The Mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, who was named Hirsute Personality of the Year this week, spoke to Mark Chapman about sport and community.
Mamdani has been celebrating the Knicks winning the US Basketball league after 53 years and also Arsenal, he is a fan, winning the Premiership.
Mamdani reveals he was originally a chess player but then moved to basketball and football. He also notes a love of cricket although he offered no view on Ben Stokes.
Mamdani is a democratic socialist, and he notes that the US World Cup game later will be screened free on street kiosks in NY underlining that the game should be about fans and community not profit
The 1976 heatwave began on 23rd June. On 27th June Tony Benn recorded in his diary, ‘Still boiling hot, I think 95F yesterday. The Observer had a piece on the Energy Conference’.
Benn who was Energy Secretary in the Labour Government was working on measures to address energy use and climate change. 50 years on we are still at it. Progress in history can be too slow.
Media Release. Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social
National Beard Week, Nigel Farage named as Beard Hater of the Year 2026
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has named Nigel Farage as Beard Hater of the Year 2026 as part of National Beard Week.
The campaigners say that Farage is perpetually clean shaven, aside from a brief period in 2016 when he grew a dubious moustache before quickly shaving it off.
While there are Reform UK Election candidates with beards it’s clear that the vetting process is rarely properly carried out and this may well account for the anomaly.
The BLF says that while anti-beard comments allegedly made by Farage in the past cannot be verified, it’s apparent that the traditional stereotype of beard wearers as left-wing or nonconformist is something Farage hates.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expect Nigel Farage to wear the title of Beard Hater of the Year as a Badge of Honour
Monday 22nd June: Hirsute Personality of the Year: the beard wearer who has made the positive public impact during the year. 2026 winner- Zohran Mamdani
Tuesday 23rd June: Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year: the sandwich that goes in the mouth not the beard. 2026: Chip Butty
Wednesday 24th June: Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year: the broadcaster whose beard has had the most public impact. 2026 James O’Brien
Thursday 25th June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2026 Nigel Farage
Friday 26th June: Beard Friendly Employer of the Year: TBA
Saturday 27th June: Beard of Summer 2026: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2026 TBA
Harry Kane and Ben Stokes lead Beard of Summer 2026 shortlist
As part of National Beard Week, the shortlist for Beard of Summer 2026 has been released.
England Men’s Football Captain Harry Kane and England Cricket Captain Ben Stokes lead the list, which has a sport oriented theme both football and cricket.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, England sporting captains have beard power, but who will win the coveted Beard of Summer accolade
The King attending a London Climate Week reception on 23rd June was accompanied by his official fan holder Admiral Sir Tony Johnstone, the Master of the Household. It’s unclear whether the Admiral is a trained fan holder (Daily Telegraph 24th June 2026)
These days its not a weatherman but a YouGov poll that is required to know which way the wind blows.
Comparisons are being made with the hot summer of 1976 which began on 23rd June 1976. Temperatures this week have gone a bit higher but (we shall see) 1976 lasted a lot longer.
An interesting take away from the above poll is that at 24% Reform supporters are the most likely to say that they are enjoying the current temperature. Presumably they are thinking back to 1976 when the National Front was just getting into its stride of marching and breaking up meetings… Also of course they don’t believe in climate change so what’s not to like??
Parts of England and Wales are again experiencing near record hot temperatures- much of the rest of Western Europe is even hotter with huge wild fires in France and Spain. Those who don’t believe in climate change, or at least doing anything about it, the right-wing media and right-wing politicians, either condemn net zero or suggest the wild fires are just one of those things.
A subset are workplace temperatures. Serial heatwaves since June have led to discussion about air conditioning homes and some public buildings but little has been said about the issue of working in heat.
While there is legislation on a minimum working temperature (around 16C by 8am) there is nothing on a maximum temperature. The TUC and some unions have been pressing for this for some time (see petition below). Where workplaces are unionised, employers usually provides guidelines allowing flexibility of attendance, clothing etc. Elsewhere people may be expected to carry on working on what are likely to be unsafe conditions.
Things have improved but it remains the case that hot working conditions (even when the weather is not hot) have a long history.
In The Making of the English Working Class (1963) E P Thompson records from 1818 an address to the strike-bound public of Manchester from a Journeyman cotton spinner. He writes of mill workers, adults and children who are ‘locked up until night in rooms heated above the hottest days we have had this summer and allowed no time, except three quarters of an hour at dinner in the whole day’….
A lot done, a lot still to do..
Last summer 1,504 people died from heat-related causes in England alone, and there’s still no legal maximum temperature for UK workplaces. Can you sign this petition to help change that? the.organise.network/campaigns/ne…
YouGov has tracked Nigel Farage’s popularity or lack of it since he was elected as an MP for somewhere in Essex in 2024.
The figure is now at the lowest popularity rating- 25% favourable and 65% unfavourable
Of course Farage himself helps this a lot most recently by his persistent evasions on the £5m he received from Thai billionaire Christopher Harbourne.
It also reflects however consistent and persistent campaigning around the UK by Stand Up To Racism and others to drive home the point about what Farage and Reform really stand for
