Kmflett's Blog

Alan Turing and the 1950s: a world of which we have no conception?

LGBT+ history month runs from 1^st February

In 2013 the World War Two codebreaker and computer Wizard Alan Turing, a national hero by any reasonable benchmark, received a Royal pardon after he was persecuted and ultimately driven to his death because of his sexuality. It received a broad welcome. That was tempered by the thought of all those others who were similarly persecuted because post-1945 Britain was virulently homophobic.

It is a reminder that 1950s Britain was not perhaps, from the perspective of 2025, the best place to be.

There are good social histories of Britain in the 1950s with the always excellent Peter Hennessy’s Having It So Good probably the best. Attlee’s Labour Government called an election in 1951 that it didn’t need to have, lost and the rest of the 1950s was Tory Britain, under Churchill, Eden and Macmillan.

The 1950s is the decade that most of the Tory Cabinets from 2010-2024 would actually like to have been living in and possibly in some cases think they were actually are living in.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph in 2011 Norman Tebbit argued that the 1950s was one where the family was the cornerstone of British life, and there was social peace, stability and harmony.

The reality of what happened to Alan Turing suggests that this is at best a partial take on historical reality. In fact as Dominic Seabrook’s less than satisfactory history of the Cold War aired on BBC2 underlined post-1945 Britain was not only anti-Communist but also anti-homosexual and sometimes , as with various spy scandals, managed to link the two.

I have a personal interest here because I was born in the mid-1950s, in 1956 as the Russian tanks rolled into Budapest in fact. My memories of that period are of course not reliable but they have remained with me.

This was a period before youth culture- which nevertheless had its origins in the 1950s. It was a Britain of the bomb [hence at the end of the decade the appearance of CND] but most of all it was post-Second World War. Even when I started work in 1971 [summer holidays only obviously] ex-military men were to be found in senior civilian jobs.

The memory is one of a stifling conservatism. Of Sunday dinners with relentlessly over cooked vegetables [my late parents were later to recover from this affliction] and Two Way Family favourites [a programme that played requests for the vast number of British service personnel then in Germany]. It was a Britain of the early years of the Archers [when it was acceptable listening for Telegraph readers] and the late Brian Matthew.

The 1960s changed all this and it did so for the good. Abortion and homosexuality were legalised, and the people who fought for that had experienced and lived through the 1950s. Most modern Tories hate the 1960s as well of course.

Was there anything to like about the 1950s then? If you were Maurice Glasman and Blue Labour you might well say yes. This was not just Tebbit’s Britain but a country of a mass membership Labour Party, of growing trade union power and solidarity.

It sounds impressive but it was just as stifling in its conservatism. It was a labour movement where one instruction from a Union General Secretary and most fell in line, whether the instruction was a good one or not.

Personally I prefer the labour movement of today which welcomes women, ethnic minorities and LGBT people and thinks about what General Secretaries have to say before deciding whether to agree.

Alan Turing may have been pardoned but if the 1950s means anything it was as a stepping stone to a world where people don’t need to be pardoned for being themselves

The Tories, the right to strike and trade union law. Back to the 1870s?

When she was still a contender for the Tory leadership in July 2022 Liz Truss threatened to further restrict the activities of trade unions, an enduring obsession of the Thatcherite right.

The detail was inevitably lacking but Truss wanted ‘minimum service levels’ where public sector workers have balloted for a legal strike. The implications of this were and are deeply concerning even if probably not fully thought through now they have been adopted by Truss’s successor Sunak.

RMT leader Mick Lynch writing in the Daily Mirror argued that the Tories want to go back to 1871 the date of the Act that legalised trade unions. Then TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady warned of a fundamental attack on the right to organise and an assault on democracy as understood across Europe. New GS Paul Nowak has underlined the point.

The Tories may be forced to think again but not without significant campaigning pressure to defend existing trade union rights. The mass strikes on 1^st February are the start of that process.

It’s worth looking at what the changes were to trade union law in the years after the formation of the TUC in 1868 to understand a little of the detail of what the Tories plans might mean

In the mid-1860s there were a series of small scale inter-union disputes in Sheffield that however got media attention. A Royal Commission was set up in 1867 to look at the issue of unions. One craft union leader Robert Applegarth was a member. The majority of the Commission saw no reason to change matters- that is unions had no legal status. There were some in the labour movement who backed that. They preferred that the Government and the law kept entirely out of union affairs. In the 1870s with a relatively small State machine this was a possibility.

However it was the Minority of the Commission that won the day when the matter was debated in the Commons. The result was the 1871 Trade Union Act.

For the first time trade unions were recognised as existing in law. That meant for example that union funds now had legal protection against anyone seeking to make off with them- a not unknown issue. Other provisions had wider importance. Union activity including strikes could not be regarded as ‘restraint of trade’ meaning neither employers or scabs could pursue unions for damages.

Further union organisation could not be regarded as a conspiracy, a point going back to the Tolpuddle Martyrs 35 years before.

The 1871 Act was a key part of putting unions and union members on a legal footing but there was more to do.

The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 addressed a further key issues in particular it made picketing in disputes legal. The Employers and Workmen Act also of 1875 made all disputes between employers and employees civil matters.

Previously under the Master and Servant Acts workers who left employment before the end of their contract could be pursued by the boss and fined or jailed. Thousands were even in the 1860s when the law was relaxed. This was a major step forward for ordinary workers.

Sunak’s proposals potentially look to transgress the principles of both the 1871 and 1875 Acts. If a worker who had voted to strike was told to work under a ‘minimum service’ law it’s proposed the Union would be found guilty if they refused. And if they did refuse the demand of their employer to work despite have legally voted not to would they then end up in a 2020s version of the Master and Servant Act, fined or jailed because they refused to do what the boss said.

Concerning times indeed and as Mick Lynch and others have said warranting the most robust of responses

A Dry January conclusion. William Morris on drink

He (William Morris) could scarcely hide his disappointment if-after a public meeting- the comrades were all teetotal, and took him to have a lemonade in some temperance hotel. ‘I’d like to ask you to have a drink’ he would say to such friends. ‘And then he would add, as in despair: ‘but you won’t drink’

E P Thompson. William Morris: From Romantic to Revolutionary

Beard Liberation Front

January 31st

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Brazilian President Lula shaves Michael Rosen in Beard of Winter 2023 Vote.

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has announced the result of the Beard of Winter 2023 poll.

Mick Whelan and David Tennant won the first Close Shave round with Prince Harry just missing out. Brazilian President Lula won the second Close Shave round with Michael Rosen second.

In the final Beard Off vote Lula just shaved Michael Rosen for the annual accolade

The list contained a diverse range of contenders for the annual seasonal accolade.

It is the first of four seasonal awards that lead to the Beard of the Year Award in December 2023.

The Beard of Winter focuses both on fuller organic beards, suitable for winter weather but also on beards that have made an early New Year impact in the public eye.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Lula may have other matters on his mind just now but his beard is iconic and found just enough support to shave former Beard of the Year Michael Rosen

Beard of Winter 2023

David Tennant, Actor

Mick Whelan, ASLEF General Secretary

Andy Murray, tennis player

Michael Rosen, author

Prince Harry, media personality

Adil Rashid, cricketer

Kevin Courtney, NEU Joint General Secretary

Lula, President, Brazil

The Ambridge Socialist

Reporting the class struggle in Borsetshire

Special Bulletin

30^th January

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 Sqat.

Not quite Old Corruption. How the Tory ruling class operates in 2023.

The term Old Corruption or sometimes The Thing was used by early nineteenth century radicals including William Cobbett to describe a pre-democratic world where Government jobs and contracts were awarded not so much on merit but on the basis of who knew who.

The world of 2023 has some similarities and some differences. The State is vastly larger than 200 years ago (as of course is the population and the economy). There are processes in place to ensure that public appointments are done in a transparent and accountable way.

A problem however is that the ruling class and its networks still exists. There is nothing secret about this, no conspiracy. Oliver Shah in the Sunday Times (29^th January) drew attention to some recent and relevant connections.

The father of the BBC’s Richard Sharp, was Eric Sharp who Cable and Wireless in the 1980s after Thatcher privatised it. He received a life peerage as Lord Sharp of Grimsdyke. Richard Sharp’s twin, Victoria is a High Court judge. Sharp’s first wife also called Victoria subsequently married Sir Simon Robey is firm has advised George Osborne.

Rishi Sunak was Sharp’s junior advisor at Goldman Sachs. Sharp took PPE at Oxford and entered the City with a job at JP Morgan in 1983. Between 2004 and 2013 Sharp donated £400,000 to the Tories. He is known to be a regular at Oswald’s a private members club in Mayfair where he dined with Nadhim Zahawi.

It’s just a snapshot of a section of the British ruling class in 2023 but it is built on finance and privatisation not a hangover from the aristocratic elites of 200 years ago.

The Ambridge Socialist 29^th January

Tribute paid to rebel turned bourgeois icon Jennifer Aldridge

The Ambridge Socialist is saddened to learn of the sudden death of Jennifer Aldridge and the reported illness of her alter ego Angela Piper.

In recent years she was an icon of the Ambridge bourgeoisie, dealing with her philandering husband Brian and losing her coveted kitchen as the Aldridges were forced to move out of their farmhouse, after Brian was convicted of polluting the Am.

In her younger years Jenny was a rebel having a child (Adam) with farm worker Paddy Redmond. She then married and divorced Roger Travers Macy with whom she continued relations as she did with John Tregorran. These are figures from an Ambridge now past as Jenny herself sadly is.

Ambridge Socialist Editor said, Angela Piper had been a feature of the Archers for 59 years, the third longest tenure of any soap character anywhere in the world. We wish her well. Meanwhile the ruling class of Ambridge face a new crisis.

Ambridge ruling class in crisis

With the sad death of Jennifer the ruling class of Ambridge is in crisis. There is a question of whether Brian will return to the farm, and what will happen to Jenny’s shares in the business. The Aldridges are already split and squabbling. It’s time for the Ambridge proletariat to take action for better wages

In Other News

Alice and Chris have met Julieann

Beard Liberation Front

29^th January

Beard Liberation Front confirms lifetime ban for Nadhim Zahawi

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has confirmed that the lifetime ban from association with the BLF remains in place.

Zahawi was sacked as Tory Chair on Sunday but the BLF says that he was banned sometime ago from the BLF for bringing the hirsute into disrepute.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Nadhim Zahawi does not present a positive public image of the hirsute and hence falls foul  one of the BLF’s core principles

30th January 1649. A day missing from much of British history

On 30th January 1649 after a trial King Charles 1st was executed by Parliamentary forces in Whitehall.  A Commonwealth was proclaimed under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. It lasted until 1660 when the monarchy was restored. It was in essence the world’s first ever Parliamentary democracy, albeit of a very limited kind. When Charles 11 took the throne he dated his reign from 30th January 1649 thereby attempting to write the Commonwealth out of history.

The event is remembered and remains controversial to this day. Cromwell in Ireland and Scotland was very far from a democratic force but his role in ushering the system of Government we have today is not officially celebrated, as it certainly would be for example in France.

Don’t expect the Culture Warriors who frequently tell us that all bits of British history must be recalled to have anything to say either.

 I wrote the Fletter below to the Guardian four years ago. Since then a new King Charles has appeared!

Martin Kettle is right, that while Britain remains a constitutional monarchy, it is absurd that the crown can’t be discussed in parliament. No doubt that means 30 January, the day in 1649 when Westminster saw the world’s first parliamentary democracy instituted, will pass without note in the Commons. Another bit of history Boris Johnson probably prefers not to remember.

Keith Flett

Tottenham, London

Guardian 29th January 2022