The 1951 General Election was held on 25th October 1951. The Tories narrowly won and Winston Churchill returned as PM.
In his diary Tony Benn recorded that a then young psephologist David Butler had come for dinner
‘He had been summoned to Hyde Park Gate about 10.30 in the morning, where he found Winston in bed drinking a whisky and soda..
He asked David several questions about his chances of success in the Election. David was cautious and indicated that an overall majority of forty or so was likely. Putting it into betting odds he got a more lively response
Ian McKellen shaves Michael Rosen to be named Beard of Summer 2024
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that as part of National Beard Week, Ian McKellen has shaved Michael Rosen to be named Beard of Summer 2024
There were two rounds of voting for the coveted seasonal accolade with a final Beard Off vote
Ian McKellen and Moeen Ali won the first round of voting. The second round was won by Michael Rosen and Gareth Southgate.
In the Beard Off Final Ian McKellen shaved Michael Rosen 37% to 33%. Just under 5,000 votes were cast.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we are pleased that Ian McKellen’s beard survived his recent unfortunate fall, and we hope that recognition that it is the Beard of Summer 2024 will cheer him up.
Monday 17th June: Hirsute Personality of the Year: the beard wearer who has made the positive public impact during the year. 2024 winner- Jeremy Corbyn
Tuesday 18th June: Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year: the sandwich that goes in the mouth not the beard. 2024: Bacon or Facon
Wednesday 19th June: Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year: the broadcaster whose beard has had the most public impact. 2024 Aatif Nawaz
Thursday 20th June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2024 Nigel Farage
Friday 21st June: Beard Friendly Election Manifesto Liberal Democrats
Saturday 22nd June: Beard of Summer 2024: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2024 Ian McKellen
Windrush at 76: Thatcher’s Swamped to Theresa May’s Hostile
Environment to Suella Braverman’s invasion. Migrants remain welcome here
With the 76th anniversary of the arrival of the first of the
Windrush generation in Britain its again time to celebrate the positive impact
migrants have had and also to underline that migrants continue to be welcome
here.
When Enoch Powell made his rivers of blood speech in 1968 he was a senior
Tory MP who found himself with no future in the party. This was the tail end of
a period when the Government was welcoming migrants to fill, mostly badly paid,
gaps in the labour force.
After the oil focused economic crisis of 1973 matters began to change. The
racism inherent in much Tory politics began to be more openly displayed.
In the mid-1970s organised fascists regrouped around the National Front. It
had some electoral success but also engaged in a series of highly provocative
street marches in inner-city locations such as Lewisham and Wood Green. The NF
was opposed by the Anti-Nazi League, Rock Against Racism and others and made
little impact at the next Election
Before that 1979 General Election Tory leader Margaret Thatcher made a
speech claiming that people felt ‘swamped’ by those of a ‘different culture’.
There was a discussion on the left as to how far street opposition to the
fascists had achieved their demise compared to Margaret Thatcher’s promotion of
State institutional racism, underlining that racists could feel comfortable
both with voting Tory and the actions of a Tory Government.
Fast Forward several decades and the policy of former Tory Prime Minister
Theresa May, architect, when she was Home Secretary, of the hostile environment
towards ethnic minorities. It was a policy which led directly to the abuse of
numbers of the Windrush generation, rightfully in the UK, but harassed by the
authorities.
Those who had arrived without complete paperwork in the 1960s found
themselves targeted for potential and sometimes actual deportation, splitting
them from families who had been born in the UK. This example of institutional
racism went in parallel with the rise of the English Defence League, identified
with the fascist Stephen Yaxley Lennon. Again their trademarks were street
marches and general thuggery. Again they found themselves opposed by
anti-racists such as Stand Up to Racism and eventually like the National Front
before them fell apart.
Former Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman talked the language of the far
and fascist right about an ‘invasion’ of migrants into Southern England.
Now former Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman is talking the language of
the far and fascist right about an ‘invasion’ of migrants into Southern
England.
Braverman is a hard right Tory politician and the language is designed to
provoke and stir racist sentiment.
With an Election on July 4th we find few politicians who are
willing to campaign on migrants being welcome and the important role they have
played in British society over the centuries. Indeed one of their number. loud
mouthed racist Farage is intent on weaponizing the issue further.
One reason why its important to mark Windrush Day and to keep on doing so.
The Times has published another of its series of Editorials demanding that Just Stop Oil stop protesting(21st June). The paper is in favour of protests in principle but has yet to find one in the UK it supports.
JSO at the moment do seem to be engaging in high profile publicity focused stunts requiring a degree of commitment from activists. A comparison can be made, for example, with the Suffragettes who were more robust in respect of arson and blowing things up. The difference was that the Suffragettes were also a mass movement on the streets.
There is a march to Rescue Nature in central London on 22nd June which is backed by a very broad range of groups from XR to the National Trust and the RSPB. As a protest focused on the Election it has a point but possibly wont get the public impact of JSO stunts.
Getting what the historical sociologist Charles Tilly called the repertoire of contention right is something to be be discussed and sorted by climate activists, the labour movement and supportive NGOs. The Times does not have a seat at the table
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the Liberal Democrats 2024 Election Manifesto is the most Beard Friendly of the major parties.
BLF researchers have undertaken the unenviable task of reading the Manifestos of most of the parties likely to have representation in the New House of Commons elected on July 4th.
The campaigners say that once the researchers had been woken up the view was that the Liberal Democrat Manifesto was the most Beard Friendly of a distinctly lacklustre bunch. It contains the following paragraph:
Liberal Democrats exist to build a free society where every person’s rights and liberties are protected. Everyone should be able to live their lives as who they are: free to pursue their dreams and fulfil their potential, safe in the knowledge that their fundamental rights will be protected.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said unfortunately the Liberal Democrats have long ditched their traditional beard and sandals image but their policy does come closest to the BLF principle that people should be able to dress and appear as they want. We don’t regard this as a right to be protected,when it comes to beards, but rather an important principle. This is not a specific recommendation to vote LibDem but if anything it underlines that most parties have a way to go on beard friendly policies
Keir Starmer may have changed who is a Labour member and Labour policies but he has had no impact on the geography of class support for the Party, no doubt much to his annoyance.
Labour support in 2024 is concentrated in South Wales, London,the North West and Tyneside much as it was 60 years ago at the 1964 Election and something Eric Hobsbawm wrote about on Labour and the City, New Left Review, 1/166 1987. In this there lies perhaps hope for the future beyond Starmer
Media Release. Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @kmflett
National Beard Week, Nigel Farage named as Beard Hater of the Year 2024
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has named Nigel Farage as Beard Hater of the Year 2024 as part of National Beard Week.
The campaigners say that Farage is perpetually clean shaven, aside from a brief period in 2016 when he grew a dubious moustache before quickly shaving it off.
While there are ReformUK Election candidates with beards its clear that the vetting process was not properly carried out and this may well account for the anomaly.
The BLF says that while anti-beard comments allegedly made by Farage in the past cannot be verified, its clear that the traditional stereotype of beard wearers as left-wing or nonconformist is something Farage hates.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expect Nigel Farage to wear the title of Beard Hater of the Year as a Badge of Honour
Monday 17th June: Hirsute Personality of the Year: the beard wearer who has made the positive public impact during the year. 2024 winner- Jeremy Corbyn
Tuesday 18th June: Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year: the sandwich that goes in the mouth not the beard. 2024: Bacon or Facon
Wednesday 19th June: Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year: the broadcaster whose beard has had the most public impact. 2024 Aatif Nawaz
Thursday 20th June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2024 Nigel Farage
The late socialist historian E P Thompson wrote the following on opinion polls in the New Reasoner in 1959 (the NR went on to be part of New Left Review from 1960)
A psephologist is a man employed by the mass media to research into what people think the mass media has told them to think. An ephologist is a man employed by the ‘Observer’ or BBC to interpret the results of psephology and who makes an ephing good thing out of it
Opinion polls were still in their infancy 65 years ago and today regular updates from YouGov and other appear. While based on surveys of voters they can tell us little about what is actually happening on the ground in Constituencies.
Farage and ReformUK are bigged up by polls (indeed far right GBNews pundit Matthew Goowin runs a poll which appears to be designed to do just that) which mostly ignore the Green Party and independent left candidates (of which there are numbers)altogether except Jeremy Corbyn
My prediction based on ad hoc polling in meetings, pubs and shops is that turnout will be low.
Beard Liberation polling will be releasing its General Election poll in a few days time. It will be at least as accurate as Matthew Goodwins
The phrase is from an interview the late socialist historian E P Thompson did in the mid-1970s. It refers to the reality that so much of what is discussed and reported is one-dimensional often missing key issues and angles.
On 19th June it was reported that headline inflation is now at 2% the lowest for three years. The current Government was of course quick to take the credit even though it relentlessly refused to own inflation at more than 10% less than two years ago.
There is a wider background.
Alex Collinson TUC research officer tweeted that the average household debt on unsecured credit (loans and credit cards) now stands at £15k which is up £1,660 in the last twelve months
Meanwhile the TUC itself tweeted that over the last 3 years in the G7 nations Britain has had the highest inflation at 20.8%. The next highest is the US at 16.7% while Japan recorded 8.4%
