Kmflett's Blog

Liz Truss spoke at a fringe event at the Tory Conference in Birmingham on Monday.

Her speech contained the usual quota of conspirators who made sure that she lasted as a Prime Minister for 49 days. These include the Woke (of course) but currently the left Establishment (such as the Bank of England) and bureaucracies.

Given that Truss was a Minister and then a Prime Minister for some years it might reasonably be asked if she was also part of all this.

One thing she did NOT reference was a ‘transgender underground mafia’. This was made up by the satirical site Politics For You. It nevertheless gained considerable currency on social media because once you start promoting whacky conspiracy theories.

Truss is currently a hard to far right politician. There is unfortunately no shortage. The impact of the fake ‘quote’ underlines more fortunately that while some of them at least need to be taken very seriously she is not one of them.

Histories of the present: Jenrick’s great moving right show lurches further right

The media is bad at history, even very recent history. When Robert Jenrick resigned as a Minister in December 2023 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. Of course he has a point Jenrick’s Tory principles include war not peace, even if that is a minority view generally.

This week he has 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

Following his resignation there were attempts to suggest that his lurch to the right is a recent thing. It isn’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 revelation at the Tory Conference in Birmingham on 1^st October that one of the middle names of his daughter is ‘Thatcher’ perhaps underlines that in future he might be someone to be found parading around in a smart uniform…

Beard Liberation Front

1st October

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that its decision to provisionally award the Tories the most Beard Friendly Conference 2024 has been underlined by leadership contender Tom Tugendhat completely missing the point about Movember.

The BLF is a long standing supporter of Movember which focuses on men’s health. It encourages men to grow a moustache in November as a visible sign of support. While the BLF has concerns about Movember’s policy that any existing facial hair should be shaved off and then re-grown this is left up to supporters.

Meanwhile Tugendhat who does not seem to have ever knowingly worn facial hair has been pictured having his hair cut at the Tory Conference in Birmingham

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, its a concern that many Tories just don’t get facial hair at all

Movember

https://uk.movember.com/#:~:text=Growing%20a%20Mo%20is%20like%20wearing%20a%20symbol%20representing%20healthier

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it has taken a provisional view that the Conservative Conference in Birmingham is the most Beard Friendly of the three main Party Conferences in 2024.

The BLF has had observers at the Liberal Democrat and Labour Conferences but the view has been that while beards were present, there was little evidence that either event was particularly beard friendly.

By contrast the Tories currently have a hirsute chair Richard Fuller, and one of the four leadership contenders James Cleverley is hirsute.

The campaigners say that the Tory Conference has come from a very low benchmark where beards were very rare in conferences over many years to a situation this year where wearing a beard appears at least to have been normalised.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we can provisionally say, that the Tories in Birmingham may be the most Beard Friendly Conference, although there are concerns that Robert Jenrick is planning to announce a compulsory shaving policy if he wins the leadership

Liz Truss speaks at a Tory fringe & backs Herbert Morrison: socialism is what a Labour Government does’

Liz Truss has been speaking at a fringe event at the Tory Conference in Birmingham. It wasn’t that fringe because it was behind the security cordon and open to conference attendees only.

Even so Hall 5 at the ICC was reportedly packed-it holds 300 people- for a Q&A between Truss and a Telegraph journalist.

As might be expected Truss said a number of interesting things:

She backs Trump to win the US Presidency as the anti-Establishment candidate

She think Boris Johnson should not have been purged as Tory leader and thinks she would have done better than Sunak on July 4^th

She notes that Electors in her former SW Norfolk Constituency did not want to elect a Labour MP but this took place by accident thanks to the intervention of Reform UK (who came third)

She argued that Britain is already ‘in socialism’ echoing the view of Herbert Morrison (Attlee’s Deputy in the 1945-51 Labour Government) that socialism is what a Labour Government does. Keir Starmer hasn’t used that line yet..

Finally Truss noted she hadn’t yet decided if she would stand again as an MP. In other words, she may be back…

You might think that the last thing that the Tories grappling with their worst election result since at least 1906 and possibly 1832 is for Liz Truss to pop up at their Birmingham Conference.

However she will be in conversation on Monday with a Daily Telegraph journalist in Hall 5 at the ICC. It holds 300 people. Its behind the conference security cordon so it is officially a conference event…

I missed the original announcement at the end of August (see James Beeson in The Grocer) but thanks to the indefatigable Beer Guide London I note that at some point early in 2025 Brixton Brewery is to move production to Beavertown in Ponders End.

For those who think there is something of a difference between North and Sarf London its concerning. Both breweries are owned by global big beer outfit Heineken and such companies only real focus is the bottom line not where the beer is brewed or indeed the jobs of those that brew it.

The official reason is that Brixton want to expand production but can’t do so on their current site. They will reportedly maintain a facility for small batch brews in Brixton much as Camden, also based at Ponders End have with their original site.

Brixton branded beer brewed in Ponders End doesnt sound quite right but as above Big Beer really could not care less about that.

Russell Findlay was elected as the latest Scottish Tory leader on Saturday. He received 2,565 votes from the total Tory membership in Scotland of 6,941. Turnout was 60%.

The Tories are quite secretive about membership numbers but the 2020 figure is thought to have been 10,911. Figures in the House of Commons Library suggest that Scottish Tory membership numbers are typically 12% of the UK total which would put the current UK total at around 75,000. That is likely an understatement but possibly not a huge one