The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has announced a renewed inquiry into a crisis in the Beard Power of Liverpool FCs manager Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool lost 5.2 to Real Madrid in a Champions League game against Real Madrid at Anfield on Tuesday managed only a goal free draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday evening.
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 will be looking in detail again at the performance of Klopp’s beard in recent games to see if there is a pattern of declining beard power.
BLF specialists have previously advised 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
One might think that Liz Truss, deposed as Prime Minister after 44 days spent wrecking the economy and Boris Johnson, deposed as Prime Minister and Tory leader for being a serial liar and law breaker would have other things to do than plan political comebacks.
Reports in the Murdoch Times suggest otherwise. Katy Balls, Political Editor of the right-wing Spectator wrote in the Times (6th Jan) that Truss had dined with key MP allies before Christmas and determined to continue to promote her fundamentalist free market ideas, formed at 55 Tufton St. Truss has hired a media spokesperson and is still pondering up a think tank. Balls reports that her ideas still have support amongst Tory MPs.
The Sunday Times (8th Jan) reported that supporters of Boris Johnson are using the hashtag #BBB. It might be thought that Johnson has been spending his time earning money from speeches and holidaying but the paper claims he has been spotted in his Uxbridge Constituency and stops by the Commons most weeks. He does not appear to have brought a new house with partner Clarrie but is staying in properties at the expense of JCB boss Bamford.
Hard to far right backers of Johnson, Lord Cruddas and Priti Patel have launched the Conservative Grassroots Organisation. They moan that while Tory members backed Liz Truss she was in effect kicked out by MPs and replaced by Sunak who they didn’t vote for. Meanwhile they didn’t get a chance to vote for Johnson.
Johnson has some policy differences with Sunak, for example on levelling up. The whole thing is similar to the debacle of Republicans taking 15 votes to elect their hard right House leader, with Trump in the background. Sunak is PM but Truss and Johnson plan trouble ahead.
Talk of a Johnson comeback persists and he has received a donation of £1million from a Thai businessman Christopher Harborne who previously gave millions to Farage’s political efforts. The money has gone to Johnson’s political office.
Further discussion has focused on whether Johnson will stand again in Uxbridge, which he might well lose who move to a safer Tory seat, if such a thing still exists.
Meanwhile Kwasi Kwarteng seems to have disappeared. Is he being held hostage at 55 Tufton St.
Steve Cushion is a Senior Research Fellow at University College London – Institute of the Americas.
The Drax family pioneered the plantation system in the 17th century and played a major role in the development of sugar and slavery across the Caribbean and the US. They were able to generate extraordinary wealth through the cultivation of sugar by enslaved Africans.
Richard Drax, Member of Parliament for South Dorset, has recently been in the news as the Government of the Republic of Barbados is considering legal action against him to recover the Drax Hall Plantation and seek further reparations for enslavement.
David Comissiong, Barbados’s ambassador to CARICOM, said of the Drax family:
“You can’t simply walk away from the scene of the crime. They have a responsibility now to make some effort to help repair the damage”.
South London Micropub the Shirker’s Rest voted Beard Friendly Pub of the Year
The Beard Liberation Front has said that the final vote for Beard Friendly Bar, Pub and Tap of the Year has closed with a South London Micropub the Shirker’s Rest shaving the Cock Tavern in Hackney to win the annual accolade.
The on-line poll run over two days saw the Shirker’s Rest get 36% of just under a 1,000 votes with the Cock Tavern in Hackney on 33%. The out of London winner was Tom’s Tap Brew in Crewe which got 25% of the votes.
The on-line poll featured two rounds each consisting of four of the most beard friendly pubs. Four were from London and four from elsewhere in the country. A final poll for the overall winner was then held
Tom’s Tap and Brew won the Outside of London vote with the Evening Star in Brighton second
The Shirkers Rest won the London vote with perennial Beard Friendly favourite, the Cock Tavern E8 second
The aim of the vote is to promote pubs that are friendly and welcoming to all, and also sell good beer
The Beard Friendly Pub of the Year is an annual feature in January each year, although the pandemic years have disrupted the process.
The last full vote in January 2020 saw the decisive winner in the Beard Friendly Pub of the Year as the Bumble Inn micropub in Peterborough. The runner up was the Cock Tavern in Hackney
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, thanks to all those who took part. It’s just a bit of fun at a tough period of year for everyone. We hope it encourages people to stop by the local and to see that pubs can be welcoming for all and a hub of community life in hard times.
The criteria for the Award include:
A safe environment for all.
Beard Friendly Pub: a pub that welcomes the hirsute and often has a number of hirsute customers, including but certainly not confined to those with modern styles of beards.
Beard Friendly Ambience: a pub that may have fewer hirsute customers but is welcoming to the hirsute through some bearded bar staff and beard friendly beers, plus has a generally relaxed atmosphere for all.
The campaign group says it welcomes diversity in both appearance and drinking. The truly beard friendly pub will have a genuine mix of customers not just a load of old blokes grumbling about life.
by George Charles Beresford, sepia-toned platinotype print, 1905
Modern labour politics started 130 years ago this weekend. Not in a London HQ but in ‘those shadowy parts known as the provinces’
The Independent Labour Party was formed 130 years ago meeting in Bradford Labour Institute from 14-16th January 1893 Keir Hardie was elected as the first Chair.
The point about where power in the labour movement has been historically was made by EP Thompson in his 1960 essay Homage to Tom Maguire. Maguire was an ILP activist who died too young.
It appeared in Essays in Labour History, but is quite difficult to come by now (it was recently reprinted in the collection EP Thompson and the Making of the New Left edited by Cal Winslow).
Thompson makes the point that ‘provincial events are seen as shadowy incidents or unaccountable spontaneous upheavals on the periphery of the national scene’. But, Thompson counters ‘the ILP grew from the bottom up, its origins were in the shadowy parts known as ‘the provinces’.
Thompson was no huge fan of London, but argued that from the 1950s it had irreversibly won out over the provinces in terms of political power. Recent events suggest that this was wrong, Thompson the political activist had fed back into Thompson the historian on the point.
The alternative cancel culture: from pubs to cricket pitches
Nimbys (not in my back yard) have been a feature of British life for a while. Typically they are people that move into an area and then complain about an aspect of it that was there before they arrived, but which they don’t like.
Pubs and noise from them are a frequent target. A recent case involved the Compton Arms pub which is in a mews just off the busy Upper St in Islington North London. Some neighbours tried to get the pub’s licence revoked because the noise was annoying them. It was unclear whether those that complained had recently acquired a premises in the vicinity or had simply got used to the pub being mainly shut during the pandemic years. Islington Council agreed some new restrictions which the pub could live with and hopefully all is well that ends well.
A current case is that of a cricket club Colehill near Wimborne. A neighbour of the club’s ground who owns a £1.5m home had complained that cricket balls were landing in their premises. The club initially thought that they would have no alternative but to stop playing. However a community fund raising effort looks set to provide funds for netting to stop cricket balls from straying.
A cancel culture frame of mind is at work but its interesting to see that in both cases a wider community effort saved things which were and are valued by the many rather than the few.
Egg throwing: a great British tradition of protest from the London crowd of the 1790s to King Charles in Luton
Egging has a long tradition in political protest
A person who pleaded guilty to throwing an egg at King Charles in Luton (it missed) has been fined £100 at Westminster Magistrates Court
He can however count himself part of a long British tradition.
E.P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class records that when a perjurer was placed in the pillory in the 1790s the London crowd pelted him with eggs. Yet when a political radical suffered the same fate a few days later the crowd brought him glasses of wine to drink.
In more recent times egg throwing has been officially recognised as a legitimate protest. An anti-fascist arrested for throwing an egg at a National Front march in Wood Green in 1977, known as the ‘Battle of Wood Green’, was acquitted as the judge noted that it was indeed a traditional form of political protest.
John Prescott, who also egged on the campaign trail, didn’t agree (he whacked the egg thrower) but ultimately a point is made and no harm is done beyond making the person egged look silly and a dry cleaning bill.
Of course in the age of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary egg throwers are invariably arrested. She has no interest in or regard for the traditions of democratic protest and under her most recent Public Order legislation even loitering in the egg aisle of a supermarket would probably be an arrestable offence.
That said there is a wider politics here too. There is currently a shortage of eggs (even in Wetherspoons) due to avian flu and because supermarkets will not pay a market price to egg producers. Capitalism gets everywhere even to the politics of protest
NASUWT teachers ballot frustrated by undemocratic Tory laws
The NASUWT teachers union which has around 160,000 members has reported that nine out of ten members who voted in an industrial action ballot on pay supported it. However there was a problem. The turnout was 42% less than the 50% required by Tory employment laws. As TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak noted in effect this means that abstentions are counted as ‘no’ votes. Not very democratic really.
It goes further than that. While Tory members can vote by e-mail in their numerous leadership elections the Tories have repeatedly refused to allow this for trade union ballots. Participation is by a postal vote only.
Grant Schapps has recently been going on about how the latest Tory proposals to force those voting for strike to work are already in place in many other European countries. That isn’t true but it is true that the NASUWT ballot would have been legal in most EU countries (no actual difference to the UK being in or out of the EU in this case)
The Tories and their media outlets often go on about trade union ‘bosses’ and ‘barons’ but the reality is their own anti-democratic laws frustrate the democratic intent of trade union members
‘Fascism arrives as your friend’ Le Pen orders French MPs to wear ‘smart suits & ties’
If you’ve ever thought that someone wearing a smart suit and tie might despite their respectable appearance be somewhat dodgy confirmation has arrived from the French Parliament.
Leader of the fascist National Rally group in Parliament Marine Le Pen has ordered male MPs to wear smart suits and ties. Beards do not appear to be banned but few are visible.
The aim (Guardian 12th January) is to move away from the National Rally’s image of jackbooted thugs and appear as a ‘normal’ part of the French Parliamentary process. At the moment few French MPs and not that many voters appear to be fooled but Le Pen no doubt regards it’s as work in progress
From craft to crafty to Big BeerWild Beer in Somerset went into administration towards the end of 2022. An earlier crowd funding scheme had raised £1.8m towards building a new brewery. It was not built and investors lost their money as well the brewery workers losing their jobs. If they had two years-service they will be able to get statutory redundancy money- a few thousand pounds.
In January 2023 it was announced that the Administrators of Wild Beer had sold the brand, existing stock and internet business to Curious Brewing. They are based in Ashford Kent and grew out of Chapel Hill Winery. Curious will brew core Wild Beer brands in Kent and the two owners of Wild Beer are on board in the new set up.
Curious is owned by Risk Capital Partners headed up by well-known businessman Luke Johnson. Like all private equity outfits their track record is to buy a business and then after a period sell it on, ideally at a profit.
This does rather suggest that Wild Beer is now part of the ranks of Big Beer in the sense that it is not in any way independent.
I thought Wild beers were often excellent btw but I doubt if I will be imbibing them again. It is not an episode that paints craft beer in a good light.
