Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

press release                                                  7th July

Contact keith flett                                            07803 167266

TEN BEARDS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED THE ASHES

‘I feel facial hair brings the best out of the players’ Merv Hughes March 2013

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has listed ten players whose beards have had a significant influence on Ashes contests as the 2023 Ashes series reaches a key moment

They range from the classic of WG Grace to the designer beard of Kevin Pietersen via greats like Ian Botham and Freddie Flintoff.

Not all of the players listed have full time beards, it is a question of deploying facial hair at precisely the right moment. Some are better known for moustaches but as with Frederick Spofforth and Merv Hughes the line is sometimes crossed between a moustache and more significant facial hair

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said Merv Hughes was right. Facial hair adds gravitas to a players performance and the most hirsute side could have the edge in this summer’s Ashes contest

Ten Ashes beards

Ben Stokes

Ian Botham

Mike Brearley

Greg Chappell

Freddie Flintoff

WG Grace

Merv Hughes

Monty Panesar

Kevin Pietersen

Frederick Spofforth

The BLF will Award the WG Grace Beard of the Ashes trophy to the most hirsute side at the end of the series

Oops, it happened again. Keir Starmer & hecklers

On Thursday morning (6^th July) Keir Starmer was launching Labour’s policy on oracy- the importance of speaking clearly and communicating. He may not be the best example but as a policy its something to be supported.

During the speech several hecklers from a climate change campaign appeared near on him on the platform. Instead of engaging with them, he said he would speak to them afterwards (he didn’t). That was unfortunate because the hecklers were actually demonstrating what Starmer himself was trying to promote.

Starmer has little experience of the rough and tumble of public speaking and he is far from alone in the current political class. He has a way to go before he can match the master of the post-1945 response to political heckling Harold Wilson and may never get there

Harold Wilson, Birmingham,1966

Wilson was talking about his public expenditure plans when a heckler cried, “What about Vietnam?” – the burning issue of the day. “The government has no plans to increase public expenditure in Vietnam,” rejoined Wilson. Heckler: “Rubbish!” Wilson: “I’ll come to your special interest in a minute, sir.”

The key to it is both an immediate response, but also a witty one that demeans the heckler.

I’m no great fan of either man, but in a democracy, both heckling and responses to it have a role to play

Beard Liberation Front

7^th July

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

HIRSUTE URGED TO AVOID CHOCOLATE-BEARD INTERFACE ON WORLD CHOCOLATE DAY

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has urged beard wearers to avoid a chocolate-beard interface while enjoying World Chocolate Day appropriately

The campaigners say that chocolate in the beard can lead to a sticky mess which can only be satisfactorily removed with collateral damage to beard hairs and follicles.

Particular caution is urged when eating chocolate which has a soft centre.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the hirsute can enjoy World Chocolate Day responsibly by taking care to avoid getting chocolate in the follicles

Beard Liberation Front

6th July

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that England fast bowler Mark Wood’s 5-34 against Australia at the Leeds Ashes Test on Thursday demonstrated real Beard Power.

Wood was bowling at more than 90mph in short spells and ended with five Australian wickets.

While the speed of his bowling is usually the reason attributed for Wood’s success campaigners say that his Beard Power in key.

Wood has mastered lining up the follicles to give maximum air current traction to the speed of his deliveries.

The combination of beard and ball meant that Mark Wood bowled the fastest spell of bowling in Test history in England with a top speed of 96mph and average speed of over 90mph

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, when batters face Mark Wood they first of all see his beard and then a red cricket ball coming at them at more than 90mph. The combination can be match winning

Beard Liberation Front

6th July

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the decision of Australian batter Travis Head to appear without his trademark moustache for the Third Ashes Test at Leeds will mean Australia lack beard power.

Beard Power is a key part of England’s Bazball strategy,albeit it is a work in progress.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, without Travis Head’s moustache Australia will lack an important hirsute dimension to their play that could be decisive to the outcome of the match

Tony Blair & the old Battersea Chartists of the 1880s

Tony Blair has been making another of his rare but regular political interventions. This time to remind us of his 30 year mission to involve the private sector in the NHS

As Dylan noted, there is no success like failure, but failure is no success at all.

The phenomenon of the perpetually reappearing ex-leader is not unique to Labour. A whole chauffeur driven car full of ex-Tory leaders is available for comment.

However there is also a place in labour history for historical hangovers.

Some of the Chartists of the 1840s were still to be found active in a revived socialist politics in the 1880s. They were primarily followers of the Chartist Bronterre O’Brien who believed that currency reform was central to a fairer society.

W S Sanders in his book Early Socialist Days, recalled branch life in the Battersea branch of Britain’s first Marxist organisation the Social Democratic Federation in the 1880s. The demands of the People’s Charter of 1838, suitably tweaked, were very much part of the SDF’s politics. The O’Brienite currency theory much less so.

Sanders notes that the old Chartists were seen as survivors from another age, listened to with interest by some, with frustration by others, but ultimately an anachronism.

Blair in 2023 is heading to the same place. Hopefully the track record of winning elections is not.

The Campaign for Real Ale & David Jesudason’s Desi Pubs

Earlier this year a pub in Grays Essex was investigated by police after complaints of racism. Whether any action on that will occur is not clear. Certainly the Home Secretary wasn’t keen but it’s a matter for the police and the CPS.

The pub subsequently closed because Heineken and ABInBev refused to supply it.

It had been a local CAMRA Award winner and a Good Beer Guide entry. If the pub is the hub this was a very selective one.

CAMRA has good policies on discrimination and inclusion but practice must follow theory.

Actually it has. CAMRA has just published David Jesudason’s guide to Desi-Pubs. British-Indian pubs that sell restaurant quality Asian food in a pub setting. The book is political and reveals a whole genre of good pubs that may have passed many by

I have reviewed the book for the Cultures Matter site

https://culturematters.org.uk/index.php/culture/dining/item/4278-desi-pubs

Take a look at the site anyway, there is lots of interest and politics and culture including beer.

The fact that CAMRA has published the book is important. As Jesudason notes there is a link between Asian food and lager. Perhaps not many of the Desi pubs listed would make the Good Beer Guide. Jesudason does note however that some are selling cask and craft beer and there is no reason why more cant.

The point is that CAMRA is of course about beer but it’s also about good pubs which are inclusive of community and promote the kind of democratic social life that should and could promote a better Britain.

The book is available from CAMRA

Several Just Stop Oil supporters briefly protested on Court 18 at Wimbledon on Tuesday. No damage was done and the interruptions were brief compared to that already caused by the traditional weather.

Again while the subject of the protest, climate change, is of the utmost gravity, the protest itself was performative. It certainly got publicity which was the point but the focus at Wimbledon are the Centre and No.1 Courts. Court 18 is an outside one.

The All England Club issued the kind of self important frothing at the mouth statement which is familiar from similar sporting protests this summer. Even so the protest was a reminder to the Club that had introduced OTT security to no effect and to Suella Braverman who is pursuing a ban on all dissent, that people will always find a way to make their point when the issue is as serious as climate change.

Paying tribute to Nye Bevan on 75th birthday of the NHS. One statue that must never be toppled

I’ve divided my time between Tottenham and central Cardiff (where my partner lives) for almost 30 years

Hence in the week of the 75th birthday of the NHS I was able to take the fifteen minutes or so walk from the house to pay tribute to the founder of the NHS Nye Bevan who died 61 years ago in 1960.

There is a statue of Nye at the end of Queen St, one of the main Cardiff shopping streets (think Oxford St but pedestrianised for many decades). Nye’s statue looks out over Cardiff castle.

As a labour historian (albeit Nye is not my period) I’ve read a good deal about Bevan. He’s never struck me as being always the easiest person to get on with and when you consider that battle he had to bring the NHS into being in 1948 that is just as well. He also had a very clear opinion of the Tories who opposed its introduction.

Even so Tony Benn described him in his diary (7th February 1951) as ‘open, honest, good-humoured and devastating.

Since the fall of Edward Colston in Bristol in 2020 there has been much discussion about which statues should come down and which should go up.

There are though some statues that must never be toppled, and Nye’s is one.

Blair & the NHS at 75: we’re still not learning from our history

5^th July is the 75^th anniversary of the NHS. The moment in 1948 when health care (including at that point dentistry)became free at the point of use. It is a principle and practice that has to be campaigned and fought for ever since. There remain voices in the Tory media and politics who want a US style health insurance system.

Tony Blair has used the opportunity to make another of his occasional interventions arguing that the NHS needs to engage more with the private sector to flourish in future.

This is not exactly news. Its what Blair has been saying for 30 years. During the New Labour Governments of 1997-2010 it was carried through in practice and it has continued since then.

The NHS is a massive institution and employer, rightly so, and should be able to call the shots in any relationship with the private sector. That was not what happened in the New Labour years and its not what Blair means now.

Public Private Partnerships in effect left the public to take all the risks and the private sector to take all the profit. The operation of the market in the health service runs directly contrary to it being a public service unless its put in a tightly controlled framework that benefits the many not the few.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/05/tony-blair-urges-expanded-role-for-private-sector-as-nhs-turns-75