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Beard Liberation Front

PRESS RELEASE 26th October

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THE SCARIEST HALLOWEEN BEARD POLL. Follicle Frenzy Final

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, which campaigns against irrational prejudice against the hirsute, has said that the crypt has creaked firmly open on the Scariest Beard of Halloween 2022 poll with voting in the Follicle Frenzy Final now open.

Laurence Fox and Ted Cruz won the first round and are joined by Neil Oliver and Jonathan Gullis in the final Follicle Frenzy round

The title, awarded each year on October 31st, takes a wry look at Halloween festivities by identifying the scariest beard in the public eye. The winner is likely to win by the narrowest crack of a squeaky floorboard.

The BLF does not generally believe that beards are scary, a view promoted by generations of pogonophobes.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, facial hair is part of Halloween tradition. We aim every year to subvert some of the pogonophobia that lies behind that,  while looking in a light hearted way at ‘scary’ beards.

Scary Beard of Halloween 2022

James Corden

Richard Branson

Laurence Fox

Ted Cruz

Neil Hamilton

Jonathan Gullis MP

Neil Oliver

David Warner

Beard Liberation Front

26th October

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has called on Jacob Rees Mogg to grow a beard of political defeat. He resigned as a Minister on 25th October and becomes a backbench MP.

The campaigners say that there is a tradition of beard growth after a political defeat going back to Al Gore’s narrow failure to become US President in 2000.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Jacob Rees Mogg’s great great grandfather Henry Stiles Savory had a magnificent beard. A similar one would add gravitas to Mr Rees Mogg’s political future

Following concerns by BLF supporters a consultative vote is being held on whether to pursue or withdraw the call. Vote at the link below:

Mike Davis, 1946-2022 Socialist, Activist, Historian of the Present

Mike Davis who has sadly died at 76 was a veteran figure of the US New Left, part of a generation that came after the likes of E P Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. Free of their background in the Communist Parties, but well aware of the importance of that, Davis was able to become what Hobsbawm had urged after 1956 an historian of the present.

City of Quartz (1990) looked at the history of Los Angeles to inform the struggles of the present. Late Victorian Holocausts (2000) looked at the relationship between colonialism and climate change. Most recently The Monster at the Door (2005) looked at Avian flu and the process of how pandemics arise which proved highly relevant to Covid.

Most recently Mike Davis wrote in New Left Review (March 2022) interesting (brief) analysis of the current conjuncture east and west where he specifically addressed the great men theory of history. He notes: Everyone is quoting Gramsci on the interregnum, but that assumes that something new will be or could be born. I doubt it. I think what we must diagnose instead is a ruling class brain tumour.’

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/thanatos-triumphant

As a speaker Davis was compelling listening but his written work and his activism has added significantly to the history of the present and is a model for others to build on

Sunak confirmed as Gramsci fan as he re-appoints ‘morbid symptoms’ Suella Braverman

The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci wrote of the morbid symptoms that arise when an old political order is dying but a new one can’t be born. The parallel is not exact. Gramsci was referring to the fascist regime of Mussolini and the current British Government if there is one is certainly not fascist. The Ministerial appointments of Rishi Sunak suggest an abundance of morbid symptoms, some more serious than others, and none more so than Suella Braverman’s re-appearance as Home Secretary

On 25th October 2022 Rishi Sunak became the first person of Asian heritage to become Prime Minister. As Marcus Ryder pointed out in the Guardian there is no such thing as trickle down diversity anymore than there is trickle down economics.

Sunak remains, currently, the richest MP in the Commons and while he is not an Old Etonian he went to Winchester an alternative route to the ruling class.

An important issue was the one-dimensional politics of Sunak’s arrival at No.10. He lost an election for Tory leader in the summer of 2022 to Liz Truss. When she resigned as PM he stood again but this time was elected by no one but appointed by the Tory 1922 Committee. No British Prime Minister has been elected at a General Election and subsequently lost one since Ted Heath (1970-74) so the process, unsatisfactory though it is, is not new.

However Sunak implemented a further period of unnecessary austerity and spending cuts. For this he had no conceivable mandate. It was not the programme Johnson was elected on in December 2019.

Failed culture wars mingled with quirky policies on pot holes, and a significantly divided Tory Party

Two years on the Tories after losing the July 2024 Election have the lowest number of MPs-121-since 1832.

Truss was a complete failure but Sunak is not far behind

Protest & Survive: Keir Starmer & Just Stop Oil

Keir Starmer told LBC on 24^th October that while Labour would issue no new oil or gas licences, a key demand of Just Stop Oil, he also backed Tory legislation that could see those involved with Just Stop Oil’s direct action protests jailed for up to 51 weeks.

The legislation introduced by Suella Braverman just before she was sacked as Home Secretary by the last Prime Minister is notably draconian in respect of non-violent protest which amounts to civil disobedience.

One may question how effective the tactics of Just Stop Oil are in achieving progress to their (mostly reasonable) demands. They attract a lot of publicity for the issue while of course causing a lot of disruption which impacts more on ordinary people than it does those in power. However they are at least protesting and making sure the issue is in the minds of politicians.

Keir Starmer started out as a civil rights lawyer but his current mindset seems conditioned by his period as Director of Public Prosecutions where he had a notably illiberal view of protest. Clearly his view is that change should come through Parliamentary means rather than pressure from without.

However neither the Labour Party or the labour movement would exist in their current form without a wide range of protests including direct action, riots and even occasional attempts at insurrection

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/24/keir-starmer-backs-stiff-sentences-for-climate-protesters-who-block-roads

Still no recognition for black Chartist leader William Cuffay

As far back as when Oliver Dowden was Culture Minister the Government has said that he did not support taking down statues even of slave traders but he did support putting up statues that reflect the history of Britain and how it’s understood in the 2020s

As we mark another Black History Month what plans in that case are in hand to erect the long called for statue of William Cuffay?

Cuffay (1788-1870) was the black leader of London Chartism in 1848, a prominent campaigner for the vote and the system of Parliamentary democracy we now have.

The fact that he is not recognised by a statue in central London presumably can’t be put down to any institutional bias in Government over many years, so no doubt the matter is being actively worked on.

News is awaited…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cuffay

Tim Martin who fronts up the Wetherspoons pub chain has been widely criticised for being a Brexiteer and appearing on platforms with Farage.

He gave his views on the latest Tory leadership election to the Sunday Times (23rd October)

‘Common sense and the ability to create a sensible economic plan must be the main criteria for a new leader. The least qualified is Boris, who is a stranger to planning and spent like a sailor on shore leave during his tenure in No.10. Also, very dangerously, he seems to think he’s king of the world so he may wind up the bond market, the real king’

Hmmmm

The Tory leadership election & Tony Benn’s democracy tests: ‘how can we get rid of you?’

As Britain awaits the arrival of a second unelected Prime Minister in two months calls for a General Election have been made by Labour but are not much focused on by a one-dimensional media obsessed with Tory game playing

The late Tony Benn had a five tests of the legitimate democratic authority of those he came across:

What power have you got?

Where did you get it from?

In whose interests do you exercise it?

To whom are you accountable?

How can we get rid of you?

Beard Liberation Front

23rd October

The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has called on former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to grow a beard after he unusually pulled out of the Tory leadership contest on Sunday.

The tradition of the Beard of Political Defeat goes back at least to Al Gore when he narrowly lost the US Presidential race in 2000

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, a beard of defeat would give Johnson time to reflect on his decision to pull out and would mark a decisive break from his clean shaven period