noted it can be surprisingly difficult to find on cask. I’ve mainly had it in can, bottle and occasionally mini-keg.

Today by chance I had a pint in a Wetherspoons in central Cardiff. It was in decent if not tip-top condition and it cost £2.29. Prices will vary across the Spoons estate but I suspect that was less than I paid for that pint 15 years ago.

The Spoons point of sale publicity says Jaipur is in effect making a guest appearance. However it was served in a branded glass (unusual for Spoons) and the quarterly guest beer list shows it as regularly available.

Now of course Spoons has its haters and indeed union recognition and less of some of the views of Tim Martin would be most welcome. That said my late afternoon visit (a pint and a half since you ask) found the Spoons populated with some old white blokes (not just me, but a few others) and otherwise the kind of very mixed clientele by age, gender and ethnicity that Spoons often attracts and some other hostelries perhaps don’t.

Anyway to the issue of Jaipur in Spoons. Its getting a flagship cask beer to a much wider audience (the bar person did warn it was strong) but is an association with Spoons perhaps damaging the brand a little. I doubt most of those drinking Jaipur in Spoons will have that in mind, but it’s a thought on how ‘craft’ beer reaches a wider market that is not Beavertown or Brewdog (Spoons sells Punk btw far cheaper than Brewdog bars do)