This Fletter appeared on-line before the Guardian and Observer NUJ strike this week- which I fully supported (I joined the picket for last week’s strike). The Guardian has published no letters for the last two days so it remains current…
As Nick Candy is unveiled as the new Reform UK Ltd treasurer, one wonders what happened to the last one? Purged, one must presume. As John Crace notes (The politics sketch, 10 December), Nigel Farage falls out with everyone in the end. Keith Flett Tottenham, London
Ho Ho Ho: Campaign For REAL SANTAS 2024 urges tug of beard to test for genuine Santas
The Campaign for Real Santas, which promotes Santas with genuine organic beards, is continuing its 2024 initiative to promote real Santas with genuine beards by warning people to be aware of absurd false bearded Santas as the last pre-Christmas shopping weekend is underway.
The Campaigners say that with unemployment and under-employment amongst mature men over 50, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to use an assistant Santa who does not have a real beard.
At the same time the Campaign is also keen to encourage more female Santas with organic knitted beards.
Campaigners are urging parents and children to demand that Santas vigorously tug their beards as a definitive test as to whether they are in the presence of a real Santa or not.
CFRS organiser Keith Flett said, Christmas decorations and lights are up in main High Streets and Christmas tat is everywhere. Our task of exposing false bearded Santas is more important than ever.
The Best Organic Santas of 2024 are Michael Rosen and Ricky Tomlinson who split hairs for the annual honour in an on-line poll
THREE STEPS TO SPOT A GENUINE SANTA
1 Ask the Santa to tug their beard. If it comes away, then the Santa is FAKE
2 If the beard remains intact ask the Santa to tug their beard again. If the Santa swears then they are genuine. If they simply repeat a ‘ho ho ho’ mantra they are FAKE
3 The Campaign for Real Santas says that genuine Santas must have just the right mix of bonhomie and grumpiness and a real organic beard.
Notes
The Campaign for Real Santas is organised by the Beard Liberation Front
On Monday 12th April 1848 Chartists rallied to call for the vote on Kennington Common. The protest was captured via daguerreotype photographs. Its thought not all have survived or at least been discovered but those that have are in the Royal Collection at Windsor. Queen Victoria had a considerable interest in the event in case, as elsewhere in Europe in 1848, it took a revolutionary turn.
Fast forward 176 years and Pressure Drop, an independent craft brewery based in Tottenham have produced a daguerreotype IPA. The 6.8% strength would have worked with beers that Chartists might have drunk in 1848 but the New England style of hazy beer probably would not
Six Years On: Measuring Labour’s Vote on 12th December 2019
Labour suffered a significant Electoral defeat five years ago on 12th December 2019 while the Tories achieved a large majority, their first for three decades.
Keir Starmer’s constant refrain is that Labour has changed. Indeed many thousands of members have left and the Party has moved rightwards. Labour won the July 2025 General Election mainly it might be ventured because the Tories were a chaotic disaster and Starmer was not in the frame for that. Of course there were other reasons, in particular people wanted some sign of change for the better
The media, which at best, is not great when it comes to history often noted that the 202 seats Labour won was the lowest total since 1935. Of course there are always other figures. One is that Labour after December 2019 had the largest number of female MPs in Parliamentary history.
One interesting measure is the total number of votes cast for Labour. This (fairly obviously) is not a guarantee of Electoral success, particularly with a first past the post system, but it does in a very broad way reflect a class vote and the depth of a Party’s support. As things have moved on from July 2024 how rooted Labour’s support is, or not, has become increasingly significant
Here Labour’s 2019 vote of 10.3 million was well down on what Corbyn achieved in 2017 but beyond that the second highest Labour total since 2001, Tony Blair’s 2nd Election victory.
Starmer’s references to the 2019 Election, in which he played a key role, may be seen as political theatre, even if he is not exactly the best actor. The reality is however that away from Westminster in workplaces and communities support needs to be engaged not just to win Elections but to provide a basis for a Labour Government in Office. Even Labour’s focus groups underline there is a lot to do here and that is becoming more obvious as time pushes on from July 2024
Kemi Badenoch has told the Spectator that lunch is for wimps while Keir Starmer has a tuna baguette (Pret). Nigel Farage however posted a short social media video on 12th December underlining that for him not only is lunch essential it must involve liquid- wine that is, not beer.
It was certainly the lunch culture when I started work in the late 1970s (there was an on-site bar in the office) but things have changed. Farage of course has not
This is the annual list of best selling cask beers published by the Morning Advertiser.
Just two independent breweries Timothy Taylor and St Austell feature and both make excellent beer, which no doubt account for sales. The rest of the beers listed are owned by various parts of Global Big Beer. There is nothing to stop them producing good beer, but its notable that despite a large number of outlets Marstons Pedigree- now produced by Carlsberg who don’t have a huge interest in cask- is near the bottom of the best sellers.
Plenty of campaigning work to do in 2025 and on this specific list a regional breakdown would be interesting.
Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social
Robin Swann shaves Jeremy Corbyn to win Parliamentary Beard of the Year 2024 vote
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it faced an unprecedented challenge in drawing up its annual shortlist for the Parliamentary Beard of the Year.
However after much deliberation a shortlist was drawn up and after a series of on-line votes Robin Swann the Ulster Unionist MP for South Antrim has shaved Jeremy Corbyn the Independent MP for Islington North for the annual honour. Swann took 48.5% of the just over 3,000 votes cast with Corbyn getting 39.2%
The General Election on July 4th 2024 saw the departure of a large number of existing MPs- mostly clean shaven Tories- and the arrival of an equally large number of Labour and LibDem MPs.
The existing Parliamentary Beard of the Year holder Alex Cunningham has stepped down as an MP in July
Politics is a disputatious activity and the shortlist invariably draws comment from partisans.
The shortlist is NOT about the politics of the MPs on the list. It’s about whether their activities during the year have provided a positive image of the hirsute during the year. Obviously this can be disputed- how positive or otherwise.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we congratulate Robin Swann who has won the title at the first attempt as a newly elected MP. Jeremy Corbyn has won the annual honour more times than any other MP so we’re sure his beard will be back
Guardian Fletters started in the mid-1980s and continue to be despatched. They are an ephemeral but still foot noted part of the paper’s history.
None will be written over the next two days though in support of a National Union of Journalists strike over a planned but barely consulted on sale of the Observer.
Never cross a picket line physical or virtual even with a Fletter
Politicians and sandwiches. From Lord Sandwich to Kemi Badenoch
Lord Sandwich is credited with popularising the sandwich. An eighteenth century politician his effigy was burnt outside the Tower of London on one occasion after he was involved in prosecuting John Wilkes for obscene libel. A sort of toasted sandwich
Wilkes became Mayor of London and a latter day fan is Boris Johnson.
William Cobbett in the 1820s favoured bread and cheese but not the cheese sandwich as such.
Raymond Postgate who founded the Good Food Guide saw the then British Rail sandwich as everything that was wrong with British cuisine in the 1950s.
By the 1960s Harold Wilson was talking to trade union leaders in Downing St over beer and sandwiches.
Tony Benn was also a fan of sandwiches (at least his own) in Ministerial meetings
In more recent times some took exception to the way in which Ed Miliband ate a bacon sandwich.
Bringing matters up to date Kemi Badenoch has told the Spectator that sandwiches are not real food while Keir Starmer sees them as a Great British Institution and likes a tuna baguette from Pret.
Anyway as its Christmas surely there must be some politicians out there indulging in a pigs in or under blankets sandwich, even if Ms Badenoch has determined that they are not Tory policy
According to The Times (11th December 2024) the recent fashion for Panettone at Christmas is in decline, while sales of traditional Christmas pudding are on the rise. In Victorian times it was known as plumb pudding and was a favourite of both Marx and Engels. Indeed in later life Engels used to despatch plumb puddings at Christmas to German friends and comrades
Below is Jenny Marx’s recipe for Plum Pudding
Yesterday evening we were all at home together sitting downstairs, which in English houses is the kitchen area from which all ‘CREATURE COMFORTS’ make their way up to the higher regions, and were busy preparing the CHRISTMAS PUDDING with all due thoroughness. We were seeding raisins (a most disagreeable and sticky task), chopping up almonds and orange and lemon peel, minutely shredding suet, and with eggs and flour kneading together the oddest potpourri from the whole mishmash;
Jenny Marx to Kugelmann 24th Dec 1867
It’s not recorded what Karl Marx thought of it, or if he preferred stollen…
