Kmflett's Blog

Do the Tories face electoral oblivion or will they morph into a hard right
Faragist Party

Sunak has called an Election for July 4^th while getting soaking wet outside 10 Downing St on 22^nd May. According to the BBC’s Chris Mason he was strongly advised to do so by self-styled Deputy Prime Minister and political idiot Oliver Dowden.

The crisis for Sunak keeps getting worse.  YouGov poll showed the Tories would be reduced
to a rump at the forthcoming Election. Sunak is the second unelected PM the
Tories have had since 2019 and even now with an Election called some still want a third.

The Tories remain around 20% behind Labour in the polls and are badly split. Nadine Dorries resignation letter to Sunak last Autumn was partly farcical but partly sharp in pointing to numerous Tory policy failures.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman on the hard right of the Tories has renewed calls for Britain to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and ban demonstrations against genocide in Gaza

In 2005 Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote a book arguing that the Tory Party had reached the end of its historic existence. As the years since 2010 have unfortunately demonstrated he was wrong. However in a recent Guardian article he returned to the point, arguably more persuasively. He has now published a new book, Bloody Panico (Verso,May 2024) where he returns to the argument about the historic demise of the Tories.

The Tories as a party representing ruling class interests have been ‘shapeshifters’ pragmatically shifting positions and policies to fit the demands of the moment. So the Tories resisted demands for an extension to the vote with force at Peterloo in 1819 and in Parliament with the 1832 Reform Act. However in 1867 they passed a further Act extending the suffrage.

Likewise they were the party of the landed aristocracy but in 1846/7 repealed the Corn Laws because this was in the interest of the rising industrial manufacturing class. In much more recent times Tory leader Edward Heath took Britain into what is now the EU in the early 1970s. 50 years on the Tories are focused on Brexit and staying out of the EU.

The problem they have is that beyond making money for their mates and sometimes themselves they no longer have a single coherent view of what a ruling class politics which can also win elections is. There have been five Tory leaders since 2015 each seemingly more incompetent than the last.

Boris Johnson personified the crisis. He was not a supporter of Brexit and notoriously only became so not out of some great principle or understanding of ruling class interests but because it served his personal ambition to be Prime Minister.

I don’t agree with Wheatcroft’s argument that the Tory Party is finished is an absolute certainty.

There are several factors which might see it survive in some form.

The first is Labour. Despite huge majorities in 1997 and 2001 Blair while tinkering with reforms determined that his real focus was illegal wars. Then in the financial crash of 2008 Gordon Brown decided that the key thing was to save the market economy and in doing so ushered in an era of austerity. Unsurprisingly Labour votes declined significantly and the Tories who had looked finished made a return

Starmer has his own variant on this. If the Tories are busy making themselves redundant then perhaps the way forward is to move Labour into that space. His own version of the Great Moving Right Show. So hapless are the Tories at the moment that this strategy is very likely to work, if only briefly.

The Tories however might shapeshift again and move themselves further to the right still, around the racist politics of Suella Braverman and others. Nigel Farage and the Reform Party, while a minority, have the capacity perhaps to mobilise votes around such a grouping. Farage’s decision to stand at the Election where there is an Essex seat he might actually win this promotes that project. He can’t be the Parliamentary leader of a rejigged hard right Tory Party if he is not an MP.

There remains scope for such a political reconfiguration on the hard right mirroring
developments across the rest of Europe and in the US. With Truss sharing a platform with fascist Steve Bannon and Lee Anderson outside the Tory Party and in Reform UK after a racist rant too many, the possibility is growing

Opposing it rather than joining in the Great Moving Right Show is essential.

For the left while ousting the Tories electorally is essential the real response to this is in workplaces and on the streets. Strikes and protests on the cost of living, climate and Palestine won’t win Starmer’s support but they can exert real political pressure from the bottom up. That is essential as a counter to top down Parliamentary politics

Engels was famous for his lobster salad (like oysters,lobsters were cheap in the later nineteenth century). It is remarked upon several times in his correspondence but sadly, so far at least, the recipe has not been found.

Keir Starmer is not exactly Engels but he did reveal and prepare his signature recipe on Sunday Brunch ob 19th May. The ingredients are inexpensive and the cooking time reasonable. According to Tom Baldwin’s biography of Starmer when he cooks at weekends he is notorious for taking ages and using lots of pots and pans. This recipe doesn’t look too heavy on either.

Whether any male political leaders have been known for their cooking I’m not sure (female leaders are of course expected to be expert cooks even if like Thatcher they weren’t actually that good or interested) but Jeremy Corbyn makes very good jam

Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minutes, plus marinade 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

500g salmon fillets, skinless

For the marinade
30g fresh root ginger
10g garlic (2-3 cloves)
10g green chillies (2-3)
30ml rice vinegar
1 tsp deggi mirch chilli powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/ tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil

For the raita
300g Greek yoghurt
1 cucumber, grated (squeeze out the water)
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp chopped mint
2 tbsp lime juice

To grill and serve
25g unsalted butter, melted
Cooked basmati rice
Lime wedges

Method
1. Cut the salmon fillets into bite-sized chunks. Place into a large bowl.
2. For the marinade, blitz the ingredients together in a blender or mini food processor to a smooth paste.
3. Spoon the marinade over the Salmon and turn them to coat. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for up to 30 minutes.
4. Take the marinated salmon out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking. (If you are using wooden skewers, soak them now.)
5. Heat the grill to high. Thread the marinated salmon onto skewers, leaving enough space between the pieces for the heat to penetrate. Baste with the melted butter and grill for 6-8 minutes, or until cooked with some charring. Check that the salmon pieces are cooked through.
6. For the raita, mix everything together.
7. Serve the salmon with rice, raita and lime wedges for squeezing.

The Socialist Alternatives Project & Keir Starmer 1986-2024. The dialectic of timely historical research

On Monday May 20^th 2024 Benjamin Schoendorff spoke at a socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research. As many seminars are now it was on Zoom and the attendance while fairly modest was fully engaged.

Schoendorff was the Editor of a magazine, Socialist Alternatives, for which a young Keir Starmer wrote and helped to run.

Schoendorff spoke about the Socialist Alternatives project. A magazine was produced that focused on red-green politics and orientated first around the 1980s Labour left and then the Green Party. The project had sprung out of one part of orthodox Trotskyism around Michael Raptis (Pablo) but as Schoendorff made clear it was very much seen as post-Trotskyist and an attempt at movement rather than party building.

One participant was a young Keir Starmer. Starmer seemed to have been involved with the Militant while at Leeds and initially at Oxford. However Schoendorff noted he made an easy transition to the rather different left politics of Socialist Alternatives.

While such changes are far from unknown they are usually accompanied by lengthy disavowals of the individual’s previous positions. This was not the case with Starmer.

Schoendorff noted that he had rather liked Starmer but remained puzzled how the person he knew then had ended up as Labour leader in 2024. One conclusion perhaps relevant to 2024 was that Starmer did not have strong political views but assimilated to whatever milieu he found himself in.

Reading extracts from a new book by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund about Labour’s July 2024 Election victory, Get In, (Sunday Times 2nd February 2025) I was struck by a reported view of Tony Blair that Starmer’s politics didn’t really come from anywhere except they were ‘vaguely progressive’.

The extract, while containing much that might be summarised as entertaining but not strictly verifiable stories, does also underline an already existing view that Starmer is much more a professional lawyer than a politician and in particular someone with a political sensibility.

That still doesn’t account for Starmer’s North London 1980s

Running the seminar in May was a gamble. May is exam time in the academy and when not raining provides nice early evenings for a beer or meal. Sitting in Room 301 at the Institute of Historical Research or viewing Zoom on a screen suggests a less attractive experience.

I did ponder running the seminar in the Autumn term- in October 2024 but thought this might be a little close to a long projected November election.

As it happened it was two days before the 2024 Election was called.

Inflation, the Cost of Living, Really Useful Knowledge & a General Election

Really Useful Knowledge was a term and a practice used by radicals in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. It set to counter the ‘useful’ or in reality ‘really useless’ knowledge that came from official circles. A focus might be on wages and who actually created wealth, how to shift the balance of wealth from the rich and an understanding of how the economy really worked for the few not the many.

The announcement of a headline inflation figure for the UK of 2.3% on 21^st May certainly deserves scrutiny with a focus on really useful knowledge.

It is close to the Government’s 2% target and much lower than the 10%+ inflation of 2023. However even the Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was careful not to cheer too much. )nnouncing a General Election for 4^th July Rishi Sunak noted that things remained difficult for many people (although not him and his partner whose wealth increased by well over £100m in the last year)

Headline inflation of course is an annualised figure. Energy prices which have rocketed have started to fall a bit, even if much higher than 2022. That reduces inflation but not really the cost of people’s energy bills.

For both renters and mortgage payers costs remain high largely a legacy of the brief Truss era.

Meanwhile in areas like eating out and bars the inflation rate is at 5.9%. That impacts on how often people go out to eat and drink and subsequently on employment in the services sector.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak is right to argue that: “Prices are still going up. Food and energy bills are much higher than a couple of years ago. And many are being hit by soaring mortgage repayments,”

Crucially while wages have risen for many they are still not back at 2021 levels. In calling the Election Sunak obviously thinks that will remain the case.

That leaves Labour to focus on things getting better. It doesn’t need to be and certainly wont be a revolution but just saying that not much can be done will lead to a Labour victory rather than the landslide the last 14 Tory years very much deserves

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release 22^nd May

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

July 4^th Election: Beard Liberation Front calls for first Hirsute PM since 1902

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has welcomed the news that there will be a General Election on July 4^th.

It is calling for the first Prime Minister with a beard since 1902 to enter 10 Downing St. Lord Salisbury, a Tory, stepped down on 11^th July 1902 and there has not been a fully hirsute PM since.

The campaigners say that while on the face of it the prospects of a bearded PM do not look promising there are rumours that Labour leader Keir Starmer is looking to improve his political gravitas by growing a beard similar to the one worn by his late father.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we will be meeting over the Bank Holiday Weekend to finalise our Election strategy. We will  certainly be supporting candidates who promote a positive image of the hirsute and we have not ruled out standing some BLF candidates in seats where notorious clean shaven revisionists are candidates

Inflation, the Cost of Living & Really Useful Knowledge

Really Useful Knowledge was a term and a practice used by radicals in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. It set to counter the ‘useful’ or in reality ‘really useless’ knowledge that came from official circles. A focus might be on wages and who actually created wealth, how to shift the balance of wealth from the rich and an understanding of how the economy really worked for the few not the many.

The announcement of a headline inflation figure for the UK of 2.3% on 21^st May certainly deserves scrutiny with a focus on really useful knowledge.

It is close to the Government’s 2% target and much lower than the 10%+ inflation of 2023. However even the Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was careful not to cheer too much. If we take the period 2021 to 2024 inflation has risen by 22%

It is of course an annualised figure. Energy prices which have rocketed have started to fall a bit, even if much higher than 2022. That reduces inflation but not really the cost of people’s energy bills.

For both renters and mortgage payers costs remain high largely a legacy of the brief Truss era.

Meanwhile in areas like eating out and bars the inflation rate is at 5.9%. That impacts on how often people go out to eat and drink and subsequently on employment in the services sector.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak is right to argue that: “Prices are still going up. Food and energy bills are much higher than a couple of years ago. And many are being hit by soaring mortgage repayments,”

The Woke Gardener, Chelsea Flower Show Special: grassroots politics & weed heroes

Special Issue 22nd May

The Woke Gardener the occasional bulletin that promotes gardening from the roots up has supported plants previously demeaned as weeds as an essential part of a progressive garden.

Plants like dandelions, brambles and long grass can be a source of food or pollen for insects and bees and they are also important to the soil infrastructure of the garden.

Woke Gardener Editor Keith Flett said, we say, hands off weeds. They have been downtrodden for too long. They can now take their rightful part in a fully inclusive garden.

The 2025 Manifesto for a Woke Garden

We demand that the Government launches a massive programme of investment in public parks and provision for allotments so that all may enjoy the pleasure of gardens and gardening

We believe in the right to roam over the gardens of the rich

We support the nationalisation of the land and the creation of public parks and gardens as a matter of priority

We believe that real gardeners should eschew the use of garden centres. If you need a new plant, simply liberate it from the garden of a wealthy neighbour.

We support the hop family as the ultimate in grass roots garden plants

There is little and perhaps nothing about the failed Labour MP John Woodcock, who became the self styled Lord Walney after Boris Johnson made him a Peer that is not murky and often very murky.

He launched his long delayed 292 page ‘report’ on political extremism at a closed press event in Parliament on 21st May. By Line Times has reported that the launch was hosted by a group with connections to the US ‘Alt-Right’ known as the far right in the UK.

Lord Walnut is a paid lobbyist for oil and energy companies so obviously he wants to crack down on protests which impact them. He is also a former chair of Labour Friends of Israel so thinks marches on Palestine should be restricted and there should be a cnarge for exercising the previously democratic right to march.

There is a long list of other illiberal measures.

The launch was chaired by Lord Peter Mandelson although even he seemed uncertain if Lord Walnut’s plans were more fantasy than reality.

As John Rees, one of the organisers of the London Palestine marches noted on X the best way to protect the right to protest is to exercise it.

E P Thompson, Netanyahu & the Rule of Law

The left generally are not great enthusiasts for the ‘rule of law’ and perhaps particularly some aspects of employment law. Those who fulminate about the importance of judges and the law are often seen as being Tories intent in preserving the practices of an unjust society. Often they are.

One politician amongst others in a crowded field who stands out as someone who does not recognise the Rule of Law is Benjamin Netanyahu. Wanted for genocide in Gaza at the Hague, there is no international law or UN Resolution that Netanyahu is not happy to ignore and break.

Of all the post-1945 figures to have considered the Rule of Law the one who arguably wrote most powerfully on it was E.P Thompson.

He devoted a concluding section of his book Whigs and Hunters to the matter. In the book Thompson looks at the eighteenth century Black Acts which listed a growing number of often petty offences for which offenders could be hanged. It was the period of the ‘Bloody Penal Code’. In practice matters often did not work quite like this as Jurys refused to convict people.

Thompson recognised that defending the Rule of Law from the left was not a popular thing to do He noted that ‘I stand on a very narrow ledge, watching the tides come up’. [p260]. However he argued that ‘it is not possible to conceive of any complex society without law’ [p260].

Indeed as he knew well from his researches, ‘for as long as it remained possible, the ruled- if they could find a purse and a lawyer-would actually fight for their rights by means of law’ [p261].

This was not just an individual thing but a collective position. Thompson argued that the rhetoric of the plebeian crowd, of the free born Englishman’ was centrally focused on ’inviolable privacy.. habeus corpus…equality before the law’ [p264] In other words a workable system of law was basic to a defence of popular rights.

He recognised of course that the law was ‘devised by men of property as a defence against arbitary power’ [p264] but argued that a system that provided defence against arbitrary use of power by authority was important to working people as well as the bourgeois [p266].

In short Thompson saw ‘a whole inheritance of struggle about law’. The Rule of Law and what it means is important in any complex society but it is also something to be argued about, and struggled over not just dismissed. The principle of an agreed benchmark for war crimes and genocide is of overriding importance but in a world of contestation between global powers victor’s justice still colours matters.

The ONS have published the top baby names, female and male, for 2022.

The top male name is Noah possibly reflecting the impact of climate change.

Of Keir and Keith there is no sign not just in the top 5 but in the top 100.

Keir Starmer probably derives his first name via is Labour supporting,hirsute Guardian reading father from the first Labour leader Keir Hardie. Apparently he is not delighted to be called Keith and the feeling is mutual. He should stick to Keir.

I would have no trouble being called Keir but my first name derives from the Scottish town of the same name (it has a brewery and distilleries..)

This still leaves the question of why the K names are so unfashionable. Is a defence committee needed?