Kmflett's Blog

21st January

At length the Grey Gables project is (more or less) complete and Adil now clearly defined as the project manager is off not as we speculated last week to Lower Loxley but to the Sub Continent until his next project starts, whereever and whatever it may be. He did not bring the project in time or on budget and had periods of micro-management. Even so he was one of the more personable members of the Ambridge ruling class, even if only a temporary one. So far

Lambing at the Grundys

Its lambing time at the Grundys and things have not been going well at their rather small scale operation. Not all lambs have survived and very wet weather is causing problems. They want to use the land Oliver has sold to the Titchener Legacy. Instead of just doing it they have asked for permission. A bad move as it was refused. They should call the Titchener’s bluff

Music at the Tea Rooms

Natasha has been deploying new playlists at the Tea Rooms which have proved controversial with some. The Ambridge Socialist believes that a Wurzels playlist would be perfect

Hands Off Hilda

The Ambridge Socialist readers poll found that the obvious place for Hilda to reside is at the Bull. This will fufil Peggy’s requirement of being ‘in the custody’ of a member of the Archer Dynasty (Kenton) and provide much scope for future story lines.

Lenin died 102 years ago today and his mummified body remains on display in Moscow despite complaints from Putin era politicians that it costs too much.

Lenin was a great revolutionary and there remains much to be gained by studying his writings and his grasp of strategies and tactics.

He was not however a saint and the decision to retain his body- principally led by Stalin- was a nod to the tradition not of Communism but the backward ideas of the Russian orthodox church. There was a minority strand that thought that scientific advance would be able eventually to bring Lenin back to life. Well we’ve got as far as the hologram

Lenin’s wife Krupskaya was clear on the matter (as was Trotsky). She wrote

Do not allow your mourning for Illich to take the form of external reverence for his person. Do not raise memorials to him,name places after him.

Stalin had other ideas primarily that the politics of Lenin were to be kept in a tomb in Moscow and not let out

National Penguin Day: For a Penguin Republic in the Falklands

PENGUIN LIBERATION FRONT

Neither Falklands or Malvinas but a Penguin Republic

20^th January

 For updates contact Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

MAKE THE FALKLANDS A PENGUIN REPUBLIC NOW

On National Penguin Day, the Penguin Liberation Front has renewed its call for a Penguin Republic in the Falklands.

The Falklands has over 400,000 penguins, as well as albatross, puffins and seals

We believe that the profits from penguin guano should no longer be expropriated but used to fund a functioning Penguin Republic in the Falklands Islands. In particular we are concerned that the new far right Argentinian President may try to sell the guano to the US if Donald Trump because President again in November.

Humans will be welcome to remain but must recognise the majority democratic rule of penguins

Where we stand

We support the right of self-determination for penguins
We believe in peaceful co-existence between penguins, albatross and humans
The key element of the Falklands is not oil but guano.
We believe that penguins should receive the full benefits of guano production.

We demand

The Britain and Argentina recognise the Falklands as a Penguin Republic
The all Falkland Island penguins in captivity are returned to the Falkland Islands
That Lord Dave Cameron sign a concord with an appropriate King Penguin in Guano
That a special commemorative penguin postage stamp is produced

Penguin Liberation Front Convenor Keith Flett said it is time lessons were learnt over the Falklands. Penguins are the majority occupants and this must be recognised.

Lenin, the Islington Socialist Church meeting 1907 and the Hackney Bus Garage

Its 100 years since the death of Lenin. The Marx Memorial Library (where Lenin edited Iskra in 1903) held a special event to mark the occasion.

One speaker was Bob Henderson an expert on Lenin’s six visits to London and where he lived and worked.

Some interesting new information has come to light on the occasion in May-June 1907 when Lenin was in London for a conference of the Russian Social Democratic Party. The conference had been hastily re-arranged from Copenhagen and up to 400 delegates attended. It was held at the Brotherhood socialist church, Southgate Rd N1 an area which borders Islington and Hackney.

What was not known until now was where the delegates stayed.

Henderson had discovered that it was a former barracks in Shrubland Rd, Dalston. It had been the HQ of the 7^th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade but they had moved out to Mill Hill in 1904.

The former barracks were opened as a bus garage in 1906 and ended up with London Transport who closed it in 1981 and replaced it with Ash Grove bus depot in the same area which still operates.

While the dates don’t quite match it would appear  that the barracks didn’t become a fully fledged bus depot until 1908 so in 1907 its quite possible that the no doubt rather uncomfortable army accommodation still existed. How the Russian Social Democrats got use of it remains to be discovered

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/lenin-london

Update

thanks to @derekjohnbryant on X who notes what the site is now:

The barracks were in the area of new housing known as Grand Union Crescent to the South of the East end of Shrublands Road

The first Labour Government took office on 22nd January 1924, one hundred years ago. Below is an extract from the manifesto it fought the December 1923 Election on. Its notable for its commitment to equal pay and equal rights but that commitment didnt come from nowhere. It was the product of decades of organising and campaigning in the Women’s Labour League, in the suffragette movement and unions.

The 1924 Government also saw the first woman in a Government position, union official Margaret Bondfield:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bondfield

The Government was only in office until November 1924 so no substantive progress was made. Later Labour Governments did achieve something, for example the 1970 Equal Pay Act. However 100 years it can hardly be claimed that women have achieved equality in any sphere. Its a reminder that reform can take a very long time to make an impact and a reminder that there are of course other ways of changing the world

Equal rights

Labour stands for equality between men and women: equal political and legal rights, equal rights and privileges in parenthood, equal pay for equal work.

The first Labour Government took office on 22nd January 1924. It was a minority administration that fell in November 1924. Its Manifesto was that of the General Election held in December 1923. Below is the section on war and peace.

Only 5 years after the end of the First World War and only 15 before the start of the second these are important issues, as now. The Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald had not supported the war and lost his seat at the 1918 Election (returning to Parliament in 1922)

The policy is hardly a resounding example of anti-imperialism but its willingness to have normal relations with then socialist Russia and the call for multilateral disarmanent is a world way from Labour in 2024

Peace among the nations

Labour’s vision of an ordered world embraces the nations now torn with enmity and strife. It stands, therefore, for a policy of International Co-operation through a strengthened and enlarged League of Nations; the settlement of disputes by conciliation and judicial arbitration; the immediate calling by the British Government of an International Conference (including Germany on terms of equality) to deal with the Revision of the Versailles Treaty, especially Reparations and Debts; and the resumption of free economic and diplomatic relations with Russia. This will pave the way for Disarmament, the only security for the nations.

Verdant Putty DIPA 2024: It was the future once

Verdant have launched the 2024 version of their 8% DIPA, Putty. A yearly event the beer was first brewed for Hop City in Leeds in 2017.

Essentially it’s a dank, juicy, murky beer that is highly drinkable for its strength and having tried the 2024 version in can I can confirm it is beard friendly!

The optics are impressive- based on Verdant’s X account. Cans were sold out on their website in 12 minutes from 10.30am on Wednesday morning (In 2022 it took 30 minutes). At least 1500 Putty packages shipped. Since the minimum order was six cans (£7 a can) that means 9,000 plus cans were sold in short order.

In times like these that is impressive.

Certainly the beer is worth drinking but the figures suggest its become a brand and an event as much as anything. It would be interesting to know who was buying it and where but fortunately that kind of detail is legally protected as it should be.

Are there better beers out there of a similar type? Possibly but that’s down to personal taste and choice.

What can be said is the ‘slop’ (undercutting) end of the market has noticed. Lidl is currently selling a 7.2% DIPA for £2.19 a can

35 years of the Eagle: it started a democratic trend in pub food still too little copied

The Eagle Pub in Farringdon Rd, just outside the Square Mile of the City of London is 35 years old this January. One of the co-founders Michael Belbin (who is now over 70 ahem..) gave an interview to the Financial Times (16th Jan 2021) on its 30^th birthday in 2021

I worked for some years in the 1990s in the old BT Fleet Building down the road (on the other side of Holborn Viaduct) in Farringdon St. It was an engineering monolith stretching over an entire block in the City, so much so that I accumulated several offices in it. It’s since been knocked down all the network stuff re-routed, and a whole new building has arisen in its place.

Anyway that meant that while not a regular at the Eagle I certainly frequented it in the afternoon for lunch from time to time. I haven’t been in recently but I pass by on the bus on occasion and it always looks busy still.

The 30 year anniversary was spun as the Eagle being the original gastro pub. Well, yes and no.

As Belbin didn’t quite underline in the FT piece the Eagle was and is democratic. A turn up, no reservations(although you can now for bigger tables) and see if you can get a place. The gastro model I think tended towards the more formal. Secondly as Belbin did underline it was a pub. It was leased from Banks and Taylor. It sold hand-pumped cask beer (something some later gastro pubs rather ‘forgot’). Albeit the beer was not zeitgeist even in the 1990s but it was drinkable enough.

Thirdly the food. It wasn’t expensive, it wasn’t trendy takes on ‘pub classics’. It was from memory at this time often more Portuguese focused than not. I’m sure this is where I first tried pastel de nata for example. Again all rather democratic.

Let’s hope it survives in these tough times and finds others who want to do something similar

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill has finally passed in the Commons, although not before 60 or so Tories had tried to amend it to try and minimise or rule out the possibility of legal challenges to it. Meanwhile the Government itself floated the idea of instructing civil servants to ignore the law where it conflicted with the Rwanda legislation.

Clearly the party of the ‘rule of law’ needs reminding of the perspective that the Freeborn Englishman had on such matters in the 1820s and 1830s:

In the Making of the English Working Class, E P Thompson, discussed the meaning of the Rule of Law to those who fought for democratic rights in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries:

‘If law is open to rich and poor alike, said Horne Tooke, so is the London Tavern: ‘but they will give you a very sorry welcome, unless you come with money sufficient to pay for your entertainment’. But the conviction that the rule of law was the distinguishing inheritance of the ‘free-born Englishman’, and was his defence against arbitrary power, was upheld even by the Jacobins. The London Corresponding Society, in an Address of 1793, sought to define the difference in status between the English commoner and the commoner in pre-revolutionary France: ‘our persons were protected by laws, while their lives were at the mercy of every titled individual..’