Kmflett's Blog

Eton v Harrow cricket match to continue at Lords after ‘wokery’ claims

The Telegraph reported earlier in 2023 that the Eton v Harrow and Oxford v Cambridge cricket matches are to continue at Lords until 2028. The former has been held there since 1805.

Lords had previously said that 2023 would be the last year for the matches as they wanted a more diverse range of games including more women’s cricket.

However some MCC members under the auspices of the Historic Fixtures Group opposed this. These included Henry Blofeld (cricket commentator and Old Etonian) and David Gower (former England cricket captain).The Times published an Editorial in their support although the Sunday Times carried an interview with leading MCCer Stephen Fry who said that while those wanted the games to be scrapped had been accused of ‘wokery’ it was time for Lords to move on.

Lords discussed with those that want the matches to continue on how to proceed. These do not seem to include Eton schoolmasters who reportedly see the match as encouraging bad pupil behaviour or Lords stewards who have to deal with the same.

However 23,000 MCC members voted 44% to 43% that they wanted the historic fixtures to continue

The Times has published several letters from MCC members in support of scrapping the matches, and this may just be the latest round in a culture war where Lords is found to be occupied by ‘cultural marxists’.

Update

The new MCC President Mark Nicholas has called for the fixtures to be moved from Lords in line with a conclusion in the recent ICEC report on discrimination in cricket.

Of course the Historic Fixtures Committee has come straight back with its Chair Michael Hall writing in the Times (3rd October) that Eton v Harrow is better attended than Middlesex home games and the boxes make money for Lords..

A Culture War in progress

Boris Johnson, lies & the Wenger defence

Boris Johnson, like Donald  Trump, has a history of telling lies.

The mode of operation is a little different however. Johnson in many cases lies in a calculated way relying on the fact that as an old Etonian this is ok.

It often isn’t

Johnson has departed from several journalistic jobs at the Times and the Spectator but he has also been sacked as a politician.

In 2004 when Michael Howard was leader of the Opposition, Johnson was Shadow Arts Minister and Tory Vice-Chair. He had an affair with Petronella Wyatt and she became pregnant. She decided to have an abortion and Johnson tried to keep the matter out of the public domain.

However news of it started to appear in the tabloid press. Johnson tried unsuccessfully to lie his way out of it. Howard decided that Johnson would have to go not over the affair or the abortion but because he had lied about it. He instructed his spokesman Guy Black to speak to Johnson and get him to resign. Johnson refused. After watching a Liverpool football match Howard then spoke directly to Johnson at 6.30pm and sacked him. It was November 13th 2004.

Testifying to the Commons Select Committee on 22^nd March about whether he had told MPs the truth about Downing St partying and law breaking during COVID restrictions, Johnson deployed a new tactic. It’s known as the Wenger defence. Law breaking may have taken place and Johnson  was often present but he didn’t actually see any of that..

Johnson’s School Reports at Eton reveal the Politician of 2023

Sonia Purnell’s 2012 biography of Boris Johnson which is generally sympathetic to him was no doubt not written with the reality that 7 years later he would take the Tory Party into a General Election. I doubt she could have forseen then that he would also win it which makes her account of his Eton years even more interesting

It contains some interesting extracts from his school reports at Eton which suggest that he learnt what he could get away with there and has not changed since.

His personal tutor Andrew Hobson wrote a report which says in part ‘I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else’.

In a report of 5th April 1981 his Master in College Martin Hammond raises concerns about ‘lateness, non-appearance of work and a lack of organisation’.

In 1982 Hobson noted ‘Boris seems affronted when confronted with what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility’.

In July 1982 Hammond wrote, ‘Boris has something of a tendency to assume that success and honours will drop into his lap’. He went on to note that ‘efficiency and organisation have been constant problems’

None of the above of course prevented Boris Johnson from shining at Eton or, on occasion, since, but the juggling trick between bluster and substance can’t work for ever.

President Macron has forced through an increase in the French State pension age from 62 to 64 without a Parliamentary vote. Strikes and protests are continuing and he may not get away with it.

In Britain where pension arrangements differ a bit- the State pension is not at the same as in France- the current retirement age is 66.

The Tories have been planning to raise this so that anyone now under 45 would retire at 68.

The Financial Times reports that the move is likely to be put on hold (22nd March). Firstly because of Jeremy Hunt’s Budget give away to very wealthy pensioners. Secondly because after 15 years of austerity life expectancy has actually declined by two years. Thirdly because the Tories are worried that a move to 68 would spark French style protests.

The impact of deflected protests is important

Beard Liberation Front

25th March

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the current Beard of Wales Michael Sheen showed real beard power today as he refused to cross a University and College Union (UCU) picket line at the Atrium campus of the University of South Wales.

Sheen had been due to attend an event but after speaking to pickets turned back. The UCU is taking strike action in a long running dispute over pay, conditions and pensions.

Michael Sheen retained his Beard of Wales title on March 1st narrowly shaving the Manics James Dean Bradfield for the annual honour

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we are all about positive public images of the hirsute and Michael Sheen has demonstrated exactly what that means today

Suella thinks beards

Are everywhere

Suella thinks beards

Have tofu in them

Suella thinks beards

Are woke and lefty

Suella wants to ban

Beards everywhere

The politics of bananas: from David Miliband to Boris Johnson

Its supposed that David Miliband did his chances of becoming Labour leader no favours by flourishing a banana for a picture.

Typicaly Boris Johnson went further.  In a letter to the Times (20^th March) the then Tory Chief Whip in the European Parliament recounts a Parliamentary selection meeting Johnson attended in the 1990s. He made a speech about Brussels legislating on bent bananas. The Tory selection mob loved it.

The problem was it was a lie and the Tory Chief Whip knew it was. Challenged Johnson responded with bluster and only on the third challenge did he admit the lie

 The Silences of Starmer. Blair & the 20^th anniversary of the Iraq War

Keir Starmer, while approving a knighthood for Tony Blair, notes that Iraq remains an issue for many (UK government urged to rescind Tony Blair’s knighthood, 4 January 2022). The problem is that elevating the former prime minister to the Order of the Garter is an official attempt to say that the Iraq war doesn’t matter any-more. The current Labour leader had it right when, as a QC and human rights lawyer, he wrote in the Guardian on 17 March 2003 that “flawed advice does not make the unlawful use of force lawful”. Many of us remember the point; it’s a pity Sir Keir seems to have forgotten it.

Keith Flett

Tottenham, London Guardian Fletter, January 2022

Keir Starmer’s 2003 Guardian piece is here:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/mar/17/foreignpolicy.iraq1?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

His silence on the 20^th anniversary of the Iraq War is not a surprise to those of us who opposed the war but Rupert Murdoch has noticed too. Patrick Maguire (Times 20^th March) in an article which is mainly attacking the Labour left instances the silences of Starmer on the 20^th anniversary

Boris Johnson on the 2003 Iraq War

Boris Johnson was Editor of the Spectator at the time of the 2003 Iraq War and hardly surprisingly for an organ of the Tory right the magazine supported the war. Not particularly surprisingly, given its often quirky take on matters, it was also critical of George W Bush.

A more personal and revealing perspective on Johnson’s actual view of the Iraq War can be found in his novel Seventy Two Virgins. The central figure in the book as his biographer Sonia Purnell notes is a middle-aged Tory MP Roger Barlow. She also notes that ‘the similarities between Boris and Barlow are too numerous to dismiss’.

In a review of the book Douglas Hurd pointed out that ‘the book even mocks in turn ‘every possible attitude’ to the Iraq War.

20 years on this seems very much in line with Johnson’s later positions on just about everything. It didn’t really matter to him whether Britain supported the war. Any position would do depending on which suited his personal ambitions the best

Banking crisis: all that is solid melts into air

Marx wrote a lot on banking crisis which he saw as endemic to a capitalism based on boom and slump.

These days however they seem to happen more quickly. Just over a week ago Silicon Valley Bank  failed and now the giant Credit Suisse is no more taken over by UBS.

The reaction of financial authorities is ‘crisis what crisis?’. We shall see although the aversion of crisis seems to involve many billions which are never available to spend on public services.

Newsnight reported that the speed of banking crisis is due to social media. News and rumours of issues can get tweeted around the globe in an instant and money withdrawn quickly via mobile banking. Oliver Shah in the Sunday Times (19^th March) made much the same point

I doubt Elon Musk sees it like this but he is the harbinger of the latest crisis of capitalism