Truss Premiership needs clarity on the cheese question. With Churchill or not?
The Guardian reminded a couple of months back about Liz Truss’s love of cheese. This is perhaps one of her better qualities. Truss reasonably likes cheeses produced locally in her Norfolk Constituency but also Stinking Bishop which is a strong smelling washed rind mild soft cheese.
Truss is of course against cheese being imported to the UK as was Mrs Thatcher whose favourite cheese was reported to be Lymeswold a soft mildly blue cheese.
So far so good for Truss. The problem is that Winston Churchill’s favourite cheese was Gruyere.
Prime Minister Truss will need to make clear where she stands on the cheese question
Liz Truss; most right-wing Prime Minister ever or ‘pragmatic chameleon’. It depends on protest
One sees on social media claims that Liz Truss will be the most right-wing PM ever. She is certainly right-wing but the perspective suggests a certain lack of knowledge about British political history. One might think of Lord Liverpool who at the very least gave the nod for the Yeomanry to be sent in at Peterloo in August 1819. One must also take into account that Truss has spent the past few weeks endeavouring to appeal to a right-wing audience of a few thousand Tory members.
She is sometimes described as eccentric, which may be sexism, but may also be a recognition that those who are competent in one area- Truss is an accountant- may not be in other areas.
I prefer a Sunday Times view that Truss is a pragmatic chameleon, rather like in that sense Johnson who backed both sides on Brexit before deciding Leave was the best career opportunity.
As a youth in Leeds in the 1980s Truss was involved with CND, going on demos and so on. Partly this was family influenced but no amount of cajoling can get someone on a demo they are not interested on being on.
At Oxford she was a leading LibDem, campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis (it must be presumed that she did inhale), but also a way of standing out from Tory ex-public schoolboys. Johnson did something similar although more with the SDP.
Truss entered the world of work at the moment New Labour won a landslide in 1997. At that point she joined the Tories. Why? The pragmatic chameleon had worked out that the time had passed for her to make her way in Labour or the LibDems(whose MP numbers only went one way after 1997/2001) but the Tories at a low ebb presented the ideal opportunity for someone to make their way when few others were keen.
What will she do as PM? I have no crystal ball but only a broad shot at a materialist analysis (consciousness determines being). Truss will try and do what best promotes her future. She may find as Johnson did, that events, dear boy, events conspire against her. Particularly if protests like Enough is Enough continue to gain momentum.
Their Democracy & Ours: Truss wins Tory leadership on 47% of membership vote.Liz Truss has been elected as Tory leader and hence appointed as PM (on Tuesday) beating Rishi Sunak by 57% to C43% 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 will strike again over a 2% pay offer later this week. 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
Beard Campaigners press new PM Truss on Beard Friendly policies
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, that campaigns for a Beard Friendly Britain, is to press new Prime Minister Liz Truss on how beard friendly her Premiership will be.
The campaigners say that while Boris Johnson was a noted Pogonophobe it is estimated that around 20% of Tory members now wear beards.
The BLF has outlined several areas where it would like to see more beard friendly policies:
A luxury shaving tax on all items such as razors, shaving cream, balms. Shaving is environmentally unfriendly
A crack down on the proliferation of barbers shops on High Streets
A specific Beard Friendly policy in the Civil Service
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, these are modest measures, but we think the Conservative Party is now ready to embrace beards. After all the last Prime Minister to wear a full beard Lord Salisbury was a Tory. We hope Liz Truss will respect the tradition and that there are more beards around the Cabinet table than Boris Johnson managed
Tracey has had to admit to Oliver that she got the sack from the chicken factory and was grateful to receive help from the foodbank where Oliver volunteers. The reality of everyday life for many people in 2022 has at last made it to Ambridge and so far has not provoked a critical Telegraph Editorial.
Tracey has now got a job at The Bull, which obviously with Kenton Archer has landlord, doesn’t pay as well as the chicken factory but more important Tracey likes the work.
Meanwhile Chelsea has told Tracey that she is pregnant. Who the father might be is not known but no doubt there will be speculation as Chelsea works at Lower Loxley
Birmingham Update
Ruairi meets Julianne and Justin in Birmingham. Justin has met the, er, happy couple at a business event in Birmingham (aka nga script read through at the Mailbox) but doesn’t find anything to be concerned about. After all business is business.
Shula is leaving Ambridge
Shula is leaving Ambridge to do missionary work in Sunderland. Locals will be delighted and not just in the north-east. Meanwhile she is letting her Ambridge residence to variants of the Archer dynasty
Johnson after Prime Minister: Putting ‘Hay in the Loft’
Boris Johnson steps down as Prime Minister on Tuesday. What next? There are media stories that he plans a come back but why would he want to return to a job that he was useless at, didn’t in any case do, and paying only £150,000 a year far below his requirements. Further he is extremely unpopular having the support of a few thousand elderly Tory Party members, a couple of newspaper Editors and ‘President’ Zelensky.
The Murdoch Times (3rd September) provided some clues as to the post-Prime Ministerial Johnson. He wants to put ‘hay in the loft’ which may be metaphor for more Johnson children but apparently is about his urgent need for £10million. This he hopes to make by international speaking engagements and writing his memoirs. The FT reports he could command $250,000 a go for speaking engagements in the US and Asia. He owes Harper Collins (owned by Murdoch) a book on Shakespeare for which they paid him an advance of at least £88,000 in 2015 and the FT suggests his memoirs could command a seven figure sum of a million pounds plus.
He may also resume his Telegraph column, which paid £250,000 a year. The FT reports there is a bidding war with the Mail
Johnson has two priorities. Firstly to make lots of money to pay off the debts he has accumulated during his time at No.10 (what are they one wonders- payments to his numerous children is one item) and secondly to prevent his booting out of Parliament by the Privileges Committee investigating his alleged lying to MPs over Partygate lockdown partying.
Johnson is also looking to buy a new house in Herne Hill for £3.5 million while holding on to his two existing properties. The Times reports that residents are concerned that Johnson’s presence in the area would have a negative impact on property prices.
Accorinding to the usually well informed Gabriel Pogrund in the Sunday Times, Johnson does need money to fund his numerous children. He does however plan to finally finish the book on Shakespeare,and have ‘fun’ which appear to be more or less his full time occupation. Additionally he fancies fronting up a history programme on TV, perhaps a 2020s version of Our Island Story
As if we didn’t already know Johnson is all about himself. Nothing about addressing the cost of living crisis (for others) or seeking a settlement in Ukraine
The Hundred 2022 concludes today and very shortly for the rest of September what many (myself included) regard as proper cricket.
Matches have been sold out with crowds building up during women’s matches which are played in the afternoon before the men’s game in the evening. The exception has been Cardiff partly because the misnamed Welsh Fire is anything but Welsh (& that point is not lost on cricket fans in Cardiff) and partly because its performance has been abysmal.
TV audiences on free to air BBC have declined by just under 20% compared to 2021. Put that down to glorious August weather and far too many one-sided games.
The Hundred continues to be good for the development of women’s cricket (not perhaps the first priority of the ECB) but that’s probably about it. The onward march of the T20 format backed by the IPL is making The Hundred swim even harder against the stream.
I have watched (or at least glanced at) most The Hundred games. There have been a few tight finishes but generally the 100 ball format as opposed to T20 (120) seems to make for one sided contests.
The game itself has been reified cricket. That is where there should be a living relationship and interaction (for example between bat and ball) what we get are objects to be desired and perhaps achieved. The six, the four, the run-out, the Yorker and the Googly this is what The Hundred has become.
The commentary on Sky underlines the point. I don’t like shouty commentators but I have at least come to understand that the archetypal shouty commentator Danny Morrison actually only shouts when there is something to shout about. On The Hundred shouts come at random as something does or does not happen.
The Hundred which was meant to be a gateway to introduce a new audience to cricket is in fact diverging from cricket altogether. In 2022 the more on message commentators have started calling the 5 ball overs ‘sets’ (one thinks of tennis) for no obvious reason. Overs don’t need to be 6 balls and historically they have been more or less.
In 2023 largely to do with Sky who have the majority broadcasting rights The Hundred will be the only cricket played in August. If it is to continue it needs a major revamp on the men’s side and more practical signs of how the more successful women’s game will lead to the further development of the game across other cricket formats.
The Hundred 2022 was a situation where the hype and the reality were far apart. That cant be sustained
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has marked World Beard Day on 2nd September by focusing on beards that have made a positive impact past and present.
These include Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, William Morris, W G Grace, Sigmund Freud and in the modern era Fidel Castro, Bernie Grant and Michael Rosen.
The campaigners say that Morris is rightly celebrated for his influence in the worlds of art and design and for his socialist politics and writings but the legacy of his iconic beard has been largely ignored.
Morris was well known for having a fiery temper and huge appetite for work and activism. On his death in 1896 at the age of 62 his physician suggested that the main cause was ‘simply being William Morris’.
Michael Rosen is one of the most well-known beard wearers of the twenty-first century, current Beard of the Year, an author, broadcaster and Arsenal fan. His beard has been and remains highly influential.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, of course not all beards have changed the world or have done so in a positive sense. However on World Beard Day its appropriate to celebrate the positive impact a beard can make
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers,has wished Labour leader Keir Starmer a happy 60th birthday, today.Sir Keir has a penchant for sharp haircuts but the campaigners say that at 60 this is no longer enough. Its time for the Labour leader to grow an image defining beard and the BLF stands ready to give guidance on how to do it.BLF organiser Keith Flett said, Keir Starmer is sometimes said to be not recognised by people in the street. A beard can change all that. He would at least be known in future as the ‘man with a beard. In addition some mght argue that he could hide things in a beard, like policies
The Hundred Cricket. Free to air TV audiences decline in 2022
The BBC has published viewing figures for games in the cricket Hundred competition it has screened in August. Broadly they show a decline of a bit under 20% on 2021 with coverage getting rather fewer viewers than average for the bBC2 slots they have been in
The viewing figures have also declined over the month, possibly reflecting the one-sided nature of many games. Viewing figures for women’s matches are considerably less than those for men’s games no doubt due very largely to the reality that the women play in the afternoon when many are at work.
The BBC being publicly funded has a degree of accountability on viewing figures whereas Sky which has shown games on a pay to view basis, does not have. However in a mid-August list of most watched programmes on the ‘Main Event’ sports channel, The Hundred did feature a fair bit. Sky viewing figures would generally be significantly less than those for the BBC.
To give some comparison on BBC cricket viewing figures The Hundred has attracted an average of 500,000 viewers in 2022 (615,000 in 2021) while BBC2’s highlights package for each day of England Test cricket gets over a million.
What to make of this. In a market society things that are not going onwards and upwards tend to be viewed as problematic. The business model for The Hundred would surely have been for it grow viewers and interest not lose them.
More pragmatically one might note that it has been one of the warmest Augusts in recent times and people may have had other things to do then sit in front of a TV screen or even these days the screen of their tablet or smartphone. Many commentators including occasionally those that have a paid relationship with it have noted that The Hundred has seemed lacklustre this year though. I’ll write further on that
