The above letter appears in The Times (11th July). Despite the fantasies of Farage it underlines who the real British Establishment is. It may however also find agreement from the thesis promoted in New Left Review by Perry Anderson & the late Tom Nairn that Britain’s bourgeois revolution was incomplete, leaving the aristocracy with a powerful role.
The 1976 heatwave & the rise of lager drinking
I joined CAMRA in 1975 and while the memory of the heatwave summer of 1976 is limited, I was certainly drinking beer. Beer that is as opposed to lager. Of course lager is beer but the distinction then was clear.
Hence I certainly did not drink lager in 1976. Draught lager did not begin to appear on British bar tops until 1963 and while the names had a European feel- Skol for example- it was British brewed by UK owned companies.
Of course 50 years on the lager is still British brewed, mostly, but the ownership rests with global big beer, ABInBev, Carlsberg, Heineken.
Even allowing for my 1976 real ale bias, the lager of 50 years ago like the keg beer was not a great drink. Lager is still served cold but a distinctive taste- for example of Helles or Pilsner- is expected. Then the idea was to serve it cold to mask a less than marvellous taste.
I can’t therefore claim to write about the rise of lager drinking in the 1976 heatwave from experience. My interest was tweaked by Will Hawkes London Beer newsletter where he noted that pubs had run out of lager (Harp in this case) and were unable to secure fresh supplies.
I had a wander around the interwebs. Of course what material survives electronically (beyond daily papers) is haphazard. I did find however a report that in Cleethorpes drinkers were abandoning mild for lager as the temperature rose.
There is also a report from the summer of 1976 in the Telegraph which details the impact of the heat. 50 years ago the Telegraph was of course a right-wing paper but based, unlike now, on solid journalism.
The report notes that ‘warm beer’ had been scuppered by the ‘lager revolution’. While lager cost 32p a pint, 5p more than beer South Coast hotels had sold three weeks supply in just one weekend.
Fifty years on I remain a member of CAMRA but I’ll happily drink a glass of Pilsner, which after all was Engels favourite beer.
Beard Liberation Front
1st October
Daily Beast 2018 Hegseth Vacation Beard
Self styled US Secretary of State for War Pete Hegseth has resumed his war on beards, ‘beardos’ to use his term, twelve months after he started it. On 30th September he attacked not only beardos but fatties and trannies amongst others he is prejudiced against
The 12 month Beard War has been no more successful than any of the other wars Hegseth has been involved in as numbers of service personnel apparently still have facial hair.
There are religious exemptions for Jews, Muslims and Sikhs where appropriate, which clearly annoys Hegseth whose religion is based on video games.
He is also attempting to crack down on medical waivers which can apply primarily to black service personnel who are more susceptible to a medical condition that makes shaving painful.
Hegseth is currently clean shaven but in 2018 sported a beard when he was a Fox News presenter.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Hegseth is not fit for office but frankly we think he should stick to fighting Beard Wars and failing rather than the other ones he is so incompetently pursuing.
To Stansgate (The Benn’s family home). Still unbelievably hot. Its been in the eighties and nineties for about a month now and the grass is absolutely brown.
I was 19 in the summer of 1976 and in London after my first year as an undergraduate in Teesside. It was the year when lager sales in the UK took off and there was reason. At the temperatures Benn mentions cask ale (which I drank) was often beyond tepid and I recall putting ice cubes in pints to remedy the matter. Benn of course stuck to tea (also tepid)..
Beard Liberation Front
9th July
Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social
Heatwave & Climate Change: Beard Liberation Front permits shaving based on Marx’s example from April 1882
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that for the third time in a month it is permitting supporters to temporarily shave their beards due to hot weather in parts of the UK which is forecast to continue for at least the next week.
The campaigners say that there is a precedent in beard history for the move. When Marx travelled to Algeria in 1882 just before the end of his life he found conditions so hot that he shaved his iconic beard, his ‘lion’s mane’ as he wrote to Engels.
However the advice is a guideline only and the BLF says that some may simply wish to trim their beards a little as this can protect against the sun and have a general cooling influence.
There is no question now that climate change is impacting the way facial hair is worn.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the problem is that in the kind of hot weather that is forecast the strength of the sun can damage the follicles and cause serious harm to the beard. By trimming the area of follicles exposed to the sun this can be reduced.
He continued, alternatively as an exceptional measure we are permitting shaving of the beard this week. It is really up to individuals whether they follow the example of Karl Marx
The Ambridge Socialist has paid tribute to Jill Archer (Patricia Greene) who has died at 95.
She has featured in the Archers since 1957 and continued to appear until recently.
She was well known latterly for her lemon drizzle cake but in particular as the flapjack protester.
On the occasion of the opening of a pop-up restaurant in Borchester, well known for its food waste, Jill propelled a well directed flapjack at one of the owners and was duly arrested and cautioned.
The Ambridge Socialist salutes her memory
BBC Blogs – The Archers – The significance of Jill’s flapjack arrest
The Guardian obituary adds some interesting detail
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jul/12/patricia-greene-obituary?CMP=share_btn_url
Beard Liberation Front
9th July
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that TV football pundit Roy Keane is the subject of yet another disappearing beard mystery. He appeared clean shaven on ITV on 9th July for the France v Morocco match.
Keane mostly sports an impactful beard which often contends for Beard Awards but rarely a definitive accolade because he shaves it off before a conclusion.
In the past Keane has commented that his beard comes and goes depending on his mood.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, of course we support the right of Roy Keane to wear a beard or not as he chooses. Given the heat at many World Cup venues however we are inclined to think that he has studied the guidelines for shaving in hot weather laid down by Marx in Algiers in April 1882 and acted accordingly
via @liamdutton on Twitter, Channel 4 Weather Forecaster
Campden Square, Ramsgate
It’s still very fine here, moderately hot summer temperatures
and a cool wind off the sea, on top of which the bottled beer is
excellent and salt water bathing ‘a proper treat’
Engels concluded
We are staying here until Monday fortnight and in London
shall, I trust, retire from the very idle life we’ve been a-Ieadin’ of.
The trip and the sea-bathing have done my wife a great deal of
good, so I have reason to hope that I shall also be able to get her
through the winter in passable health. Both she and I send our
kindest regards to you, your wife and the children, and in the
hope that Rheinau’s gnat population will shortly diminish I shall
close because of incipient table-laying.
Yours ever,
Engels 11 Campden Square, Ramsgate to Philipp Pauli, 11th August 1876
Both Marx and Engels were enthusiasts for the English seaside and Ramsgate was a particular favourite, although Engels also liked Eastbourne. Campden Square is centrally located in Ramsgate for shops and the Royal Harbour
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