Lionel Messi & Michael Rosen face off in Beard of Autumn Round Two
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the vote for Round Two of the Beard of Autumn is now open.
There are two preliminary rounds followed by a Beard Off final where the top two beards from each of the earlier rounds try to beard the others.
In the first round Mick Whelan and Stephen Fry shaved opponents to be the first two to go through to the final Beard Off
The winner will be announced on 15th October
The Beard of Autumn is the final quarterly award of the year with the vote for the coveted Beard of the Year 2022 getting underway at the beginning of December
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard of Autumn list reflects some of those whose beards have shown the hirsute in a positive light in the last few months. Obviously not all will agree which is why there is a vote!
Beard of Autumn
Mick Whelan, General Secretary ASLEF
Moeen Ali, England cricketer
Michael Rosen, author & Arsenal fan
Tim Dunn, railway historian
Alan Shearer, football pundit
Stephen Fry, cricket lover
Lionel Messi, footballer
Paul Hollywood, Great British Bake Off
The vote for Beard of Autumn Round 2 is now open. Top 2 join @MickWhelanASLEF@stephenfry in the final Beard Off round
John Lennon b.9th October 1940: ‘the establishment will irritate you-pull your beard..’
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that on the 86th anniversary of his birth on 9th October 1940, it looks to John Lennon for important advice to beard wearers who are provoked by beard haters and pogonophobes.
Lennon warned that the establishment would seek to provoked beard wearers by pulling their beards. He underlined that the appropriate way to react was to avoid the provocation by using ‘non-violence and humour’
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, John Lennon was one of the twentieth centuries most iconic beard wearers, and is advice on how to deal with pogonophobes remains relevant
“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humour.”
Really Useful Knowledge for 2022: Truss Tories move right, voters move left
Really Useful Knowledge was a term used by radicals in the 1830s and 1840s to cover information and analysis of economics and politics that was not available through official channels- this was termed really useless knowledge. In the nineteenth century the free market ideas of Adam Smith were dominant, and the idea that those who created wealth should also share in it- workers- was derided. In 2022 this is covered by trickle-down economics which Truss supports.
The Financial Times (8th October ) has published some interesting statistics which look at the electoral performance of TrussTories. Labour has of course opened a massive poll lead over the Tories. As significantly the FT reports that 1 in 6 voters who backed the Tories in 2019 will now vote Labour. More usually disillusioned Tories are to be found in the ‘don’t know’ column of polls only to vote Tory again at the Election.
At the same time the FT reports that those supporting a redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor is at its highest since the 1990s.
Since a Starmer Government is likely to address this point only at the margins, it will be interesting to see where that mood goes.
Conker World Championships: don’t watch conkers, give it a go yourself
The Campaign for Real Conkers which backs ‘no rules’ conker playing has said that it is boycotting the World Conker Championships on 9th October due to its obsession with rules and regulations.
There are serious concerns that conkers lie uncollected in many areas of the country as the traditional autumn game declines in favour of screen-based activities
The campaigners say that in particular rules are killing conkers as a game. The World Championships dictates who can play who and what conker is to be used. The CRFC says that if conkers is to survive it must be a free for all and free to play.
In recent times the World Conker Championships has recognised that playing conkers is very much up to individual preferences and local traditions but the Championships themselves remain rule bound.
The campaign encourages ‘no rules’ conker games where players hold their own ‘no rules’ events on Sunday.
Campaign for Real Conkers Organiser Keith Flett said, conker playing is part of the traditional British autumn, but if action is not taken to promote it and encourage people to play in a few years it will be a folk memory. Conkers is not a rule bound spectator sport, it’s something to play yourself and sod rules.
Campaign for Real Conkers
1] There is no restriction on where and when a conker match may be played, or between whom
2] There is no restriction on how the conker is presented. It may be organic, baked, soaked in vinegar etc
3] There are no winners or losers as such but if a player is unable to carry on due to an unusable conker it may be taken that their opponent has prevailed on that occasion
4] Conker matches can only take place when two players who have conkers are present.
5] if for any reason someone at 4 is unable to proceed for any reason then the other player prevails by default.
Cuban Missile Crisis 62 years on. Nuclear war takes two..
Rishi Sunak has claimed that there is more danger of a nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, sixty two years ago. Certainly Putin has been rattling his nuclear weapons but its notable that Zelensky has previously talked of ‘strikes’ on Russia (obviously he misspoke and meant sanctions…)
I was 7 at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and can remember nothing at all about it. You’d need to be around 75 to have the drama of those days in October 1962 lodged in your mind. Rishi Sunak is 44.
Fortunately the details of the crisis, one of the key points in the long Cold War between America and the USSR, are now in the public domain and extensively so.
America under Kennedy, was hawkish and wanted to destroy the socialist experiment in Cuba. It had launched a failed invasion, the Bay of Pigs, in 1961. Russia was equally keen that Cuba remained out of US control. Hence the placing of Russian missiles on the island.
After a tense stand-off when the use of nuclear weapons by both sides appeared very likely a secret agreement was reached. The missiles were withdrawn and the world stepped back from the brink of nuclear war.
What impact did these events have on those who lived through them and what positions might they underwrite today?
One obvious debating point is whether the fact that nuclear war did not actually occur meant that Mutually Assured Destruction the aptly named MAD did mean that nuclear weapons in fact acted as a deterrent to war.
Historical ‘what if’ questions provoke no definite answers but it is reasonable to suggest that this is a view provided with hindsight that would not have found popularity in the final weeks of October 1962.
There were CND demonstrations on the issue and leaflets issued, but if you calculate that the end of the world is likely to be coming it may be that you would have other things on your mind.
A CND leaflet produced just after agreement was reached between the US and USSR called 21-27 October ‘crisis week’ and the ‘most dangerous week in the history of mankind’.
The particular concern in Britain was that the country held US nuclear weapons which were in range to attack the East. Likewise the East could easily attack Britain with nuclear bombs. A dispute over Cuba might very easily start with the nuclear destruction of this country.
We now know that 60 or so British nuclear weapons with US warheads were on 15 minute notice to be launched at the USSR during those October days
We can get a flavour of this from accounts at the time.
The late Labour MP Frank Allaun noted that in the final days of October 1962 people went to bed at night aware that they might not be alive in the morning.
Veteran CND campaigner the late Pat Arrowsmith and her partner, believing that nuclear war was more certain than not and with the certain obliteration of Britain as a result, fled to the comparative safety of the south-west tip of Ireland. The story made the news media and was used to ridicule them after the crisis was averted. From the perspective of those days however it may well have made some sense.
Certainly the Cuban missile crisis underwrote the perspectives of a generation of the left in much the same way that more recently the Iraq War has done for a more youthful cohort of activists.
Now as 62 years ago debates about whether the very system itself led to war or whether such events can be regulated and controlled were an important part of the political landscape
The world did not end in late October 1962. But nuclear weapons are still with us and the world remains a very dangerous place.
Press Release 7th October Contact Keith Flett, 07803 167266
Peak conker weekend: players need to collect their nuts now
The Campaign for Real Conkers, the group that opposes bans on conker playing, has said that with the 2022 conker season reaching a peak this weekend it remains the case that grey squirrels pose a threat to conker supplies.
The campaign says that numbers of grey squirrels in many areas of the country are increasing. The squirrels can be seen carrying off and burying conkers on a regular basis leading to a shortage of the nut for players to pick up. It is also the start of the nut collecting and burying season for squirrels.
Squirrels don’t eat conkers but few seem to realise this and either collect and bury them or bite into them, destroying them as game conkers.
Campaign organiser Keith Flett said, given the wet and windy there are plenty of fallen conkers to be had currently. However if players don’t collect their nuts now they may not be ready for this weekend’s peak conker
Notes
The CFRC believes that conkers is one of the few sports that can be played for free. All that is required is a conker and some string.
It is opposed to championships, rules, regulations, separate teams for men and women and commercial sponsorship.
It seeks to encourage young people to play conkers. It should not be the preserve of those of mature years
Beard Liberation Front says its not anti-growth but it is part of the enemy within
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers has reacted to Liz Truss’s Tory Conference speech on Wednesday.
The campaigners say that they are not anti-growth, and have urged Truss to encourage the growing of facial hair, where appropriate, in her almost entirely clean shaven Cabinet.
However the BLF says it is clearly part of the Enemy Within that Truss attacked. These included:
Trade unions
Elites
North London media types
Extinction Rebellion
Labour
Liberal Democrats
The SNP
Anti-Brexiteers
Think Tanks (except those in the environs of Tufton St)
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we are against clean shaven Toryism. We are for growing facial hair one aspect of growth Truss doesn’t seem to support
Truss Tory Conference speech: people “taxi from North London townhouses to the BBC studio to dismiss anyone challenging the status quo.”
Liz Truss attacked people who live in North London Townhouses in her speech to the Tory Conference on Wednesday. In 2022 a Townhouse is probably a terraced property in a quieter residential street worth at least £1 million.
Truss may have had in mind Keir Starmer who lives in the environs of Kentish Town or Boris Johnson who lived for many years with his former partner, lawyer Marina Wheeler in an Islington Townhouse.
The term is often used to refer to Islington but as often when the Tories demonise North London there is a failure to grasp that the area contains a lot of poverty as well as wealth. For example the Packington Housing Estate off Essex Rd N1 (near Islington Angel) does not contain Townhouses, although adjacent areas do.
Truss’s jibe at taxis is also meant to suggest that wealthy inhabitants of Townhouses in North London don’t use the tube, bus or bike. I suspect they do, since all are more convenient for moving around in the area.
In British usage, the term townhouse originally referred to the town or city residence, in practice normally in London, of a member of the nobility or gentry, as opposed to their country seat, generally known as a country house or, colloquially, for the larger ones, stately home.
