Kmflett's Blog

There are specifics on why Keir Starmer is departing as Prime Minister, but as the chart from the Financial Times shows (its a few weeks old so the 2020s figure will have changed slightly) there is also a significantly faster turnover of occupants at 10 Downing St in this decade.

Again if one thinks of Boris Johnson or Liz Truss there are specific reasons for their departure. It is not proof of the hard to far right mantra that Britain is ungovernable either.

Rather the impact of the 2008 financial crash, the austerity years from 2010, Brexit in 2016 and the pandemic in 2020 have meant that discontents with the way things amongst the many have risen. Those discontents can be addressed but not by policies which allow business as usual for the few.

National Beard Week, Zohran Mamdani named Hirsute Personality 2026

Beard Liberation Front

June 22nd

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that National Beard Week is bristling off to a start on 22nd June with the news that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been named Hirsute Personality of the Year

The campaigners say that Zohran Mamdani has presented a hugely positive image of the hirsute as New York Mayor.

The Hirsute Personality of the Year is announced at the beginning of Beard Week 2026. Other Awards that feature during the week, designed to promote a positive image of beards, are the Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year, Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year and the most Beard Friendly Employer of the Year.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, we congratulate Zohran Mamdani on being named Hirsute Personality of the Year. He sends a clear message. A beard wearer in elected office stands for hope and Zohran Mamdani has underlined that important message.

Lachlan Murdoch held his annual summer party at Spencer House in central London on June 18th. Murdoch is the owner of The Times, The S*n, Times Radio and the Talk Radio stations. Spencer House opposite Green Park, is an eighteenth century mansion that can be hired for such events.

Normally the party attracts considerable publicity, but it may be that Murdoch has concluded that no publicity is good publicity.

It took some digging to find a fairly reliable note of some of those who attended. This can be found on the Politco site.

Those attending included Keir and Victoria Starmer, Kemi and Hamish Badenock, Honest Bob Jenrick, Jacob Rees Mogg, Morgan McSweeney, Piers Morgan, & former intelligence boss Richard Moore.

No news at the moment of what canapes and drinks were served…

Attention at the moment in UK politics is focused on what is happening at the top of the Labour Party and the Great Moving Right Show represented by Reform and Restore. The Green Party is also making an impact as a left of centre challenger to Labour and the LibDems in some areas.

The Makerfield By-Election on Thursday saw a reminder that in north-west England the Tories remain nearly defunct. The Tory candidate got just over 2% (5% is needed to retain the election deposit) which was only the slightest improvement on the 1.9% the Tories got in Gorton and Denton. The point being that the Tories are the Parliamentary Opposition to the Government and in two By-Elections in Labour held seats would be expected to do a lot better than 2%.

Also on Thursday however the Tories won the Aberdeen South By-Election on a significant swing against the SNP and Labour. It was the first Scots By-Election victory for the Tories since 1967. The Tories campaigned on jobs in oil and gas which have been declining as climate responsibility policies have meant that new development is not taking place. The Tories campaigned against Net Zero and for jobs. Ideally these two policies should not be able to co-exist. A Green New Deal should be replacing jobs and retaining skills. Even so the Tories successfully campaigned on this, even if its unclear whether it is actually Tory policy rather than just what Kemi Badenoch has decided.

It would be interesting, not least for students of the late Tom Nairn’s Break Up of Britain, if a Tory revival started in Scotland.

It is not btw happening in Wales where the recent Senedd elections underlined that Reform or Restore (not sure if the difference is that clear in the Valleys) hoovered up all but the hardest core of Tory support.

Interesting times, although the work of socialists aside from opposing the Tories, Reform and Restore in communities and workplaces, lies elsewhere.

The Ambridge Socialist

21^st June

Brian does a Farage: he’s fallen out with everyone

Nigel Farage is known for falling out with everyone in the end, his most recent being Rupert Lowe, whose fascist party is taking support from Reform.

Brian meanwhile has fallen out with Adam, Debbie, Alice, Miranda, Oliver, Martyn Gibson (not so difficult) and almost with Kate. Theirs is no happy ending here even for supporters of the Brian Aldridge Fan Club

Sheep

The Archers remains steadfastly audio only, and given the sheep carnage during the week, that is just as well. Whether Borsetshire Police will find the owner of the dog responsible we shall see. Their crime solving record is not the best

Kate comes out as human

Kate has a long history of being self-obsessed and annoying. However this week she has come out as a human. Taking a job at Grey Gables she takes guidance from Brad on how to do a number of essential hotel jobs and she also found time to lend a mildly sympathetic ear to Brian

The Borsetshire Show

Thanks to Amber and Brad publicity for the show has gone viral. The Ambridge Sociallst may have a presence…

Amber

More stuck up than a glue sandwich was the verdict on Anne-Marie Gordon and Bill Gordon as they visited Will Grundy’s rustic cottage to see if it was a suitable location for Amber’s baby. Anne-Marie has the most RP voice heard in Ambridge for some decades.

Fletch

Fletch, the budgerigar has reappeared, in a wardrobe at Grey Gables……

Beard Liberation Front

21st June

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

Beard Liberation Front renews call on Brendan McCullum to shave his beard off

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has renewed its call for England Men’s cricket supremo Brendan McCullum to shave his beard off as the second  men’s Test Match summer at the Oval concluded with a heavy defeat for England.

The campaigners say that while McCullum’s beard was a distinctive part of Bazball, in more recent times it has become associated with poor performances by the England side and post the Lords Test a concerning issue around the culture of the team.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as things currently stand Brendan McCullum’s beard is bringing English and Welsh Men’s Cricket into disrepute. A clean shave might help England towards a razor sharp performance.

The Times, long before Rupert Murdoch took control, has a long history of printing stories attacking the left, often not entirely truthful. Marx and Engels Collected Works contain several examples of Marx writing to the paper correcting ‘errors’ they had made in reporting his activities.

In 2026 the Green Party is firmly in The Times sights, the Editorial on 20th June 2026 being a case in point.

The bottom line is that Bristol CAMRA are not holding a real ale and cider festival at Bristol Council House for cost reasons.

Despite what the Editorial says this is nothing to do with the Green Party’s policy on currently illegal drugs. The policy which would liberalise drug use in an effort to control it, is not in the power of the Council.

The paper does report a speech (accurately or not) by Council Deputy Leader the Green’s Heather Mack suggesting that offering a reduced cost to CAMRA would break Council policy on promoting alcohol. It has passed The Times by, but the Greens clearly have some supporters who are temperance campaigners. This is a perfectly respectable viewpoint, even if the Greens don’t usually mention it. It is not really however appropriate to a local CAMRA Beer Festival which focuses on sampling local beers and ciders and in doing so promoting hospitality and jobs.

Digging down the actual story seems to be that the Council outsourced catering etc at the Council House and the privateering providers then hiked prices for use. It seems that the Council has intervened to sort this out and CAMRA which had with other users been priced out was offered a revised lower price for the beer festival.

CAMRA don’t appear to have been contacted by The Times but planning festivals takes a lot of work and time (all voluntary) and its likely the new price came too late.

The Reform candidate in the Makerfield By-Election Kenyon got 15,696 votes and came second to Andy Burnham. A decent result it might be thought, except Reform clearly felt they would win.

Reform increased their vote slightly in percentage terms on 2024 but there was still a 55-35% gap between Kenyon and Burnham.

The media have probably corrected noted that voters were focused on supporting the candidate, in this case Andy Burnham, who would keep Reform out.

However the background statistics look grim for Reform.

Of the 90 seats where Reform came second to Labour in 2024 Makerfield was the 7th most marginal and it had the second highest vote of all the seats where Reform stood in 2024 but did not win.

After failures in Caerphilly and Gorton and Denton a reasonable conclusion might be that the momentum behind Reform is slipping.

Whether it continues to do so depends on whether Labour can do at least something to address the many issues that the have nots in society have. By that I mean not just make policies but practical changes to people’s lives for the better on the ground. No easy matter.

It also depends on the continuing campaigning of anti-racists, for example Stand Up To Racism, to isolate the hard core racist support for Reform from those who are rightly discontented and looking for a voice.

Beard Liberation Front

20^th June

Contact Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social

Beard, Shorts & Sandals Season. First 2026 Peak as temperatures soar to 30C+

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the 2026 Official Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season has reached its first summer peak with temperatures in many areas set to soar to 30C and above.

No Guidelines in 2026

The Beard Liberation Front, one of whose founding principles is that people should be able to dress and appear as they want, is increasingly concerned about official diktats on how people should or should not appear.

For the first time the voluntary option of wearing shades or sunglasses has been added after consultation within the network.

However the BLF urges those participating in the 2026 Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season to take care out there:

1 UV levels. It’s not just sun that can lead to sunburnt legs

2 Pogonophobia. Participants should beware beard haters

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard, Shorts and Sandals season has been a major influence on summer fashions in recent times and the 2026 season is no different. We’re pleased to see that Andy Burnham has been spotted wearing shorts. All he needs now is the beard.

As pollster Peter Kelner notes in his Substack the Makerfield By-Election produced some remarkable stats

Turnout almost always falls in by-elections. Makerfield’s figures are remarkable: a rise of 6.2 points to 58.7 per cent. Not since the Liberals won Torrington in 1958 has turnout risen by more than that.

The high turnout also helped Burnham do something that no candidate defending a Labour seat when the party is in power has done for sixty years. He has not only seen Labour’s percentage rise, he has achieved an increase in the actual number of Labour voters, from just over 18,000 to almost 25,000. The last candidate to do that was Kevin McNamara in Hull North in 1966.

This can of course be put down to the impact of Andy Burnham. It also however underlines that whatever else the voters of Makerfield thought they really did not want Reform to win.

Kellner notes btw that raw polling reflected the 55-35 outcome. It was an attempt to weight it that caused error. One wonder why no political reporter picked that up before the day..

Four take-aways from Burnham’s big victory