Kmflett's Blog

Their Wars and Ours

I’m not a pacifist but I do think Churchill had a point when he said (more or less) ‘jaw to jaw is better than war’. In other words talking to find a way to avoid war is better than the death and destruction of war itself.

The point has contemporary relevance as the Tories back war in Europe and war against the poor at home which they clearly believe are connected.

Theodore Anderson’s Seems Like a Long Time which Rod Stewart sang on his 1971 recording Every Picture Tells a Story is also relevant

Night time is only the other side of daytime

But if you’ve ever waited for the sun

You know what it’s like to wish daytime would come

And don’t it seem like a long time

Seem like a long time, seem like a long, long time

Hard times are only the other side of good times

But if you ever wished hard times were gone

You know what it’s like to wish good times would come

And don’t it seem like a long time

Seem like a long time, seem like a long, long time

Help me, seems like a long time

Seems like a long time, seems like a long, long time

And don’t it seem like a long time

Seem like a long time, seem like a long, long time

And don’t it seem like a long time

Seem like a long time, seem like a long, long time

And don’t it seems like a long time

Seems like a long time, seems like a long, long time

You know it makes me sad

Seems like a long time, seems like a long time

Seems like a long, long time

Yes it does, long, long, time, yes it does, long, long time

War time is only the other side of peace time

But if you’ve ever seen how wars are won

You know what it’s like to wish peace time would come

And don’t it seem like a long time

Seem like a long time, seems like a long, long time

The Ambridge Socialist

13^th November

‘Toe rag’ Vince Casey wants his money back from Brookfield

The class war intensified in Ambridge this week as Vince Casey said he was withdrawing his investment in Brookfield’s solar panels. This led to crisis talks between Daveed and Rooth has to what they should do. The answer it appea.rs is to sell some land

Ambridge Socialist poll. Who described Vince Casey as a 'toerag'?

— keith flett (@kmflett) November 13, 2022

It isn’t all about Ben

Ben is part of the Archer Dynasty and assuming BBC broadcasts continue will be around for decades to come. Currently he is engaged in a bout of self-pity in respect of his part in Chelsea’s  (terminated) pregnancy. It isn’t all about Ben however, it is about the young woman he got pregnant.

Youth in Ambridge

There have been complaints that too many Ambridge regulars are not heard much on the Archers (in the Mail obviously) and that too much is heard of the youth. Some are indeed annoying. George Grundy clearly belongs to the Will rather than the Ed side of the Grundys. On the other hand Brad and Mia are interesting people whose thoughts we should hear more of.

Tribute to Graham Blockey, the voice of Robert Snell

The Ambridge Socialist has paid tribute to Graham Blockey who was the voice of Robert Snell in the Archers who has died.

Blockey was a GP in Dorking, retiring as recently as 2017 but has been the voice of Snell since 1986.

Robert Snell, partner of Lynda Snell was an independently minded bourgeois in a village dominated by the Archer dynasty. He ran an IT company but when that failed he helped to run a B&B operation at Ambridge Hall.

A keen twitcher, he acted as an advisor to Lynda adding a framework of reason to some of her more enthusiastic campaigns. In recent times he was one of the very few who saw through the modern slaver Philip Moss.

It’s clear from the BBC’s comments that he won’t be replaced. We have lost a unique part of Ambridge life

In Other News

Jakob doesn’t see the point of sprouts

The Professor has mentioned the Proustian sense of time in The Bull. Promising

Remembrance Sunday is not a Culture War. It’s about Never Again

In recent times Remembrance Sunday has been extended to include a range of imperial wars Britain has started or fought in. Certainly the working class soldiers who signed up because there were no other jobs deserve to be remembered.

However in also in recent times Remembrance Sunday seems to have been extended over weeks and become part of a Culture War. In 2026 this seems to have focused on far right and fascist types claiming that Wetherspoons have banned poppies. They have not of course.As every year they are available on the bar in every Spoons pub.

I often have worn a poppy on the Sunday (reasons below) and this year I got one from of course Wetherspoons. Its not about silly Tory games, it’s about fascism, a matter of life and death to numbers. I take that seriously and always have done. The Tory poppy obsessives don’t.

The below dates from a few years ago now but remains relevant.

I’m no fan of wars (although not a pacifist) but there are reasons to remember those that have taken place (and those that still are). Not the politicians and generals who order them and promote them but the ‘poor bloody infantry’ who have to fight them. Sometimes there is a good reason for the fight and a good reason to remember it

Simon Jenkins* no doubt has a point about an obsession with the second world war and Nazis to the exclusion of other history – that of colonialism and imperial wars for example. It is hardly time, though, to forget all about the second world war. My late father fought at Monte Cassino in 1944 and saw some of his comrades die there. A lifelong socialist, he would invariably wear a poppy on Remembrance Sunday. He wasn’t interested in Tory flag-waving. His concern, as when he was to be found on Anti-Nazi League protests in his later years, was to make sure that the industrial scale of murder represented by the Holocaust was both never forgotten and never repeated.

Keith Flett

Guardian 10th November 2017

*Simon Jenkins piece

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/09/no-more-remembrance-days-consign-20th-century-history

Leslie Phillips 1924-2022. Whatever happened to his Tottenham accent?

The actor Leslie Phillips died this week at 98. He was born in Tottenham but did not have the accent. His Wiki entry reveals why

After his father’s death, Phillips was sent to the Italia Conti Academy at his mother’s insistence.[7] There, he attended drama, dance and notably elocution to lose his cockney accent; at the time, a regional accent was considered an impediment to an aspiring actor. Phillips took time to refine his Received Pronunciation accent, and later declared that “the biggest elocution lessons came from mixing with people who sounded right, people in theatrical circles and in the officers’ mess during the war.” He left school at 14 in 1938

A survey by the Sutton Trust has revealed that even in 2022 some regional accents are not well received. It might be reflected that Leslie Phillips acting career might have been rather different had he retained his Tottenham accent..

Beyond Charles Tilly’s Repertoires of Contention. On Protest tactics

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/10/climate-activists-save-the-planet-tories-imprison-protesters

 The Times has now published three Editorials condemning the protests of Just Stop Oil. Polly Toynbee is right in the Guardian (11 Nov) that the protests have been effective at placing climate change firmly on the political agenda. While direct action is one way of making a point, there are others. What the sociologist Charles Tilly called the Repertoire of Contention includes petitions, marches, rallies and strikes. They can be less dramatic than stopping the M25 but they too can get a message across.

Tilly sees a hierarchy of contention and protest from the petition to riot and revolt. The world doesn’t work like that. People can petition and take direct action at the same time, and often combinations of protest strategies can bring at least some results. The key is to start protesting in the first place.

Socialist History Seminar Mon 21^st November 5.30pm Chartism in London in 1848

In the latest of the autumn series of socialist history seminars at the Institute of Historical Research Catherine Howe will speak on her book London Story, about Chartism in 1848.

The book is a hybrid of well researched and sourced history and counter-factualism to look at how some of the gaps in what we know so far might be explained.

The seminar is free on Zoom. The link to book and get joining details is below

https://www.history.ac.uk/events/chartism-london-1848

Recovering Tottenham’s labour history: Jarrow marchers at Tottenham Trades Hall

The former Tottenham Trades Hall at 7 Bruce Grove N17 (central Tottenham) is a listed building, one of a handful of Georgian buildings in the area. Luke Howard (1772-1864) the namer of clouds lived in the building and there will be an event in Tottenham at the end of November to mark the 250^th anniversary of his birth.

It is known that the Jarrow March in October 1936 put up 40 marchers at the Trades Hall at the end of that month as the march arrived in London. It is thought there was once a plaque to mark this but it is long gone.

What is being sought for the anniversary event are pictures of the plaque or references to the Jarrow marchers in Tottenham.

A fascinating picture of a plaque to mark the extension to the Trades Hall has come to light, reflecting that it was quite a respectable place, rather than the licensed premises previously used!

Any information gratefully received. Simply post a response below

Financial Times 11th November

The US Elections & voter suppression

The Boundary Commission in the UK has just published its latest proposals for redrawing many Parliamentary Constituencies. The principle is a reasonable one. To try and make sure that each constituency has roughly the same number of voters.

The practice of course is less satisfactory. The method used is similar to that used by Britain’s imperial administrators all over the world in the past. Draw lines on a map and if this splits communities, so what?

The end result of the exercise may benefit the Tories (Wales gets 8 less MPs)but that depends on what level the Tories actually poll at in the next Election.

Hence there is also a plan B, legislation to require voters to show ID when casting a vote to tackle the non-existent problem of voter impersonation. The forms of ID which will be accepted are of course far less likely to be held by those who might vote Labour.

The tactics have long been used in the US. The Guardian reporting on the US mid-term elections noted Republican ‘aggressive attempts to redraw electoral boundaries’. Voter suppression in the US in some areas is routine.

However on this occasion it didn’t’ really work. It would appear that the Roe v Wade overturning which threatens legal abortion and the Republicans propensity to run Trump backed far right whacko candidates mobilised (or demobilised) enough voters to mean that a far less than inspiring Joe Biden looked like he had a modest success.

He called it a victory for democracy. Hmmm

On working from home & why Musk is wrong

I work mainly from home and have done for some years. The pandemic underlined the point but even as it eases I find the number of in person events in my (work) diary to be limited.

I have nothing at all against offices. I worked mainly in offices since the late 1970s.

I still have a large one in the City of London. The City is an interesting place but in the context of 2022, why go there to look at a laptop screen and chat to the pigeons?

Of course there are reasons for being in an office. Collaborative working (assuming your collaborators are there) and simply meeting other people. Home working can be isolating. Further as a union activist I like the idea of meeting people in person in offices and talking to them about the class struggle (however refracted).

Elon Musk’s diktat that all twitter employees must forthwith be in an office for at least 40 hours a week, whether there is a useful reason for this or not, reminds that being in a trade union is worthwhile. Such diktats can be faced down by collective organisation and more reasonable approaches developed, flexibility being the key…

The Roger Scruton Restaurants in Budapest

The right-wing philosopher Roger Scruton (1944-2020) is perhaps best known as a wine critic (in the New Statesman). Boris Johnson noted on his death that ‘we have lost the greatest modern Conservative thinker’.

References to Scruton’s favourite foods (clearly matched with wine) are limited but judging by a chain of three Roger Scruton restaurants that have opened in Budapest foie gras may have been one.

The restaurant’s menu changes weekly and Scruton’s name is associated with one dish each week. It is reported that memorabilia from Scruton decorates the walls. The general idea seems to be that as Hungary has a hard right Government then Budapest is the ideal location for Scruton themed restaurants.

Perhaps it will create a trend. Engels for example was known for his lobster salad recipe. Perhaps its time for Engels themed fish restaurants in Manchester and North London?

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g274887-d24003808-Reviews-Scruton_V_p-Budapest_Central_Hungary.html