Histories of the present. 5 years ago this weekend, Boris Johnson’s absences & 40,000 extra COVID deaths
I posted the below five years ago this weekend (Saturday 29th February 2020).
Covid was already spreading in the UK. It was a further two weeks on Monday 16th March 2020 that Johnson advised people to avoid non-essential contact. One week later on Monday 23rd March 2020 a full scale lockdown was implemented. No vaccine was available for Covid in 2020.
Writing in the Guardian (1st March 2025) Stephen Reicher argues that if a lockdown had been implemented on Monday 9th March 40,000 deaths from COVID might have been avoided.
Johnson however was elsewhere it seems
29th February 2020
Boris Johnson has been criticised by Jeremy Corbyn for being a ‘part-time’ Prime Minister and he has been notable by his complete absence as floods have caused misery for communities around the UK and look set to do so again this weekend.
Katy Balls, who works for the Spectator as written in The Guardian(28.2) that this is a deliberate Tory strategy involving Johnson ignoring the media. Ms Balls might do well to ask around at the Spectator for what Johnson was like when he edited the magazine.
A summary is below and it appears to suggest a pattern of behaviour…
He would habitually not answer his phone, commission articles, turn up to lunches, or meet dignitaries, important advertisers or even his own deadlines.
Johnson as Editor of the Spectator (Sonia Purnell, Just Boris 2012)
After the confected Oval Office row about suit wearing on 28th February 2025 one person who will not be impacted is Keir Starmer.
Starmer has a way to go in the suit wearing department to catch up with Jacob Rees Mogg. A recent Discovery TV series about Rees Mogg, partner, children and servants, revealed that the former MP is never to be seen without a suit. It’s quite possible he wears one in bed.
Starmer doesn’t always wear a suit- just nearly always. An issue that surfaced after the July 2024 Election is that he doesn’t it seems get his suits from M&S (not easy as it once was btw) or Next but in some cases they have been paid for. It’s not clear whether Boris Johnson ever got clothes donations along with all the holidays etc but in any case clothes from Primark are never going to look that great.
However Starmer’s suits have been judged stylish by those who know about such things and it may be that this is one of his successes of his Premiership so far.
Although we don’t know which tailor he uses, it has been noted that his suits do fit well. “Keir Starmer’s tailoring is considerably better than that of most politicians, partly because his suits are cut in such classic proportions,” wrote Derek Guy in an article for Politics Home in May 2024.
“His suit jackets bifurcate him about halfway from his collar to the floor; his lapels end halfway from his collar to his shoulder joint. His trousers are neither too slim nor too full, and his shirt collar points are long enough to reach his lapels, creating that smooth, uninterrupted line under his chin, leading the viewer’s eye up to his face.”
Telegraph 25th August 2024
Man in a suit however is not always a favourable description…
ABInBev: the biggest of big beer. Beer is a ‘vibrant category globally’
ABInBev which is the biggest of big beer companies employing 167,000 people in 50 countries, with more than 500 products including Stella, has announced its latest set of financial results.
ABInBev has an HQ in Belgium but reported it revenues up 3.4% to $14.8. Sales of Corona and Michelbob Ultra as well as the new Zero brand of the latter.
According to the CEO ‘beer is a passion point for consumers’
The main issue has been a decline of 19% in sales in China. Sales of Budweiser Light in the US have recovered after MAGA man did not like the use of a Trans influencer to promote sales.AB
Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social
Sir Tom Jones & Labour Senedd member Hefin David share Beard of Wales 2025 title
The annual vote which decides the St David’s Day Beard of Wales, the Welsh beard that offers the most positive national image, has reached a conclusion with the Final Beard Off round seeing Sir Tom Jones and Labour Senedd member Hefin David tied on 38.5% of the 4,200 votes cast in the on-line poll
In the first close shave round Senedd politician Hefin David and veteran singer Tom Jones triumphed. In the second close shave round footballer Keifer Moore and snooker champion Mark Williams triumphed.
The Beard Liberation Front says that images of St David suggest that the Welsh Saint himself may have had an organic beard
Welsh rugby prop Adam Jones won the Award in 2013, voted for by BLF supporters, just shaving former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Another rugby player Leigh Halfpenny won in 2014. In 2015 the Award went to Thee Faction musician Chris Fox in 2016 footballer Joe Ledley and in 2017 to Charcutier Illtud Llyr Dunsford, with Chris Fox winning again in 2018. In 2019 journalist Grant Tucker shaved the opposition to claim the accolade. Michael Sheen has won four times. In 2024 Plaid Assembly member Peredur Owen Griffiths won the coveted title
It is the thirteenth time the Award has been given following the traditional UK Beard of the Year at the end December each year and the BLF says it is a mark of Wales as a modern nation on St David’s Day that beards are now playing an increasingly significant role in national life.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, beards are blossoming in Wales, and hairs have been split in the Beard Off Final. We congratulate Sir Tom Jones and Hefin David
There were two Close Shave Rounds followed by a Beard Off Final
The top two from each round went to the Final Beard Off vote
In a video posted to Bluesky, Brian Glenn, who reports for fringe conservative site Real America’s Voice, demanded of the Ukrainian leader, “Do you — why don’t you wear a suit?”
“Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit,” he pressed, while J.D. Vance could be seen laughing, before adding, “Do you own a suit?”
“I will wear a suit after this war is over,” Zelensky politely replied. “Maybe something like yours. Maybe better.”
Musk’s appearance in the Oval House in T-Shirt and cap is part of Trump’s Society of the Spectacle policy. That is image and brand are upfront. Musk owns expensive suits, his lack of one is sending a message. Zelensky was also of course sending a message of a rather different kind
The Evening Standard reported in November 2024 that Musk buys his suits from the Saville Row tailor Henry Poole. Established in 1846 it focuses on selling suits to the rich and powerful. Prices start at £6K a mere bagatelle to Musk
Donald Trump was on a State visit to the UK in July 2018
The decision by London Mayor Sadiq Khan to agree that a giant effigy of Donald Trump as a baby complete with nappy could be floated above central London when the ‘orange moron’ as he has was labelled visited Britain was mostly applauded.
One critic was of course Nigel Farage who continued his own tradition of being entirely ignorant about more or less everything by failing to spot that the parading (and sometimes burning) of effigies of unpopular figures is in fact a great British tradition. Farage claimed that the balloon, crowd funded, was the ‘biggest insult’ to a US President ever.
If so the US President must have got used to insults since effigies of him were paraded during his first term in Panama City, Manilla and Montreal. Indeed it would seem Trump effigies became something of an international phenomenon.
It’s a tradition that needs to be invented again
If and when Trump’s second UK State visit occurs more protest is needed if we are to survive what ever Farage and GB News say
Keir Starmer has significantly cut international aid and diverted money to defence. This seems to have made Trump temporarily happy. As numbers have pointed out aid and defence go hand in hand rather than being seen as two different things.
The international development Secretary Anneliese Dodds has resigned and in doing so she, rather than Starmer, stands in the mainstream Labour tradition.
In 1976 Jim Callaghan had become Labour PM and the Chancellor Denis Healey was looking at significant spending cut. These were carried through in 1977 and paved the way towards Thatcherism.
What was then called overseas aid was considered for budget cuts.
Tony Benn records in his diary the Cabinet meeting that considered this (15th July 1976)
Callaghan said ‘it is agreed that we exclude overseas aid because I think that would be very unpopular’
Keir Starmer has been visiting Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Scotland featured in their discussions. Firstly because Starmer handed Trump a letter from King Charles inviting him to Balmoral to discuss a second State visit to the UK.
Secondly because when discussing trade tariffs with the EU that Trump says he is considering he noted that the UK might be a bit different:
I can say that, we’re here for a different reason – we’re talking about a very different place. This is some place that I have investments there. I own Turnberry, I own Aberdeen, and I own a great place called Doonbeg in Ireland. So, I have a great warm spot for your country.
(Guardian liveblog 27th February)
As when Trump visited the UK in 2018 and 2019 the correct response is: protest and survive
Noting a post from @boakandbailey.bsky.social on 27th February 2025 reminded that I was planning a brief post on Verdant Putty and Puttty 2025. Boak and Bailey pondered why the annual release of these beers is such a thing. There are after all other double and triple IPAs out there and in a taste test one might struggle to identify which was which (depending on the hops used). Comments also focused on the price.
Putty which is an 8% double IPA was released on 22nd January 2025 and cost £7 a can direct from Verdant (plus carriage)
Puttty its 10% triple IPA relative was released on 19th February 2025 and cost £10.50 a can direct from Verdant (plus carriage)
I’ve drunk and enjoyed both. Murky, hoppy, dangerously drinkable.
I’ve also enjoyed thirds of both Putty and Puttty on draught at Cardiff’s State of Love and Trust. The latter, a third cost £6.95, seemed to me rather more tasty than the can. However taste is an imponderable thing, depending on time, context etc
Of course if you’re not at home during the day during the week (I work mostly from home) buying direct from a brewery can be awkward. The bottle shop is an alternative but their prices will be higher because after all, no normal profit no bottle shop.
The beers are expensive but allowing for inflation and duty changes I don’t think the price has actually increased at least in the last couple of years. Putty was originally brewed for Hop City at Northern Monk in 2017 and what it cost then I don’t have to hand.
While the beer is good the general buzz around it can I think be explained by an understanding of the Society of the Spectacle. A theory developed by the Situationists in the 1960s it argued that market capitalism had developed in a way that meant advertising and image were the most important representations of material reality.
They marched in an anti-Vietnam War protest in London in 1968 chanting ‘hot chocolate, drinking chocolate’.
In this sense Putty can be understood as a reified object. That is while it is not human (clearly) it takes on human qualities. Its enjoyable, fun to be with, and generally a positive thing.
I doubt those drinking Putty, myself included, quite saw it like that but there is a related way of explaining things. Both Putty and Puttty are released early in the calendar year. The weather is miserable, and there isn’t a huge amount going on beer wise for the most part.
As above both Putty and Puttty are reassuringly expensive. That is for those who can afford the price in a continuing cost of living crisis. You can certainly get beers that are quite like Putty at rather low strengths (say 7-7.5%) more cheaply. Check Lidl.
Its a division that also exists in wine and whisky. Its a feature of market capitalism but you can start to over theorise..
Putty is both a brand and an event.
To be honest as an example of both its possible to think of much worse. And it remains very drinkable
