Kmflett's Blog

Their Democracy & Ours: Truss wins Tory leadership; Charles appointed King

Liz Truss was elected as Tory leader and hence appointed as PM (on Tuesday September 6th) beating Rishi Sunak by 57% to 43% of the 141,000 votes cast. The turn-out was 82% (it was largely an e-ballot) meaning the Tory membership is currently 172,000.

The 80,000 votes Truss got was rather less than the 85,000 CWU members in the post who have taken strike action over a 2% pay offer. That vote easily passed the 50% threshold of those entitled to vote which applies to trade unions but not elsewhere. Truss got 47% of the vote on this basis and were it a union ballot it would have been declared invalid as the TUC noted.

Membership of political parties is not high in the UK with the exception of Labour. Here membership rose to over 500,000 under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership but had declined somewhat to 432,000 at December 2021. It may well be lower still now but easily dwarfs Tory numbers still.

The SNP and Liberal Democrats are the next highest placed in terms of party membership.

However you look at it appointing a new Prime Minister where the vast majority of the electorate have no say and not even a majority of the winner’s own party back them does not confer a high degree of legitimacy.

In fact the election of Truss is reminiscent of Parliamentary elections between the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867. In this period very few people had the vote, and hardly any working men (women didn’t get the vote until much later).Elections went on for several days with open air hustings. Radicals and Chartists would often attend in numbers and propose their own candidate. On a show of hands they often own but of course most were not eligible to vote.

Even so this pressure from without had an impact and measures reflecting working class interests were passed from time to time in the Commons.

Just a few days after Truss became Prime Minister Queen Elizabeth II died at 96 sparking an official mourning and cancellation of events festival and Charles automatically became King Charles III at 73 years old. The record of his two predecessors does not inspire confidence. King Charles 1^st lost his head on 30^th January 1649 in pursuit of the Divine Right of Kings-meaning his authority came from God. That ushered in a period of republican Government after which came King Charles II. His dissolute behaviour- he had far more children than Boris Johnson has , did much to promote the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 which set the British ruling class on its modern course.

Because Britain is a constitutional monarchy rather than a parliamentary democracy King Charles III has a political role and one which will, based on his activities while Prince, amount to more than giving Royal Assent to Parliamentary Acts. He also has a role in the official State church, the Church of England. He was of course elected by no one and is accountable to no one-not even God since the monarchy abandoned the Divine Right claim a good while ago.

Whether the Tories can continue in Government and whether King Charles 111 can keep a monarchy going that appears fractured at best, despite what the bourgeois media has churned out in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth, will depend as it did in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries on what popular protest can be organised from below.

The fight for a democratic society is also a fight to make sure the working class doesn’t pay the price of the energy crisis

This post originally appeared in the Morning Star

The Treason Felony Act (1848) aimed at critics of the Monarch remains law in 2022

The last days have seen reports of people being arrested by police for making modest protests at the appointment of King Charles III. The police and knowledge of the law are not two subjects that usually find a close relation but it appears that the arrests are under Priti Patel’s 2022 Police Act which was designed to criminalise protest.

A rather more draconian law passed in 1848 which dealt with criticising the monarch remains in part on the statute book however

2022 is the 174th anniversary of the effective beginning of the British 1848, the Chartist protest on Kennington Common on Monday 10th April 1848, and it’s worth paying attention to the efforts that the Government made to frustrate protest.

John Saville in his authoritative book on 1848 (CUP) believes these were decisive.

The actual machinery of Government in 1848 was very small indeed (if Jacob Rees Mogg was any good at British history he might study this period with interest but keep in mind the population was much smaller) but the forces it could command were considerable as were the laws it had to deal with threats to order.

The Treason Felony Act dates from 1848 when it brought together several earlier Acts and replaced the death sentence for treason with a felony- in practice at the time transportation to Australia.

The Act was discussed in the House of Commons on the evening of 10th April 1848 and passed within 24 hours despite concerns that a clause on ‘open and advised’ speaking could lead to a treason sentence for political dissent.

The State had reason to do this. Juries were reluctant to convict where the death sentence was involved and in the revolutionary year of 1848 the State wanted convictions to frustrate any attempts at revolution. Hence the first two people to be convicted under the newly amended Act were the Irish Republican Chartist John Mitchel and the black leader of London Chartism William Cuffay.

An account of Cuffay’s Trial is here:

http://cuffay.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/reply-at-trial.html

The British State, the oldest in the world, was concerned to crack down on political opponents and to avoid creating martyrs. Beyond the boundaries of the UK, British imperial policy was not so nuanced.

The Treason Felony Act originally allowed for transportation to Australia (Cuffay was despatched to Tasmania) but this was changed in 1868 to imprisonment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_Felony_Act_1848

Section 3 of the Act remains in force and was challenged by the Guardian in 2001 on the grounds that it made even arguing in writing that the monarchy should be abolished an offence. A judge agreed and noted that the wording would not sustain a challenge under the Human Rights Act. The Government claimed to have abolished Section 3 in 2013 but in fact it remains law

3. Offences herein mentioned declared to be felonies

If any person whatsoever shall, within the United Kingdom or without, compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend to deprive or depose our Most Gracious Lady the Queen, from the style, honour, or royal name of the imperial crown of the United Kingdom, or of any other of her Majesty’s dominions and countries, or to levy war against her Majesty, within any part of the United Kingdom, in order by force or constraint to compel her to change her measures or counsels, or in order to put any force or constraint upon or in order to intimidate or overawe both Houses or either House of Parliament, or to move or stir any foreigner or stranger with force to invade the United Kingdom or any other of her Majesty’s dominions or countries under the obeisance of her Majesty, and such compassings, imaginations, inventions, devices, or intentions, or any of them, shall express, utter, or declare, by publishing any printing or writing … or by any overt act or deed, every person so offending shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable … to be transported beyond the seas for the term of his or her natural life.

Beard Liberation Front

12^th September

Consultation finds 86.5% oppose Boris Johnson growing a ‘defeat beard’ as it’d bring the hirsute into disrepute

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that an on-line consultation has found that 86.5% of BLF supporters who voted think that Boris Johnson growing the beard of political defeat would bring the hirsute into disrepute

The campaigners had previously called on former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to accept his new status with dignity and grow a beard of defeat, in line with general Beard Liberation Front policy. However a rank and file revolt led by BLF supporter Chris Brooke has led to the decision being reversed

The trend for a defeat beard was started  by US Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore when he won the popular vote in the 2000 Presidential Election but lost in the Electoral College to George W Bush

The campaigners say that a beard of political defeat allows time for reflection and clarity on future direction. While it is no secret that Boris Johnson’s future aim is to make money for himself a beard could potentially have temper the greed a little

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said. In recent weeks while Johnson has been partying and on holiday there have been signs of a proto-beard. However we accept the popular vote that were Johnson to grow a beard it would bring the hirsute into disrepute.

The Beard Liberation Front will be making further statements on King Charles III and Dan Wootton

Tony Benn’s 5 democracy tests illegal under 2022 Police Act. Arrest for asking who elected King Charles 111

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?

Today in Oxford at the Proclamation of King Charles 111 activist Symon Hill asked: who elected him

For this he was arrested under Priti Patel’s 2022 Police Act for behaviour likely to lead to harassment or distress. He was later de-arrested.

His account of what happened is here:

Concerning times

Remembering the two 9/11s. Not yet ready for the history books

Not many will need reminding that it is the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, 11th September 2001.

Rather more might need a reminder of the other 9/11 fifty three years ago in 1973 when a democratically elected socialist Government in Chile was brutally ousted by a US backed fascist coup.

Both the 9/11s are not yet history. The US is still intervening in the South of the Americas and the aftermath of the Iraq War which developed from the dreadful attack in New York is still firmly with us.

For the most part the Twin Towers attack saw ordinary people quite unconnected to the US policies which provided the pretext for the attack left dead and injured.

Many others will be able to remember with more than usual clarity where they were on that September day 24 years ago. I was at the TUC in Brighton. This was well before the days of instant access to the web via a smart phone.

It became clear in the hall that something had happened. That year’s TUC Chair Bill Morris made an announcement that a plane had hit the twin towers. At that stage the extent of devastation was unknown.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was due to address the gathering immediately after lunch. He appeared briefly said a speech would be inappropriate and hurried off to London. Business was suspended.

Delegates were stunned. Indeed so dazed was I that I recall shaking hands with the then General Secretary of my Union, not a normal event by any means.

I then retired to the Evening Star pub. After all when the world falls apart some things stay in place and it was definitely one of those days. Unexpected and unfathomable for the moment.

Blair of course had a very distinct reaction to those events. Afghanistan was in the frame for the start of what became the ‘war on terror’. That eventually led to an illegal war in Iraq and the biggest demonstration ever in British history against it on 15th February 2003. I was of course there.

As for Pinochet and Chile his bloody regime eventually met its end but the US even after Afghanistan is still ‘intervening’ in other countries not least Gaza and Iran.

The end result of all these events is that ordinary people end up paying the price for decisions made by people who rarely if ever pay the price themselves

The Tories are no longer the party of ‘Church & King’ & the invented traditions of Royalty are fading

As the Sunday Times notes on its front page (11 Sept) the numerous traditions associated with the death of Queen Elizabeth and the appointment of King Charles III are mainly an exercise in box ticking. Things that happen for no genuine reason beyond the point that at some stage they were invented.

The historian David Edgerton has written in the Observer that the Tories are no longer the party of ‘Church and Constitution’. That was certainly what the Yeomanry at Peterloo supported and ‘Church and King’ was the core raison d’etre of the Tory Party when it was formed in the modern sense in the early 1830s.

Edgerton points to a particular slip to underline the change in the Tory Party:

Another telling sign was given by our new prime minister. Having just kissed the hands of the dying monarch, she eulogised her wrongly. Speaking from outside Downing Street, Liz Truss said the late Queen “was the very spirit of Great Britain”. Clearly, no one in Downing Street knew to advise the notionally unionist Truss that her late Majesty was Queen of the whole undivided United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

He suggests that the invented traditions of Royalty mean little to non-Tory younger generations and the monarchy if it is to survive will have to do so on a more modest scale. Perhaps, unless of course Labour is now the party of Church and King

David Edgerton in the Observer

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/11/tories-were-once-the-party-of-the-monarchy-now-they-have-other-priorities?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Inventing tradition

The Ambridge Socialist

11^th September

Sgt Knacker Burns can’t find Chelsea but ‘The Prof’ can

It has been a week of looking for missing Chelsea Horrobin. Sgt Knacker Burns is of course on the job but as Ambridge Socialist readers will know it will take a while. Meanwhile The Prof has texted Chelsea about reality TV such as Celebrity Vets and got an instant response. Never underestimate the impact of a text message.

Is Russell Jones in the frame?

Meanwhile Knacker has been at Lower Loxley questioning Call Me Russ Jones what he knows about Chelsea. He has after all a predilection younger women. Perhaps but the Ambridge Socialist thinks others may be in the frame

At last an Archers listener is on the throne

With the appointment of 73 year old Charlie as King and his special friend Camilla as Queen there are at last after more than 70 years Archers listeners on the throne. A visit is expected and the Ambridge Socialist will of course be organising a Roll on the Red Republic protest

In Other News

Alastair has postponed his birthday party at the Bull

Not All Our Yesterdays: Remembering 9.11, 25 years on

It is the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, 11th September 2001.

Some will have lost friends and relatives in the attack, for the most part ordinary people quite unconnected to the US policies which provided the pretext for the attack.

Many others will be able to remember with more than usual clarity where they were on that day. I was at the TUC in Brighton. This was well before the days of instant access to the web via a smart phone.

It became clear in the hall that something had happened. That year’s TUC Chair Bill Morris made an announcement that a plane had hit the twin towers. At that stage the extent of devastation was unknown.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was due to address the gathering immediately after lunch. He appeared briefly said a speech would be inappropriate and hurried off to London. Business was suspended.

Delegates were stunned. Indeed so dazed was I that I recall shaking hands with the then General Secretary of my Union, not a normal event by any means in those now fairly far off days.

The attack on the twin towers was being shown on TV screens in the Brighton Centre. There was no other source of instant news then. I retreated to the Evening Star pub by Brighton station (still going strong I’m pleased to say, I was in there a few months back) and phoned my parents and partner. The enormity of what had happened was, I still recall, very difficult to process

Blair of course had a very distinct reaction to those events. Afghanistan was in the frame for the start of what became the ‘war on terror’.

Historically speaking it is too soon to draw a balance sheet of the impact and significant of Bush & Blair’s wars though the many thousands who have died on all sides and their relations may feel that judgement has already to some extent been made.

Socialists are sometimes accused of being found wanting by events. This was not one of those occasions.

Within 10 days on 21st September 2001 the original forces that became the Stop the War Coalition had called a meeting to protest about an impending attack on Afghanistan at Friends House in central London. The meeting was packed to overflowing in the garden outside.

That led on 13th October 2001 to what was in effect the first Stop the War demonstration, although not yet under that name, and that carried through to the biggest demonstration in British history, against war with Iraq on 15th February 2003.

There are other points too.

Marxists look for material explanations for events so there is a continuing need to counter the views of those who believe the events of 9.11 were the result of a conspiracy by someone or another.

More importantly the activities of Bin Laden were a counsel of despair, the thought that ordinary people would not act so terrorism was needed.

25 years on the dreadful events of 11th September 2001 are not yet for the history books but they deserve to be remembered. Both those that died and were injured on the day and the many more that suffered the same fate because of wars launched on the back of that day. Then there is the constant need to organise to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Beard Liberation Front

10^th September

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front issues official Mourning Guidelines for Queen Elizabeth II

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has issued official Mourning Guidelines for the hirsute following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The campaigners say that the guidelines are entirely voluntary and some may wish to pay their respects in other ways or not at all:

1 During the Mourning period of 10 days the beard should not be trimmed except for safety reasons

2 Beard care, including washing and removal of split ends should continue as normal

3 Growing a Mourning beard is also encouraged but care should be taken to ensure that it looks tidy

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we also anticipate that on the day of the funeral all barbers shops will be closed

QMourning Queen Elizabeth II: Inventing traditions

The historians Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger wrote a book on the Invention of Tradition and the points it makes are continually relevant.

All traditions are invented at some point. Many are flexible and often re-invented.

The Christian Church has been especially good at this, taking over traditions of others and re-branding them to fit.

The death of Queen Elizabeth on 8^th September and the funeral which will take place after a 10 day period of mourning (made up at some point) will no doubt be lauded in some places as great examples of how Royal tradition deals with such moments.

There are many Royal traditions including revolution (1688) and abdication (1936) but those won’t be on show.

The tradition kicked in when the BBC in a mark of official forelock tugging scrapped all programmes on any channel it has that it had heard of (iPlayer escaped) on Thursday and replaced them with something about Queen Elizabeth. The result, as with the death of Prince Philip, was no doubt that many viewers switched off or found other channels still broadcasting normal programming. Perhaps that is a new tradition in the making but the scrapping of programmes appears to have related mainly to the point that when the last significant Royal death took place before that of the Duke and the Queen- the Queen Mother in 2002- the BBC had been insufficiently obsequious

In the age of social media and the interwebs all kinds of people were to be found paying their respects to the Queen who in another age would not have been heard. This is a new democratic tradition of sorts. The Palace reminding us of its own traditions noted that while people could open books of condolence, physical or electronic, if they wished, it didn’t want to see them.

The funeral itself will be described in the greatest of Royal traditions. According to various flunkeys that one will find on the BBC news website and in the right-wing press, it will all be in accordance with various long-time Royal traditions. It won’t be. The tradition of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth 11 will be made up over the next few days.