Jeremy Hardy died far too young aged 57. There are many memories of him on the anniversary of his death but I note a few of mine here:
1 Despite the best efforts of the Beard Liberation Front he declined to grow a socialist beard
2 Despite my personal efforts he declined to visit North London for a range of events claiming that he was a Sarf Londoner
3 He was responsible for one of the most succinct summaries of the culture of at least part of the left. Seated firmly in an armchair he explained the two most damning criticisms a socialist could make of another socialist:
A) You’re Wrong
B) You’ve Sold Out
4 He was also very clear that the English demanded that their food be ‘moist’
In days like these his informed humour and activism are badly missed
Shadow Chancellor has been outlining her plans again today for Labour as a pro-business party. This means no rise in Corporation Tax and leaving bankers bonuses alone amongst other things. How will this help ordinary people?
An obvious and realistic answer is that it wont. However if you look at Reeves underlying message, it is that only a stable and successful capitalist economy can deliver the growth to allow for measures that will benefit the many rather than the few. One might suggest that this verges on utopian socialist (but that would be unkind to utopian socialists) but it is a common delusion in Labour. Gordon Brown promised there would be no return to boom and bust, until 2008 happened.
Reeves however is in good company. The very first Labour Chancellor Philip Snowden who took office in January 1924 had a very similar view. Roy Jenkins wrote that Snowden far from arguing with the Governor of the Bank of England, Montagu, was in love with him, or at least his ideas.
To be fair Labour has had other traditions in respect of the economy but the one Snowden and Reeves represent has had the upper hand for the most part.
My Hairy Valentines 2024, Beards that are loved voting open
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said its annual search for My Hairy Valentine ahead of Valentine’s Day on 14th February is underway.
In 2024 it includes two categories:
1 Beards that are sexy, allowing for the reality that this is in the eye of the beholder
2 Beards that are loved because they add a reassuring presence to public life and should be celebrated.
There will be a vote covering each category with the winners of both contests sharing the title in 2024
In 2023 the winners were Idris Elba and Michael Rosen.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we know that not all beards are sexy, think Jonathan Gullis, but at Valentine’s each year we celebrate those that are.
Beards that are sexy
George Elokobi, football manager
Jurgen Klopp, football manager
Mikel Arteta, football manager
Roy Keane, football pundit
Voting for this round has now concluded. Votes will be verified & the winner announced on Tuesday
For those unfamiliar Jarndyce v Jarndyce features in Dickens. It is a court case that just never ends.
The Guardian has found a 2024 version. Two protesters at the Tory Conference held in Manchester in October 2021 were prosecuted for calling Iain Duncan Smith ‘scum’. The case was thrown out. The Crown appealed, the case was thrown out again.
Now the current DPP mindful of public funds is taking the matter to the Supreme Court to test whether or not on a reading of the law it was reasonable for the protesters to do so. The aim,not stated in the Guardian article, is to try and weaken protesters cases in future if they shout rude words at politicians- a former DPP for example.
The next step presumably will be to pursue the Estate of Nye Bevin for labelling all Tories lower than vermin.
Some will be familiar with the term Big Beer, used to refer to global brewing giants like Heineken and ABInBev. They produce mass market beers which should taste the same or very similar wherever they are consumed.
Part of that process was also to look to standardise the ingredients used in beer, hops for example. Big Beer uses hop pellets but until recently constantly using the same strand of particular hops led to a significant degeneration in their quality.
French scientists think something similar is happening to Camembert. The issue is with the fungi used to give the cheese its distinctive white rind. This will occur naturally but for mass production purposes the fungi comes from a laboratory.
From the 1950s the Times (30th Jan) reports that the aim was to produce camembert rinds that were white and consistent in appearance. A strand of fungi that would do this was identified but in doing so other strands have disappeared.
This means that a shortage of fungi to make Camembert rinds now threatens unless it can be accepted that the rind can vary in colour and appearance. Why not craft (small scale)Camembert production exists and should be encouraged.
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that comedian and commentator Alexei Sayle has been voted Beard of Winter 2024.
He shaved opponents in the on-line Beard Off Final receiving over 50% of the vote
Alexei Sayle won the first Close Shave round for Beard of Winter. Gary Lineker came second. Cartoonist Steve Bell won the second Close Shave Round with Amol Rajan just shaving Sean Dyce for the final place
Beard of Winter focuses on two areas:
Organic beards designed to withstand the winter weather
Beards that have been in the public eye in the previous couple of months
There were two preliminary Close Shave Rounds with the top two from each going to a final Beard Off.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we congratulate Alexei Sayle. His beard is not only fully equipped to meet winter weather, it has also had made a positive public impact over the past few months not least with his alternative Christmas Day message
Labour, military action & Elections: the case of 2005
In the 2001 General Election, nearly a repeat of the result of 1997 Labour had a majority of 167. At the next Election in 2005 Labour’s majority dropped to 66. In 2001 Labour got10.7m votes (40.7%). In 2005 Labour got 9.5m votes (35.2%)
Tony Blair was replaced by Gordon Brown as PM in 2006.
In between the two Elections was the Iraq War. It was opposed by a significant number of Labour MPs (Blair didn’t have quite such an authoritarian focus as Starmer, dissent was freely expressed) and saw the biggest ever protest march in UK history onn 15th February 2003. The war has become even more unpopular since and has a limited number of warmongers who still think it was a good idea.
The drop in Labour’s majority was undoubtedly due in large part to opposition to the war. This focused on Muslim voters but there were many others also, usually Labour voters, who were alienated.
George Galloway won Bethnal Green and Bow from Labour on an anti-war platform. The vote was far wider than that however and undoubtedly included those just fed up with the difference between Labour’s plan to create a New Britain and the limited progress that was actually made.
It was clear in Tottenham that so many had departed Labour due to Iraq or at least dropped out of activity that the Party had no clear way of estimating what an anti-war anti-Labour vote might be.
18 years on we are back there again. Support for Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party may be much diminished but then so are membership numbers and activists.
It appears that Labour has twigged that its unceasing support for the Biden line on Gaza is not popular and can hit it electorally. Again in 2005 because its out of touch with things on the ground its floundering as to what the impact might be.
In 2023 and we find another Labour leader, Keir Starmer, supporting not a war but a genocide in Gaza. It is not a popular with the public, polls suggest around three quarters of the public want at the least an immediate ceasefire. Starmer is flat footed as a leader compared to Blair and doesn’t have a large majority to lose since he is in Opposition. Rather he has to overturn a still not insignificant Tory majority.
It’s unlikely particularly given the current debacle of an ever more right-wing and incompetent Tory Government that Labour will lose a 2024 Election which is just as well, despite Starmer. The lesson of 2005 and what followed is that in supporting an unpopular and murderous US led military operations Starmer is doing very significant damage to his chances of hanging around as Labour leader and PM. Blair’s departure underlines the point.
Unlike 2005 Starmer doesn’t have over a million votes to lose and still expect an Election victory
Radio Cricket: Test Match Special ‘Wokery’ to Talk Sport ‘meat & potatoes’
The current India v England cricket Test series is on TNT, TV wise. The commentary is perfunctory. Radio wise its not with the BBC’s Test Match Special but with Talk Sport. A reminder that Rupert Murdoch still likes cricket, or at least the audiences covering it might bring.
Telegraph sports journalist Alan Tyers has posted a column which describes TMS as ‘Wokery’ which I think is a sub-editorial intervention to get the piece read (it worked).
Tyers seems to like TMS but not its coverage of ‘social issues’ or that politicians appear in View From the Boundary. With Kevin Pietersen and Darren Gough TS has got both areas covered but Tyers swerves that point.
He describes TS cricket coverage as ‘meat and potatoes’ (basic) and ‘some blokes talking about cricket’ which he clearly approves of and which Hypocaust has rightly pointed out is a tilt at TMS having women commentators.
Tyers has a beard but I’m not sure it’s helping.
TMS has its issues but at least it is still likely to attract listeners who may not be that interested in cricket but do like a good conversation. No one could reasonably say that about TS.
Aggers was on Celeb Mastermind this week with his specialist subject of cake, which he was useless at. Room for improvement there.
Dry January is well underwat. The annual campaign that suggests people should abstain from alcohol during the month to recover from possible festive excesses and just generally to cut down on drinking has perhaps been a little less strident this year. Perhaps there is a recognition that much of hospitality is struggling and if people visit the pub less, drinking alcohol or not, they may find it closed next time they stop by.
Naming the excellent Lucky Saint as the (lo/no alcohol) beer of Dry January is a step forward.
Drinking in moderation is certainly prudent, abstention, and what from (spirits, beer, the whole lot) has been historically contentious.
Dry January in itself sits rather oddly in modern Britain. There are considerable sections of the community who for religious or cultural reasons don’t drink. That doesn’t mean they don’t visit pubs or perhaps on occasion, for some, drink but the message to abstain from alcohol in January flies past the ear here,
Temperance was once an important part of working-class and labour politics and the tradition is far from dead, even if the commercial weight of the promotion of mass market beers and lagers somewhat obscures it. Keir Hardie was a temperance supporter and while current Labour leader Keir Starmer is known to like a glass of beer he doesn’t make a thing of it.
It is an honourable tradition rooted in dislike of giving money to (Tory) drinks manufacturers and a realisation that unsober people rarely get to change the world for the better.
We might however also be reminded what the Labour MP Victor Grayson had to say about efforts to promote temperance in law in the House of Commons over a hundred years ago:
In October 1908 he tried to adjourn a Licensing Debate in the Commons so the question of unemployment could be considered. The next day he underlined the point: ‘there are thousands of people dying in the streets while you are trifling with this Bill’.
Drink or not this January, it’s a matter of personal choice. If you want to campaign there might be more urgent matters just now.
Keir Starmer has returned after several days of silence (possibly for reflection, probably not) and stated on X that ‘My Labour Government will always value the pound in your pocket’.
Its a line that will strike a chord with labour historians but may puzzle people who do not have any pounds in their pocket (plastic) or are aware that a pound these days doesnt get you much.
The line was used by Harold Wilson in a TV broadcast to the nation in November 1967 back in the days when people actually did have paper pound notes in their pockets. Wilson was explaining that though the pound had been devalued against the dollar ($2.80 to $2.40) in fact in the UK people’s pounds were still worth the same. Like many Wilsonian phrases this was perhaps not quite true. It certainly annoyed Tony Benn enough for him record it in his diary.
Leaving aside labour historians and the Harold Wilson fan club (Starmer may be a member) the line may rather puzzle anyone born in the last 50 years or so..
