Kmflett's Blog

Letter writers, amongst others, can bid farewell to the CEO of Royal Mail Simon Thompson.

He has resigned after two years but will stay on until October.

The Labour MP tweeted that his pay off includes £525,000 salary and £290,000 pay in lieu of notice although if he is hanging around he should work that.

Royal Mail praised Thompson for his ‘significant contribution’. Postal workers may have a different view

Thompson’s project, as the CWU underlined,was to turn RM into a gig economy employer.

After a long and bitter dispute which saw numbers of CWU members victimised, the union reached agreement with the employer.

Unions are rather more democratic than bosses so members will vote on the agreement later this month.

Thompson whose media appearances and attendances at a Commons Select Committee suggested a ruthless but incompetent person might be lined up to run TransPennine Express next..

Let’s hope Thompson’s replacement keeps in mind that the Royal Mail is a letters service charged with an obligation to deliver post.

The Guardian has reported (12th May) that Boris Johnson and Carrie have moved into a new £4million Oxfordshire Grade 11 nine bedroom house with a moat. According to the Times (15th May)Johnson,or more likely his estate agent negotiated a reduction of £200K as the house has been empty for 4 years. Johnson still expects the public to pick up the bill for his legal fees of course.

The house has six reception rooms, five bathrooms, a walled garden, a tennis court and a moat on three sides. There is a one bedroom guest cottage in the grounds.

Johnson was met with rough music by local people on his first night. A 90 minute peal on the bells at the local church. It was not the Guardian reports a welcoming.

Rather its what is known as rough music, a noisy protest at someone who is held to have transgressed the accepted values of society

The Archbishop of Canterbury was fined on Wednesday for a speeding offence as he was caught doing 25mph in a 20mph zone on the Albert Embankment in his Volkswagon Golf which apparently is not known as the Bishmobile.

Welby claimed he had tried to pay the fine three times but had been frustrated by ‘administrative errors’. He was not in Court or even apparently aware that the case had reached Court.

Last Saturday Welby was a key figure in the Coronation ceremony, whose extent and policing operation might be seen as a Tory Culture War.Unfortunately for the Tories on Wednesday Welby spoke in the Lords criticising another Tory Culture War, Braverman’s Immigration Bill.

The reporting of Welby’s speeding fine suggests this is a Culture War in progress

Beard Liberation Front

12^th May

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

2023 Beard, Shorts & Sandals eason now fully open after changeable weather

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the 2023 Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season is now fully open.

The full  2023 season officially opened on May 1^st but weather conditions have not been suitable for flaunting of the beard, shorts and sandals

2023 Season Guidelines

1] Shorts should ideally be three-quarter length-‘culottes’ for the 2023 season. The length of shorts is particularly important as climate change may mean that unprotected legs get sunburnt.

2] Footwear should be casual. There is a considerable range of sandal type footwear now available. Some leave parts of the feet and toes open to public view, while some does not. The BLF is not prescriptive about the matter.

3] Socks should usually not be worn*.

3a] If the beard, shorts and sandals are to be displayed in relatively busier urban areas it is likely to be prudent to wear closed rather than open casual footwear and ankle socks, not visible to others may be worn*.

4] There is no prescription or definition on what type of beard may be worn, or how this may match with the shorts and sandals. This is left up to the individual.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard, Socks and Sandals season has been a major influence on summer fashions in recent times and we expect the 2023 season to be no different. We’re pleased that after bad weather the Season is now fully open.

Tony Benn on John Smith (died 12^th May 1994)

John Smith MP the Labour leader died 32 years ago on 12th May 1994. I remember the occasion well because in this period, before I descended in trade union officialdom, and indeed before the interwebs, I was a manager, with staff to manage. One of my junior operatives appeared in my 17th floor office at Vauxhall, which overlooked the Thames towards Parliament, to inform me that Smith had died. That’s how news got around in those days.

Tony Benn Diary 12th May 1994

John Smith died today…. It is terribly sad. I have known him for twenty-five years, worked closely with him in the Department of Energy and have been with him in the Cabinet. I liked him very much. He performed a completely different function from Neil Kinnock- he healed the wounds of the Party

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith_(Labour_Party_leader)

Peterloo, Church & King, the Archbishop of Canterbury & the Tories

After the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had performed a staring role at the Coronation he appeared in the Lords to criticise the Government’s Immigration Bill and did so on Christian grounds.

This was too much both for senior Tories- step forward of course Suella Braverman  but also the Tory media (Times Editorial 11^th May)

Yet in making the attack the Tories are disowning their own history

The Magistrate who gave the order to send the Yeomanry in was William Hulton (1787-1864).

In a review of books published to mark the 150th anniversary of Peterloo in 1969 EP Thompson noted that Hutton’s mother had a prize horse called ‘Church and King’ providing a flavour of what the family was like. He noted that when it came to events like Peterloo it was not so much that Hulton would lie about what took place (he did) but that he was simply not interested in what the ‘plebs’, those fighting for the vote, said or did.

Hulton left another legacy aside from Peterloo. As EP Thompson notes in 1832 the Reform Act, a result of Peterloo in 1819, saw the Tories lose South Lancashire. Hulton was one of those who met in a beer house to form the South Lancashire Conservative Association dedicated to defending, like the family horse, Church and King.

That organisation was one of the forerunners of the modern Tory Party.

On the day of the Coronation the Met Police arrested a number of protesters including several groups it has since, sort of, apologised too.

However it was clearly the source of a Mail on Sunday front page about how plans of protesters to disrupt the Coronation had been foiled.

The Met claims it had intelligence on the matter. Clearly there are specialist units involved with countering genuine terrorist attacks that do have a good knowledge. More generally though a force which seems constantly surprised by the numbers of racists,misogynists,racists, rapists and murderers in its ranks doesnt seem high on intelligence.

According to Sir Mark Rowley who heads the Met there was a ‘criminal network’ of protesters at work on Saturday (Times 10th May) he goes on to repeat the lie that rape alarms, handed out to vulnerable people in Westminster overnight by police approved wardens were going to be used to disrupt horses. In addition he claims there were plans to vandalise monuments and also repeats the lie that people had ‘possible lock on devices’

In short don’t ask the Met to predict a riot

Labour’s Great Moving Right Show moves on

The Great Moving Right Show was a term developed by the late Marxist theorist Stuart Hall to analyse the Thatcherite political project in the 1980s. Through an earlier range of culture wars it developed a political hegemony that saw Thatcher win three elections. Hall’s actual point, misunderstood by New Labour was not that Labour needed to capture the same ground but rather to develop a similar hegemonic project on the left.

At least some of the people who didn’t grasp Hall’s point in the 1990s are influential in Labour’s policies in 2023.

Labour did reasonably well in the local elections on May 4^th. Well enough to suggest that a General Election victory is possible. Anyone who wants to see the Tories out can hardly be upset about that.

One way of developing from May 4^th would be to develop distinctive policies around energy, the cost of living and climate change further. Perhaps that will be done.

However on 9^th May Starmer gave a series of interviews that suggested that the Great Moving Right Show is continuing. He expressed a relaxed view on the rich, pace Mandelson (who is rich) which may not have impressed those- millions- struggling to pay the bills. He also opined that he would not repeal Braverman’s Public Order Act, despite voting against, but would let it bed in. Its an odd stance for a former human rights lawyer.

The spectre raised by Starmer is that we are seeing an echo at least of Kinnock in 1992, the leader who should have won an election but did not. If Starmer’s Great Moving Right Show continues it may become a difficult reality.

Repertoires of Contention. From slow marching to slow walking

During Tuesday’s Commons debate on the Public Order Act the question of the tactics used currently by Just Stop Oil activists was raised. A Tory MP wondered if slow marching was allowed. The Minister explained that slow walking was the issue. It appears that under some little understood part of the Act cumulative slow walking may be illegal.

Ministry of Silly Walks anyone…

House of Commons 9th May 2023

Tom Hunt 

(Ipswich) (Con)

 I cannot think of a greater waste of time than an inquiry into this matter. The police did a fantastic job over the weekend. They took actions under pressure, having to make decisions quickly to ensure that a great national event went ahead without any kind of negative event—I am glad that that happened. Does the Minister share my concerns that some Just Stop Oil protesters think they might have found a loophole in the Public Order Act and can get away with slow marching? Will he assure me that that is not the case and that we will not continue to see Just Stop Oil protests cause havoc in our towns?

 Chris Philp 

 Just Stop Oil has adapted its tactics since it blocked the M25 in November, causing 10-mile tailbacks, after which a number of arrests were made, with some of the people involved then being remanded in custody. It has changed to these slow walking tactics, but the police are applying cumulative disruption tests to those, using section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986 and making notices under that Act. Following recent disruptions in the past 10 to 14 days, the roads have typically been cleared within 10 minutes, which I am sure Londoners, my constituents and others, will welcome strongly.

The Coronation: a profit & loss balance sheet

Its been reported that the Coronation, which it might be remembered, has no formal purpose, cost £250million. King Charles is thought to have personal wealth of £1.8 billion, but did not contribute. Rather with the cost of living crisis in mind it was public money that was spent.

In return there was a ceremony of largely made up or reinvented traditions which at times looked more like a Monty Python sketch. Total TV viewing across all platforms were less than 20 million. The Queen’s funeral and jubilee in 2022 both got more viewers, as did her 1953 Coronation, when they were only 2.5 million TV sets.

Of course 20 million is still a substantial number although the UK population is around 67 million meaning the majority were for one reason or another otherwise engaged.

The crowds in London despite the traditional Coronation rain appeared substantial, although I haven’t seen a figure. Certainly the day passed off without incident except of course some bungling authoritarians in the police managed to arrest some anti-monarchy protesters for no particular reason. The police have spent the days since in a sorry, not sorry routine which might serve to remind the various politicians who have stated that the Met Police are not fit for purpose to do something about it.

Was the Coronation good for business? It will take a while to get reports on hospitality trading but even on the Bank Holiday Monday shops were reducing significant amounts of unsold Coronation items.

In short since the market judges everything in society the Coronation was a rather underwhelming performance.