50 years ago Labour met in Brighton for its annual conference. The Chair was Tony Benn.
He noted in his diary (2nd October) there is a very great deal of scope for democratising the Party through democratising its procedure at conference.
Work in progress or a labour of sisyphus as Labour meets in Liverpool
The Ambridge Socialist
25th September
Chelsea Horrobin’s Right to Choose
Chelsea still hasn’t officially made the decision on whether to keep her baby or have an abortion. Tracy has tried to help but Chelsea enlisted the help of Alistair on issues relating to the father now revealed to be Ben Archer. The Ambridge Socialist backs Chelsea’s right to choose
Shula has almost left for Sunderland
Dan, Shula’s son with the late SDP supporter Mark Hebden, has reappeared from the Army and helped Shula to pack a suitcase. Warm clothes are required for a stay ‘Oop North, although Wearside does have clothes shops. Whether the residents of Sunderland will be particularly interested in advice from a resident of Ambridge we will no doubt find out. However the BBC has revealed that after 51 years in Ambridge Shula (Judy Bennett) will not be coming back. Now that truly is the end of an era
In Other News
Martha’s naming ceremony has taken place. There was no fighting between Archers and Horrobins
Jim revealed that he planned to watch the Queen’s funeral on TV because it was an historic occasion. We didn’t get to find out what he made of it or whether any Ambridge residents joined *the queue*
While many struggle to keep a roof over their heads King Charles has a different issue. He has too many Palaces.
His current residence,Clarence House, will have to be vacated as the new King moves into Buckingham Palace, reportedly not his favourite palace. Just as the late Queen also resided at Windsor Castle, Charles has to determine where his main second palace will be.
There are 20 to choose from but the King is thought to favour Highgrove in Gloucestershire over Balmoral. Sandringham in Norfolk will likely still be the Royals Christmas residence.
A Game of Homes indeed…
From Thatcher to Truss: Patrick Minford, the let the market rip economist
Patrick Minford, currently at Cardiff, previously Liverpool, has been around a long time. At 79 he was Thatcher’s favourite economist. In 2022 Liz Truss is a fan of Thatcher and Minford.
Minford is essentially a free market fundamentalist believing that tax cuts are a way to promote a sound economy and accepting that interest rate rises go along with this. He has no time for State intervention believing people to be rational economic actors who can make their own choices with their own money.
There is a wider political agenda here, which I’ll post on further. Meanwhile Joseph Choonara is good on what is specific about Trusseconomics and the Guardian’s Larry Elliott provides a good uptodate profile of Minford
Joseph Choonara’s analysis of Trusseconomics in International Socialism. Beyond Neo-Liberalism
http://isj.org.uk/trussonomics/
The Guardian 6th September 2022
It has been an interesting 5 days in the UK.
Monday was one of national mourning when a Bank Holiday was proclaimed to mark the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. It was an historic occasion (the history can and is being debated) and many millions watched primarily on the BBC. A minority of more millions didnt watch but there was rather less interest in that.
At the end of the week Kwasi Kwarteng the self styled Chancellor made a fiscal statement. 5 days had gone by and we were no longer all in it together. Rather the ultra haves got a significant tax cut while the have nots got crumbs.
This is the beginning not the end of a story..
Campaigners suspect Labour Conference platform beard ban
23rd September
Media Release. Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266
Campaigners suspect Labour Conference platform beard ban
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that its supporters in the Labour Conference hall in Liverpool suspect that there may be a ban or at the very least a restriction on beards appearing on the conference platform.
The campaigners say that the fear of beards, has gained support at the top of the Labour Party. Leader Keir Starmer appears ready to take the Party into a new era of clean shaven revisionism last seen in the Blair era.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Labour says it is a Party that treats all equally. We hope that any informal beard ban instituted by outgoing clean shaven General Secretary David Evans, is over ridden by the Conference Chairs and that hirsute delegates get their chance to address conference along with others.
Liz Truss, tax cuts & Thatcherite economist Patrick Minford
The Chancellor has unveiled a financial package at the core of which is a cut in income tax from 2023. It’s a policy that harks back to the days of Thatcherism and her favourite economist Patrick Minford. Minford is also Liz Truss’s favourite economist.
Asked by Michael Foot in Parliament in the early 1980s which economists supported her policies she responded Alan Walters and Patrick Minford. She is reputed to have said afterwards that it was just as well Foot hadn’t asked for three.
Patrick Minford is still around based at Cardiff University and he remains a free market economist, a supporter of the ideas of Adam Smith and Ricardo on the capitalist economy. He was a supporter of Brexit and remains a Tory too. He is often named by Liz Truss as an economic authority.
In the eighteenth century as noted by E PThompson there was in many areas a moral economy which meant that the staples of life had a regulated fair price. There was still rich and poor and profit but excess was controlled.
As industrial capitalism developed underwritten by Adam Smith and the free market as Thompson recounted in the Making of the English Working Class, Parliament might as well try to regulate the wind as wages.
Truss plans to let the free market rip but with one key qualification. As Stuart Hall argued in his 1980s analysis of Thatcherism the counterpoint to that was a strong State. So Truss plans to abolish a raft of laws and regulations that allow working people to challenge the unrestrained free market.
It can still be challenged it will just be even harder. Patrick Minford will be applauding anyway
Jacob Rees Mogg wins battle on the import of foie gras. Banning it would be ‘socialist’
The Government is still planning new animal welfare legislation but according to a Politico report will exclude the import of two items which were set to be banned on the grounds that their production involves animal cruelty (neither are allowed to be produced in the UK).
The first is fur, which apparently is imported from Canada and used in the headgear of the Coldstream guards, much evident in recent Royal events
The second is foie gras which is made by force feeding ducks and geese and is imported from France. Jacob Rees Mogg has objected to the ban on the grounds of personal choice- his own it would appear.
Speaking about the potential impact of Brexit in the Commons in 2018 he said there be some initial issues and people should ensure their butlers kept the larder well stocked with foie gras and claret. In 2019 again in the Commons he defended Johnson’s hard Brexit deal by claiming it was the Tournedos Rossini of deals, a beef fillet steak topped with a slice of fried foie gras.
Given that Rees Mogg claims he hates garlic and indeed the French in general is love of foie gras, aide from being indefensible is interesting.
A Tory spokesperson argued that banning things is socialist and instead a label could be added to imported foie gras explaining how its produced. It sounds similar to Tory policy on removing statues of slave traders, namely that the statue should stay but a panel added to point out their history
Foie Gras enters the Tory Culture Wars
https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-fur-foie-gras-import-ban/
Their Inclusivity & Ours. Blofeld & Gower call for Eton v Harrow cricket match to stay at LordsEarlier this year the MCC determined that the annual Eton v Harrow cricket match, a feature since 1805, would no longer be played at Lords. It was stated that attendances had dropped and that given Lords could only host so many games each year, the aim was to provide for a greater diversity of matches.
The Murdoch Times (22nd Sept) has reported that former England cricket captain David Gower and cricket commentator Henry Blofeld are amongst those calling for Eton v Harrow to stay at Lords. A special meeting of MCC members is due next Tuesday where the issue will be raised.
Gower claims that Lords can maintain the history of games like Eton v Harrow while also promoting a greater diversity of matches. Blofeld has argued that the decision is ‘bonkers’. Unlike Gower he did go to Eton and played cricket for the college team.
The Tories & the North London Metropolitan Liberal Elite
During a speech to the Tory Conference in 2019 the previous Home Secretary Priti Patel criticised the ‘North London Metropolitan Liberal Elite’.
She did not elaborate as to who such people might be.
However we do have evidence of one such person. They lived in an area that for a period elected a Liberal Democrat MP post the Iraq War and is certainly heavily in favour of remaining in the EU
Crouch End in North London is not the kind of place where you’d expect to find a Tory in 2022. But it was a little different 50 years ago and the area elected Tory MPs until 1992.
While delving into the (unpleasant) undergrowth and background to the previous Premier’s rise to No.10 I noticed a brief sojourn in Crouch End.
In July 1965 Johnson’s father Stanley and mother Charlotte left Oxford for Crouch End. They stayed only to October 1965 deciding to spend the winter with Boris, who was just over a year old at the time and newly born Rachel (September 1965) in an Exmoor cottage.
I havent (yet) been able to locate where they lived in Crouch End (a blue plaque surely beckons) but perhaps even then the Johnsons were able to detect that the area was not really the kind of place for Tories, at least on Priti Patel’s analysis.
Johnson went on to live in Islington, North London for some years when he was marred to Marina Wheeler. The current PM Liz Truss despite claiming to hail from various places around the UK is a confirmed West Londoner. Its not known it is has an elite.
Tory references to a ‘metropolitan elite’ and ‘cultural marxism’ continue. The current Home Secretary Suella Braverman is an enthusiast for identifying such types, although she hails from Brent in North-West London. The enemy within perhaps?
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