Kmflett's Blog

The above letter appears in The Times on 5th August. It can be understood as the traditional Tory ruling class putting right a challenger. Obviously the politics of the letter writer are not known. The context is The Times continuing attacks on Reform’s credibility.

While August is traditionally known as the silly season there is nothing particularly silly about the right discovering the politics of bins

Farage continues his lonely (if extremely suntanned) campaign against Count Binface in Clacton, in a By-Election he called on himself. Voting is on 13th August

Meanwhile Badenoch has been defending the selection of Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a Tory Council candidate despite the fact that he is a former Neo-Nazi with (spent) convictions for anti-Semitic abuse.

According to Badenoch the selection is Ok because Councillors only deal with ‘parking and bins’. Possibly if they are Liberal Democrats repairing Church roofs as well.

Bingate beckons

The Murdoch media continues to underline the issues with Reform and Farage (Editorial 4th August 2026). Farage’s bluster is no longer working as it did a year ago

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

4th August

Contact Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

London Beard Week 2026. Call for review of all statues with beards in the Capital

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that as part of London Beard Week which runs until 8th August it is calling for a thorough review of statues with beards in the Capital.

The campaigners say that some statues such as that of Henry Tate, erected at the Tate Library, Brixton in 1905(pictured above), have associations with the slave trade and bring the hirsute into disrepute.

Meanwhile other well-known London beard wearers such as the black leader of London Chartism in 1848 William Cuffay do not have statues.

London Beard Week is a celebration of London, now one of the most beard friendly Capital cities in the world, and of London’s great hirsute heritage from Charles Dickens to Karl Marx through to modern day beards such as England football captain Harry Kane and author and Arsenal fan Michael Rosen.

As part of the week the BLF is running a poll to find the most impactful and impressive figure with a beard who is associated with London. The poll opens on 5^th August and the result will be announced on Saturday 8th August.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it’s time for a review of statues with beards in London. Some are bringing the hirsute into disrepute, while other well-known London beards do not have statues at all. Let’s call it a clean shaven Culture War

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is now a senior FIFA official.

Somewhat belatedly he has come out in opposition to Infantino’s plan to franchise the World Cup (now scrapped, probably). He claims that he was not involved in the plan and only saw it later in the media.

When manager of Arsenal Wenger was well known for not seeing controversial incidents but it appears that he has now seen Infantino’s plan and, to be fair, is clear in his opposition to it

Fifa investment plan had to be scrapped – Arsene Wenger – BBC Sport

The letter below is not the proof that climate change deniers may be looking for..

The temperature in Manchester on 4th August 1856 was 25C, warm certainly but well below temperatures reached in 2026 on a regular basis.

As ever context is key. Engels could only try and cool down by bathing and drinking a ‘variety of other fluids’- primarily Pilsner beer no doubt.

However there was no refrigeration, or air conditioning in 1856

ENGELS T O MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 4 August 1856

Dear Marx,
The letter that didn’t arrive must have melted in the heat. I
don’t know whether you down there too have suddenly been
assailed by this tropical heat which has brought everything to a
standstill, apart from the continuous sluicing and bathing of the
outer man with water and the inner man with a variety of other
fluids. Yesterday I was totally incapable of anything and barely in
a condition to go out. I haven’t stopped sweating since Thursday,
even in my bath; and the sordid work at the office is so exhausting
that afterwards one feels utterly down. Moreover the nights are
equally stifling.

Times Obituary of Rod Liddle (1960-2026)

The Times under the ownership of the Murdochs and the Editorship of Tony Gallagher is hardly (if it ever was) the paper or record. That said it is still good on the Royals (Court Circular and beyond), cricket and Obituaries.

The Obituary of Rod Liddle who wrote for the Sunday Times and the S*n- Murdoch journalists often work across both-is above.

I didn’t realise Liddle was still active journalism wise. I received occasional reports of sightings in Saltburn, North Yorks, where he has a property and I used to live, but assumed he was retired. However when doing a piece (on beards obviously) for Times Radio recently I noted that he was listed as one of the presenters. Again Murdoch’s idea presumably was to fuse that station with Talk which he also owns.

The obituary will confound those who think only positive things should be contained in them. It underlines Liddle’s strengths as a journalist- his period as Editor of Radio 4’s Today produced a far better programme that it is today- but does not steer away from (most) of his many downsides.

For eulogies Boris Johnson (on Twitter obviously) has posted this:

Heartsick at the death of Rod Liddle – an outrageously funny and gifted writer with a beautiful conversational style. He had a unique talent for finding the thing that was obviously true but supposedly unsayable and then saying it with such panache as to give the maximum possible offence – and to all the right people. Spectator readers absolutely loved him.

Michael Gove, The Spectator’s editor, said: “Rod Liddle was a journalist of genius. In the tradition of Swift, Cobbett and Orwell, he was a satirist who found society’s most sensitive spots and made merciless fun of our follies.

Peter Oborne’s opposing view

Rod Liddle played the politics of hatred – we should be honest about his legacy | Middle East Eye

When I knew Liddle on Teesside in the second half of the 1970s, he was then a socialist punk, I recall him as personable and amiable. Looking at the many comments after his death was reported from those who knew him more recently, it seems that on occasion he retained those elements of his character. Clearly also on many occasions he did not…

London postal district – Wikipedia

The map is from Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham

I wasn’t aware of the origins of the London Postcode Districts.

Standing on CWU picket lines at the still existing Tottenham sorting office in Moorfields Rd, N17 (central Tottenham) it was sometimes surprising to find solidarity delegations from Stoke Newington which after all is in Hackney, East London. Except its postcode is N16…

North East London lost its place in postcode history in 1866