Kmflett's Blog

London Socialist Historians Group

20^th October

Contact LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

After Jenrick calls for Downing St portraits to ‘extoll great figures in English history’ historians suggest black Chartist leader William Cuffay

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, has said that in Black History Month, it would be timely to display a portrait of the black Chartist leader William Cuffay (1788-1870) at 10 Downing St

Contender for the Tory leadership Robert Jenrick has been reported in the Daily Telegraph as complaining that Keir Starmer has been re-arranging the paintings at 10 Downing St. A portrait of Margaret Thatcher has been moved, and so have those depicting Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth 1^st and Shakespeare

Jenrick is quoted as saying “We should celebrate and extol great figures in English history and stop being embarrassed by our identity. No other country would behave like this.”.

The socialist historians agree and a good portrait would be that of William Cuffay the black leader of London Chartism in 1848.  Cuffay was at the centre of the fight for the vote and Parliamentary Democracy. He was transported to Tasmania for his alleged role in a rising in central London in August 1848 but continued as a labour organiser in Hobart until his death in 1870

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, we appreciate that the portraits in Downing St come from the Government Art Collection which is unlikely to have procured one of Cuffay. However good drawings of him have survived and one could surely quite easily be done

20th October

Make More Noise

Chelsea has had a temporary henna tattoo on her arm from Zainab following an incident at the tea room, with the words Make More Noise, the slogan Emmeline used to rouse the Suffragettes in the early twentieth century. Just what Ambridge needs this autumn.

Fallon quits the tea room but pays the price for not joining a union.

Fallon has got the cafe concession at the new if long delayed charging station and handed in her notice at the tea rooms. With Emma currently out of the picture this has caused a crisis for Natasha and Tom. They may care (but probably wont) to reflect on their employee relations culture. Natasha subsequently offered Fallon a revised and improved contract which she turned down. If she had a union rep they might have advised not to burn bridges so promptly before it becomes clear how the new venture works out.

The return of Clarrie and Henry

After not appearing for hundreds of episodes they are back and speaking again..

George Grundy (Angus Stobie) reveals to Radio Times that he has had no ferret training

https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/radio/the-archers-angus-stobie-george-grundy-interview/

In Other News

Helen and Kirsty have housing issues….

Apple Day is coming, a tradition invented in 2000

Hard right contender for the Tory leadership Robert Jenrick, also known as Bob, can be found saying very right-wing things about all kinds of things . In the Telegraph he has complained that Keir Starmer has been re-arranging the paintings at 10 Downing St. Thatcher has gone, so has Walter Raleigh and now Shakespeare. Quite what the issue with the playwright is remains unclear.

According to Jenrick “We should celebrate and extol great figures in English history and stop being embarrassed by our identity. No other country would behave like this.”.

Quite so, so given its Black History Month why hang a picture of the black leader of London Chartism William Cuffay (1788-1870) in Downing St. Clearly Jenrick will be supportive…

National Album Day, the first Clash LP, Career Opportunities

The first Clash record, named simply The Clash, was released on 8th April 1977.

The track listing (etc) for the record is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clash_(album)

I was bought the record on release (one of those shiny vinyl things) and the short sharp songs, musically and lyrically, fitted the mood of those days.

There was a Labour Government but one that had embarked on an IMF inspired programme of austerity cuts. One result was rising unemployment. Another was the rise of the fascist National Front.

Just two weeks after The Clash was released, the NF tried a high profile march in North London that became known as the Battle of Wood Green:

The Clash however were not of course fascists but precisely the reverse. The record was about resisting and fighting back against a system that was a dead end for so many, particularly for young people (I was a 19 year old student at the time). The Clash went on to become one of the headliners at the first Anti Nazi League/Rock Against Racism Carnival in Victoria Park the following year.

The record is now part of social history, but history relevant to now 40 years on.

The Culture War before Peterloo

In 2024 we are of course familiar with the concept of a culture war. A focus on what people look like, how they dress, what they say, what they eat. The possibilities are endless but the underlying aim is to point to political undesirability.

They are however nothing new.

If we look at the period before Peterloo in1819 we can find a culture war in progress which ended up on Monday 16^th August 1819 in central Manchester with deadly consequences.

In the Making of the English Working Class Thompson puts the events and implications of Peterloo at the centre of the book. The original hardback dust cover from 1963 depicted a scene from Peterloo.

In the preparations for Peterloo Samuel Bamford noted ‘we had frequently been taunted in the press with our dirty, ragged appearance… with the confusion of our proceedings and the mob-like crowds in which our members were mustered’

The aim was to paint protesters for the vote as a potentially violent rabble.

To counter this the committee focused on several key areas: cleanliness, sobriety, order to which Henry Hunt added ‘peace’.

The distinction later came to be codified as the difference between moral and physical force Chartism. However the distinction was never that clear cut. It is perhaps better summed up by ‘peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must’.

Thompson was very likely making a slightly different point however.

He did not avoid the reality of an armed force tradition in working class politics in the early decades of the nineteenth century. His politics via the Communist Party to 1956 and then the new left however saw mass democratic mobilisation as the way to achieve change.

The Culture War before Peterloo sought to suggest that those mobilised to campaign for change were a disorderly and potentially violent mob. The point of Bamford and of Hunt was that they were an organised and orderly movement determined to achieve progress..

James Beeson has the story in the Grocer.

Global brewer Asahi has decided to reduce the strength of Grolsch which is still marketed as a premium pilsner from 4% to 3.4%. Under new duty rules which came into effect in August 2023 that will see Asahi save 23p on each can of 440ml Grolsch sold.

Grolsch dropped out of the UK market when it was a 5% beer and Asahi reintroduced it in 2020 as 4% claiming that people preferred a lower strength beer. Beeson notes that the further reduction appears to relate to a significant slide in sales. Perhaps not surprisingly when other classics such as Pilsner Urquell are at 4.4%.

Engels who was a great pilsner drinker would certainly not have been impressed.

Asahi have form having recently reduced the strength of Dark Star Hophead from 3.8% to 3.4%. I recently tried a pint and to be fair it still tasted decent.

Greene King have also reduced Ruddles bitter from 3.7% to 3.4% much the chagrin of Tim Martin. Wetherspoons sells the beer as part of its core cask range at £1.79 a pint in many pubs. Martin is far from always right but his point that while the brewer got a benefit for this it was not passed on to the drinker in the form of a price cut was spot on

Call to make Michael Rosen Day (12^th November) an annual public holiday

12^th November has been designated as Michael Rosen Day when a reading manifesto will be launched and all things to do with reading will be celebrated, shared and no doubt argued about on occasion.

Britain still has the fewest public holidays in Europe and there have long been calls for a further public holiday to bridge the long gap between the late August Bank Holiday and Christmas. 12^th November is ideally situated between the two holidays in that respect.

Socialist historian Keith Flett noted that while public holidays are often associated with religious occasions such as Easter, Whitsun and Christmas they are also mark long surviving traditional activities.

As well as reading Michael Rosen Day Holiday will surely want to celebrate, beards- as Rosen is a former Beard of the Year- football (in Michael Rosen’s case Arsenal but other teams are available) and of course chocolate cake.

Its something that Lisa Nandy Minister for Culture, Media and Sport needs to put on the national agenda

Michael Rosen’s reading manifesto

1. Reading books helps children make the most of what school and the world offer them
2. Books give children language, thoughts, ideas and feeling
3. Books show them places and times and cultures very near and dear to them
4. Books show them places and times and cultures they may not have come across before
5. Books help children walk in other people’s shoes, seeing things from someone else’s point of view
6. Books help children see that they are not alone
7. We have to do what we can to put books into children’s hands
8. We have to do what we can to find space and time for children to talk about books
9. We have to celebrate children’s books
10. Children’s books are for everyone because we are all children at some time or another

The Bookseller – News – Walker Books launches Inaugural Michael Rosen Day alongside ‘manifesto for reading’

The mother of the Magistrate who sent the Yeomanry in at Peterloo on 16th August 1819 owned a horse named Church and King.

Its a reminder that cornerstones of the Tory Party going back to before 1834 when the ‘modern’ Party was formed was support for the monarchy and the Church of England.

Such is the ideological crisis of Toryism in 2024 that this appears to have been abandoned. The new Government has introduced a Bill in the Commons to remove the remaining 92 Hereditary Peers. It is not proposing to remove the 26 Anglican Peers including the Archbishop of Canterbury at the moment.

Former Tory Minister Gavin Williamson is proposing an amendment to remove the Bishops. The Times reports that Williamson is Church of England but his children are Catholic. There of course remain barriers to a Catholic becoming monarch.

In so far as socialist and republicans have an interest here its surely that the Tories seem to be prepared to divorce themselves from a constitutional arrangement that is at the centre of their own history.

Beard Liberation Front

30th October

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Campaigners say Rachel Reeves Budget displays clean shaven revisionist tendency

The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has said that it is relieved that the idea of a beard tax was not pursued by Rachel Reeves end of October Budget.

Such taxes have never worked in practice and in 2024 would cost far more to enforce and collect than they would ever raise.

While history records several beard taxes including one imposed by Peter the Great these were aimed at the rich and powerful in society and were poorly enforced. The lower orders had insufficient money historically to pay any direct taxes.

A modern beard tax would require a Beard Inspectorate to enforce tax payment and just to check on beards in Dalston and Shoreditch in East London alone would be likely to outweigh proceeds from the tax.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we have long believed that a shaving tax on all items relating to shaving would raise more money and it would also be climate friendly. We are dismayed that Rachel Reeves failed to take a fiscally responsible approach to facial hair underlining that clean shaven revisionism remains part of much of Labour thinking in this area.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have been taking part in a GB News debate on who should be the next Tory leader on Thursday evening.

Obviously it wasn’t a debate. Badenoch and Jenrick addressed the audience separately and took questions on the same basis. Most of the audience appeared at least as old as I am (quite old but I dont vote Tory).

The Guardian reported one line from Badenoch who is famous for promoting culture wars. Its a which side are you on question- the Guardian or GB News. I subscribe to the Guardian (which doesnt mean I agree with it. It is possible to read things you don’t agree with). I also keep an eye on the twitter feed of GB News mainly to see which credulous fool is the latest person to be lured into their Paddington basement lair

“I don’t know how many of you believe what you read in the Guardian, but if you do, then you wouldn’t be here on GB News,” 

Kemi Badenoch 17th October 2024