I still think that this big tariff threat globally … It’ll look different in three months time. He’ll use it as a big negotiating tool. I think we’re better positioned to come out of this with a deal than almost any other country.
Farage 7th April 2025, reported in the Guardian
Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a Marxist thinker and writer
Wetherspoons News. Gammon dropped from the menu
Tim Martin has noted that Greene King Abbot his favourite cask beer. It sells for as little as £1.99 a pint in some Spoons but costs more in some City Centres- Captain Flinders, Euston Station, £4.74. Having known Martin back to his Marlers, Muswell Hill days I think his favourite beer was once Courage Directors but he has been consistent in recent years on Abbot.
Steak and other grills (including Gammon) have disappeared from the menu as of May 14th and have been replaced with a gourmet burger range. Cost is the key issue. If you check how much steak costs in budget supermarket Lidl you’ll see why. Steak with a beer in cheaper Spoons is currently not far short of £15.
Martin is still (correctly) raising the issue of the price advantage supermarkets have on beer and lager sales compared to pubs.
Wetherspoons remains very profitable. The most recent set of results saw profits rise by 58% year on year (Sunday Times 30th March). That’s not the full financial story but it is still better than some areas of hospitality (though Big Beer like Heineken & ABInBev is doing very well of course) Meanwhile Wetherspoons still doesn’t recognise trade unions. Given that Martin built his first pub empire in the North London Borough of Haringey, still a strongly unionised place, he is not being honest to his own roots here.
Beard Liberation Front
6th April
contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is being considered for a place on the Beard of Spring shortlist, after he was named the best looking Premiership Manager in an AI survey.
The survey appeared to focus on Arteta’s always impressive hair but the BLF’s focus is on the stubble he frequently wears.
Stubble is classed as a proto-beard and the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western stubble test applies, as to whether and when it can be classified as a beard.
Arteta sometimes passes this test and sometimes does not. However the criteria for the Beard of Spring shortlist is that nominees must have had a beard at some point in the previous quarter.
The Beard of Spring shortlist will be announced on 12th April with the winner named on Easter Saturday
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the sub-committee responsible for drawing up the shortlist will look closely at the Arteta stubble question. If he does make the shortlist progress will be determined by an on-line democratic vote rather than an AI survey.
6th April
Sunday evening edition: Vince Casey admits dinosaur status
In discussion with Rochelle, Vince Casey has admitted he is a dinosaur, which by the laws of dialectics means he isn’t quite. In fact a liaison with Rochelle may lead in other directions
Rochelle, Trumpist
Rochelle has reappeared and is now playing the role of disrupter. Some no doubt will see this in sexual terms but it’s actually about mixing up and unsettling relationships in Ambridge. Joy has walked out (not as far as can be checked for Corrie), Rex has been made to feel a bit awkward and Freddie and Vince have been engaged with. Where is it leading? It’s the Archers. We’ll find out later.
Sgt Burns has defected to Corrie and come out as gay
A few weeks back Sgt Knacker Burns was effectively written out as he was despatched Oop North on a special project.
It can now be revealed that the special project was to play the role of a Scaffolder in Coronation St. As the story line develops he will be revealed as the love interest for Todd Grimshaw, aka Gareth Pierce who played Gavin Moss in the Archers.
Small world..
Don’t mention Palestine
Charlotte Higgins who has the role that Nancy Brooks Smith had of writing a monthly summary of Ambridge events for the Grauniad is taking a sabbatical but not before she noted quite rightly that one word that is never heard in the Archers is Palestine
More than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to begin trade talks, the US national economic council director Kevin Hassett has told ABC News’ This Week programme.
Guardian 6th April 2025
Donald Trump’s image is all about being successful in business (quite the reverse as the record shows) and being a brilliant deal maker.
Indeed Donald Trump wrote the Art of the Deal, or rather he didnt. It was in fact written by Tony Schwarz who suggested the idea so Trump could fulfil a contact he had signed. As Daniel Finkelstein noted in the Times recently, Trump couldn’t write a book, he didn’t even read them.
Like so much in Trump world, nothing is real, although to those impacted by tariffs it may look rather different.
Global Big Beer faces Trump Tariff challenge
Whatever the bluster the bottom line of the Trump Tariffs is to make the rich, richer and the poor, across the globe, poorer. Whether it will actually turn out like that we’ll see, planning not being of interest to Trump.
The Financial Times front page on 5th July 2025 picks up on that with a story focused on the concerns of European and Mexican Big Beer.
The 25% tariff on European Beer could the FT reports lead to 100,000 job losses and brewery closures. Since the companies involved also operate in the UK it remains to be understood (but not by Trump obviously) how this will work. A key issue it appears is whether the tariff is on aluminium cans only or beer as well.
Global Big Beer is of course organised and its lobby group Brewers of Europe includes ABInBev, Carlsberg, Asahi, Heineken and Molson Coors.
The combined group exported 870 million Euros worth of beer to the US in 2024 and the estimate sees a potential 100,000 job losses from the two million employed.
In Mexico 85% of US imports come from Constellation which brews Corona and Modela.
However it plays out we can be certain that if a price is to be paid it will by brewery workers and beer drinkers not the profits of Big Beer.
The Ambridge Socialist
6th April
Revealed: Sgt Knacker Burns has defected to Coronation St
A few weeks back Sgt Knacker Burns was effectively written out as he was despatched Oop North on a special project.
It can now be revealed that the special project was to play the role of Theo a Scaffolder in Coronation St. As the story line develops he has been revealed as the love interest for Todd Grimshaw, aka Gareth Pierce who played Gavin Moss in the Archers.
Small world..
Vince Casey admits he is a dinosaur
In discussion with Rochelle, Vince Casey has admitted he is a dinosaur, which by the laws of dialectics means he isn’t quite.
Rochelle, Trumpist
Rochelle has reappeared and is now playing the role of disrupter. Some no doubt will see this in sexual terms but it’s actually about mixing up and unsettling relationships in Ambridge. Joy has walked out (not as far as can be checked for Corrie), Rex has been made to feel a bit awkward and Freddie and Vince have been engaged with. Where is it leading? It’s the Archers. We’ll find out later.
Don’t mention Palestine
Charlotte Higgins who has the role that Nancy Brooks Smith had of writing a monthly summary of Ambridge events for the Grauniad is taking a sabbatical but not before she noted quite rightly that one word that is never heard in the Archers is Palestine
The leaflet is via Ken Muller on FB.
Starmer became the Labour candidate for Holborn and St Pancras in December 2014 and was elected as an MP in May 2015 at the General Election of that year, so it is in that short window of early 2015, ten years ago
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