Kmflett's Blog

Northern Star 20th July 1839

Bastille Day on 14th July is the symbol of the French Revolution but it became a practical political slogan in Britain in the 1830s too.

After the 1832 Reform Act the Whig (Liberal) Government aside from transporting the Tolpuddle Martyrs for forming a trade union implemented the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834.

This set up a network of Workhouses (in place until the late 1920s) where people unable to support themselves due to unemployment or ill health were kept in an institution and had to work for the most meagre of provisions and accommodation.

They were hated as a symbol of autocracy, random detention and class rule much as their French counterpart and a significant campaign was run to destroy them.

The principle behind the Workhouse is of course exactly the same one that motivated Tory and Labour thinking and measures to deal with the least well off in society now. Which is both why Bastille Day is worth celebrating and the Chartists wanted to get rid of the Bastilles.

Tolpuddle 2023. Not just history. The Tories want to take us back to 1834

It sounds like a slogan but as a full Tolpuddle festival returns this week, Tory ideologues would be comfortable with a return to the days of the Martyrs.

Legislation to allow strike breakers during legal strikes underlines the Tories class hatred of working people combining to protect their conditions of employment has been found to be unlawful by the Courts this week after unions pursued the case. The Tories haven’t ruled out a further challenge and are continuing with legislation that would force people to work during a strike even though they had voted for it.

Employers combining to undermine strikes and unions is of course not an issue

The Tories disgraceful efforts  to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda underline that in the Tory mind  despatching ‘undesirables ’ to far-away places remains entirely acceptable

Tolpuddle 2023 is a celebration of our history and organisation but it’s  a reminder that the fights of 1834 will need to be fought again 2023 and beyond. Swearing an oath or two is allowed these days though

Marat was murdered in his bath, which he soaked in for medical reasons, on 13th July 1793. While in the bath he wrote, but mostly edited other people’s letters.

In its issue of 18th November 1990 The Sunday Correspondent, a shortlived Sunday paper, carried a picture of myself, topless in the bath (in Tottenham obviously) writing a letter. The next week the paper closed.

The curse of the Fletter remains

Eric Hobsbawm on invented traditions & Australian sheep shearers

Eric Hobsbawm although he ended up as a Companion of Honour saw himself very much as someone on the margins of society. Forced to flee from Nazi Germany, kept out of academic jobs in the 1950s due to his Communist Party membership, yet as Francis Newton, author of a paperback on the jazz scene, then not much approved by the CP.

This was reflected in his historical work. He saw things through a Marxist prism but often focused on matters at the margins the better to explain the centre.

In his collection Fractured Times he has a chapter on the myth of the American cowboy where he also surveys similar groups of men including Australian sheep shearers.  An itinerant workforce they were also strong union men. Hobsbawm notes that they had sympathy for the 1917 Russian Revolution  enough indeed to attend a solidarity meeting. However when police searched some attendees for subversive literature they found only multiple copies of a leaflet noting that if water rotted the boots of sheepshearers think what it might do so their stomachs.

On Gender, bias and the Ashes

Update. England’s Men drew the Ashes series with a magnificent win at the Oval. The victory rightly made front page news. The women’s equally magnificent Ashes series draw did not. Why not??

There are two cricket Ashes series running in England in July, the Men’s and the Women’s.

On Sunday in Leeds England’s Men got a hard fought victory against Australia. The Aussies lead the series 2-1 with two matches to play.

On Wednesday in Bristol England’s Women beat Australia in the first of three 50 over matches. They had previously won the T20 series 2-1 making this their third Ashes victory in a row. They lost the Test Match but there are now two more 50 over games in Southampton and Taunton.

In short England’s Women are so far doing better in this Ashes summer than the Men. So front page of Thursday’s papers? Well there are other news stories. Perhaps the back page? The Times has a picture of England captain Heather Knght on its top of the page strap. The Mail has an interesting story about illegal betting but nothing on the game itself on its back page.

Gender bias inthe Ashes anyone?

Wetherspoons, Profit & Loss

Wetherspoons has announced that sales of drinks and food are up 11.5% on the year, reflecting the fact that the cost of living crisis is leading people to look for competitively priced options in hospitality.

Alongside that, although details remain a little obscure, Spoons are still closing pubs. 28 have closed and 22 are potentially set to close (a fair number in London). The Company argue that in most cases there are alternative Wetherspoons nearby (within a mile or two seems to fit that) but the loss of pubs that those with little money can still perhaps afford to frequent is often keenly felt.

The point will not go down well with Wetherspoons many detractors, rightly fed up with Tim Martin right-wing views and the failure of the Company to recognise unions. It might be noted however that Wetherspoons is hardly the only PubCo that doesn’t do that- which continues to need addressing. In addition Spoons staff retention numbers in an industry with very high attrition rates is not completely disastrous. Again not something to be celebrated but perhaps understood

King Charles, Eric Hobsbawm & the Invention of Tradition

Ralph Darlington (@irrelations) has been posting on twitter a series of pictures of books by Eric Hobsbawm primarily I think as a reminder to those not familiar with them, that they still have lot to say for 2023.

One he hasn’t yet got around to is the Invention of Tradition a collection of essays jointly edited with Terence Ranger. The chapter on Royal traditions is written by David Cannadine and is still absolutely relevant

It did not find much popular support in Scotland but last Wednesday at a ceremony in Edinburgh King Charlie was honoured with the Scottish Crown Jewels

They are thought to date from around 1200 when a new set was created after the English stole the originals.

When Cromwell seized and melted down the Crown Jewels after 1649 the Scottish Crown in Edinburgh evaded him. King Charles 11 was crowned King of Scotland using them in 1651 but Cromwell was unsuccessful in capturing them.

They have served no real purpose since the Act of Union in 1707 and were not in use until put on display in 1818. They were then in storage between 1822 and 1953 until Queen Elizabeth 11 was given them.

None of the items are the 13th century originals all having been remodelled in the 16th century. The sword is now too fragile to be displayed so in the best manner of invented traditions a new one has been made.

There is a cost of living crisis btw

Cost of Living & Greedflation. Why Tories focus on wages, inflation & interest rates

The IMF not a friend of working people published figures in June which underlined that the key motor for inflation in the EU Zone is excess profits, what is known as Greedflation.

An Editorial in the Times (27th June) noted that action on excess profits, on energy companies and supermarkets is essentially performative. It claims that only control of wages and interest rates can bring down inflation.

There is of course a political agenda here. Controlling excess profits, a genuine motor of inflation, hits the rich. Controlling wage increases below the level of inflation and interest rate rises keep profits going while making the less well off in society pay.

That was the agenda on display from Chancellor Hunt and the Bank of England boss Bailey on Monday arguing again that wage rises cause inflation.

Wage increases are above 7% primarily because of high pay awards In private sector finance and business. The point is that there should be decent pay for all.

Alex Collinson from the TUC has noted that this is far from the case. In reality real wages fell by 1.7% in the last year and June was the nineteenth successive month of falling wages. Wage levels remain at 2005 levels.

Profits of energy companies and supermarkets however are at 2023 levels and with interest rates at a 15 year high both mortgage payers and renters face significantly hiked housing costs.

The really useful knowledge that needs to be discussed and acted on in workplaces and communities is that the Tories and the bosses are determined that workers will pay for their crisis while they maintain and increase profits. But only if we let them get away with it

The names of Boris Johnson’s children. Enter Odysseus

The lives of Boris Johnson’s children are of no public interest, unless they themselves decide to make it so, but their names as decided, one hopes between Johnson and his partner of the moment, have some passing note.

Sonia Purnell’s biography of Johnson, Just Boris, reports that he wanted to call one of his children with his ex-wife Marina Wheeler, Lettice. It is as Laeticia a Latin name used in Medieval English, meaning joy, the modern translation of which is either Lettice or perhaps Letitia*. Ms Wheeler’s preference won-out and the baby was named Lara.

Other children with Marina Wheeler were called Milo, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo.

He also had a child with Helen Macintyre in 2009 called Stephanie. This was revealed by Stanley Johnson in 2020.

His first baby with Carrie Symonds was called Wilfred, Old English, which seems like a modest step forward from the Latin. Wilfrid (634-709) was an Anglo-Saxon Saint and Bishop of York. The name fell into disuse but was revived from the nineteenth century on having nowadays perhaps an association with Victoriana.

Carrie’s second baby- a girl saw both Margaret and Allegra swerved and the baby was called Romy Iris Charlotte, its seems relatively restrained by Johnsonian standards.

Carrie’s third baby and Johnson’s (at least) eighth has been named Frank Alfred Odysseus. That Odysseus as in Trojan Horse, Illiad etc. Odysseus is usually depicted with a full organic beard

*thanks to Peter Lucas for clarification here

Beard Liberation Front

press release

11th July

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

122nd Anniversary of the resignation of the last Prime Minister with a beard

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has noted that July 11th marked the 122nd anniversary since the last British Prime Minister with a beard, Lord Salisbury, resigned.

Lord Salisbury (1839-1903) was a Conservative, and a noted imperialist, being opposed to Irish Home Rule. He is probably more remembered today for his magnificent beard.

The campaigners say that with the latest Tory crisis including the comings and goings of several clean-shaven men in suits the possibility of a beard in No.10 Downing St has increased slightly and Keir Starmer’s toolmaker father was a noted beard wearer

Several Prime Ministers since Lord Salisbury in 1902 have had facial hair, including moustaches worn by Attlee and Macmillan, but none has had a beard.

BLF organiser Keith Flett said, It is more than time that there was a Prime Minister with beard, preferably a Labour one as, for that matter, is it also time that a woman Labour MP did the job