Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

16th April

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

2023 Beard, Shorts & Sandals Pre-Season Suspension lifted

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the suspension of the 2023 Beard, Shorts and Sandals Pre-Season due to inclement weather has been lifted.

Checking the professional weather forecasts from the Met Office the way now looks clear for the full season to open on May 1^st.

2023 Pre-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. However in the pre-season they are optional

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 Pre-Season can now re-open.

The Ambridge Socialist

16th April

Coronation: we say, Roll on the Red Republic

A YouGov poll has indicated that there is little interest in the King’s Coronation in early May. The Ambridge Socialist suspects that one place where there will be interest is Ambridge. This week mention was made of bell ringers to mark the occasion at St Stephens and that is likely to be just the start. The Ambridge Socialist plans a Roll on the Red Republic celebration on the village green. We have not asked permission.

Mia takes the wrong side

Mia, rightly is in favour of electric vehicle charging stations. She has however taken a misstep in turning theory into practice and is backing Justin and Damara Capital’s plan to construct one on a parcel of land bought from Brookfield. Their interest is not in the environment but in profit and exploitation. Mia needs to stick to Grundy traditions of opposing bosses.

George and Brad

George is pursuing a one-dimensional Grundyism, while Brad is just beginning to grasp what that actually means in practice.

In Other News

Justin’s attempt to be a Borsetshire Business Angel has been sabotaged by Jim. Martyn Gibson got the award instead

Titchener is back in the country to attend his mother’s funeral. Apparently…The spectre of Titchener continues to haunt the Archer Dynasty which we consider what he did and what he is capable of, seems understandable.

Grand National? We need a Grand National Holiday

The Daily Mail has been focusing on the behaviour and dress sense of those attending the racing at Aintree. The implication that people should not be enjoying themselves is clear. Equally there are plans for a protest at the Grand National on the grounds of cruelty to the horses.

Wherever you stand what we do need s a Grand National Holiday

The Grant National Holiday has been Ignored or derided as a failure by many historians but it was an early attempt at a General Strike- its aim being to bring down capitalism.

The ‘Holiday’ was the idea of William Benbow. Like many radical activists in the nineteenth century he ranged across a variety of occupations, from pornographer to coffee house keeper to grocer and journalist, to survive.

He had been pushing the idea of a Sacred Month for decades in radical circles with no great immediate impact. He did however publish it as a pamphlet in the early 1830s and this can be freely accessed on the internet today

Benbow’s plan might well have stayed simply an interesting idea were it not for the fact that the Chartist Convention of summer 1839 adopted it as policy and determined to put it into operation in August of that year, starting on the 12th of the month.

It is very much a view of the early labour movement. We are familiar with General Strikes around the world which are in protest at something or which are demanding specific things. The Grand National Holiday was neither of these. It simply planned to disengage from capitalism until the system stopped working.

This meant that not only was no work to be done, but that supporters of the Sacred Month should withdraw any savings they had in banks or other institutions. They were also required to abstain from all excisable articles such as drink and tobacco. On 12th August 1839 in many, mainly northern areas, the pubs were shut.

This was not the last of the Chartist Challenge. The Sacred Month was just part of a repertoire of strategies that were being tried, mostly for the first time anywhere in the world, to see which might succeed in bringing an end to capitalism.

Egg throwing: a great British tradition of protest from the London crowd of the 1790s to King Charles

Egging has a long tradition in political protest

A person who pleaded not guilty to throwing an egg at King Charles in York (it missed) has been found guilty of threatening behaviour with the judge describing the egg throwing as ‘unlawful violence’. It’s a reminder that judges cannot be counted to up historic democratic methods of registering a protest, albeit the reasons for the protest on this occasion were not particularly progressive. Again that is also a feature of history

E.P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class records that when a perjurer was placed in the pillory in the 1790s the London crowd pelted him with eggs. Yet when a political radical suffered the same fate a few days later the crowd brought him glasses of wine to drink.

In more recent times egg throwing has been officially recognised as a legitimate protest. An anti-fascist arrested for throwing an egg at a National Front march in Wood Green in 1977, known as the ‘Battle of Wood Green’, was acquitted as the judge noted that it was indeed a traditional form of political protest.

John Prescott, who also egged on the campaign trail, didn’t agree (he whacked the egg thrower) but ultimately a point is made and no harm is done beyond making the person egged look silly and a dry cleaning bill.

Of course in the age of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary egg throwers are invariably arrested. She has no interest in or regard for the traditions of democratic protest and under her most recent Public Order legislation even loitering in the egg aisle of a supermarket would probably be an arrestable offence.

That said there is a wider politics here too. There is currently a shortage of eggs (even in Wetherspoons) due to avian flu and because supermarkets will not pay a market price to egg producers. Capitalism gets everywhere even to the politics of protest

In defence of CAMRA

The Campaign for Real Ale has seen some criticism on social media over its decision to deliist an Essex pub from the Good Beer Guide.

The Grays pub is being investigated by police. It displays golliwogs it would seem in clear understanding they are a symbol of racism (and hence loved by racists). The investigation goes wider than that into alleged discriminatory practices against pub users. An examination of social media posts by the pub landlord leaves no doubt where he stands.

CAMRA has clear policy, and rightly so, against any kind of discriminatory practices.

Social media complaints argue that it should just be about beer, but beer is inherently political. We need only think of the Beerage, brewers who have traditionally supported the Tory Party.

If the Pub is the Hub of a local community, then it must be welcoming to all. Good beer is a central part of the matter but far from the only part.

On 10th April 1848 the Chartists held a rally for the vote on Kennington Common. They had mostly marched from north of the river. The plan was to take a huge petition for the vote to Parliament. However once the Chartists had passed south the police and soldiers blocked them.

A leader of left Chartism, George Julian Harney who worked with Marx and Engels, made his position on this clear at a Chartist delegate meeting on 11th April.:

‘He would never again consent to leave London to hold a meeting

Northern Star 15th April 1848

E P Thompson’s Writing by Candlelight (1980) revisited. Times letter writers on the junior doctors strike (Apr13th)

The late socialist historian E P Thompson (1924-1993) was an enthusiast for letter writing. He wrote many himself although most unfortunately are locked away in the Bodleian for the time being.

He researched the history of aspects of letter writing, along with his researcher E E Dodds, and one result was his essay The Crime of Anonymity which has considerable relevance in 2023 although it was about the first decades of the nineteenth century. It looks at the writing of anonymous letters as threats- often to the rich and powerful-and official efforts to track down and punish the writers. The parallel with social media is considerable.

Thompson also wrote letters to the papers and was entertained particularly by the reactionary nature of some letter writers to The Times.

He would certainly have found at least one of those in The Times (13^th April) to be of interest.

Times letter writers have now had their say on junior doctors strikes. They are at root reactionary of course. E P Thompson I sense would have been interested…

On Wednesday Liz Truss gave the Margaret Thatcher Freedom lecture in Washington.

It was organised by a group of right-wing Republicans and the general drift was that Truss was right during her 49 day Premiership and everyone else was wrong.

Those who are still suffering with the financial impact of the Truss Premiership may feel, as Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens tweeted somewhat angry.

Inevitably the speech had its whacky moments. The Anti-Growth Coalition includes of course lawyers, teachers and journalists but now also the IMF and Joe Biden. In addition those wearing socialist enviromental clothing are also in the Woke contingent.

She claimed that woke attitudes are being ‘imbued’ in businesses

Truss made warmongering noises about China which she noted was at least worse than the US which stands for freedom but then called China state capitalist (not one senses in the way the late Tony Cliff used the term) underlining that the issue is economic competition.

Truss doesnt have much UK support currently thanks to last autumn, but the drift here of an ever widening conspiracy against free market fundamentalism could lead in unpleasant directions

We need to keep talking about racism & beer. & then act

The White Hart pub in Grays is in the news. I’ve never been to it but the police are investigating. The pub has a display of golliwogs which rate from insensitive to offensive for many (the pub apparently doesn’t think so) but also complaints of discriminatory service, all potentially illegal.

It’s not a new issue either. A quick Google will show that the matter was raised in 2018.

It’s not just an isolated case. The pub has been in the Good Beer Guide and a local CAMRA branches pub of the year through that five year period. CAMRA has rightly said that the pub will no longer feature in the GBG and pointed to long standing policy that any form of discrimination is not acceptable.

I’ve been a member of CAMRA since 1975 and any organisation of any size has a broad range of people and views. No doubt there are racists but that is far from the nature of CAMRA.

Even so in my view Britain is an institutionally racist country and the present Government is doing its best to stoke a range of discriminatory behaviours. Unfortunately Labour which should be standing out clearly against it is doing anything but- at the top level.

I’ve been a lifelong anti-racist and anti-fascist not just in principle but in practice, out challenging the National Front, the BNP, the EDL and whatever form fascists take.

However understanding and challenging racism in everyday situations requires deeper thought. For example English cricket remains under a cloud of racist practice and matters are far from being sorted. I’ve been going to cricket games since the 1960s. Did I know that there were racists in attendance? Yes, but I balanced it out by also knowing there were lots of people who were not racists as well.

Now I feel uneasy about going to cricket matches not least because I feel perhaps more should have been done down the years to challenge the racists who are still very much there.

When it comes to beer progress is being made. There are ethnic minority brewers making good beer and the rise of desi pubs is a really positive development. Yet the progress is too slow and not enough. There may be occasional exceptions but most beer events do not look anything like the population of Britain.

And finally back to the White Hart. CAMRA has taken action- what Keir Starmer calls ‘ruthless’. It needs now to do all it can to be sure that there are not other pubs which CAMRA branches are championing which discriminate. Hopefully there are not but that effort needs to be made and to be seen to be made. CAMRA is not responsible for racism in beer or pubs but it can and it must as a campaigning organisation show why it can never be acceptable.No other organisation is as well placed to do this and those concerned about racism in pubs and beer should support it, and join up.

Feeling uneasy however is nothing to those who find themselves on the front line of racist discrimination and attacks. That is why what is reportedly happening at the White Hart and a local CAMRA branches apparent lack of concern about it matters.

Beard Liberation Front

12th April

Delivering the Margaret Thatcher Freedom lecture in Washington today Liz Truss who was Prime Minister for 49 days last year once again blamed woke culture’ pushed by the “anti-growth movement” and “socialists in environmental clothing”.

With the 2023 Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season just opened (temporarily suspended due to inclement weather) Truss clearly has ethical sandal wearing beard wearers in her sights.

The Beard Liberation Front has defended sandal wearers and all those who wear ‘enviromental clothing’.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, sandals are sensible and sustainable footwear which is no doubt why Truss is attacking them