In the past few days Liz Truss has come up with a range of reasons for the failure of her 49 stay in Downing St. None of these involved herself. A left-wing economic establishment- and the OBR established by that well known Trotskyist George Osborne- are according to Truss key culprits.
In an interview with the Spectator however she also claimed that the ‘weather has changed’. As survivors from the 1960s will know, you don’t need a weatherman, and Truss has certainly not consulted the Met Office.
She means that there is, in her view, an international drift to ‘social democratic’ politics. Joe Biden, currently pursuing a war with Russia and thinking about one with China, and the EU where Macron in France is currently trying to increase the State pension age. Rishi Sunak is also in the frame for being a social democrat. He may be privatising the NHS further, passing more anti-union laws and restricting the right to protest but he has not cut taxes.
The aspect of Tory union law that Tory MPs and media find hardest to grasp is the requirements for ballots and elections, requirements implemented in the Thatcher era. Trade union leaders are referred to as ‘bosses’ or ‘barons’. Yet while, unfortunately, such people are not elected, General Secretaries are. There is also frequently a call for union leaders to call off strikes or tell members to return to work. But the days when such orders came from the top have passed at the Tories behest. Strikes are voted for by union members with far more stringent requirements for success than any other balloting process in the UK.
The past Co-General Secretary of the National Education Union Kevin Courtney posted on social media:
I am not a union boss; not the “boss” of any member of the NEU.
I am an elected representative of NEU members.
Why do you call union leaders “bosses”?
Why do you call company chief execs “leaders”?
Why union “barons”?
Why “captains” of industry?
The name calling continues however. On May 12th Dave Ward, General Secretary of the CWU appeared on Kuessenberg. The BBC website described him as the postal workers boss. On the same day the Guardian reported that TUC President and FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack had criticised Natalie Elphicke for not having Labour values. He too was described as a ‘boss’
Turning to the Rupert Murdoch owned Times we find (15th May) ‘Union bosses take on Starmer over retreat from workers rights’
Forgetting & Remembering in recent history. From the Pandemic to Liz Truss
The historical record doesn’t start until 20-30 years nowadays but before then a sort of selection process gets underway to determine what might be remembered and what not.
Liz Truss’s Sunday Telegraph article (5th February) is one case in point. Aside from a hard right group of MPs and, one presumes, most of the 80,000 Tory members who voted for her, most Tory MPs would prefer to forget her 49 day Premiership where she attempted to wreck the economy and left many mortgage payers significantly worse off.
Indeed a male Tory MP is quoted in the Times as saying she should ‘shut up’ although he may apply the sentiment generally to women one suspects.
Truss however as done the historical record a favour. Her Premiership will be remembered and rightly so.
By contrast the COVID pandemic is dipping from memory. There is a useful Guardian piece on this
Of course it is not dipping from the memory of those who lost friends and relatives, those with long COVID and the many who remain vulnerable to the disease. But media coverage and discussion has mostly moved on. A comparison is made with the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-20 which likewise is not much discussed historically although it probably saw most deaths than both twentieth century World Wars.
In the case of COVID official investigations as to its initial handling, the lockdown parties of Tory Ministers, and various scandals about Government contracts do still feature. But the central feature, the impact on people’s lives and society is not a major discussion. Will the historical record capture it. To some extent its up to us
The Financial Times doesn’t have sports pages but that’s not to say it’s not interested in sport
An article on 4th February looked at spending in the English football Premier League in January 2023.
The transfer window saw Premier League clubs spend 830 million Euros, almost double the previous record. English teams now make up for more than half of the spending in Europe’s Top 5 Leagues this season.
Picking up players from lower English leagues is in decline as the Premiership buys up the best of Europe. Portugal’s Benfica have received 300 million Euros from Premiership transfers in the last five years.
Chelsea spent 329 million Euros in January 2023 more than all the top tier sides in Spain, Italy, France and Germany combined.
Newly promoted clubs Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Fulham have spent a combined 300 million Euros so far this season. Forest’s 30 new players accounted for 164 million Euros of that.
La Liga Chief Javier Tebas the FT reports claimed English football is a ‘doped market’
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to the Beard Power of England captain Harry Kane after he became Spurs all time top goal scorer.
Kane’s goal on Sunday saw Spurs beat Manchester City 1-0 and made him the club’s top all time goal scorer shaving the late moustache wearer Jimmy Greaves for the honour. It was Kane’s 267th goal for Spurs and his 200th Premiership goal. Only Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney have more.
The BLF says that Kane whose beard has featured throughout his Spurs career, is not only a positive model for the hirsute,but as a frequent header of goals,provides a masterclass in beard power on the football pitch.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we salute Harry Kane and in particular his superlative beard power
Liz Truss, the Telegraph & the Society of the Spectacle
Liz Truss has written a 4,000 word article for the Sunday Telegraph which in essence claims that her hard right, 55 Tufton St inspired, ideas are correct she just tried at the wrong time.
There are a few general points of interest. Truss is keen to blame people and things for her own mistakes. For example she previously complained about people living in North London townhouses. Now it’s the ‘blob’ and the ‘left-wing economic establishment’.
She has managed to increase the length of her residence at No.10 Downing St to 49 days from 44. It doesn’t matter. It remains the shortest on record. She also claims she had a mandate for her policies which was frustrated by the forces I note above. This is bizarre but then so is Truss. The mandate was not from the electorate or Parliament but from 80,000 members of the Tory Party. They are mostly getting on a bit (I’m 66) and very right wing indeed. The good news is that they wont have the energy to mount a coup. Probably.
There are wider points of interest to the left. Truss did very briefly challenge economic orthodoxy and the markets reacted badly. Of course if Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell had been elected in 2017 they too would have challenged orthodoxy from the left, although not I think as radically as Truss did from the right. They however knew this and had a real support base in the country to challenge market reaction. Truss did not have this.
While the impact of Truss’s policies, brief as they were was disastrous for many (something she remains oblivious to) the general drift of Government policy continues. The removal of Truss as James Meadway has noted did not make things better, it just stopped making them worse. Austerity together with rising interest rates and inflation remains in place. It has been around since the world financial crash of 2008/9 and the aim remains to make the poor pay for the crisis so the rich can maintain their wealth.
There is of course a specific Truss angle to this.
The late Guy Debord wrote a Situationist Manifesto, the Society of the Spectacle. He argued that capitalism was now focused on how things appear. That is advertising, images and the use of TV and now social media.
A glance at the biography of Truss, Out of the Blue, shows that when Truss was Foreign Secretary she was obsessed with getting pictures on her smartphone to post on social media. It was the image that mattered.
Her time in Downing St and the Telegraph article now can be seen as series of economic and political poses she wants to present, with little idea if they are right for the particular moment or of their impact if an attempt is made to implement them.
As the late socialist Tony Cliff used to note if you are on a boat that is sinking a picture of a lifeboat may look interesting but it is not something rooted in practical assistance.
Truss in the Telegraph shows her Oxford tutor was right: ‘unusual angles..stick to them..even when informed facts showed she was wrong’
Marc Stears(now at UCL) wrote about the time he was Liz Truss’s tutor during her time as an undergraduate at Oxford in the Murdoch Sunday Times (31st July2022)
According to Stears Truss’s time at Oxford was marked by an ability to come up with unusual angles on issues and stick to them even when informed that facts showed she was wrong. Secondly an ability to fiercely argue a position only to drop it and equally fiercely promote something different.
During the week Brian Aldridge was found sitting on a bench in the grounds of his former residence Home Farm. It had to be sold after Aldridge was fined for polluting the Am and is now occupied by the Gills. Understandably Ms Gill was disturbed by Aldridge’s presence. Sgt Knacker Burns was involved but did nothing. He noted that trespassing is a civil matter. Indeed but if it had been Eddie Grundy sitting there would the same reasonable approach have been taken?
Self-styled farmer Jeremy Clarkson must be banned from Ambridge
The Times has reported dissent from locals over Jeremy Clarkson’s Cotswold Farm, Diddly Squat. Bigot and misogynist Clarkson has been refused permission by the local Council to open a restaurant and increase car parking spaces. The Council’s view is that Clarkson’s farm shop takes business from other similar outlets in the area that sell superior produce.
The Times reports that many locals dislike Clarkson’s presence but he claims they are all incomers from London.
The Ambridge Socialist is concerned that the current crisis in ruling class Ambridge, with the future of Home Farm under threat with the death of Jennifer Aldridge, may lead Clarkson to shift his operations to Ambridge. It has no farm shop, Tony and Pat’s veg box operation is admirable but not quite on Clarkson’s scale. It also has a non-interventionist Council.
Ambridge Socialist Editor Keith Flett said, we think Clarkson should be banned from Ambridge. There are some dodgy characters in the village and then there is the owner of Diddly Squat.
Ruairi purged by Julienne
Julienne has finally got fed up with Ruairi and who can blame her? Clearly its time for a new business relationship with a new escort. What will Ruairi do now? Liz Truss is reported to be relaunching her political career. Perhaps there is an opening for a young farmer..
In Other News
Chelsea has cut the hair of Lynda and Lillian and had discussions with Freddie in the Orangery. Let’s hope we hear more from her and less from the Archer Dynasty
Premiership Technical Area Beard Power. Dyche shaves Arteta, Klopp in crisis
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that Everton’s Premiership victory over Arsenal has underlined the importance of Managerial Beard Power in the Technical Area.
Arsenal’s Arteta has been named Manager of the Month but he was comprehensively bearded by Dyche on Saturday.
Liverpool lost 3-0 to Wolverhampton on Saturday leaving them determinedly mid-table in the Premiership where they are more often found in the Top 4 Champions League places.
The campaigners say that the Klopp beard crisis appears to be deep rooted and attention will focus on whether the follicles have lost direction after the World Cup break.
BLF Beard specialists have looked in detail at the performance of Klopp’s beard in recent games to see if there is a pattern of declining beard power.
Interim Update
BLF specialists are advising a back to the roots strategy
1 Trim the beard right back
2 Inspect for follicle damage, split ends etc
3 Start re-growth and monitor on a daily basis
The BLF Beard Advisory Team will keep the Klopp beard crisis under review and report further
Michael Rosen’s Getting Better. Really Useful Knowledge for our times
On one reading Michael Rosen’s Getting Better could be described as a self-help or self-improvement book. He looks at ways of coping after various setbacks in his life.
There is a good deal of fascinating autobiography of a life lived on the left mixed in as well.
Many will know that Michael Rosen was hospitalised with COVID in 2020. He narrowly escaped death and still has some impairments from his experience. Here I can compare directly. I was in hospital for two months in 2022 with a lung condition. It wasn’t COVID indeed I found myself in a locked ward of the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff specifically designed to keep COVID out. Four operations and at least one Lazarus moment later I was discharged and gradually recovered. Michael was kind enough to send my occasional greetings on social media during that time.
It leaves you, as he notes, as yourself but perhaps not quite your pre-illness self.
Rosen looks at the time when he was a BBC Trainee but ended up being sacked (encouraged to go freelance).He later discovered that the sacking was nothing to do with his competence but related to his left-wing politics. He was blacklisted. Yet the experience left him doubting for a time his capabilities and capacities.
A chapter looks at the sudden death of one of his sons, Eddie, and (it could hardly be a Michael Rosen book without this) a discussion of their love of Arsenal. The pain of loss is evident and yet it has to be coped with and points and actions taken from it.
He also looks at the researches he has done into his family history, a global diaspora as so many have, beyond the ken of politicians like Suella Braverman. She is noticeably cool about why its so important to remember and keep remembering the holocaust. Perhaps she should read the book and find out what happened to some of Rosen’s forbears
Michael Rosen has been a political activist at least since he went on CND marches in the early 1960s. Not really a party political person but a campaigner trying to make a difference. That is a key theme of Getting Better too.
The slogan the personal is political was common on the left in the 1980s and while the slogan is heard less the approach remains. It annoyed William Morris a lot in the 1880s and it remains an issue. Can you change the world by not eating meat, or dressing in certain ways or taking cold showers? Perhaps you can but the chance is that this will simply end with capitalism selling you things to help to achieve your aim.
Rosen is clear that while there are lots of things you do need to consider and do individually, doing things with others- collective action- is important. He talks about his membership of the UCU trade union and the battles there have been at Goldsmiths College where he lectures.
There’s a lot more in Getting Better. It is Really Useful Knowledge for our times, and well worth your time in reading it
