Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

25th February

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

Beard of Wales 2025. The four contenders for the final Beard Off round of voting have been decided

The annual vote which aims to determine the St David’s Day Beard of Wales, the Welsh beard that offers the most positive national image, is reaching a conclusion with the four contenders for the final Beard Off round of voting decided

In the first close shave round Senedd politician Hefin David and veteran singer Tom Jones triumphed. In the second close shave round footballer Kieffer 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 will be split in the Beard Off Final

There are two Close Shave Rounds followed by a Beard Off Final

The top two from each round will go to the Beard Off vote which will run on 26^th & 27^th February

The winner will be declared on March 1^st

Shortlist

Hefin David, politician

Martin Shipton, journalist

Matt Sherratt, Welsh rugby coach

Tom Jones, musician

Chris Roberts, chef

Kieffer Moore, footballer

Mark Williams, Snooker Player

Jack Sargeant, politician

This chart shows the average weekly diet of one working class family from Oxfordshire in England, in 1912.

It was included in the book “How the Labourer Lives: A Study of the Rural Labour Problem” by B. Seebohm Rowntree and May Kendall, published in 1917.

Source: “How the Labourer Lives: A Study of the Rural Labour Problem”, Rowntree & Kendall, pp. 59-63, pub. 1917.

From the People’s Britain on FB

The above post as been on my FB page for a while and attracted some comment.

It seems unusual in that no beer is included and hence appears to be worse than Workhouse diets of the Victorian period.

The question of the working class diet has long attracted historical research and controversy. In his 1968 postscript to the Making of the English Working Class E P Thompson admitted that the section on Standards and Experiences which covered diet was inadequate. He was attacking right-wing economists who saw economic growth in the early Victorian era is the key point and were not too concerned about the diet of the workers whose work provided the basis of growth.

This point does seem also to have a rather contemporary note to it in 2025

As Thompson notes that the popularity of the song the Roast Beef of Old England related to the reality that meat was not a regular part of the working class diet in the 1830s except arguably for better, skilled urban workers.

The diet of agricultural workers who were paid less might charitably be described as frugal, hence the Oxfordshire diet sheet above.

A lot of research has gone on since Thompson published the Making in 1963 but issues around how much workers in different jobs (skilled/unskilled) and locations (rural/urban) were paid and what this meant in terms of their diet and of course their health and well being.

Indeed Thompson returned to the issue in a relatively little known postscript to the Unknown Mayhew a selection of the writings of Henry Mayhew from 1849-50 (1973) where he looked at some of the evidence on working class living standards Mayhew had gathered and looks at the relationship between income and diet. Here beer is definitively included as Thompson puzzles whether porter or (less expensive) ale would be the most common drink

Thoughts very welcome

picture Megan Davies

he traditional start of Spring is at the beginning of February. The Spring Equinox is on March 20th. Those keenest on upholding traditions invariably ignore that. It will still be weeks until Easter 2025 by then.

Signs of Spring come before the Equinox. We can leave cuckoos to Times letter writers. In previous years letters in the Guardian have suggested the first lawnmower of Spring, while Waitrose has publicised the first, Forest of Dean, asparagus of the year.

More reliable and absolutely seasonal is wild garlic which appears around the end of February. That pictured comes from Roath Park in Cardiff. Peak season won’t be for another month or so, but early signs suggest a decent wild garlic crop.

Wild garlic leaves have a strong smell (of garlic) but are mild in taste

If you are marking Spring by gathering some wild garlic, forage responsibly.

King Charles has been in Burton on Trent. You don’t need to be a Royalist (I’m a red republican) to see that the publicity of such occasions can be useful. He swerved the Global Big Breweries of Coors and Marstons and instead stopped at the indy Tower Brewery.

There he sampled Gone for a Burton a 4.6% special bitter, asked about IPAs, and observed part of the brewing process.

Of course HRH wrote the introduction to the 50th issue of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide.

If his visit promotes interest in traditional cask ale, no doubt the purpose, then its worth noting for that reason. A pity though that he didn’t also check out Burton Bridge Brewery & the Heritage Brewing Co.

The SPD got 16.4% of the vote and 121 seats in the German Elections on Sunday. It was reported to be the worst result for the party since 1887.

Below is the commentary of Engels on the 1887 result

Some qualification is required. The SPD of 1887 was a socialist party aiming at peacefully getting rid of capitalism and it was influenced by Marx and Engels. In 2025 neither is the case.

The 1887 Election took place under Bismarck’s anti-socialist law which aimed to make it very difficult for the SPD to operate without completely banning them.

In that Election the SPD got 10.1% of the vote up from 9.7% in 1884. However they ended up with 11 seats whereas they had previously had 24.

Engels was right to focus on the importance of the increasing number of votes for the SPD rather than seats. In the 1890 Election the SPD got 19.75% of the vote and 35 seats. Bismarck scrapped the anti-socialist law as it clearly was not working

We have good reason to be satisfied with the elections in Germany.
The increase in the number of votes is marvellous, especially consider-
ing how much pressure is being exerted not only by the government but
also by the industrialists who, wherever feasible, presented the workers
with the choice either of being dismissed or of voting compulsorily for
a Bismarckian. I fear this will again be in evidence in the second ballot,
the results of which are not yet known over here. The Pope is forbid-
ding Catholics to vote for us, the men of Progress voluntarily prefer a
Bismarckian to a Socialist, while the industrialists exercise outright
coercion—so if in these circumstances we capture one or two more
seats it will be a victory truly won. But it’s not the number of seats
that matter, only the statistical demonstration of the party’s irresistible
growth.

Engels to Sorge 3^rd March 1887

Beard Liberation Front

24th February

Contact @keithbeard.bsky.social

Beard of Wales 2025 Hefin David & Tom Jones win first Close Shave Round vote

The annual vote which aims to determine the St David’s Day Beard of Wales, the Welsh beard that offers the most positive national image, has opened with the second of two close shave rounds open.

In the first close shave round Senedd politician Hefin David and veteran singer Tom Jones 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 competition is sure to bristle

There are two Close Shave Rounds followed by a Beard Off Final

The top two from each round will go to the Beard Off vote

The winner will be declared on March 1^st

Shortlist

Hefin David, politician

Martin Shipton, journalist

Matt Sherratt, Welsh rugby coach

Tom Jones, musician

Chris Roberts, chef

Keifer Moore, footballer

Mark Williams, Snooker Player

Jack Sargeant, politician

Three years of war in Ukraine are being marked. Many thousands have died and been injured and much of the country devastated.

In reality there have been two concurrent wars. Russia’s illegal invasion and the US pursuing a proxy war with Russia. The aim of the latter was not to help Ukraine repulse Russia but rather to weaken the economic and military position of Russia.

In all this certainly while he was Prime Minister Boris Johnson has played a role. Claims that he persuaded Zelenskyy not to agree terms for a settlement in 2022 continue. Johnson denies that but there will be evidence in Washington one way or another. Perhaps its just as well that he was the only UK politician at Trump’s Inauguration in January. Meanwhile there is still a road named in his honour in Kyiv

Johnson now takes an equivocal position on Washington, Moscow and Ukraine

He posted the below on Twitter recentlyWhen are we Europeans going to stop being scandalised about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war? Of course Ukraine didn’t start the war. You might as well say that America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbor. Of course a country undergoing a violent invasion should not be staging elections. There was no general election in the UK from 1935 to 1945. Of course Zelenskyy’s ratings are not 4%. They are actually about the same as Trump’s. Trump’s statements are not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action. In particular the US can see $300bn of frozen Russian assets – mainly in Belgium. That is cash that could and should be used to pay Ukraine and compensate the US for its support. Why is Europe preventing the unfreezing of Putin’s cash? The US believes Belgium, France and other countries are blocking. It’s absurd. We need to get serious and fast.

Nitrokeg stout: From Guinness to Murphys & Kernel

With the Six Nations rugby concluding (sponsored by Guinness if you don’t watch) stories about a shortage of Guinness seems to have stopped.

I’m not a fan of nitrokeg Guinness. I remain enough of a CAMRA fundamentalist to prefer bottled versions.

There are Big Beer alternatives from Heineken, Murphys and now Beamish.

Heineken reported a 632% jump in Murphys sales in December 2024 with an extra 300 pubs stocking it.

There are of course Indy alternatives. Probably the best known is Anspach and Hobday’s London Black, a nitrokeg porter at 4.4%. Ive enjoyed occasional pints. Its also in a nitro pour can

Leading craft brewer Kernel have also started selling a nitrokeg London Stout at 4.65%. I tried a pint in the Tottenham High Cross at the weekend. It was slightly swee,t, creamy with a good roasty hit. In short to my palate much easier to enjoy and drink than nitrokeg Guinness. It was £6.50 a pint btw

Verdant have also launched a nitrokeg stout although at the moment in its local Cornwall market.

I came across Wye Valley’s nitrokeg stout Nightjar in Abergavenny recently and looking at the breweries map of where to find it, its on numbers of bars across Wales and the West Midlands.

That leaves the question of cask. There are plenty of cask stouts and other categories of dark beer out there. In theory getting on the bar should be easier as while many pubs are tied on keg, that’s often not the case with cask.

Can cask stout and dark beer compete with nitro? Matthew Curtis writing in What’s Brewing argues it can:

https://wb.camra.org.uk/2025/03/10/missed-opportunity

Is Starmerism really Arsenalism?

‘Get in’ the new book by Times journalists Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund makes one reference to Arsenal, to Jeremy Corbyn complaining about uneven results. I’ve never been totally convinced that Jeremy is really an Arsenal fan, although I accept its prudent for an Islington MP.

Starmer however appears to be more definitely an Arsenal fan and still playing himself even now he is over 60 (I have bad knees and this bit of Starmer impresses me).

Tom Baldwin’s biography mentions that before July 2024 Starmer was often asked whether he preferred Arsenal winning the Premiership to a Labour Election victory. Baldwin argues that a ‘will to win’ better explains what Starmerism is about than his Socialist Alternatives period.

As a lifelong Spurs fan that has long had a non-aggression pact with Arsenal fans- North London United-there are some things that can be understood about Arsenal supporters.

They are keen, indeed, obsessed, with winning (no point being a Spurs fan if that’s your take on things) and they don’t mind too much how those victories occur.

Baldwin notes that 1-0 to the Arsenal rather sums things up. It might be a boring win but it’s a win.

Perhaps that rather sums up Starmer’s approach to politics too. Is it enough to keep winning? Is it a game of two halves..