Kmflett's Blog

Abattoir owner Vince Casey is featuring in the Archers again at the moment. Every time he does our original assessment of him from October 25th 2020 gets a good deal of social media interest. Its repeated below. Which, if any, of our characterisations, was right, five years on??

Vince Casey: ‘Slimeball’,’peasant’ or ‘working-class hero’?

Vince Casey, abattoir specialist and David Archer’s nemesis has bumped into Elizabeth in a pub (Borsetshire is in Tier 1 clearly) and bought her a drink. Casey appeared to be genial character (who knew?) who noted that he got by with 50% charm and 50% iron fist…

Later both Casey and Archer were to be found at an HR seminar on workplace relations. The BBC rarely covers Lower Loxley’s non-unionised employment practices and we can only wonder how much iron fist Casey uses with anyone who he may employ.

Later Casey turned up at Lower Loxley to meet Lily and Freddie. Lily had earlier called Casey a slimeball which he seemed to regard as fair but he did wonder if their objections to him were because they saw him as a peasant intruding on the Archer Dynasty..

Laura Kuenssberg has asked Rachel Reeves (Hey Jude) and Kemi Badenoch (Yellow Submarine) what their favourite Beatles songs are. This wasn’t some kind of cultural Britishness test but simply because Paul McCartney also appeared talking about the impact of AI on music.

However there is Beatles song much worthier of continued recognition

The Beatles Abbey Road was released on 26^th September 1969, the last of the music they recorded together (although Let It Be was released later).

It contained two songs that were released as a Double A Side single Something (George Harrison) and Come Together (John Lennon).

It’s fair to say that, 56 years on, it’s probably the former rather than the latter that is most remembered even if Come Together was definitively of the political, social and cultural moment of the end of the 1960s.

Even so in his Beatles discography Revolution In The Head, the late Ian McDonald claimed that the form and words of Come Together marked the beginning of the downfall of Western civilisation.

56 years on this seems a somewhat overblown claim and, in addition, if one were looking for a record to have this epithet associated with it, there are many other contenders.

However its worth looking at why McDonald said this because it does reflect something of that end of the 1960s moment.

McDonald says:

With its sex-political title Come Together represents the last of Lennon’s espousals of the counterculture while still in the group… it pitches a stream of self-confessed ‘gobbledeygook’ at the violent antagonisms of an unenlightened world..this idea was at the cutting edge of alternative politics in the late 1969

Of the line ‘one thing I can tell is you got to be free’ McDonald writes:

The freedom invoked here differs from all forms and all norms including left-wing ones

He goes on to argue that Come Together is the archetype of countercultural anti-politics, mentioning figures such as Timothy Leary and R D Laing as influences on Lennon.

Whatever one makes of McDonald’s claims and the song 56 years on, Come Together is a fascinating snap shot of late 1960s social history

The Ambridge Socialist

26^th January

Elizabeth refuses Vince Casey’s demand for an underpants drawer

With Sgt Knacker Burns clearing off out of Ambridge for a bit there is a vacancy for captain of the cricket club. There are two requirements. Firstly the captain must live in the environs of Ambridge and secondly they must be a decent cricketer. Vince Casey fulfils the second but not the first.

His idea is to move in with Elizabeth. He has briefed this to Lilly and Freddie but Elizabath is less keen particularly it would appear on Casey’s demand for a draw for his underpants. Work in progress

Counter-factual history in Ambridge

For some as yet undisclosed reason the BBC continues to report (and frankly its reporting is unfortunately less than reliable) that Neil Carter was abandoned by his mother and fostered. This week he met the person who had found him, who might also it seems have been his actual mother. Long term listeners to the Archers find this story line problematic but if the BBC wants to reinvent a back story for David Archer as a badger lover it might be interesting.

Oh No. Panto trip cancelled

The Panto trip has been cancelled

The roof has fallen in at Felpersham Arts Centre and the village panto trip if off. Joy seems very concerned. The Ambridge Socialist is not.

In Other News

Brian like reading Dick Francis

Royal tartan invented to mark Burns Night

It may sometimes be wondered given the level of dysfunction on show what the Royal Family are actually good at. One thing is the invention of tradition. Royal traditions have been regularly invented in recent centuries. While some are genuinely historic, mostly dating back to the arrival of French rule in 1066 even here there is a problem with the continuity because nearly every-one was broken during the Commonwealth period between 1649 and 1660.

A picture of King Charles 111 wearing a newly reinvented Royal tartan has been released to mark Burns Night 2025.

A new tartan was registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans and was used in marking King Charlie’s 76th birthday in the autumn of 2024. The Balmoral Glen Gelder tartan was designed by the Scottish Tartans Authority in 2023. The aim is to promote the culture and traditions of the Highlands and tartans.

The tartan will be used for furnishings and staff uniforms at Balmoral as well, obviously, in items on sale in the gift shop.

The design is reportedly based on an historic tartan design dating from 1500-1600, which is claimed to be the oldest specimen of tartan surviving.

The 2023-24 design provides a link to cloth that ‘probably’ originated during the reign of James V, Mary Queen of Scots or James V1 and 1. However inventing traditions can be complicated and its now claimed that the tartan dates back to 1850

In short it’s something of an invented tradition.

The Fletts dont have a tartan coming from Orkney but Clan Flett (with which I am of course associated-Google if you don’t believe it) has been creative and it is claimed that the Flett tartan is that of the McDonalds (Ronald excepted)

New photo of kilted King Charles released for Burns Night – BBC News

Frederick Engels long time partner was called Lizzie Burns (1827-1878) and in this letter Karl Marx makes reference to another Burns, Robert Burns and references one of his best known works. Its not known if either of them ever ate haggis

My best compliments to Mrs Burns . I am indeed very glad to
hear that the o was an inorganic intrusion upon her name , and
that she is a name sake of the great poet. If Mrs Gumpert declines
becoming a member of a Workingmen’s Association, I hope Mrs
Burns will not follow that example , but will believe with her
name sake that ‘a man is a man for all that’.

Marx to Engels 13^th February 1865

Edward Grumpert was a Manchester based doctor who Marx and Engels often consulted

One of the best known producers of Haggis, Macsweens is attempting to re-enter the US market after Haggis was banned there in 1971. Its estimated that US sales could add £2m to sales. Haggis however is already becoming a global business.

In the ten years to 2020 sales increased 136% with the export value of sale to countries such as Greece, Hong Kong and Ghana standing at £8.8m

Impressive for something that consists (the meat variant) of offal

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/jan/18/scotland-haggis-maker-macsween-us-rules

While the ten darkest weeks of winter have concluded a reminder that the season of the Lords (& occasional Ladies) of Misrule does not end until at least Shrove Tuesday on 17th February 2026.

The season for the Lords of Misrule began on 31st October 2025 All Hallows Eve. Their aim is to subvert and turn the World Upside Down. Its theatre- see Shakespeare, Twelfth Night- but its not Trump

News reports on 24th January suggest that the Magic Rock tap in Huddersfield has closed. The brewery was reported to be in administration earlier this month. It is a sorry tale of what happens when Big Beer (in this case Lion/Kirin) buys a (very well regarded) craft brewery can’t make it fit its business model and then ditches it again.

Below is a memoir from 2018 of the annual launch of one of Magic Rock’s classic beers- Cannonball

On Monday Megan and myself were going to Cambridge (to the 45th CAMRA beerfest) but ended up near Cambridge Heath near Mother Kelly’s

Why? Megan had spotted that MKs were launching the 2018 versions of Magic Rock Human Cannonball

The original beer at 9.2% dates back to 2011. Unhuman Cannonball appeared in 2013 and this year has been added a New England version neo-Human Cannonball.

We sampled thirds at that strength.

I think there are two things to be said in general. Firstly back in the day you’d have expected beers of that strength to be sweet and cloying. The brewers art has moved on (for some anyway) and that is far from the case. They remain dangerously drinkable.

Secondly 2011 and 2013 are a long time ago in the craft beer world so while the Cannonballs may once have been cutting edge there are of course lots of DIPAs and TIPAs out there now. Indeed but the beers we sampled yesterday remain top notch examples of the styles.

What of the neo-human version. It is more like a juice bomb and definitely murky. The fact that the yeast involved is called London fog obviously endears it to me. However while I enjoy drinking such beers I often find it quite difficult to distinguish one from another. Some I like a little more, some a little less. The neo-human Cannonball was fine, the un-human Cannonball was superb.

Attributed to Lenin: there are decades where nothing happens and weeks when decades happen.