Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

26^th May

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Campaigners issue guidelines for beard wearers on the pollen count

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has issued updated guidelines for the hirsute on the pollen count.

The campaigners say that the Hay Fever season has extended in recent years and appears to impact more people.

The issue of beards and pollen has seen contradictory advice from commentators, mostly based it appears on whether they like or dislike beards. The BLF research department has investigated and can now provide a more measured guide.

Guidelines for beard wearers in the Hay Fever season

1 The Beard can provide an effective barrier to pollen reaching the eyes and nose and provoking hay fever symptoms. More organic beards are most effective.

2 Pollen remaining in the beard for any significant amount of time can however also provoke hay fever. Care needs to be taken.

3 If using the beard as a barrier to pollen it is *essential* to comb it regularly to remove the pollen

4 In addition the follicles should also be washed regularly to clear any remaining pollen not caught by combing.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, our pollen guide is firmly dialectical. A beard can provide for hay fever sufferers but only if our guide is followed.

Beard Liberation Front

26th May

contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Jeremy Corbyn at 75 demonstrates how a socialist beard is sustainable over 50 years

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers has sent birthday greetings to veteran supporter Jeremy Corbyn who is 75 on 26th May.

Corbyn has won the Parliamentary Beard of the Year Award a record 10 times.

The campaigners say that his beard, an ever present feature of his politics, demonstrates how radical facial hair can be sustainable over many decades.

Jeremy Corbyn was first elected MP for Islington North in 1983 when he had a full socialist backbench beard.

By the early 2000s this had been tempered by many years of campaigning, the mid-period Corbyn.

He was Labour leader between 2015 and 2020 and here the beard became a central part of his leadership, the mature-period Corbyn.

Now in the post-2020 era the beard adds gravitas to late-period Corbyn

In 2024 a new phase has opened, the independent-beard period Corbyn

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there is much to learn from the ages of Jeremy Corbyn’s beard and its sustainability over many decades. His beard has easily been the most impactful in UK politics over the last 50 years. We wish him and his beard a very happy birthday.

Rishi Sunak has confirmed to Alison Hammond on This Morning that amongst other low brow cultural tastes he is a fan of Jilly Cooper’s novels. Cooper writes in the ‘bonkbuster’genre. Sunak’s choice reflects a Culture Wars split in the Tory Party. What after all is wrong with the novels of Nadine Dorries? She is a leading member of the fan club of leading Tory bonkbuster Boris Johnson and so is well qualified to write in the area.

However perhaps Sunak has a point in his lowbrow Culture Wars. Jilly Cooper can write readable books in the context of the genre. Its not clear what Dorries books are actually about although AI could certainly produce better.

In 1862 Karl Marx, short of money as usual, applied for a job as a railway clerk.

His command of the English language was not an issue but his writing was.

He wrote in very small, and even for the period, hard to decipher script.

He was turned down for the job because of his handwriting- not something likely to be an issue in the electronic age of 2023.

It later caused Engels problems when seeking to go through and publish some of Marx’s manuscripts after his death.

For research historians now, with reading hand written letters and documents increasingly less common in the present day, reading archive material written in pen is I suspect becoming increasingly difficult. In fact its surprising the Tories havent started a culture war on it

*picture courtesy of socialist historian Marcello Musto

Consultation goes 3-1 against Dominic Raab growing a beard of political defeat

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

25th May

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that after a consultation with supporters on whether or not Dominic Raab, who is standing down as a Tory MP at the next Election, should grow a beard of political defeat, the on-line vote has gone 3-1 against

The campaigners say that it has become fashionable for male politicians, previously clean shaven, to grow a beard after a political defeat, following Al Gore’s failure in the 2000 US Presidential Election.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the issue is, would a Raab beard bring the hirsute into disrepute? By three to one in our consultation Beard Liberation Front supporters felt it would. Hopefully Mr Raab will remain clean shaven

Ralph Miliband was of course the father of David and Ed but he was a considerable figure on the left himself.

Author of several important books including Parliamentary Socialism, a critical analysis of the first 60 years of the party and, State in Capitalist Society, which looked at how the left should understand and grapple with current power structures. He was also the long time Editor, with socialist historian John Saville, of the annual Socialist Register, which still continues

On his death Tony Benn made a note in his diary.

Tony Benn Diary 21^st May 1994

Edward Miliband phoned to say his father Ralph had died this afternoon. It was terribly sad. He had a by-pass operation two years ago and hadn’t been well

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

Braverman, Sunak & the politics of Old Corruption

Rishi Braverman has decided to take no action over Suella Braverman’s latest transgression.

A speeding fine is a serious matters because speeding in a car can injure or kill. That said many get them.

The issue was not the fine but what has become a sort of fog over what Braverman did about the penalty, ultimately paying the fine.

After the Johnson and Truss era Sunak promised a Government of integrity, professionalism and accountability. It doesn’t look like that.

Rather it appears Braverman remains in the tent rather than outside it not because of any great Ministerial competence but because of who she is. That is a leading figure in one of several groups of hard right Tory MPs whose support Sunak depends on.

Historically it is the politics of Old Corruption

Sunak is holding on to power itself. With that comes the potential at some point for personal profit, although Sunak is already the richest MP in Parliament and the ability to offer sinecures in terms of contracts and official positions to one’s friends or those one wants for some reason to influence.

That may all sound somewhat pre-democratic, and it is. It is in fact the politics of Old Corruption that so annoyed William Cobbett in the 1820s. The process of replacing it with democratic accountability was started by the 1832 Reform Act.

The current Government is sometimes said to want to return Britain to the 1950s. It wants to go much further back than that- to the pre-1830s. There is one problem. Had the 1832 Act not been passed Britain faced one of the most serious threats of revolution it has seen to date…

As is customary the monarch, currently King Charles paid a visit to the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday.

According to the Times (23rd May) Charles is looking for new plants that will withstand the nibbling activities of rabbits at his Highgrove residence in Gloucestershire. Apparently Charles was partiularly interested in a Lavender Sage plant grown by Choose Love a charity that supports asylum seekers

Rabbits, the new enemy within, along it seems with the King. Suella Braverman must act while she still can

Beard Liberation Front

23rd May

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, is consulting supporters on whether or not Dominic Raab, who is standing down as a Tory MP at the next Election should grow a beard of political defeat.

The campaigners say that it has become fashionable for male politicians, previously clean shaven, to grow a beard on political defeat, following Al Gore’s failure in a US Presidential Election.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the issue is, would a Raab beard bring the hirsute into disrepute? We’re consulting

An international poll (don’t look for scientific evidence please) has found that German men are the most likely to take a Sitzsprinkler, that is sitting down to pee, than anywhere else in Europe. The news is on the front page of the Times (22nd May) which normally reserves its piss taking for Editorials

It appears that 62% of German men sit down to pee, 50% of Swedish men, 34% of Italians and only 23% of Britons. The practice appears to be particularly common with over 55s.

This would obviously never occur to the Times but the real issue is not how you pee but the lack of public toilets in which one can do so