Boris Johnson’s memoir was meant to be the Christmas best seller on a par with Prince Harry’s Spare in 2023. Suffice to say it was not. In reality it has ended up remaindered in Waterstones and the Works at £15, 50% off the RRP.
How low will it go?
Thanks to @Kimoflondon for picture
Kernel Tap, Spa Rd. Opened August 2024
Beer Guide London has published the annual analysis for ‘craft’ beer breweries and pubs in London for 2024. It makes for interesting reading: https://www.beerguideldn.com/news.php#N539
Thanks must go to the indefatigable @musinganorak for checking things out and keeping the guide updated.
As he reports there is a small reduction in breweries to 101 while the number of bar, taps etc closures and openings more or less balances out.
The broader hospitality trade remains under pressure from energy costs and the general cost of living, as well as issues on business rates. I am much less impressed by those who complain about increases in the living wage. Where do they think the people they want to drink in their bars get their money from?
We live in a market capitalist society so like it or not the size of London means its the best guide to what is happening around beer and pubs in the UK.
Some personal thoughts. While still based officially in Tottenham I’m not in London that much for various personal reasons. However 5 years on from the pandemic (plus I am 68) the thought of travelling around London to drink appeals a little less. One of the things about the craft beer ‘revolution’ was that new places selling good beer opened in lots of places where previously there had been none. Local beer for local people you might say.
In that respect I was sorry to see in 2024 the closure of Ora near Spurs, and Wild Card on Blackhorse Lane. On the pub side I’m still not sure why the Hackney Tap (which was right by Hackney Central station) closed. Competition from the always excellent and nearby Cock and Pembury might be a factor but in market capitalism (see above) competition is meant to promote business not reduce it. On the plus side good to see the Antwerp Arms in Tottenham listed, now run by Redemption Brewery, in the Guide
Anyway there are reasons to be cheerful for craft beer in 2025 in London based on the fact that 2024 was not nearly as bad as might have been thought.
Beard Liberation Front
6th January
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said Justin Trudeau’s inconsistent beard played a significant role in his decision to step down as Liberal leader and PM on 6th January.
Trudeau’s politics have increasingly reflected a gap between rhetoric and reality but the beard issue had a significant part to play.
When Trudeau sported his trademark salt and pepper beard it added a sense of gravitas that was able to defray, to an extent, a sense of growing political crisis. Without the beard Trudeau’s politics were laid bare.
At the last 2021 Election his political advisors ran a political stunt which asked voters if they preferred Trudeau with a beard or clean shaven prefiguring his resignation four years on.
Starmer: the speed & length of the political speech.
The Times does sometimes carry interesting journalism when it is not just cutting and pasting pieces from its sister paper the S*n and adding some more words.
Its analysis of how quickly politicians speak (6th January) is an example.
Its aim is to underline that Starmer is a boring speaker, which in my view he is, but in the context of the times I’d rather have that than the hyperbole of Farage. The content of either person’s speech is another matter.
The Times has analysed how many words a minute politicians have uttered in well known speeches (I’m not sure the analysis is that that accurate but the comparison remains interesting)
Words per minute
Churchill (Iron Curtain) 1946,105
Macmillan (Winds of Change) 1960, 108
Thatcher (The Lady’s Not for Turning) 1980, 106
Tony Blair (average) 105
The Tory Years
Dave Cameron, 118.6
Theresa May, 119
Boris Johnson, 122.5
Keir Starmer, (Conference Speech, Sept 24), 101
The speed up in the Tory years may reflect an understanding that people were willing to listen for less time than previously having many other distractions.
I prefer people who speak slowly and clearly (I am not an example) but it is not just the speed of speaking but the length.
I’ve convened a seminar at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London for 30 years. Until 2020 it was exclusively in person. 20 years ago someone presenting a paper might speak for over an hour. In 2025 I advise in person speakers to keep to 45-50 minutes and those on Zoom to 30-40 minutes. It might be argued that attention and concentration spans are less.
However if one thinks of a public speech as in part theatre, there are now many other theatrical amusements
Tony Collins will talk about his new book which re-examines the rich and complex roots of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Using a range of original sources, he will investigate how the young CPGB was shaped by the experiences of the Social Democratic Federation, the Socialist Labour Party and the Workers’ Socialist Federation during the years of war, intense class struggle, and the rise of Labourism before 1920. Rather than being an imposition from Moscow, he will argue that the CPGB was an organic development of the British left, something that was both its strength and its weakness.’
Report
The seminar was well attended with a very knowledgeable group.
Tony looked at which groups prior to the formation of the CPGB in 1920 had publicly campaigned against World War One, a litmus test of anti-imperialism. He also looked at the debates on whether electoral politics and the Labour Party should be engaged with. He underlined that existing works on the left before the CPGB had not brought these themes together. It is an important historical moment but perhaps one that also suggests some pointers for the left in 2025
The seminar was organised by the Socialist History Seminar at the IHR and the London Socialist Historians Group. Contact Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social
Link to buy the book
Boris Johnson’s memoir officially titled Unleashed was published in October 2024 and was meant to be the Christmas best seller comparable to Prince Harry’s Spare in 2023.
The Christmas best seller list (to week ending 21st December 2024) is now available (Sunday Times 5th January 2025).
1 I Havent Been Entirely Honest With You, Miranda Hart, 18.093 copies
2 Ted: A Pawtobiography, Ted the Dog, 16,525 copies
3 Diddly Squat, Home to Roost, Jeremy Clarkson, 15,985 copies
4 Unleased, Boris Johnson, 11,645 copies
5 All That Matters, Chris Hoy, 10,820 copies
Johnson was outsold comprehensively by Miranda Hart but also Ted the Dog (star of Gone Fishing) and Jeremy Clarkson
Histories of the present: Jenrick’s great moving right show lurches further right still
The media is bad at history, even very recent history. When Robert Jenrick resigned as a Home Office Minister in December 2023 he spoke to Laura Kuenssberg on her Sunday morning slot and claimed that migrants don’t integrate into British society. He gave as an example the thousands who have marched and continue to march to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Yet his resignation was not about that but about self-promotion. More recently his focus has been on Pakistanis who he, falsely, claims are over represented in grooming cases. He could have acted on this when a Minister but of course did not.
In October 2024 he suggested that the Israeli flag be shown at points of entry to the UK. Usually senior Tories patriotism focuses on the UK but Jenrick’s allegiance is apparently to Tel Aviv.
That was part of his bid to become Tory leader. He narrowly lost out to Kemi Badenoch.
Following his resignation there were attempts to suggest that his lurch to the right was a recent thing. It wasn’t
When he was Communities Minister in 2021 Jenrick has announced in the Sunday Telegraph that he planned to make any changes to historic statues and monuments subject to planning laws.
In doing so Jenrick used Trumpian language. Anti-racist protesters were a ‘baying mob’ while democratically elected local councillors are a ‘cultural committee’ of town hall militants and woke worthies”. If we were to lower ourselves to Jenrick’s level what he was actually proposing was to override local democratic processes with decisions by a coterie of racist Tory Ministers.
Jenrick is part of a Tory Great Moving Right Show and it could end up moving very far right indeed based on present performance.
His latest lurch was a piece in the Telegraph (4th January) about Britain’s Pakistani community that is unrelentingly racist (it can be found on his Twitter account). In the days following he has doubled down on the comments.
Jenrick’s language in the Telegraph article is the kind of thing that caused Ted Heath to sack Enoch Powell over his 1968 Rivers of Blood speech. However Badenoch did not sack Jenrick but tweeted that his claims about an ‘alien culture’ were just part of legitimate free speech.
As things stand Jenrick is pitching further to the right than Reform UK Ltd. Whether his aim is to split the Tories and replace Farage (no easy matter as Farage is the owner of the Party) or to replace Badenoch after the May Council Elections and look to do an electoral deal with Reform we’ll find out.
The LibDems have called on Badenoch to sack Jenrick. Clearly she has no issue with his comments. As the Tory leader it might be thought there would be concerns about Jenrick freelancing with a comments across a number of Ministerial briefs.
Building anti-racist opposition and an alternative to the left that defends immigration as a positive in British life (for many centuries) must be on the agenda
The Ambridge Socialist
5th January
The Archers in 2024: Still not enough Grundy & too much Archer
Simon Pemberton the Archers stats man (see Academic Archers on Facebook) has revealed that there were 312 episodes of the BBC’s reports from Ambridge in 2024.
The Ambridge Socialist continues to believe that there should be more coverage of the Grundys (notwithstanding George) and less of the Archers. The good news is that the Grundys did get almost as much coverage as the Archer dynasty in 2024, an improvement and a welcome recognition of who does the actual work in Ambridge.
Neil Carter: Inventing Tradition
Neil Carter has told Hannah that he was abandoned by his mother and brought up as a foster child. An interesting back story but one at odds with the printed record of Neil’s early years where he was certainly not abandoned by his mother. Neil was also the first union rep in Ambridge (before Mike Tucker) but the chances of the BBC remembering that are precisely nil
Rochelle
The story line such as it is continues. The Ambridge Socialist can reveal that the actress who doubles as Rochelle is a sound individual.
Beavers
Frustrated by how much bureaucracy is involved in getting beavers officially involved with the rewilding project, Kirsty and Rex are pondering bringing some in unofficially. David Archer will be ready with his gun, and don’t expect Sgt Knacker Burns to intervene.
In Other News
Rex has had a New Year’s party on his boat moored on the Am
Lee returned, his first appearance since autumn 2023, to announce that he is off to San Francisco
One reason, little stated, why regular furores occur about Woke and anti-imperial histories is that despite the best efforts of those researching socialist, feminist and history from below, probably the majority of better known historians are on the political right.
One example is the Scottish historian Niall Ferguson, Knighted in 2024 who is currently based at Stanford.
I’ve read his history in the past and particularly enjoyed the syndicated articles he wrote for the Sunday Times. Of course his perspective came from the right but it was often thought provoking with sometimes unpredictable conclusions.
How far this remains true I’m less sure. He gave an interview to the Times (4th January) where he now writes an occasional column.
In his latest double page spread (Times 1st March) he complains about Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in US and UK Universities in a way that Trump would no doubt approve of. He touches on the ‘woke mind virus’ but suggests that the real issue is poor governance in academic institutions. By this he means that ideas on the left are permitted (Palestine excepted of course) and those on the right frowned upon at best. He also runs through a number of right-wing academics he thinks have been cancelled.
I think many on the left would be very critical of University governance and the vast salaries many Vice Chancellors pay themselves but I don’t think this is where Ferguson is coming from.
Somehow I also don’t expect the Times will be offering an historian from the left a two page spread to reply.
He noted in his January piece that he had recently been at a Donald Trump event at Mar a Lago and while he was critical of Trump from 2016 to the attempted coup in January 2021, now thinks Trump will be an ok President. He now argues that the 2021 event was simply an outcrop of the pandemic and not a coup.
He is also a friend of Elon Musk who he declares to be innovative but plans to speak to him about his backing for Reform UK Ltd. Ferguson backs Kemi Badenoch.
Ferguson rose to prominence in the Thatcher era and is the model for a right-wing historian in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. He advised Lord Dave Cameron, though he doesn’t say what about.
Ferguson notes that he spoke to King Charles at Windsor when he received his Knighthood and they discussed progress on his biography of Kissinger.
The contrast (perhaps) is with Eric Hobsbawm. Hobsbawm was a Companion of Honour (a higher award than a Knighthood). Hobsbawm remained a member of the CPGB until it dissolved in 1990, and his politics were often disputed on the left. His history however was invariably insightful and not mechanically tied to his political perspectives although informed by them.
I think the same was true of Ferguson but as someone who is now a fan of Trump and Musk I’m no longer sure.
The many CHRISTMAS drinking-sprees and consequent GENERAL
UNFITNESS FOR BUSINESS have rendered me utterly incapable of replying
any sooner. However, the affair is now happily over.
Engels to Marx 3rd January 1864
Engels who was often known to drink a Pilsner beer at breakfast (after his retirement) it must be assumed had been involved in some serious Christmas drinking sessions. He certainly would not have been an enthusiast for Dry January
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