Kmflett's Blog

COVID Lockdown & Boris Johnson March 2020: the wasted 10 days as thousands got ill

Labour MP Jon Ashworth in an interesting Guardian piece(March 2021) on Downing St and COVID three years ago claimed that in March 2020 there was a feeling of British exceptionalism in Downing St. It reveals that the virus was widespread at the centre of Government in Whitehall as Boris Johnson havered over lockdown measures:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/12/no-10-plague-pit-how-covid-brought-westminster-to-its-knees

On Monday 16th March 2020 Johnson suggested people avoid pubs and theatres (I’d been in a London pub on Sunday 15th March- the Cock Tavern in Hackney and didn’t go into one again until July-the same pub as it happens). On 20th March he ordered them to close and on Monday 23rd March he announced the first lockdown.

Yet it was all late. COVID was already widespread in the community-certainly in London. As the Guardian article notes numbers may have had it but getting a test was virtually impossible.

The Covid Inquiry on 31^st October 2023 has heard that Johnson knew a full lockdown should have started on Saturday 14^th March. However he was incapable of making a decision and was not in any case an enthusiast for lockdowns. So ten days were wasted during which time thousands got ill and some died.

However many, myself included, started to act before Johnson. I cancelled a socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research on 16th March (the building was open) and also a London union officers committee meeting in central London I was due to chair the previous week. In both cases there was a sense that getting people together in small rooms was not a great idea.

It was still happening in Downing St though.

On Friday 12th March 2020 I attended the annual Bernie Grant Memorial meeting in Tottenham. It was packed with hundreds of people and I felt uneasy. I’m not aware though of a significant COVID spike related to it, thankfully. At this stage the precautions stage was at elbow bumps rather than handshakes. Social distancing and masks were a way off.

Probably the thing that really brought home how far Johnson was behind much of public sentiment was the start of the cancellation of Premiership football matches.

The game between Spurs and Manchester United on Sunday 15th March 2020 was much anticipated. It was cancelled at short notice. As often business (which is what Premiership football mostly is)was in front of Johnson.

He stuck to his Podsnappery, ‘Not English’ line that COVID restrictions were for *other* countries for another week. As a result many more got ill, died and suffered long term illness than might have been the case.

And then came the Downing St lockdown parties

Beard Liberation Front

31st October

GB News’ Neil Oliver out spooks Jonathan Gullis to win ‘Scary Beard of Halloween’ vote

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, which campaigns against irrational prejudice against the hirsute, has said that the crypt door has creaked open on the Scariest Beard of Halloween 2023 poll.

Looking inside GB News presenter Neil Oliver out spooked the 2022 winner Jonathan Gullis MP in the annual on-line poll.

The title, awarded each year on October 31st, takes a wry look at Halloween festivities by identifying the scariest beard in the public eye. The winner is likely to win by the narrowest crack of a squeaky floorboard.

The BLF does not generally believe that beards are scary, a view promoted by generations of beard hating pogonophobes.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, facial hair is part of Halloween tradition. We aim every year to subvert some of the beard hatred that lies behind that, while looking in a light hearted way at ‘scary’ beards. While both Neil Oliver and Jonathan Gullis have robust views, their beards remain outstanding. However on a dark, windswept night, things may momentarily look a little different!

The Final Four ‘Scary Beards’

Neil Oliver

Laurence Fox

Jonathan Gullis MP

Paul Mason

The big UK news story of the day should have been the long running COVID inquiry which heard evidence that Boris Johnson wrote down a question about why the economy should be threatened for old people who were going to die anyway.

Of course some politicians had other ideas. Suella Braverman continued with her long running Culture War which is designed to insert her as the hard to far right leader of the Tories after an Election. In today’s episode Braverman labelled the entirely peaceful marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in recent weeks ‘hate marches’. She is a leading expert on hate its true but the 500,000 who marched in London last Saturday might wonder what planet she is actually on.

Meanwhile Keir Starmer’s Great Moving Right Show lurched even further rightwards as Labour MP Andy McDonald was suspended because he had opined that it might be an idea if Palestinians and Israelis could live peacefully together. This was a bit much for Starmer who clearly sees himself like Blair as a great war leader.

The wider issue is how politicians like Starmer and Braverman can be held to democratic account. Clearly their own political parties aren’t doing it, so the role falls to the electorate. At the moment that can be once every 5 years.

It raises the question of whether the time has come to act on the one unfulfilled demand of the 1838 People’s Charter, a call for annual parliaments. For those who think Chartism was a failure, five of the six demands on issues like a secret ballot and payment of MPs have long since been law.

Before it started to become clear that Labour could win elections and the hundredth anniversary of the first one in 1924 is due shortly, the length of Parliaments was much discussed on the left. Annual Parliaments were thought to be perhaps impractical but elections every two or three years were significant radical demands.

There is or should be nothing like an election to focus the minds of politicians who think they can say or do just what they like.

Measuring the size of demonstrations

Saturday’s London demonstration for a ceasefire in Gaza was according to media estimates, likely to be based on an officially circulated figure, 100,000 strong. It was of course much larger. Some of those involved were also organisers for Stop the War demonstrations twenty years ago on Iraq. That included the largest ever in UK history when well over a million marched to Hyde Park.

It was and is difficult to argue about that as there are pictures of a huge crowd in the Park. When protests end in central London its much more difficult to assess numbers. There were two stages on Saturday, one in Parliament Square and one in Trafalgar Square. That suggests very large numbers.

Another indication is how long it takes a march to finally leave, in its entirety, the assembly point.

The State has had varying perspectives on assessing numbers on protests. Historians are still debating how many were at Peterloo in 1819 but the authorities were not counting. Their view was simply that it was too many.

The Chartist protest on Kennington Common on Monday 10^th April 1848,the first to be photographed, saw a new and now familiar strategy deployed. Again historical debate about numbers continues. The papers suggested tens of thousands- the official view- while many Chartists reckoned around 100,000. The Chartist leader O’Connor suggested far larger numbers, an unhelpful perspective which still sometimes happens.

The Anti-Vietnam War protest in central London on 27^th October 1968 had around 100,000 on it. The BBC reported 25,000 which was possibly a police figure. If it was the question was raised why 6,000 police officers were needed.

In recent decades the Met Police have generally stopped estimating protest numbers. Its not their job- knowing a rough size of course is for crowd safety purposes only. On very large protests its hard to be sure of precise numbers. People leave and join on route and at the end before a rally starts.

Recently the police seem to have started estimating numbers again. The purpose is political of course a subset of the Suella Braverman Culture War department. The 5 people arrested on Saturday represent a tiny amount if the protest was 100,000 strong. If it was 500,000, much more likely, even mentioning it is bonkers. But then Braverman….

London Socialist Historians Group

30th October

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, has said that unfortunately,due to the indisposition of the speaker, the seminar on Monday 6th November, where Bob Henderson was due to speak on his recent book on Lenin in London, has had to be postponed.

It is hoped that the seminar will be re-arranged in the Spring Term 2024.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, its unfortunate that the seminar is delayed. We wish Bob Henderson a speedy return to full capacity, hopefully a little quicker than the sealed train in which Lenin travelled on one occasion

Starmer on the Iraq War in 2003: UN is key

In 2003 Keir Starmer was a human rights lawyer. He wrote in the Guardian on Blair’s decision to back war with Iraq without clear backing from the UN. He makes clear that Sections 42 and 51 of the UN Charter are relevant.

He didn’t think it was clear that the requirements of either had been met and as a matter of record he opposed the war.

Fast forward 20 plus years and Starmer as Labour leader has refused to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza despite a UN resolution which, in effect, required this to happen.

He has yet to express a clear view on potential US bombing of Iran

There is a difference between being a human rights lawyer and leader of the Labour Party but the importance of the UN and international law remains. On this from Starmer so far, silence

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/mar/17/foreignpolicy.iraq1

The Ambridge Socialist

29^th October

Bonfire Night at the Bull: protest frustrated

After a horse was seriously injured bolting from an informal Ambridge firework display, Mia and others determined to organise a protest aimed at getting the Bull’s Bonfire Night cancelled. Mia petitioned outside the village shop only to encounter veteran, if speechless, reactionary Hilary Noakes. Noakes complained that the Bull’s Bonfire Night was a great tradition, despite complaining in previous years that it had disturbed her cockatoo. A disturbance followed and Mia became discouraged.

It’s a pity that more didn’t join her campaign and it was then co-opted by the Ambridge ruling class. The Bull’s fireworks will be noiseless and the bonfire will be eco-friendly and built only on the day. Mia has been co-opted onto the Bonfire Committee.

Perhaps Mia should take the win here and learn the lesson that collaborating with the Archers is not the way forward

Lee leaves Helen

The ever tiresome Lee someone who appears to be permanently exasperated has been booted by Helen and is moving out of Ambridge. Helen is obviously not too well, hardly surprising after the continued looming of Titchener, but will still be better off without him.

Adam and Ian hold hands

Why not, but they are also men in their 50s. Perhaps the occasional kiss would work better, preferably not in the shower.

Adil is back at Grey Gables

Things can only get better

E P Thompson on the clocks going back & time discipline. Should there be North London Time?

Clocks have gone forward or back in Britain to mark summer or winter time for around a century. There are debates about how daylight is lost or gained as a result and the impact of this and these continue.

Behind that however lies an industrial obsession with time and the market capitalist idea (also in a related sense an idea of state directed capitalism), in terms of how much could be produced and how quickly. Time is money.

A common theme of the clocks going back for winter is that those who are not working overnight will get an extra hour in bed. The subtext there is perhaps whether an extra hour not doing something is necessarily a good idea.

EP Thompson’s Time, Work Discipline which appeared in Past and Present in 1967, 57 years ago, remains a foundation text.

To give a brief flavour, he writes of ‘Smilesian snippets about humble men who by rising early and diligence made good’. He continues that as workers secured reductions in working hours moralists became concerned that ‘manual workers after concluding their work were left with several hours in the day to be spent nearly as they please’.

How time is used or not used is political.

Standard time came with railway clocks in early Victorian Britain. Without it railway timetables won’t work. Before then local areas had slightly different times. There is still a clock in the St Nicholas Market in Bristol that shows the local as opposed to the national time.

Perhaps its time for a North London time. It would obviously be slightly different to South London time and because it’s a progressive place, slightly ahead of national time. That would make the trains more likely to run on time as well.

Oct 27^th 1968 on Vietnam to Oct 28^th 2023 on Gaza. The Times spots ‘outside agitators’

On 27^th October 1968 100,000 demonstrators marched to Hyde Park to protest the war in Vietnam. It was organised by the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. Tariq Ali one of the organisers was clear that the route deliberately avoided going to the US Embassy, then in Grosvenor Square. The aim of the march was not to have a punch up with the police, but a public display of large numbers protesting peacefully against war.

This did not stop the Times claiming that the march was really about violent revolt

‘A small army of militant extremists plan to seize control of certain highly sensitive installations and buildings in central London next month while 6,000 Met policemen are busy controlling an estimated crowd of 100,000 anti-Vietnam war demonstrators’

Times 5^th September 1968

It was not of course, although a group of Maoist protesters did engage with police in Grosvenor Square, separate to the main march.

On 28^th October 2023 a march involving far more than 100,000 people protested against military destruction in Gaza by the Israeli Army, with thousands of civilians dead and injured. The march was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others and the aim was a mass peaceful show of solidarity with Gaza.

This did not of course stop The Times on 28^th October running a front page headline ‘Iran hijacking UK protests’ The article underneath

‘Iranian agents are creating unrest in Britain by stoking Gaza protests’

There was no evidence presented about who such agents might be or how they operated. But if one read on, on page 4, the report noted that the influence of such agents was at the fringe and hence nothing at all to do with the protest on 28^th October

Socialist History Seminar report. William Webb Ellis & Culture Wars in rugby

On 23^rd October at the Institute of Historical Research Prof. Tony Collins spoke on William webb Ellis and the class struggles. He is the author of Who Framed William Webb Ellis.

The seminar was not recorded but the bullet points below are based on my notes while chairing the seminar. Any inaccuracies (likely as I was multi-tasking) are my responsibility along

William Webb Ellis. b1806. Rugby school. Vicar d1872.

Unaware he’d be a rugby symbol. He played no rules football, handling & kicking the ball

Rugby school version popular due to class status of the school.

Thomas Arnold, Head Teacher published in 1857 Tom Brown’s Schooldays

1870s Rugby was a mass spectator sport. North of England, SouthWales.

1874 Factory Act. Half-holiday Saturday to watch game

Rugby became part of working class life-Eric Hobsbawm noted between 1880-90.

Featherstone miners 1893, where several were shot. Inquest in same pub as Featherstone Rovers were formed 1902

Rugby Football Union feared working- class crowds & players..

In 1886 the RFU turned amateur

Northern clubs were seen as professional with payments (compensation).

1893 RFU voted down compensation payments. Oxford & London focus to RFU.

Class divide 1895 Huddersfield split to Rugby League

William Webb Ellis officially named as inventor of Rugby football after inquiry. No actual evidence was presented.

Clarion Rugby correspondent an SDF member & Salford rugby

 RFU Professionalism rules banned League 1895 for life. ‘Are you now or have you ever been’ League test used for Huddersfield RFU club

Twickenham Maginot line of class system JG Ballad.

England Rugby team privately educated

League publications run by CP & ILP

Similar pattern in Australia & New Zealand Culture & class division

Vichy France banned League 1941

RFU Tory Party at play but some cross class presence in for example Bath, Bristol

Oswald Mosley called Rugby the perfect fascist game

 South Africa. Vorster said a black man will never wear Springbok Jersey

2023 class split on deprivation-Red Wall has League Clubs. The Rugby World Cup upholds the made up tradition of Webb Ellis. League sees itself as democratic egalitarian