Beard Liberation Front

10th March

BRITISH PIE WEEK. STEAK & ALE RETAINS MOST BEARD FRIENDLY PIE TITLE

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with British Pie Week running from 4-10th March its annual poll on the most Beard Friendly Pie has seen Steak and Ale just shave the Butter Pie for the coveted accolade.

The hirsute campaign group say that as with many prepared foods the requirements of people with beards are often overlooked when it comes to pies. The outcome of the annual poll often reflects that, with traditional pies designed for eating ‘on the go’ easily beating leading pie brands.

The BLF says that common issues with pies for those with beards are:

Excessive gravy

Puff or flaky pastry which ends up in the beard not the mouth

‘Deep filling’ making it difficult to avoid contact of the pie with the beard

The campaigners cite some types of the traditional steak and kidney pie as an example of pies which are made without thought for the requirements of the hirsute pie consumer. Such pies often have excessive gravy- and comparatively little steak and kidney- which ends up in the beard.

Unfortunately the same issues tend to apply to many vegetarian and vegan pies too

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Steak and Ale when made to beard friendly standards will see the ale gravy bind the meat into a delicious mixture where the pie ends up in the mouth not the beard.

Finalists

Steak& Ale

Mushroom

Butter/Cheese & Onion

Pork

Report

Steak and Ale led throughout the poll & got 47% of the vote compared to the runner-up Butter or Cheese & Onion which scored a combined 26%. The two pies are different but represent a category for non-meat eaters but who do eat dairy. The other two pies Pork and Mushroom polled badly. In particular the search for a beard friendly pie that both appeals to vegans and vegetarians but also has wider appeal continues

London Socialist Historians Group

David Veevers spoke at the final Spring term seminar of the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research on Monday 18th March at 5.30pm

A recording of the seminar is here

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/vfit49AfwEkXlVH0-UgSp2gTco-iphXQ0b4Xc2vz7BXA385ypt9lHniBsl80MmS1.9Pj9T4WNZ2keUzcn

David Veevers is the author of the recently published book, The Great Defiance, How the World Took on the British Empire (Penguin). A paperback edition is due in June 2024

In the seminar David Veevers looked at the history of British Colonialism through the eyes and actions of those who fought in the early modern period of the 1600 and 1700s

Denise Metcalf, veterinary nurse

The Ambridge Socialist

10^th March

Alistair & Denise: a cupboard scene not a shower liaison

The late Sid Perks in the shower with Jolene remains one of the all time highlights of the Archers. By contrast in 2024 Alistair and Denise had to make do with a cupboard at the vets. After this Denise decided she would try a reconciliation with existing husband John, or perhaps she didnt. Alistair declared his intention to leave the vet practice leading to protests from Jakob and Paul. Meanwhile co-owner Don James showed up and expressed discontent at the state of the practice. Alistair thought again.

OK. Can we move on now.

Will Sgt Knacker Burns get sacked?

In most jobs the penalty for unprofessional conduct would probably be the sack. This however is the police. At worst Knacker will have to retire on a full pension. He instead may be exonerated and even promoted. Whatever it is the absence of his union rep (ok the Police Federation) is par for the course for the Archers

Harry

Harry has appeared again. Its time for him to leave Ambridge for good. There are quite enough annoying ruling class characters as it is.

Yet More Archers

Friday’s Archers will now be repeated on Saturday afternoons and the Sunday Omnibus will move an hour later. There has been much discussion on Archers chat sites. You can of course listen whenever you want once an episode has been broadcast

In Other News

Martha won a prize for her World Book Day costume

Welsh singer Charlotte Church was one of those who led off Saturday’s Central London march for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a free Palestine. She also led singing at the rally at the end of the march.

Last Saturday she was at the regular Saturday protest for Palestine in Cardiff and the placard above featured. A collective voice against oppression and for liberation

Teach Yourself Gove 2024 Update

Michael Gove having stepped down as an MP has now been appointed Editor of the Spectator, now owned by Paul Marshall who also owns UnHerd and provides funding for KGB News

Apology : See Blue Moon

Guardian : A London based paper with a ‘style guide’ [content not approved of as Gove Speak]

Murdoch : A man of great intellect, second only to Paul Marshall

The Times : paper of record. Does not need a style guide*

Daily Mail: not appropriate reading (the Sarah Vine column used to be OK)

The Spectator, soon to be relaunched as the Soaraway Spectator

EU : career defining

Lenin: one step forwards, two steps back (as he wrote)

Boris : was yesterday’s man, still is

David Cameron : used to be a friend of mine

Rishi Sunak: Wykehamist

Education: see Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd)

Plan: something to be worked out in the future

Theme song: One of these days, disco remix (Pink Floyd)

Extremist: Sayeeda Warsi

Drugs: See memoirs

Standing Down: see LibDem poll ratings

*subject to further review

At Peterloo in Manchester on Monday 16th August 1819 60,000 protested peacefully for the vote. The local Magistrates decided the only way to deal with the protest was to send in troops on horseback (the Yeomanry) to disperse the crowd. At least sixteen were killed and hundreds injured.

The State learnt a lesson. While industrial disputes are sometimes violently attacked (see Orgreave 1984) protest marches are policed.

When the Chartists gathered on Kennington Common on Monday 10th April 1848, again to demand the vote, the Government feared revolution. 1848 was after all the year of revolutions in Europe. Police, Special Constables and Soldiers were mobilised on a large scale. The march was banned from crossing the river to Parliament. While there were skirmishes nothing more transpired.

In general the pattern has repeated itself for London protests, except the police now have enough numbers not to need Specials or the Army. Of course sometimes things go wrong. Police tactics on the 1990 Poll Tax march briefly led to rioting in Trafalgar Square. It was the exception.

The title for this post ‘the maintenance of order’ comes from David Goodway’s magisterial London Chartism (CUP) which looks in some detail at the Chartist demonstrations in London in 1848 and the response of the State to them. The book was written well before the weekly Chartist paper the Northern Star was digitised-making research a lot easier-so Goodway does not provide a comprehensive account. In fact that still remains to be written.

However as Goodway underlines on 10th April 1848 the State assumed violent intentions on behalf of the Chartists which did not in the main exist. Hence the forces of authority were massively over mobilised. The Government created its own panic and Queen Victoria was despatched to the Isle of Wight for the duration.

On Bloody Sunday 13th November 1887 30,000 marchers on unemployment and Irish Coercion were forcibly and violently prevented from gathering in Trafalgar Square by the police with the army on stand up

The same pattern, minus the Isle of Wight and the army, repeated itself in the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in London in March and October 1968. Large numbers of police were mobilised on the pretext that the marchers would be violent. In reality what violence there was in Grosvenor Square at the March protest was caused largely by over zealous policing.

Since October 2023 there have been numerous marches in support of Palestine. Everyone has seen hundreds of thousands march. Despite attempts to ban them by the former Home Secretary Braverman and claims they are hate marches, in reality they have seen fewer arrests than at football matches and music events. Very few actual charges seem to have inspired.

The pattern of often very large and peaceful marches on Palestine, with increasingly restrictive police ‘conditions’, often simply made up, continued until 18th January 2025. The police banned a march planned to start at the BBC to focus on biased reporting of Gaza, and after eventually allowing a gathering in Whitehall then attacked and arrested protesters, include the march’s Chief Steward, who planned to lay flowers to mark the many dead children in Gaza, in Trafalgar Square.

The Government always has a reason (albeit rarely rationally based) for over reactive policing. Perhaps the continued focus on the current Governments (as the last) refusal to actually do much beyond words, to try and stop the genocide in Gaza was playing on the official mind.

BBC/Getty

The tenth march for Gaza took place in central London on 9th March. Around 400,000 marched to the US Embassy at Nine Elms.The crowd was diverse and peaceful. Another march will take place on March 30th. In between, many,many protests and meetings have taken place not only in the UK but around the globe.

The Times which frequently runs Editorials on protests (in the UK a bad thing, elsewhere often to be applauded) determined (29^th Feb) that banning demonstrations on Palestine would be wrong. It suggested instead that protesters just stop having them.

This was a point echoed by Home Secretary James Cleverley who claimed protesters had made their point. Yet given the UK is still sending arms to Israel, and unlike some other countries,has not resumed funding UN aid to Gaza, clearly the point does still need to be made, more and more loudly.

The 9th March demo was around 400,000 strong. The largest protest in British history remains that against the Iraq War on 15th Febriary 2003. Yet while there were many protests on Iraq that march was a one off.

On Gaza since October 2023 not just London protests have taken place but many others around the country. Meeting, marches, walk-outs from workplaces and colleges have all featured.

Its a mass movement with few historical parallels given the variety and breadth of protests and the short timescale. That no doubt explains why there are increasing calls from the Islamophobic hard right for protests to be curtailed or banned. They can’t understand why people are protesting on such a scale and if they did they would oppose it.

There are of course some historical parallels but even here we are looking at a time scale of days and weeks not months. In 1848 in London in late May and early June, Chartists marched in their thousands every night in central London seeking to push forward the campaign for the vote which had been frustrated at Kennington Common in April 1848.

When we look at Suffragette protests for the vote in the early twentieth century or climate protesters now we can see sustained protest. The difference with the Gaza protests is the huge numbers consistently on the streets.

That is the real motor behind the UN Resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire passed with a US abstention on 25th March, six months too late. Israel has been ignoring UN resolutions for decades and will no doubt try to do the same here. The reality is that Netanyahu is ever more isolated particularly as the link with the US is partially fractured.

As the late Sam Cooke sang A Change is Gonna Come

Beard Liberation Front

9th March

Campaigners call for Best Beard Award at Crufts

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has called for Crufts, which concludes on Sunday, to feature a Best Beard Award in future years.

The campaigners say that a range of dogs have excellent beards, although they are not gender specific as with humans.

A Best Beard Award would highlight the magnificent facial hair that several breeds of dogs proudly have. It is often one of their most distinctive features

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, dogs with beards have been overlooked at Crufts and it’s time for this to change.

Despite being a lifelong Spurs fan what I look for in sport more than great individual performances or a team I support winning, is a competitive encounter.

The India v England Test series which concluded today with England losing the final Test within 3 days, and the series 4-1 was at best only fittingly that. Of course and it needs to be underlined the Indian cricket team, even without some key players, is a brilliant one. There is no shame in England losing in that sense, rather its the abject nature of some of the defeats that is an issue.

Under coach Brendan McCullum and captain Ben Stokes England have played several Test series now using a method that the media have dubbed Bazball. The idea is to play fast and competitive cricket, bringing the excitement of short form cricket to the longer Test game.

Since short form cricket is eating longer for,m games on a global scale with ever more T20 franchises, in principle its not a bad idea.

The problem is, as the current series has demonstrated, is that when excitement means getting out to poor shots, hitting sixes rather than building an innings and then just getting out, Bazball becomes Boreball. A Test match that is meant to last 5 days ending well within 3 days with no peculier circumstances is not a great advert for the game.

What is to be done?

The England team with its well known liking for golf seems to resemble in part a kind of mates club, all too familiar in the wider British class system. The administration and selection processes of English cricket are run by people with a similar mindset to those who run British politics with similar results

I’m no fan of The Hundred but short form cricket in itself is not at the root of this. The Indian side has renewed itself and flourished at least in part thanks to the success of the IPL.

England don’t play another Test until July. Time enough for Bazball to be reviewed and at least a move to a model of Bazball Mark 2 to be tried, getting a better balance between exciting cricket and competitive and sometimes even winning strategies.