Kmflett's Blog

National Refugee Week, From the Tories ‘small boats’ to a history of solidarity

19-25^th June 2023 is National Refugee Week

Suella Braverman’s hard right rants on refugees and and wider Tory efforts to demonise them have to face the reality that not only polls suggest a majority sympathetic to refugees but that British people if not the Government have a strong history of welcoming refugees

 I was looking through E P Thompson’s Peculiarities of the English for quite other reasons and came across the passage below which has interest in the context of 2023.

It’s an argument about why Britain is not an exception to the rest of Europe (a debate he was having with Perry Anderson and the late Tom Nairn) and why links existed both in the realm of ideas and in practical solidarities of fighting fascism and welcoming refugees.

Certainly a message for our times from European history, and beyond, and yet more British history the Tories would prefer to avoid thinking about.

Here is this island, and there, across a few wet miles, are Other Countries. Those waters have, on occasion, been crossed. That city, London, is not in the Antarctic but has been, alongside Paris, Vienna and Prague, a great European capital. In its East End there have been deposit after deposit of refugee and immigrant workers. In the universities there have been deposit after deposit of émigré intellectuals. Across that water there came, in the 1930s, wave after wave of refugees from Fascism; across that water there went, in the early 1940s, wave after wave of troops to assist in the liberation of Southern and Western Europe; and across that water there came, in the later 1940s and 1950s, a further wave of refugees from Eastern Europe.

Peculiarities of the English, 1965

Beard Liberation Front

press release 21st June

contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Michael Rosen shaves Gary Lineker to be voted Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said presenter of Radio 4’s Word of Mouth and veteran beard wearer Michael Rosen has been named the Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year 2023.

In 2022 the Award was shared between Michael Rosen and Bob Harris who came third in 2023

Gary Lineker won the honour in 2019 but he won the title in 2017 outright and shared it in 2018

The campaigners say that the world of broadcasting remains largely pogonophobic despite Jeremy Paxman’s high-profile comments on the matter in his final months as presenter of Newsnight in 2013

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Michael Rosen has become a leading face of Bearded Broadcasting and is a worthy recipient of the Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year Award.

National Beard Week 2023

Monday 19th June: Hirsute Personality of the Year: the beard wearer who has made the positive public impact during the year. 2023 winner- Moeen Ali

Tuesday 20th June: Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year: the sandwich that goes in the mouth not the beard. 2023: Chip Butty

Wednesday 21st June: Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year: the broadcaster whose beard has had the most public impact. 2023 Michael Rosen

Thursday 22nd June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2023 Ron DeSantis

Friday 23rd June: Beard Friendly Employer of the Year: the field grows wider each year 2023 TBA

Saturday 24th June: Beard of Summer 2023: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2023 TBA

Woke is an ill defined,some might say nonsense term, developed by the US hard right & now adopted by their UK equivalents.

The first Test of a five match Ashes series between England and Australia men concluded at Edgbaston on Tuesday with a narrow victory for the Ashes.

If you listen and read the commentators who are broadly backing either side a certain criticism of Wokeness may be discerned.

The England team with Brendam McCullum as coach and Ben Stokes as captain has adopted a method of playing known as Bazball. It is designed to be aggressive than English cricket has sometimes been, focused on winning with a style that takes something from T20 cricket.

By definition it moves away from cricket traditions. A good example of that was England’s decision to declare near the end of the first day,despite the fact that Joe Root was well set and might well have scored enough runs to see England over the line on Tuesday.

it is in a sense Woke cricket, moving away from conservative traditions.

On the Australian side Woke ends up meaning the opposite, Under the relatively new captain Cummins, Australia cricket has sought to put the days of being how shall we say over competitive behind it. Under Cummins the team took the knee against racism for the first time. Australian commentators criticise Cummins for not being aggressive enough. Leading batsman Steve Smith has his own oat milk brand (OMG- Oat Milk Goodness).

However as above take Woke seriously at your peril. It looks like a fascinating Ashes series is unfolding.

Northern Star 24th June 1848

Boycotts have a long history & Tories never like them

A piece of legislation designed to prevent public bodies including local authorities for steering clear of investments in countries whose human rights records they disagree with is before Parliament. On 3rd July only 10 MPs voted against it, with many abstaining. Backers included the legislation’s sponsor Michael Gove and the Parliamentary front man for the Labour Friends of Israel Steve McCabe

The aim of the legislation is not, as might be supposed, Russia but Israel. There is a significant BDS movement that focuses on the activities of the Israeli Government, currently of a hard to far right political nature.

The Government of course is officially boycotting Russia over the war with Ukraine, but no doubt there are still links as a recent party at the Russian Ambassador’s residence in London attended by some Tory Peers underlined. For Tories human rights may be nodded at but the key is profit. Boycotts aim to hit profits.

The most successful UK focused one in recent history was against apartheid South Africa. It was wide ranging from South African produce to sport. It was the only thing that brough apartheid down but it helped.

Boycotts have a much longer history. In the late 1830s the Chartists called a Grand National Holiday where the call was to abstain from all excisable goods such as beer and tobacco. The idea was to deprive the Government of revenue. It didn’t work because it relied on individual effort.

Better organised was the tactic of Exclusive Dealing which the Chartists operated in the late 1830s and the 1840s. The Chartist plan was to boycott shops and businesses that did not support the Charter. Conversely those businesses that did advertised the fact to attract custom.

Profit was of course disrupted so the Government did not like it or the call for democratic rights that was behind it

Bazball, Tory Cricket Culture Wars, Johnson & Sunak

Bazball the current mode of the England cricket team is about winning.

A Tory Culture War is underway on cricket.

Boris Johnson has given an interview to the Junior Chronicle, the Eton boys magazine, edited by Peter Rees Mogg. He argues that if you’re a batsman and the Umpire gives you out behind even though you know the ball hit your pad and not the bat, you respect the Umpire and walk.

However as the House of Commons voted on 19^th June Johnson is a liar and his version of Bazball continues to be about himself winning.  Hence he has told The Times that there is always another innings, W G Grace style.

Rishi Sunak by contrast is an actual cricket fan (Johnson is actually a rugby man) and pictures of him watching the first day of the Ashes on Friday appeared. New Labour scribbler Philip Collins tweeted that Sunak should be supporting India. He subsequently deleted the tweet, but it reflects some of the nastiness in that mindset.

Sunak passes the Tebbit Test and supports England. Not so long Andrew Strauss, former England cricket captain, spoke to a gathering of Cabinet members at Chequers about how to win (at cricket). Sunak has his own version of Bazball

Chip Butty named most Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year

Beard Liberation Front

Press release contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

19^th June

Chip Butty named Beard Friendly Sandwich 2023

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the humble Chip Butty has been voted most Beard Friendly Sandwich.

Each year during National Beard Week in June the campaigners search for a sandwich that does not have excessive mayo or salad which tends up in the beard rather than the mouth.

With the rise of designer sandwiches the bread around the sandwich filling, whether a traditional slice, flat bread or ciabatta, often fails to contain the contents which can then spill out into the beard even with the most careful eating.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, of course a Chip Butty may have added vinegar, tomato or brown sauce or mayo but these are all under the control of the beard wearer. It is a simple but very beard friendly pleasure

Beard Friendly Sandwich 2023 Result

1 Chip Butty 41%

2 Bacon(or Facon) 29%

3 Cheese 19%

4 Crayfish 12%

National Beard Week 2023

Monday 19th June: Hirsute Personality of the Year: the beard wearer who has made the positive public impact during the year. 2023 winner- Moeen Ali

Tuesday 20th June: Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year: the sandwich that goes in the mouth not the beard. 2023: Chip Butty

Wednesday 21st June: Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year: the broadcaster whose beard has had the most public impact. 2023 TBA

Thursday 22nd June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2023 TBA

Friday 23rd June: Beard Friendly Employer of the Year: the field grows wider each year 2023 TBA

Saturday 24th June: Beard of Summer 2023: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2023 TBA

Does Johnson’s exit as an MP mean the worst Tory split since 1846/7

The media spend much time obsessing about splits in and from the Labour Party. Historically the Party has had two significant splits. The first in 1931 when Ramsay MacDonald quit to head a (largely Tory) National Government. The second in 1981 when the SDP broke away and failed to break the mould of British politics.

The Tories ‘secret weapon’ is often reported to be their class loyalty. Divisions may be serious and argument vicious, but not in front of the voters please. That tradition is dead.

With Boris Johnson exit as an MP the Tory Party crisis looks to be potentially the biggest since 1846/7

Robert Peel, who had a considerable background as a Tory Minister and became Prime Minister for second time in 1841 with the backing of landowners who did not want the Corn Laws (a tax introduced in 1815 on imported wheat that kept domestic bread prices high, likewise profits for farmers) repealed, did in fact repeal them in 1846 with the backing of the Anti-Corn Law League

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel

While the ‘modern’ Liberal Party was not formed until 1858 it was largely their political predecessors who were behind the League.

The organised working class, primarily the Chartists, were only marginally concerned in terms of the organisation of the League pushing instead, in due course successfully, for a Ten Hours Act to reduce the length of the working day. A measure they correctly judged would have more impact on workers lives.

The numerous petitions for repeal of the Corn Laws organised by the League did attract considerable numbers of working-class signatures. Cheaper bread was a demand raised at Peterloo. What the League either didn’t want to do, or failed to, was to involve those working-class voices in its actual campaigning structures

Jacob Rees Mogg, who has a history degree from Oxford, argued in 2018 and again in his 2019 volume The Victorians that Peel’s actions split the Tory Party and this led to them being out of Office for several decades as a result. In this as in so many things Rees Mogg is not entirely right. The Tories did have brief spells in Office in the 1850s and 1860s but not until Disraeli in 1874 were they able to reassert themselves as a dominant Parliamentary force.

he Tory Party of the 1840s was hardly the one we know today. The present shape of the Tory Party was not fully defined until the early twentieth century. The second half of the nineteenth century saw several significant realignments in ruling class politics between Tories and Liberals.

Peel meanwhile broke from the Tories (though not Tory ideas) but died on 29th June 1850 after being thrown from his horse on Constitution Hill. Some of his Parliamentary followers did in due course sit with the Liberals.

Whether the current Johnsonian crisis leads to a reconfiguration of bourgeois parties in Parliament with the Liberal Democrats resurgent, two Tory Parties (reminiscent of splits on the left) or the end of the Tories altogether, who after all have a limited and ageing membership, may become clearer in the weeks and months ahead.

Strengths of popular beers reduced: time for the Assize of Ale

A well known paper has reported that brewers are reducing the strengths of popular beers to save on duty. The saving on a pint is minimal (and won’t be passed on to drinkers) but at the scale of production involved the impact for brewers can be considerable.

Reportedly Old Speckled Hen has been reduced in strength from 5% to 4.8% and Bishops Finger from 5.4% to 5.2%.

Of course reduction in strength is not new. Ruddles County was originally brewed at 1050 but is now much less alcoholic while Brewdog’s Punk IPA is currently weighing in at 5.2% (was 5.6%)

A new duty regime starts in August which benefits lower strengths beers, primarily as a health measure, but anyone who frequents pubs will know that there is a significant clientele who prefer lower strength but still tasty beers. Hence, for example, the success of Kernel’s Table Beer and Redemption’s Trinity which are both 3%

The brewers action however requires monitoring. The traditional practice of the Assize of Ale where the quality and price of beer were monitored in a legal framework could do with being revived

National Beard Week, Moeen Ali voted Hirsute Personality 2023

Beard Liberation Front

July 20th

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with Beard Week set to bristle off to a start on 19th June England cricketer Moeen Ali has won the vote for Hirsute Personality of the Year.

He won 50% of the on-line poll of BLF supporters, shaving Michael Rosen who got 29%.

The shortlist comprised well known beard wearers, focusing not just on their place in the public eye but the gravitas and impact their beard added to their public image and appearance.

Unlike the Beard of the Year in December, those on the short-list didn’t need to have a full-time beard. Rather they needed to have been in the public eye while hirsute. Neither is the contest about who has the ‘best’ beard.

The winner of the on-line poll which opened on 17th June is announced at the beginning of Beard Week 2019 on June 19th. 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 Beard Friendly Employer of the Year.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett We looked as ever for superb examples of hirsuteness in the public eye which also add gravitas. It means a beard plus presence equalling a maximum hirsute public impact. Moeen Ali is a great ambassador for the hirsute

To underline the importance of the public impact of his beard Moeen scored a Test 50 batting at No.3 for England against Australia at Old Trafford

Hirsute Personality of the Year 2023 shortlist

Moeen Ali, cricketer

Bob Harris, Radio presenter

Michael Eavis, Glastonbury founder

Michael Rosen, author

Chartist plans for a rising on 16-18^th June 1848 frustrated by Spycops

While the history books frequently write that the Chartist rally for the vote on Kennington Common on Monday 10^th April 1848 was the end of any revolutionary threat in what was a year or revolt and revolution around the globe that was far from the truth.

The Chartist left continued to organise and look for ways to get the vote which given the 10^th April focused on extra-Parliamentary protest.

I’ve written about the protests held on Monday 12^th June 1848. There was nearly a rising in Bradford but the authorities were focused on London. All meetings were banned although there was no expectation that the Chartists would pay attention and they didn’t.

Chartists gathered on Bishop Bonner’s Fields in East London on that day as did the authorities with a show of force from the police and special constables with the military in reserve. The day ended in stalemate.

There was however a possible plan for a rising on the weekend of 16^th-18^th June 1848.

At a meeting held in the Albion Beer House on Bethnal Green Rd on 12^th June a plan for a rising was drawn up.

There was a Committee of 24 who were involved in the planning but it included two police spies. George Davis from Greenwich and Thomas Riordain who was the Northern Star’s Irish reporter.

Riordain claimed the plan involved barricades on the Strand, Ludgate Hill and Cheapside. Theatres and other buildings were to be set on fire and pawnbrokers and gunsmiths raided for weapons. In South London the Old Kent Rd police station was to be taken to prevent the military proceeding across the Thames.

The Chartist Executive then disbanded the committee and the plan went no further. Its not known why but McDouall the Chartist Executive member responsible for the plan thought police spies had become aware of it. He named several people, none of whom, however were the actual spies.

It may seem familiar to those active on the left in recent decades trying to guess who if anyone were the Spycops in their ranks..