Kmflett's Blog

Beer and the Election: As soon as this pub closes

Jeremy Corbyn a lifelong abstainer from drink, who nevertheless has always shown interest in protecting pubs in his Constituency, repaired with his campaign to the Bedford Tavern pub, in Seven Sisters Rd North London to watch Euro football games after canvassing. The pub was supporting his campaign.

Despite a welcome number of independent socialist and pro-Palestine candidates in the Election that is possibly the best story available related to beer and pubs from the election campaigns of this important political development. In the interests of balance it might also be noted that Liz Truss was the only candidate not to attend a 200 strong hustings in her Constituency because she was watching football in the pub.

Understandbly the indy socialist campaigns had more immediately pressing issues to focus on, not least Gaza.

However in the wider election campaign beer and pubs featured in a big way.

Back in May Rishi Sunak launched his campaign at the Vale of Glamorgan brewery in South Wales. As with much else in the Tory campaign it was unclear what purpose this served. Sunak is not a drinker and South Wales is solidly Labour. Unfortunately in addition, and not for the first time CAMRA allowed itself to be drawn into what was essentially a Sunak stunt. Engaging with politicians on beer and pubs is essential. Being part of their election campaign is not.

By contrast Keir Starmer is a beer drinker and referenced his local, the Good Beer Guide listed Pineapple in Kentish Town during his own campaign. He also visited the nearby Three Locks microbrewery in Camden Town where he launched an initiative around help for small businesses which would certainly help small brewers.

Whether the policy will get past Rachel Reeves fiscal rules is another matter. It does however fit with CAMRA’s election platform. This called for a reduction in draught beer duty to help pubs compete with supermarket prices. The Tory Government made a very modest move in this direction. There is a call for a reduction in business rates for pubs, where they have a disproportionate impact on pubs business model.

The business rates policy was in both Labour and Tory Manifestos. Labour also launched another policy (not in the Manifesto) which would give local communities the right to buy pubs in their area which were shut and shuttered.

This can all be seen as modestly positive but as commentators noted it does nothing to address the very real issues of Global Big Beer and Giant PubCos. Indeed Labour’s business friendly policies might well see them as allies, which for brewery workers, bar staff and drinkers they most certainly are not.

This leads to a focus on what were perhaps the key issues around beer and pubs in the campaign. Perhaps inevitably Nigel Farage and Brewdog featured.

One of the Reform Party activists who Channel 4 have exposed as making racist, misogynistic and homphobic remarks has claimed that it was all just ‘chaps down the pub’ stuff. Not any pub I frequent it isnt.

Of course there is a history here mainly of the culture of middle and working class Toryism. This culture focused on the pub, betting on sport, racism and sexism. It thrived when pubs consistedof white men only at the bar.

It was the kind of culture that the leaders of the first Labour Government in 1924, religious and often non drinkers deplored as something that would not help achieve social progress. They were right but still needed the votes…

Times have changed. Pubs are struggling and most will only work if they are the hub of a local community attracting a wide layer of people, some of whom may not drink at all, but come for sociable reasons, food or events.

Strangely this actually describes what many Wetherspoons are like, officially Nigel Farage’s favourite drinking spot. Tim Martin may be rather right-wing these days but he has enough commercial sense to know that if pubs only appeal to the Clacton Reformers, they are on their way out.

Indeed Martin made an Election statement noting that he was not backing any party but had never been a Tory. Rather he was a Brexit supporter and aside from Boris Johnson and Farage he had also backed Labour Leave.

The descent of Brewdog continues. Tribune ran the story of an Asian worker at Brewdog Waterloo who was sacked after complaining about the presence of a large number of fans of the fascist Stephen Yaxley Lennon in the bar.

The occasion was Yaxley Lennon’s last outing into central London where he gathered far too many racists and fascists in Parliament Square.

On this occasion numbers of his fan club gathered in Brewdog Waterloo before heading to Parliament Square. Reports suggest that the police had informed Brewdog and asked them to stay open. This is quite usual for fascist gatherings. The police want them to be in one place where they can be watched.

What happened next however was not normal. A responsible employer would have informed staff due to work that day and suggested that any who would find it problematic could swap for another time. Of course Brewdog which refuses to recognise Unite Hospitality despite it having hundreds of members there did not act responsibly.

When an Asian worker complained and said they felt intimidated the response of Brewdog was to proceed with discipline. Given there is no union this is to put it mildly unlikely to have been a robust and fair process.

Brewdog is meant to be heading for an IPO- a public listing. Frankly how much more reputational damage can it sustain in its present format without some very significant change taking place.

Brewdog’s AGM took place in Aberdeen on 29th June. Ahead of this Unite raised a collective grievance on issues around workplace culture and pay to the new CEO James Arrow. It was backed by Brewdog workers from 11 locations. Arrow has so far responded by a general statement to all Brewdog employees.

Meanwhile in the world of global big beer the battle for market share continues. Carlsberg Marstons has put in a bid for the soft drinks producer Britvic. So far it has been resisted. If Carlsberg are successful it could raise their share of the UK market considerably- to 26%.

All this raises the key question of what is to be done:

1 An incoming Labour Government needs to be kept to its promises on help for small businesses and pubs and pushed on lower beer duty in pubs. Its work that CAMRA and SIBA could do.

2 The impetus created by Unite on unionising bar workers needs to be supported and maximised

3 Independently owned and run pubs need the support of pub goers, drinkers or not, and it is to be hoped that the incoming Government will stick to its word on this issue and help them to survive and thrive.

4 There needs to be a renewed focus on restraining the activities of global big beer on pub and brewery ownership. This might start to develop from action on points 1-3. It is needed.

This post appears at Culture Matters

https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/culture/dining/item/4604-as-soon-as-this-pub-closes-beer-and-the-election

Solidarity to Goldsmiths Sociology Dept from an ex-Sociology teacher

As the Guardian letter below notes (9th May 2019) I started my working life in 1979 as a sociology and politics teacher (PGCE). Unfortunately Mrs Thatcher had just been elected and these days I’m possibly better known as a socialist historian (and letter writer)

The destruction of Goldsmith’s 50 year old Sociology Department by an apparently random redundancy process (and therefore potentially not in compliance with employment law) underlines a point I learnt 45 years ago. Sociology can help to explore and explain tough times so when they occur those above would rather that it did not do that

The letter ‘speaks’ for itself (or not) but in the above context a brief explanation is important.

When it comes to understanding history I’m with EP Thompson. Life is a process and a struggle not something that can be stopped at a particular moment and assessed. Thompson criticised sociologists for this method in the Making of the English Working Class. He also criticised fellow Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm for using economic statistics to understand the nature and progress of the working class, for example on their standard of living. I’m somewhere in between both valuing understanding people’s experience and trying to see how they can be summed up statistically.

• I started my working life as a sociology teacher 40 years ago in 1979. I quickly learned that it was an unpopular occupation even then and moved on. I entirely agree, however, about the importance of teaching it in schools. It presents realities the present government would prefer not to think about. Another place that appears to be lacking sociologists is the Guardian’s editorial columns. Of course there is a divide between rich and poor in Britain, and at the top level that contrast can be seen by comparing London and the rest of the country. But that is the start of the analysis, not the end of it, since there are significant divisions in London too. Average life expectancy in Tottenham is not much over 70 years, while in the most wealthy parts of Kensington it is over 90. It is not a question of London versus the rest. As many sociologists will tell you, it is a matter of class.
Keith Flett

Its widely thought that ASAP after 4th July Rishi Sunak aims to be off to his actual home in California where he can add to his millions without the hassle of failing to run Britain.

In a near eve of poll gathering of some sort, Boris Johnson, deposed by his own MPs has been platformed in an event that was allegedly trying to stop a Labour Supermajority. This is a US term not relevant in the UK so was can see why Sunak uses it.

Not all is what it seems and surely the purpose of Johnson being recalled from the hedge where he is apparently sleeping is precisely however to create a Labour Supermajority

With the last pre-Election polls continuing to show a Labour majority its prudent to ponder, what next?

David Edgerton writing in the Guardian has argued, correctly in my view, that Labour is no longer a social democratic party endeavouring to make a better society but rather one that manages society as it is better.

Of course to adapt the old point that socialism is what a Labour Government does it can be argued that social democracy is what Labour actually does in Office. There are elements of Labour policy, perhaps particularly in respect of employment that will be, as Edgerton notes, positive if implemented in some form.

The options as Labour as manager of the status quo Edgerton discusses, are making a mess of it and opening the door to the hard right at the next Election, doing it competently which would be an improvement on 2010-24 (but not enough of an improvement in my view) or, much less likely, actually managing to achieve some positive changes for the many.

There is in my view a further option, one the Victorians called pressure from without. Protests from unions, campaigns and communities can make Governments change direction or at the least open the chances of that happening. The large scale protests on Gaza that have been going on since October 2023 (there is another this Saturday, Noon, Russell Square) have caused turmoil in Labour.

It should be a model for how to keep Starmer on his toes as it were and away from scoring in his own goal

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/28/keir-starmer-labour-britain-conservative-party

Sunak, the price of a loaf & the Assize of Bread

Rishi Sunak displaying a rare moment of interface with reality correctly noted on Tuesday that the price of a loaf of bread was £1.35 (cheaper and more expensive prices are available). This was because he had just checked. He did not of course know how much the price had risen while he was PM. The answer is 28% since 2021.

In 2024 when it comes to basic food prices debate focuses on whether they can be controlled and if so how. After all in a market economy, the market rules. Labour by contrast has traditionally favoured a social market economy where intervention determined a fair price and prevented excess profit.

Before the early nineteenth century a different system often applied. The staple food of many was bread meaning that the price and quality of a loaf was an essential part of daily life. If quality dipped or the price went to high protest was the likely outcome.

This was often regulated by an Assize of Bread which sat to determine what a fair price for bread of a certain quality should be and how much the miller and the baker should get in return for producing it. This was what the socialist historian E P Thompson termed a moral economy.

It could not control the price paid for wheat in the first place but it could control profiteering by the miller and the baker. They were allowed a fair profit to cover their business and personal expenses.

Needless to say far from all millers and bakers were happy with the system and attempted to circumvent it by reducing the quality of bread produced or combining to control the market. The moral economy was not a complete solution but it was a focus for popular pressure

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

2nd July

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @kmflett

Campaigners say main parties have ignored the Hirsute Vote

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with the Election campaign drawing to a close the main parties have ignored the key hirsute vote.

It is estimated that around 10% of those eligible to vote are hirsute more than enough to swing the vote in many seats

The BLF is not standing candidates at the Election but is urging parties to pick up on its theme of a more beard friendly and tolerant country.

The campaigners say that it is deeply disappointing that the main parties have largely conformed to the clean shaven man in a suit stereotype that has dominated British politics since the 1950s during the campaign.

In particular the Tories have persisted with candidates such as Jonathan Gullis (Stoke on Trent North) and RIchard Holden (Basildon) who clearly bring the hirsute into disrepute.

The campaigners say that the Manifesto ranges from general statements of principle on pogonophobia, irrational prejudice against the hirsute, to specific proposals, for example on a luxury shaving tax.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we are disappointed that the main parties have ignored the hirsute vote. It reflects the clean shaven man in a suit syndrome that remains a key turn off for many in British politics. It does of course underline the continuing importance of the work of the Beard Liberation Front

The Ten Point Beard Liberation Front Manifesto

No to Beardism and Pogonophobic prejudice against the hirsute

Equal rights for beard wearers through a Beard Equality Act

More hirsute MPs

A 20% quota for hirsute Cabinet Ministers

More hirsute public employees and monitoring of hirsuteness levels in the senior Civil Service

Promotion of positive public images of the hirsute

A statue of the last hirsute Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, to be erected in Parliament Square

OfCom to have a statutory duty to monitor Pogonophobia in the broadcast media & issue penalties for persistent transgressors

No dress codes at work, beyond a requirement for smart appearance for public facing roles

A luxury tax on the shaving industry, the proceeds to be used to promote a diverse Britain

As election surveys go it was not scientific. Glastonbury attracted 250,000 people paying several hundred quid for a ticket plus of course travel & living expenses.

The Telegraph sent a journalist to see what the support for the Tories was like. The resulting article(1st July)complains about Palestinian flags, Labour and Green supporters (I’ll post seperately about Glastonbury politics 2024) and speaks to festival goers about who they are voting for. A focus is on those the journalist thinks might be right-wing- slightly unsober football fans. However they are all voting Labour or LibDem

Eventually a 59 year old Tory voter is found in the Corporate Hospitality area. That rather sums up the for the few not the many approach of the departing Government.

A 2024 Labour Cabinet won’t be the most working class of all time

According to a piece by Chaminda Jaynetti in the Observer (30^th June)an incoming Labour Cabinet on Friday 5^th July could be the most working class of all time. This is not the first time this assertion has appeared and from memory its source is Morgan McSweeney.

It is however wrong. The article notes that of the current Shadow Cabinet only 7 out of 31 members attended fee paying schools. This is certainly different to the Cabinets of the last 14 years so it is reasonable to claim that a new Labour Cabinet will be the most working class of recent times.

The most working class Cabinet to date is that which took office in January 1924- the first ever Labour Government. Of course numbers had by this date gathered experience as MPs or union officials but probably only Sidney Webb qualified as someone who had been to a fee paying school (several in fact)

The PM Ramsay MacDonald was the illegitimate son of a farm labourer. Arthur Henderson had been an iron moulder, Jimmy Thomas a railwayman, Willie Adamson and John Wheatley were previously miners.

Most of these men (there was one woman Margaret Bondfeld) are not in the socialist hall of fame for the reason that while they had working class backgrounds, social being determines consciousness. The Chancellor Philip Snowden was possibly even keener on fiscal rules than Rachel Reeves although in his May 1924 Budget he did cut taxes on what was known as the free breakfast. That is he reduced tax on items that workers had for breakfast.

The 1924 Government only lasted nine months so it can be argued its unfair to judge its lack of achievement. However evidence suggests that the key achievement that was sought was simply to show the ruling class that Labour could be trusted to govern as a B Team.

Labour’s understanding of working class can be (sort of ) gleaned by Starmer’s comments about toolmakers but in fact an interview with the current Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy in the Sunday Times (30^th June) makes the matter clear. He refers several times to his ability to get out of Tottenham where he was born. He is referring to personal advancement. This is not an option available to most in Tottenham (myself included) even if we wanted to get out. Here collective not individual advance is needed.

Finally its likely that a Labour Cabinet will have the best ethnic and gender balance of any for a while. On beards I’m less sure.

John Harris is right that much election coverage is focused on polls that are intent on telling us what the election outcome will be, even though no votes will be counted until after 10pm on 4 July. It is not, however, a new issue.

The late socialist historian EP Thompson writing on the 1959 election in the New Reasoner noted that: “A psephologist is a man employed by the mass media to research into what people think the mass media has told them to think.”

Of course there are exceptions, such as John Curtice, who provide genuine and critical analysis, but Thompson’s point still stands 65 years on.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London