Kmflett's Blog

Queen Elizabeth 1926-2022. The end of Empire and after

Queen Elizabeth 11 was born one hundred years ago on 21^st April 1926 and died in 2022. I am not of course a monarchist but the historical perspective is interesting. I wrote the below at the time of her death. If as my 2022 analysis suggested we are now in the twenty-first century it is one of Trump, Gaza, Ukraine and climate crisis. The current monarch is meeting Trump on a State visit at the end of the month.

Britain is a constitutional monarchy so the role of the Royal Family and the monarch in particular is not just ceremonial but also political. Investigations in recent times by the Guardian and others have underlined that the then monarch and also King Charles actively sought to influence political decisions where they have interest or concern.

In that context the death of Queen Elizabeth on 8^th September2022 represented a conclusion to the long twentieth century (I have the historian Daryl Leeworthy to thank for this point). The Queen actively ruled over Britain for 70 years. It was not for the most part a nation at ease with itself.

From her early decades when Britain was still extricating itself from direct colonial rule- the first decade of Elizabeth’s reign saw the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya bloodily dealt with by the British Army and even latterly the Royal Family’s relationship with the slave trade has so far only elicited a ‘sorry’.

In the UK it might be argued that until the late 1960s the Queen did preside over a degree of social peace. The changes in society in that period- the legalisation of abortion and homosexuality, the equal pay act are however not in any way associated with the monarchy.

The point was not lost on many since by the time of the 1977 Jubilee the Sex Pistols irreverent God Save the Queen better fitted  a national mood than forelock tugging.

It has been downhill all the way since. The death of Princess Diana, Prince Andrew,  the expulsion of Prince Harry and the numerous doubtful dealings of King Charles. Perhaps it could be argued that the Queen rose above all this but she also presided over it all.

It is if course far too soon to draw anything but the most provisional of historical balance sheets, leaving aside numerous media hagiographies. Political decisions can however be made. It’s time to end the constitutional role of the monarchy, disestablish the Church of England, and confine King Charles III to a ceremonial role only

Socialist Worker, July 1981

The front page of Socialist Worker in the week Charles married Diana in 1981. It was street sold.

It stood perhaps more in the anti-monarchist tradition of Reynolds’s News, the biggest selling paper of the late Victorian period, than the Chartist Red Republican (1850) which carried the first English translation of the Communist Manifesto.

Its an excellent way to remember the 100th birthday of Lilibet..

Many on the Labour Benches, at least, will appreciate my right hon. and learned Friend’s apology today, but many of us remain bewildered about why the appointment took place, despite the warnings that many of us gave him. Is not the reality this? When he sought to realise his ambition to become leader of the Labour party, with very little base within the party, he became dependent on McSweeney, Mandelson and Labour Together to organise and fund his election. When he became the Prime Minister, the reward for McSweeney was control of No. 10, and the reward for Mandelson was the highest diplomatic office. The unspoken message to civil servants was, “What Mandelson wants, Mandelson gets.”

This has damaged the party that I have been a member of for 50 years. I urge the Prime Minister to take steps to clear this toxic culture out of our party, and to take the first step by having an independent inquiry into Labour Together.

House of Commons 20th April 2026

The Prime Minister has gone on at considerable length about process and procedure, but ordinary people do not really care about process and procedure; they want transparency, and they want to know that they can have confidence in the words of elected politicians like all of us in this Chamber.

It was in the ’90s that Peter Mandelson had to resign from the Cabinet for the first time, because of his dealings with the millionaire Geoffrey Robinson. A few years later, he had to resign from the Cabinet for the second time, because of his relationships with the billionaire Hinduja family. Peter Mandelson has a history. Knowing that history, which goes back 30 years, and given what is known, it is one thing to say, as the Prime Minister insists on saying, “Nobody told me; nobody told me anything,” but what this House wants to know is: why did the Prime Minister not ask?

Keir Starmer explained to the House of Commons on 20th April how he had managed not to find out that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting before being appointed to the role of US Ambassador

How does it feel?
How does it feel
To be without a home?
With no direction home?
Like a complete unknown?
Just like a rolling stone?
Like a rolling stone?

Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone

Beard Liberation Front

18^th May

Contact Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

2026 Beard, Shorts & Sandals Season open. Sunglasses in vogue

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the 2026 Official Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season is officially open

The pre-Season was marked by variable weather but the forecast now indicates higher temperatures with less rain for a period. The 2025 Season opened on 18^th May so it is almost a month earlier this year

No Guidelines in 2026

The Beard Liberation Front, one of whose founding principles is that people should be able to dress and appear as they want, is increasingly concerned about official diktats on how people should or should not appear.

For the first time the voluntary option of wearing shades or sunglasses has been added after consultation within the network.

However the BLF urges those participating in the 2026 Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season to take care out there:

1 UV levels. It’s not just sun that can lead to sunburnt legs

2 Pogonophobia. Participants should beware beard haters

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard, Shorts and Sandals season has been a major influence on summer fashions in recent times and we expect the 2026 season to be no different. There is however a major difference again this year. There are no guidelines. Do your own thing!

From ‘craft’ to independent beer. Where are we in 2026?

I attended the annual conference of the Campaign for Real Ale at the weekend. It was in St Albans, but other commitments meant I was on-line. It was a decent experience. All contributions could be seen and heard, and I was able to vote on motions and ask questions.

Given the matter had not been mentioned I did ask the EC what the view was of the impact of Brewdog’s failure on ‘craft’ and independent beer. The response was that Brewdog was over-leveraged and that given the surviving outfit is now owned by a US company an important issue was that consumers might take beer produced by global big beer as something independent. The case of Beavertown’s Neck Oil (Heineken) was correctly mentioned.

I take it, understandably that ‘craft’ was not a popular word at the conference, ‘cask’ and ‘independent’ being preferred.

SIBA has for a while promoted the idea of independent beer produced by independent companies. It is an important battle against Big Beer’s ‘craft’ brands, although how enamoured it is itself of ‘craft’ these days I’m less sure.

It must be said that in the interesting panel on independent beer and access to market ‘craft’ did make an appearance, and at the conclusion of the conference there were suggestions about where to go in St Albans after the conference bar shut. This included pubs with a range of Deya and Verdant beers. Both of course are independent and both to do produce cask beer, but both are mainly keg/keykeg.

When it comes to it, perhaps the point is that good beer is good beer. Its bit more than a tautology!

While industrial breweries can produce drinkable and reliable products, indy breweries surely have the edge in terms of innovation, brewing to local and regional tastes and flexibility of production. In 2026 we can perhaps leave craft to big beer.

As Roger Protz noted in a conference speech while the Big Beer companies of the 1970s did know how to produce good cask beer and reverted after CAMRA campaigns, the Big Beer companies of the 2020s have no interest in brewing cask beer. For them its at best an inconvenience (perhaps we can exclude ABI’s current efforts on Draught Bass). As ever though contradictions abound. The producers of some of the biggest selling cask beers, Sharps and Greene King are not independent

Tony Benn has a number of references to Peter Mandelson in his Diaries. One from 1987 is below

Monday 16th February 1987. Today we had a meeting of the NEC and the Shadow Cabinet, the first since Neil Kinnock became leader, Kinnock introduced the meeting and spoke for about twenty minutes.. We went on to Peter Mandelson who said a few words. I find Mandelson a threatening figure for the future of the Party. He came in from the media eighteen months ago and has taken over

Of course in 1987 Mandelson’s Epstein links did not exist, and reported links to China were long into the future. Benn however clearly had the measure of what Mandelson represented for the Labour Party.

Keir Starmer then a young socialist activist likely would have been unaware of Mandelson except that also in 1987 he interviewed Tony Benn for the Socialist Alternatives magazine. The theme of the interview was very much the kind of Labour Party Benn thought should be developing against what people like Mandelson were doing.

Mandelson is not mentioned in the printed version, which of course would have been edited. Starmer in 2026 might well claim that Benn never referred to him, but given Benn’s view of the impact of Mandelson on Labour that seems questionable.

What Starmer really believes. Interview with Tony Benn in 1987 | Kmflett’s Blog

The Ambridge Socialist

19^th April

Bert Horrobin deserves better than the enormous condescension of posterity

After a long break the BBC has decided to cover (rather than just report) what Bert Horrobin is doing and saying this.

He appears to be one of the few Ambridge residents with a beard but more importantly he is a working class character. Like most such people in Ambridge the BBC is condescending to him. He is a rascal, always doing something doubtful, just like Eddie Grundy. He has not however ever been found guilty of polluting the Am or covering up who attacked George. The person who has done that is of course a man of honour

Lillian in the frame

After persistent questioning Lilian has determined that Brian’s rather difficult behaviour is not related to dementia but because he is covering up for Ruairi and the reality that he attacked George. That means that Lilian is now complicit unless of course she plans to go to the police.

Good news for Pip

In a week of generally not great news Pip has found that the lump in her breast is a cyst rather than cancer. A good situation for the Archers to cover and well handled

Proletarian Thought of the Week

Only people with nothing are honest. Bert Horrobin

Since Marx was plagued by carbuncles on his posterior (and elsewhere) chairs are likely to have been an important issue.

The picture above is the chair Marx is thought to have died in, in 1883. Its in the Karl Marx Museum in Trier.

Also extant is the Windsor Chair, a similar shape but not padded, that Marx allegedly sat in while writing Capital.

Engels was particularly critical of armchair socialists. He wrote to Bebel (20-23 January 1886)

the hotch-potch of armchair socialism which, however, is not a theory but sheer drivel.