Kmflett's Blog

On from 15^th February 2003: Remembering or Forgetting the history of opposition to war

Boris Johnson, echoed by backbench Tory MPs and commentators in the right-wing media, has consistently argued that when it comes to British history the entire story must be told with nothing left out. It is claimed the left engage only with partial history, which is another way of saying that while the entire Island Story should be told, there is no need to go on about racism and imperialism which in the eyes of Johnson and Co weren’t all bad.

The 20^th anniversary of the biggest ever protest march in British history fell on 15^th February. On that cold Saturday 20 years ago well over a million marched in central London against war with Iraq.

In an important sense that day is not yet history. Firstly because those responsible for that illegal  war and the death and destruction that followed have still not been called to account for it. Secondly because with conflict in Ukraine and sabre rattling on China it’s clear that the West and NATO remain firmly fixed on the same interventionist agenda.

It’s not history in another  sense as well because many of those who were active in opposing or promoting the Iraq War are still around and able to add further discussion on it. However the practice of the National  Archives is now to release at least  some Government papers after 20 rather than the 30 years which was previously the case, meaning at least provisional history is being written sooner.

Hence the best way to look at it is that the history of 15^th February 2003 is still being written. However if it is not remembered it won’t make more than a footnote in future British history.

Two daily papers managed to recall the 15^th February. The Morning Star published an excellent supplement. The Guardian ran a piece picking up on the views of some of those who had marched. It also carried a comment piece by Lindsey German. No doubt  the Guardian was mindful that many of its readers had marched in 2003 and would remember.

Lindsey German’s article in the Morning Star noted the complexities of putting together the Stop the War Coalition in the first place and the impact of the 15^th February in cementing it. She rightly concluded that there are many warmongers out there who want that demonstration to be forgotten and the coalition of forces that brought it together destroyed. The Stop the War march on 25^th February is one way of pushing back on that and making sure that anti-war history continues to be written.

The tenacity of warmongers in trying to undermine opponents of imperialist wars must not be ignored. They are trying to write their own version of history. Times columnist David Aaronovitch praised the united approach in Parliament not just, rightly to opposing Russian aggression in Ukraine, but also in support of NATO and a renewed arms race.

Aaronovitch saw backing for Western intervention in Ukraine as a welcome return to such efforts, after the strength of Iraq War protests had partly stopped Britain from involvement foreign military adventures

It was no accident either that Keir Starmer’s speech where he issued a diktat that Jeremy Corbyn would not be a Labour candidate at Islington North at the next Election was made on 15^th February. Twenty years on from a march that Starmer himself was almost certainly on-he declared the Iraq War illegal in a Guardian article on 16^th March 2003.

Starmer no doubt is trying hard to forget that he ever opposed the war. All the more reason to make sure the biggest protest in British history is remembered.

Times, 24th February 2023

Coffey’s turnip comment is Tory folk memory of nineteenth century exploitation

Only a Tory Minister such as Therese Coffey could manage to dip the turnip into the enormous condescension of posterity. In Rural Rides William Cobbett noted with something like pride turnip crops growing across the south of England. E P Thompson had the measure of Tory Ministers in the Making of the English Working Class when he noted that low wages had turned labourers into turnip pilferers.

Cobbett wrote extensively about turnip farming in Cottage Economy but regarded turnips as cattle feed.

In Plenty and Want, John Burnett’s social history of food from 1815, he notes that in The Hungry Forties (1904) recounted memories of the 1840s suggested that a working class diet often consisted of bread, potatoes, root vegetables and weak tea.

Coffey is clearly displaying a Tory folk memory of nineteenth century exploitation. There are of course other memories, from those who fought against it.

In the meantime I expect Suella Braverman is already preparing a turnip law.

Beard Liberation Front

24th February

contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it will consult Scottish supporters on whether to back Humza Yousaf as the new SNP leader.

Mr Yousaf is one of three contenders for the role and has a distinctive beard. Were he to become SNP leader he would break the clean shaven mould of leadership across the four UK nations.

The campaigners say there is no issue with MrYousaf’s beard and note that many of his policies are beard friendly. However he has been an SNP Minister for an extended period and there is a question over whether he always presents a positive public image of the hirsute in this respect.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, of course we would welcome a hirsute leader in Scotland but this must be something that promotes the positive public image of beard wearers. We’ll see what our Scottish supporters have to say.

E P Thompson, The Making of the English Worklng Class & Dr Price’s Blue Plaque on Newington Green

E P Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class was published 60 years ago this year. Dr Richard Price, noted as one of the great Welsh thinkers, was born 300 years ago.

The two came together on Wednesday when Huw Edwards unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque to Dr Price at 54 Newington Green the seventeenth century house, still standing, that was his home in the later eighteenth century.

Richard Price was a dissenter, a Unitarian, and a supporter of the French Revolution who provoked the ire of Edmund Burke. He was also an associate of Mary Wollstonecraft.

That broadly dissenting tradition was present on Wednesday too. The local MP is Jeremy Corbyn.

Probably only a Tory Minister like Therese Coffey could manage to turn the reasonable point that eating home grown seasonal food like turnips rather than relying on air miles imports from elsewhere into something that not only sounded like but was an attack on ordinary people trying to get by during a cost of living crisis.

Turnips are a feature of William Cobbett’s Rural Rides, a traditional crop, albeit he is keen on the Swedish variety (turnips allegedly originating from Sweden in that form).

E P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class had the measure of Coffey’s predecessors when he noted that farm owners had so driven down the conditions of rural labourers that they had become ‘turnip pilferers, alehouse scroungers, poachers’.

Turnips are ok except when Coffey has poured the enormous condescension of posterity Tory sauce all over them.

Spycops were originally called ‘The Hairies’

The long running SpyCops Inquiry re-opened last week, with hearings looking at the 1980s.

The police Special Demonstration Squad (SDS)was formed after the 1968 protests against the Vietnam War.

Over an extended period it monitored (and worse) legitimate democratic activities of left-wing and protest groups often by covertly infiltrating them.

It was disbanded in 2008 and in 2015 then Home Secretary Theresa May announced an investigation. 5 years later the inquiry began

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

The Counsel for the Inquiry made the point that after 1968 the SDS should have disbanded. It wasn’t.

One early witness in 2020, retired officer Ernest Tate, was asked how the SDS got its name. He appeared unaware of the official name but said it was known in the police as the ‘Hairies’ as undercover officers grew their hair and beards to apparently fit in better with the appearance of protesters.

Certainly appearing clean shaven and wearing a suit and tie at a protest meeting might have aroused interest but conversely it also reflects the pogonophobic nature of the police 50 years ago.

Indeed a SpyCop questioned at the Inquiry on 13th November 2020 as to why he had quit The Hairies responded:

HN326: I was fed up of the long hair and long beard. It was a strain. Until you’ve done the job you don’t know.*

He might however have had his reasons. Undercover as a protester at the anti-Vietnam War protest in Grosvenor Square in 1968 he was truncheoned by the Met Police because he had long hair and a beard:

Asked why the police had gone for him, he said: “It’s just the fact you’ve got long hair and a beard that they wallop you, you know. It’s 50 years ago, this is what they were doing. It’s a different attitude to things. Goodness”

Another SpyCop he has noted that he grew a beard, on this occasion to infiltrate the Hammersmith and Fulham branch of the International Socialists between 1971 and 1973

SpyCop HN343 ‘John Clinton’ statement read 19th November

55. I would describe my appearance before I joined the SDS as neat and tidy. During my time in the back office before I was deployed I grew my hair and a bushy beard. Instead of wearing a suit, when I was deployed I donned ‘comradely attire’— flares, an army surplus jacket, and an old pair of boots.

The one Spycop who I was certainly acquainted with as he infiltrated the SWP, Right to Work Campaign, Anti-Nazi League, ‘Colin Clark’ wore a full organic beard. The inquiry revealed that in fact he was usually clean shaven.

Why Cromwell banned Lent

Lent 2025 started on Wednesday February 18th and runs until Easter.

It remains part of the religious calendar but in 2026 no one is checking if you are doing it or not. If you are respect. If not move on (I’m not, mostly)

Cromwell however banned it.

It was said that the only opponents of Lent in the seventeenth century were butchers, butcher’s dogs and Puritans. The reason for this is clear. The one thing that was consistently forbidden to be eaten at Lent was meat. Butchers it appears could live with this, using the time to sort out their business for the rest of the year. We don’t know what the dogs thought but we do know that Puritans didn’t like Lent or any other occasion supported by the established Church.

Indeed after the Commonwealth took power following the departure of King Charles and his head (separately) in 1649 Lent was banned along with Christmas and Easter. These last two made a vigorous come back at various points after the monarchy was restored in 1660 but Lent did not. King Charles 11 did indeed restore Lent and penalties for being found eating things like meat during it, but these were it appears not enforced for long.

The view nowadays tends to be that Cromwell banned Christmas because he was a killjoy but he achieved precisely the reverse impact by banning Lent which of course may be why the ban ultimately worked.

Beard Liberation Front

23rd February

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Second round of Voting underway for the Beard of Wales 2023

The annual vote which aims to determine the St David’s Day Beard of Wales, the Welsh beard that offers the most positive national image, is once again underway.

The Beard Liberation Front says that images of St David suggest that the Welsh Saint himself may have had an organic beard

Welsh rugby prop Adam Jones won the Award in 2013, voted for by BLF supporters, just shaving former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Another rugby player Leigh Halfpenny won in 2014. In 2015 the Award went to Thee Faction musician Chris Fox in 2016 footballer Joe Ledley and in 2017 to Charcutier Illtud Llyr Dunsford, with Chris Fox winning again in 2018. In 2019 journalist Grant Tucker shaved the opposition to claim the accolade. Michael Sheen won in 2020 and went on to share the Beard of the Year Award with Michael Rosen in December 2020. In 2021 Michael Sheen again shaved opponents for a second time and won again in 2022

It is the eleventh time the Award has been given following the traditional UK Beard of the Year at the end December each year and the BLF says it is a mark of Wales as a modern nation on St David’s Day that beards are now playing an increasingly significant role in national life.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, beards are blossoming in Wales, and competition is bristling for the Beard of Wales 2023 accolade

There are two preliminary rounds leading to the final  Best Beard of Wales 2022 vote on 26 & 27^th February. In the first round James Dean Bradfield shaved the field with Hefin David a good second. Both go forward to the Beard Off Final vote

Beard of Wales 2023

Hefin David,politician

Martin Shipton, journalist

Vaughan Gething, politician

Tom Jones, musician

James Dean Bradfield, musician

Michael Sheen, actor

Gareth Bale, footballer

Jack Sargeant, politician

Round One Feb,21-22

Round Two Feb 23-24

Final Beard Off Feb 26-27 Feb

Beard Liberation Front

16th February

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett      07803 167266

HIRSUTE URGE: GIVE UP SHAVING FOR LENT

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with Lent now underway it is the ideal opportunity for people to give up shaving

The BLF says that a beard grown between now and Easter, can add significantly to the diversity of British life.

The Lent beard is a long religious tradition which in recent times has crossed over into secular fashion as well.

The BLF is not religious though it respects those who grow Lent beards for that reason. However the pre-Easter beard also has a place in British folk custom, with the facial hair representing the new growth of Spring to come.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said it is the best time of year to grow a beard as Spring blossoms so do beards. It is time to revolt into style and grow an organic beard for Lent. I personally will not be shaving during Lent, or pruning my beard in that period

The traditional start of Spring is at the beginning of February but those keenest on upholding traditions invariably ignore that. The Spring Equinox is on March 20th.

Signs of Spring come before that. We can leave cuckoos to Times letter writers. Letters in the Guardian have suggested the first lawnmower of Spring, while Waitrose has publicised the first, Forest of Dean, asparagus of the year.

More reliable and absolutely seasonal is wild garlic which appears around the end of February. That pictured comes from Roath Park in Cardiff. Leaves are fewer in 2023 at the moment than in some years perhaps due to a colder winter. If you are marking Spring by gathering some wild garlic, forage responsibly.