Kmflett's Blog

Brewdog cancels Aberdeen AGM: who is in charge?

Following news of a joint venture with ABI owned Budweiser in China (the biggest of Big Beer arguably) James Watt has announced that Brewdog’s AGM in Aberdeen has been cancelled.

The annual event designed for Equity For Punks (EFP) shareholders is primarily a chance to drink Brewdog beers and listen to music but also has the function of annual gathering of the Brewdog faithful. In that sense I’m sure its enjoyable.

Watt has stated that the AGM is expensive to put on and as an event requires expertise and resource that Brewdog has to hire in. In other words its not core business.

Brewdog is not a publicly quoted company and Watt has said this week that an Initial Public Offering (IPO) which would be the first step in that won’t happen until the end of 2023 now. No public company can simply scrap its AGM, but Brewdog can. A reminder, of something the Financial Times occasionally notes, that if you really want to own shares then the Stock Exchange and its listings is the place.

EFP shareholders aside from the AGM also get a discount at Brewdog bars and Watt has said that this year the AGM will in effect be held at every Brewdog bar. It’s not clear precisely what that means but the drift seems to be that as with many others bars currently they could do with the custom.

The focus on cost is what one might expect from a company in times like these. It also suggests that TSG the private equity investor that has a 23% stake in Brewdog is increasingly calling the orders here.

E P Thompson on Ash Wednesday (February 14th in 2024) in Bristol in the eighteenth century

In his essay Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture E P Thompson notes the following:

Bristol in the early eighteenth century saw an annual pugilistic combat on Ash Wednesday between the blacksmiths and the coopers, carpenters and sailors, with the weavers sometimes joining in on the side of the smiths.

His point is that as the working-class emerged its shape in terms of trades and allegiances also began to appear in this case in the form of a boxing match. One of those traditions that has become hidden from history, possibly in this case for the good. It’s interesting to reflect however that while Ash Wednesday is meant to be a religious occasion marking the beginning of Lent the Bristol activities of 300 hundred years ago appeared to be something rather different

A three day summary session of the long running SpyCops inquiry hearhearing closing statements for Tranche 1 (1968-82). Hearing will recommence in 2024

The hearing so far have been notable for a catalogue of outrageous and often unlawful behaviour by police officers, infilitrating perfectly legal left wing organisations.

The inquiry is also notable however for providing a wealth of (partial) historical detail on the left.

During the proceedings a near 10 minute police film of the Battle of Wood Green that took place on 23rd April 1977 was posted.

It shows National Front supporters gathering on Ducketts Common, Turnpike Lane and marching down Wood Green High Rd where they met a broad based counter protest.

London Socialist Historians Group

Inga Bystram picket line drawing of PCS strikers at the British Library. On strike 3-16th April

5th April

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Picket lines drawings of Inga Bystram are the first draft of history

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, has praised the picket line drawings of Tottenham based artist Inga Bystram as the first draft of history.

Since the upsurge in class struggle from summer 2022 Inga has visited picket lines of strikers ranging from the RMT & ASLEF to  the NEU, UCU and RCN and captured the mood and collective strength of unionised workers fighting for better conditions.

There is now an exhibition of Inga’s picket line drawings at the Cock Tavern, 23 Phoenix Rd NW1 1HB near Euston Station in central London. The drawings can be viewed between 9.30am and 11.30pm.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, of course we are used to seeing photos of picket lines, but Inga Bystram’s drawings capture the mood and feel of a picket in different ways. They are the first drawings and drafts of history!

For more details on the drawings and the artist please contact Dr Keith Flett as above

The real Shrove Tuesday tradition not just Pancakes but riots & subversion

In 2026 the moveable feast of Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, is known almost entirely for the consumption of pancakes.

Historically matters, in certain periods, particularly the early C17th, were a bit more exciting.

Shrovetide was the occasion for ball games, what Ronald Hutton in the definitive volume on British folk customs, Stations of the Sun, notes as ‘licensed misrule’.

By 1598 the ball games had started to develop into something wider. There were, Hutton records, riots on 24 out of the 29 Shrove Tuesdays in the early Stuart period (1600s). The riots took place mainly it seems in areas to the north of the City of London and involved centrally apprentices but also craftsmen.

E P Thompson noted in his essay Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture about eighteenth-century England a Shrove Tuesday game of football which took place at Kingston in 1799, The magistrates banned it but the ‘populace’ and the ‘mob’ ‘triumphantly’ defied the ban.

Riots were not random but aimed at particular targets, in particular brothels and playhouses. Hutton records that between 1612-14 on Shrove Tuesday a Shoreditch brothel was attacked each year until it shut. On Shrove Tuesday 1617 a new Drury Lane playhouse was destroyed and prisoners freed from Finsbury prison by rioters.

Hutton notes that, while the targets may at least seem odd to modern eyes, they ‘fitted into a much older tradition of cleansing a community before Lent’. In other words the Shrove Tuesday crowd, in rioting, was seeking to destroy what it saw as the less moral parts of the early C17th economy.

The tradition of rioting died out only slowly and the mass playing of football on Shrove Tuesday still goes on in some places- Ashbourne in Derbyshire for instance- as a distant echo of earlier times. Shrove Tuesday football had no rules and no limit on the number of participants. The struggle (or fight) to get possession of the ball was at least as important as what was done with it afterwards.

That is also a reminder that Shrove Tuesday in the traditional calendar was the end of the reign of the world turned upside down figure of the Lord of Misrule, often appointed on the previous All Hallow’s Eve 31st October.

In short in the 1600s Shrove Tuesday was not about pancakes but about disorder, riot and subversion

Beard Liberation Front

21st February

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Vote 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 sure to bristle

There are two preliminary rounds leading to the final  Best Beard of Wales 2022 vote on 26 & 27^th February

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

Undercover Policing Inquiry resumes again: outrageous behaviours & historical documents

The first public hearings of the very long running Spycops inquiry were  held in November 2020. Another round was held in April and May 2021 after a protracted delay a third round of hearing was held in May 2022. Now a three day hearing to ‘sum up’ Tranche 1 from 1968-82 is being held. The next actual evidence hearings will take place in 2024..

A lot of mundane police reports have underlined where officers were wasting their own time. They have also pointed to police  activity which was at best of doubtful legality, such as intervening in the internal affairs of trade unions, and some that was simply outrageous such as undercover officers fathering children with activists they were spying on. Other appalling issues covered include police surveillance of activists seeking to discover the truth about the murder of Blair Peach at an anti-fascist protest in Southall in 1979 and officers spying on school students who opposed the National Front.

The first day of the sum up has heard various attempts to dismiss or minimise police behaviours but also a statement by the KC for the Inquiry that the evidence so far indicates that the Special Demonstration Squad, formed to monitor anti-Vietnam War protests in 1968 should then have been disbanded

As Tariq Ali giving evidence noted, given the Establishment background of the chair, restrictions on questioning witnesses and failure to provide some information it seems unlikely that when the inquiry does eventually conclude it will lead to anything particularly useful in terms of addressing the behaviour of the police and the Secret State.

What has been provided however are partial but considerable volumes of reports on left-wing meetings and groups.

In that sense they provide a useful resource for future historians both in terms of what it was the police thought it worth spying on and also digitised documents which are unlikely to have been otherwise retained for posterity. Whether that justifies the resource and expense involved is another matter.

Beard Liberation Front

24^th February

Media Release

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Campaigners demand action on ‘beard hate’ language in Roald Dahl’s The Twits

The Beard Liberation Front has said that following an exercise to ‘modernise’ the language in the children’s books of Roald Dahl, some alterations have been made to The Twits, described by the Guardian as an ‘anti-beard manifesto’.

However none of the, minor, changes impact on the pogonophobia- beard hate- that is a central part of the book.

In the Twits, Mr Twit, a generally rather disgusting character is portrayed as someone who never washes or takes any care of his beard. As a result remains of previous meals, including stilton, sardines and scrambled egg can be found in it.

The campaigners say that while Dahl’s caricature of beard wearers is something that the hirsute can laugh about, it is notable that while the modernising project has rightly considered sexism and misogyny to be unacceptable in 2023, beard hatred is still OK.

In a reception at Clarence House the Queen Consort has backed complaints about tweaks to Dahl’s book & implicitly therefore also backed his beard hatred.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Roald Dahl was a known beard hater and The Twits is a reflection of this. It remains however a classic and something the hirsute can laugh at. We remain interested to learn though why pogonophobia was considered acceptable by the modernising project.

Brewdog moves focus from UK to China in bid to become global brewer

A report in the Financial Times (20^th February) notes that Brewdog plans a focus on China in a joint venture with Budweiser.

James Watt claims the UK market is ‘very challenging’ and Brewdog’s capital expenditure will be focused outside of the UK.

This includes a joint venture with a new Budweiser brewery in China which will produce Punk IPA,Hazy Jane and Elvis Juice. Brewdog also plans to open nine bars in China in addition to existing Shanghai bar.

The FT reports that plans for an IPO have now gone back to the end of 2023.

The news will no doubt interest Sinophobes and Brewdog may reflect that alcohol advertising laws in China are just as restrictive as those currently proposed in Scotland.

It may be of course that Brewdog’s interest in anywhere but the UK reflects a lack of demand for its products here..

Beard Liberation Front

19th February

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to the sports commentator Dickie Davies who has died aged 89.

Dickie Davies presented World of Sport on ITV to 1985 and in a world when sports commentators were entirely male and invariably clean shaven, his iconic moustache was ground breaking

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, its sad to bid farewell to Dickie Davies. His iconic moustache paved the way for Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer to appear with facial hair on Match of the Day in 2023. A towering figure in hirsute sports commentary