Donald Trump says many things, often contradicting himself, one feels usually without being aware he has done. He has claimed on 23rd March that there was a deal to be done between the US and Iran. Tehran which obviously follows TruthSocial closely (while restricting the interwebs in Iran itself) have said this is ‘fake news’. On 26th March Trump claimed that Iran was ‘begging’ for a deal, which raises the question of who is actually doing the begging here..
Donald Trump’s image is all about being successful in business (quite the reverse as the record shows) and being a brilliant deal maker.
Indeed Donald Trump wrote the Art of the Deal, or rather he didn’t. It was in fact written by Tony Schwarz who suggested the idea so Trump could fulfil a contact he had signed. As Daniel Finkelstein noted in the Times (October 25), Trump couldn’t write a book, he didn’t even read them.
For Trump the art of the deal is about the process of doing the deal. How it works out is not so important. There’s always another deal to be done.
When Brewdog was sold to US outfit Tilray on March 2nd 484 workers were sacked on the spot, almost certainly illegally. Outstanding pay etc and statutory redundancy (for those with over two years service) is picked up by the Government.
In an even less good position are Brewdog’s creditors. Brewdog had debts of £553.8m when it was wound up. After the sale reports suggest there was a £480m hole in the accounts.
Brewdog’s banker HSBC had secured £85m of debt against the brewery so (I’m not expert in insolvency!) may well get some back.
Other unsecured creditors will get next to nothing. The media has already covered the impact on the Equity for Punks ‘shareholders’ but this will also impact companies that supplied materials to Brewdog- malt and hops for example- and brewers whose beers appeared as guests in Brewdog bars. There may well be a wider economic impact on parts of the UK ‘craft beer’ economy.
In fact unremarked in media reports the figures do raise the issue of whether Brewdog is currently really a going concern at all.
English & Welsh cricket. Key & McCullum stay. The old is dying but the new cannot be born
The quote of course is from the Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci who died in a fascist jail. The next line refers to monsters or morbid symptoms but let’s not get carried away. It’s only a game we’re talking about.
The upshot of the review into England’s dire Winter Ashes series is that while it would apparently have been ‘easy’ to sack Rob Key and Brendan McCullum the difficult thing has been done and they have been left to clear up their own mess.
Most of the actions to be taken are already well known. There will be some actual coaches employed for things like fielding. Staying out after midnight at least during matches is not encouraged. Drinking is apparently more difficult to sort out. I like a beer of course but for top class professional athletes in 2026 it is perhaps something that requires at best moderation.
There remain therefore issues
Is McCullum going to play less golf and focus on more bowling and batting practice.
Is McCullum going to stop picking players on a hunch after he has watched a video and actually engage with the Counties who are the bedrock of the game
How is the Ben Stokes situation going to be managed. A brilliant cricketer and often a great captain, when the team under performs too much often falls on Stokes and that leads to injuries and time out of the game. He like us all is not getting any younger.
Until recent times English cricket was regarded as and often was the most conservative of institutions and recent events have left it looking rather like its being run like the Conservative Party is.
Leaving Gramsci and looking to Lenin: What is to be done? Burning questions….
I was pleased to see that statement below from Haringey SUTR of which I’m a supporter.
There is a large and varied Jewish population in North and North-West London, and there has been for a very long time. Its an important part of what the area is.
In the period when I was President and then Secretary of Haringey Trades Union Council (I’m now just a humble delegate) there were instances of anti-Semitic attacks. Without fail we called protests but it must be said that opinion on whether to protest or keep quiet to avoid encouraging further outrages was sometimes an issue. It’s good to see an understanding in the current moment that anti-Semitic attacks must ALWAYS be called out.
It’s also a reminder about why Saturday’s central London march Together against racism is so important. Hate and division should have no place in British society but they will have unless actively opposed. See you tnere.
Haringey Stand Up to Racism stand in solidarity with the Jewish Community in Golders Green. We condemn the horrific attack on the four community ambulances which belong to Hatzola, a local Jewish ambulance service. Antisemitism has no place in our society.
We must promote peace and unity and stand together against hatred and division. Let’s build the maximum possible turnout at this Saturday’s Together demonstration.
The second round of the French local elections took place on 22nd March. I’ll post further on quite a complex set of results.
In Paris the hirsute Socialist Party candidate Emmanuel Gregoire beat the right candidate. As if the beard was not enough in itself for Starmer the SP stood in alliance with the Communist Party and the Greens.
The fascist and centre right candidates stood down in the second round, while the left candidate stayed on the ballot after the SP declined a joint ticket. Elsewhere in France the SP and the left did stand on joint tickets with mixed results. Probably the nearest UK equivalent to Melenchon’s LFI is Your Party, but the LFI is a broader left construct
One key aim of course was to stop the candidates for the fascist National Rally. Here again results appear mixed and no doubt influenced by local candidates and contexts.
Much work to before the French Presidential elections in 2027 both at the ballot box and in the wider movement to counter fascism. Lessons from the 1930s remain important here.
Historian Christopher Hill, Spurs & The Experience of Defeat
As a lifelong Spurs fan and Tottenham resident that current relegation form of the club is disheartening.
The sacking of Igor Tudor as manager after 44 days suggests a dialectic of decline leading to the Championship next season.
Spurs were last relegated in 1977 but the current debacle has been coming for a while. The White Hart Lane stadium is a great modern venue which also has a football team attached to it. That anyway is how I think the Club’s currently rather convoluted owners think of it.
I’ll remain a supporter of course if relegation does happen, which is not yet quite inevitable. The impact on all the mostly small businesses in and around Tottenham High Rd and then on local jobs will I suspect be the real experience of defeat.
Christopher Hill (1912-2003) the Marxist historian of the English Civil War and after, and Master of Balliol College Oxford aspired in his youth to be a first class cricketer. Not for England but for the County of his birth Yorkshire which he saw as a higher honour.
He wrote a book The Experience of Defeat about what happened to those who had supported Cromwell and the Commonwealth after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The defeat was considerably more significant than losing a series of football matches but there are some broad parallels..
The restoration saw numbers of those who had signed the death warrant for Charles 1st- regicides- executed. Cromwell who had died in 1858 was dug up and executed in his absence as it were. Censorship of radical ideas was reinstated and those who held such ideas were persecuted.
Hill notes:
we know something of the practical consequences of defeat. After 1660 nearly one in five of the beneficed ministers lost their livings, without even the meagre compensation which the ejected of the 1640s and 1650s had received. Lay dissenters had to endure nearly thirty years (until 1688 KF) of sporadic but often very damaging persecution
Hill was interested in the radicals that had supported the revolution and how they came to terms with events after 1660, in particular the poet and radical activist and thinker Milton.
Even so it’s a reminder that defeats, often very serious ones, happen and there are serious consequences. That applies to political movements and in a lesser register football teams too. Ideas, perspectives and radical organisation survive however.
In terms of Spurs the practical consequences of relegation will be less significant in 2026 than they were for the supporters of the Commonwealth in 1660, although I wouldn’t rule out an element of mild persecution for the current authority structure at Spurs too.
Both the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times lead with stories that Iran may have missiles that could hit European Capitals including London.
The story is based on reports of Iranian missiles which were fired (but intercepted) at the US/UK base on Diego Garcia which is around 2,000 miles from Iran.
There is no actual evidence that Iran has missiles that could hit Western Europe or that it intends to do so. The story was bigged up by the Israelis no doubt with the intention of drawing European countries into that country’s never ending wars.
Fortunately the lessons of 2003 seems to have been learnt (for the moment) and the Government has said there is no basis for the story
In 2002/3 the infamous dodgy dossier claimed that Iraq had weapons that it could use in 45 minutes (not at Europe) and the S*n made up a story that it had missiles that could hit the British base on Cyprus.
The fog of war as usual allows such stories to flourish and its unlikely to be the last that we hear of this one..
The Ambridge cricket team or variants of it has been a summer regular in the Archers for a very long time. Last season ended acrimoniously, not just with relegation, but also a bust up caused by Freddie covertly paying Rex to play.
With Sgt Knacker Burns safely out of the way the future of the team lies with two key Ambridge people, Lynda and Tracey. They do not of course agree. Perhaps the BBC could get an IPL franchiser involved to sort it out
Brian: the long goodbye
Brian is still trying to protect Ruairi from the consequences of his actions. Ruairi doesn’t feel happy about it. Perhaps he should go on a free transfer to Coronation St. Brian is sounding increasingly like Donald Trump, not politically, but in terms of erratic behaviour, the latest being an offer to invest in George’s drone business (does it still exist?)
More importantly it ties in with a current Archers theme of mental health awareness. It’s not the kind of thing to bother the Nigel Farage’s of this world, but back in reality it’s a real issue
Esme wins the farm
Esme has got the approval of Neil and a 20 year contract to run the farm as a tenant with George as an advisor. The times they are a changin’ possibly
The Treggorans
Carol and daughter Anne have reappeared after a very long absence. There will be a reason…
In other news
The Vicar. Alan is looking tired. Shades of Dr Who
Tracey has bested Justin. A Proletarian victory to celebrate
Kmflett's Blog 