Kmflett's Blog

Lord Dave Cameron’s friends in Chipping Norton

Dave Cameron has been appointed as Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton. He lives there but he does have a place in Cornwall and of course can now use the Foreign Secretary’s official residence in Kent.

According to the Times (18^th November) Cameron’s reappearance is an attempt to re-spin his political career which has been seen as something of a disaster from austerity to Brexit.

As Denis Skinner noted in the Commons when Cameron was PM Dodgy Dave has lot of mates.

That’s true not least of Chipping Norton.

Here he mingles with local resident Jeremy Clarkson and Charlie Brooks husband of News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks (think Murdoch).

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

Beard Liberation Front

20th November

Reuters

The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has said that it has barred the newly elected President of Argentina from the annual vote for Sideburns of the Year.

The vote takes place in August each year.

Javier Mieli a self styled ‘anarcho capitalist’ is a far right politician whose presence in political office daily brings sideburns into disrepute

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the BLF is broad and tolerant network when it comes to facial hair but there are limits and President Mieli is someway beyond them.

The current conflict in Gaza and Labour’s refusal to back a ceasefire has caused protests both sizeable in number and widespread in nature. The line that it doesnt matter what Labour says on the matter is specious. Firstly Britain is the former imperial power in much of the Middle East, a point not lost on many who live there and many in the UK who have relatives there. Secondly many Muslim voters are rightly concerned as they were with the Iraq War in 2003 that Labour is ignoring their concerns.

Labour HQ is reported as having checked the size of the Muslim electorate (which must be a very rough figure since you are not required to declare your religion or otherwise when registering to vote-rightly so) and concluded that only a few seats are at risk.

They have clearly forgotten the case of Hornsey and Wood Green in North London in 2005. The Constituency has an excellent progressive Mosque in Wightman Rd, N8 but not a particularly large Muslim electorate. It contains the areas of Muswell Hill and Crouch End which while historically Tory have been strongly identified with left of centre politics for the last 30 years at least.

In 2005 the Labour MP was Barbara Roche who had held the seat since 1992 defeating the late Tory incumbent Hugh Rossi. I was chair of Haringey TUC throughout this period and relations with Ms Roche were cordial enough. She was no firebrand left-winger but certainly willing to listen to Constituents.

At the 2005 Election however she fairly narrowly lost the seat to Lynne (now Baroness) Featherstone the LibDem candidate. She held the seat until 2015 when the current incumbent Catherine West was elected.

Again in my TUC role I got on well enough with Lynne, less so after the LibDems propped up the Tories from 2010. However her 2005 victory was not due to a mass surge of support specifically for the LibDems (who do have support in the Constituency today btw), not due to a large Muslim vote, because it did not exist, but very largely due to a many voters in the area strongly disagreeing with Blair over Iraq.

I don’t think this will endanger Catherine West in 2024 who again has been a decent MP on most issues. It is however a warning to Starmer that backing wars is a lot more electorally unpopular than he seems to think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornsey_and_Wood_Green_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

Beard Liberation Front

19th November

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard of the Cricket World Cup Final. Kohli shaves Maxwell in consolation for India

The Beard Liberation Front has said that the vote for the Beard of the Cricket World Cup has concluded with Virat Kohli shaving Glenn Maxwell 67% to 32% in an on-line poll.

It is a consolation for India who were well beaten by Australia in the game itself

The campaigners say that every game in the Cricket World Cup has been monitored and there have been superb performances by hirsute players across all sides- even including England.

However a policy decision was made to hold the final vote between the outstanding hirsute players in the two sides that have made it to the Final.

Australia’s Glenn Maxwell scored a magnificent double century against Afghanistan, winning the game for his side and doing a great deal to ensure their presence in the final

India’s Virat Kohli is the highest run scorer in the tournament by some distance and has completed several centuries including one on his birthday and another to reach the landmark of 50 ODI centuries

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, what happens on the field has determined the winner of the 2023 Cricket World Cup but the vote for the player with the most Beard Power was equally keenly contested. India lost the game but Virat’s Beard Power still triumphed

Australian cricketer Steve Smith is the co-founder of an oat-milk brand- Oat Milk Goodness

https://oatmilkgoodness.com/pages/our-story

There is no question that oat milk in general is good for you although I prefer a variant with less water & more oats, which is known as porridge. Oat milk is a variant of what Victorians knew as gruel. (I’ll post further on that).

Smith was given out in the Final of the Cricket World Cup on Sunday to a ball which had he reviewed it would have been not out. I don’t think oat milk can be blamed for that.

However reviewing the top scorers at the 2023 World Cup Steve Smith is not in the Top 20. Does his oat milk need a tweak?

Alan aka the Vicar is trying to cancel Xmas by claiming that St Stephens can’t afford a Christmas tree. So far none of the usual cancel brigade have piped up but it is surely only a matter of time before a Daily Mail front page and hours of gammonising on GBNews. In the meantime Alan could of course easily avail himself of a Grundy Xmas tree which would no doubt be available at a very advantegous rate

Harry is at the Stables

Harry has turned up at the Stables concerned about the horse he owns, which was injured after it bolted from fireworks. However Harry has encountered Alice and his concerns for horses are now rather less.

Titchener is lingering

Titchener is still with us despite the Queen’s call for his immediate despatch. He invited Helen to smother him and put the listeners out of our misery of having to listen to Titchener droning on. Unfortunately she declined and in doing so disobeyed a direct command she had received in writing from Camilla. Needless to say the BBC report didn’t mention this.

In Other News

Jakob & Kate have made appearances this week

Beard Liberation Front

19^th December

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard of the Year 2023 Paul McCartney faces Michael Rosen. Voting in Close Shave Rounds open

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said voting in the Close Shave rounds for the Beard of the Year 2023 is now open.

The winner of each of the three rounds will go to a Beard Off Final, together with the highest placed loser.

The long running contest, in recent times determined by on-line polls- looks for the individual who has promoted the  most positive image of beards during the year.

To qualify for inclusion a beard must have been worn for the majority of the calendar year but it is not essential that a beard is worn during the vote.

The voting closes just before Christmas with the outcome announced between Christmas and New Year

Beard of the Year 2023 Longlist

Michael Rosen, author & Arsenal fan

Paul McCartney, musician

Jamie Driscoll, politician

Alexei Sayle, broadcaster

Lula da Silva, politician

Eric Cantona, personality

Humza Yousaf, politician

Billy Bragg, musician

Christopher Eccleston, actor

Steve Bell, cartoonist

Moeen Ali, cricketer

Virat Kohli, cricketer

In the present day its often to be heard from a certain kind of Labour politician and sections of the media that issues beyond the shores of Britain are nothing to do with the traditions of the labour movement.

Yet Britain’s extensive imperial history suggests otherwise. While there are issues about how E P Thompson deals with the subject in the Making its certainly not absent. The brief extract below references Luddite activity with evidence from the most notorious of Government spies around the period of Peterloo, Oliver.

Just one of the issues to be reviewed at the Roundtable discussion on the 60th anniversary of the book

When Oliver (spy KF) tramped with the Leeds cropper James Mann, and another revolutionary, to the rendezvous at Thornhill Lees (in 1817) he found, from their discourse, ‘that the recent news from the Brazils seemed to cheer them with greater hopes than ever’ (ref: Home Office papers)

Monday 20th November 5.30pm. Free on Zoom but Registration is essential

Register here

https://www.history.ac.uk/events/making-english-working-class-60-roundtable-discussion

Dave Cameron has returned to Government this week as Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and, in addition, Foreign Secretary.

The Greensill affair in which he was involved when not an MP is still a live issue, one reason why Keir Starmer pressed Sunak on the appointment of Cameron this week

In 2021 a Sunday Times Editorial (28^th March) noted that Cameron ‘doesn’t actually have a reputation to lose’. On this occasion Rupert Murdoch was right.