Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

7^th August

BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Alexei Sayle enters the Beard Hall of Fame on his 70^th Birthday

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that on his 70^th birthday one of the founders of alternative comedy and long-time beard wearer Alexei Sayle has been admitted to the Beard Hall of Famen.

He joins other iconic beard wearers including Brian Blessed, Sir Mo Farah, Frank Dobson, Dave Swarbrick and Spike Milligan

Sayle has one of the most iconic beards in British public life and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the BLF in May 2021.

Alexei Sayle was the first MC at the Comedy Store in London as far back as 1979 and has had five decades of radical and sometimes challenging comedy across a range of mediums

The campaigners say that the entry to the Beard Hall of Fame on his 70^th birthday reflects the sustained positive image that Sayle has presented of the hirsute in public life.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, we are pleased to honour Alexei Sayle with entry to the select and distinguished Beard Hall of Fame. His beard proved sustainable through the dark days of pogonophobia in Britain and while he remains a controversial figure to some we are in doubt that he is a great ambassador for the hirsute.

The Ambridge Socialist

7th August

Is Ardil a cypher for Rishi Sunak?

Ardil Shah is the front man for the new Grey Gables currently residing at Ambridge Hall. He is personable, and seemingly a man with hinterland. He singing in the shower has even got Lynda Snell on his side. Yet we still do not know what business interests he represents, what his wealth his and what his employment background is. Some have argued that he is a Rishi Sunak cypher. Pleasant but ultimately an exploiter..

Grey Gables launch event swerves employment, pay, timescales

Once the unlikely Borsetshire Scottish Highland dancers had been mollified Ardil was able to explain to a large crowd at the Village Hall what the new Grey Gables will look like. Since many there were hoping to do business with Mr Shah it went well. There was a significant lack of proletarians asking about jobs, wages etc. They were too busy working

Oliver Sterling & the Spectator. Archers Anarchists have issues

Oliver has inquired about his copy of the Spectator at the Village Shop. The magazine is not without interest but it is extremely right-wing. Sterling the patrician is also Sterling the man who illegally sacked workers at Grey Gables. It does however beg the question of who reads the New Statesman in Ambridge?

7th August

Is Ardil a cypher for Rishi Sunak?

Ardil Shah is the front man for the new Grey Gables currently residing at Ambridge Hall. He is personable, and seemingly a man with hinterland. He singing in the shower has even got Lynda Snell on his side. Yet we still do not know what business interests he represents, what his wealth his and what his employment background is. Some have argued that he is a Rishi Sunak cypher. Pleasant but ultimately an exploiter..

Grey Gables launch event swerves employment, pay, timescales

Once the unlikely Borsetshire Scottish Highland dancers had been mollified Ardil was able to explain to a large crowd at the Village Hall what the new Grey Gables will look like. Since many there were hoping to do business with Mr Shah it went well. There was a significant lack of proletarians asking about jobs, wages etc. They were too busy working

Oliver Sterling & the Spectator. Archers Anarchists have issues

Oliver has inquired about his copy of the Spectator at the Village Shop. The magazine is not without interest but it is extremely right-wing. Sterling the patrician is also Sterling the man who illegally sacked workers at Grey Gables. It does however beg the question of who reads the New Statesman in Ambridge?

Ruby, ruby, ruby

Ruby the dog has been saved by Denise and Alistair after Ardil alerted Justin- who was thinking about money as usual, to the fact that she was unwell.

In other news

There is still talk of Borsetshire Mozzarella

Robbins 1963. Universities should produce not ‘mere specialists’. Sunak 2022. Universities are about ‘earnings potential’

Tory leadership contender Rishi Sunak has said that if he becomes PM then Universities should focus on degrees with earnings potential. So farewell then English literature, humanities, history and indeed Sunak’s own degree in PPE.

It begs the question of what the modern Tory Party is.

In 1961 a Tory Government commissioned the Robbins Report into higher education. It reported in 1963 and the proposals were accepted leading to a significant expansion in those going to University.

A key part of Robbins noted:

The report also concluded that university places “should be available to all who were qualified for them by ability and attainment” (the so-called Robbins principle) and that such institutions should have four main “objectives essential to any properly balanced system: instruction in skills; the promotion of the general powers of the mind so as to produce not mere specialists but rather cultivated men and women; to maintain research in balance with teaching, since teaching should not be separated from the advancement of learning and the search for truth; and to transmit a common culture and common standards of citizenship.”

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

In 1963 British capitalism was expanding and looking for a broadly educated workforce. In 2022 the Tories with less than 200,000 members are no longer a national party but a clique focused on short term profit (often for themselves). Who needs rounded citizens with a liberal education in that context?

Cost of living crisis? Invest in wine & whisky (but don’t drink it)

The Financial Times (6.8) has reported that one hedge against inflation is to invest in fine wines and whisky. While I do drink wine its more often from Lidl than an a more expensive variant and I drink it.

Whisky I know a little more about. The price of Ardbeg’s annual limited release in June (this year Ardrocker) is a little over £100 and since there is no more of it, after that the price only goes one way, up and up (unless like me you’ve drunk it)

The FT reports that in the six months to June 30^th at on-line Wine trader Bordeaux Index increased by 37%. The cost of 12 bottles of Chateau Petris is £54,000. A rare barrel of Ardbeg whisky was bought by a Japanese investor for £16m

According to Knight Frank Luxury Investment in 2021 fine wines were the leading ‘passion investment’ with a return of 16%,well above current inflation.

Anyway I’m on the beer which Invest in, in order to drink

Beard Liberation Front 6^th August

Contact: BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front responds to Michael Rosen’s issue with Most Iconic London Beard 2022 result

The Beard Liberation Front has received a proto-complaint from the current Beard of the Year Michael Rosen. It relates to the result of the Most Iconic London Beard 2022 vote. The result was announced today as part of London Beard Week, with Karl Marx emerging as the winner with over 50% of the vote.

Both Rosen and Jeremy Corbyn were strong challengers.

Michael Rosen tweeted on Saturday morning

I am framing a motion condemning the BLA for sustaining a quasi-mythological status for a late beard, a beard that has passed, a beard that has ceased to be.

The matter has been carefully reviewed by the BLF Complaints Committee. The view is that while Marx himself saw an element of haunting and ghosts in capitalism that might be applied to beards, this is unlikely to have been a key factor in the Beard Week vote.

Most Iconic London Beard takes a selection of the most well known London beard wearers and simply asks responders to determine which is the most iconic. In essence this comes down mostly to who they recognise. Marx’s victory even though he died in 1883 underlines that his beard, if not always his ideas, remain in the public eye.

The Committee also considered whether this meant Marx’s beard was a spectre haunting the present but determined that interesting though the point is, it is outside the remit and purpose of the poll.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we thank Michael Rosen for raising the issue about the Most Iconic London Beard vote which has been taken seriously as above. Ultimately while the point raised has validity it was not thought to have been a central influence on the outcome of the vote

Truss complains about ‘unfair protests’ at Engels favourite seaside resort

Liz Truss threatened to ban ‘unfair protests’ after protesters interrupted a hustings event she was addressing in Eastbourne on Friday. Those who interrupted her were climate protesters but the well supported protest included anti-racists, socialists and trade unionists.

Truss is clearly not the history woman or she might have expected protests in Eastbourne. It was Engels favourite holiday resort. He had a house opposite the pier at 4 Cavendish Place and his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head.

Truss’s view on unfair protests seems to be those that history has noticed- Peterloo in 1819, the Poll Tax in 1990 and the march against the Iraq War in 2003 may end up being retrospectively banned.

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

5th August

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

London Beard Week 2022. Karl Marx voted most Iconic Beard after poll challenge from Jeremy Corbyn & Michael Rosen

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that London Beard Week has concluded with the announcement that Karl Marx has retained the coveted Most Iconic London Beard title despite challenges from author Michael Rosen and MP Jeremy Corbyn.

Rosen is the current Beard of the Year and Corbyn has won the Parliamentary Beard of the Year more often than any other MP. Neither could shave Karl Marx though.

The week highlights the continued growth of beards in the Capital.

For the first time since 2019 it also coincides with the Campaign For Real Ale’s Great British Beer Festival at Olympia often the source of anti-beard stories in the media.

The campaigners say that aside from the many more beards seen in workplaces, shops and pubs, there is also a growth of specialist beard care shops and hairdressers offering beard trims and treatments, although the BLF advises against beard trims in barbers shops.

London Beard Week is a celebration of London, now one of the most beard friendly Capital cities in the world, and of London’s great hirsute heritage from Charles Dickens to Karl Marx through to modern day beards such as England football captain Harry Kane and author and Arsenal fan Michael Rosen.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the most Iconic London Beard Award is not about an individual’s politics but how recognisable their beard is in 2022. While Marx died in 1883 Jeremy Corbyn and Michael Rosen have work to do yet beard wise, at least according to our poll

London Beard Week poll to find London’s most Iconic Beard.

Charles Dickens, author

Karl Marx, philosopher and activist

Michael Rosen, author & broadcaster

Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst

Jeremy Corbyn, Islington North MP

William Cuffay, Leader of London Chartism

Bernie Grant, London Labour MP

Roger Protz, beer writer

No news in Tottenham that Sunak has cut funding. What has he done with the money?

The New Statesman has published a brief video clip of Rishi Sunak telling a small audience of Tories in a leafy part of Kent that as Chancellor he has been diverting money from deprived urban areas to towns in the Shires.

The first part of this people in Tottenham already knew- one of the poorest areas of the UK despite being in London. Sunak however hasn’t been Chancellor for that long and the Tories have been in Office since 2010. They have been cutting funds for places like Tottenham for 12 years. Sunak has inherited the, vicious, policy.

The more puzzling question is what they have been doing with the money they are not spending on the inner city. If they have been using it to improve public services in the Shires (which certainly need it, just not at the expense of urban areas) since 2010 then why is the levelling up agenda needed now?

Maybe this is all related to the magic money tree in some way but like so much in the Tory leadership contest it appears to be rather at odds with reality

Great British Beer Festival 2022. A welcome return but to a changed beer world

I’m pleased to see the return of the GBBF after 2 years of COVID enforced absence. Sadly after recent ill health I wont be able to attend, only the second I’ve missed.

It is a mammoth logistical task to organise and run and hats off to those involved. It’s a feature on the British and international beer scene, with 350 breweries represented and over a 1,000 beers.

The chances of finding something interesting and delicious beer wise are high.

On a practical level hopefully attendance will hold up, and new members recruited. Like many organisations CAMRA has taken a hit in the COVID period.

Progress continues to be made. There are over 60 key keg beers and the brewery stands represent some of the best of the newer brewers from Five Points, Siren, Wild and Vocation

Of course there are different ways of doing all this and they were much discussed during the interregnum It is better to have regionally and locally focused events, particularly with the cost and difficulty of travel. Does the GBBF really represent the best beer. Looking at the beer list I see many old favourites that will keep the CAMRA stalwarts. Most are great in the local put but perhaps less so in a national showcase. Is it meant to be in that sense?

The discussion will continue over a beer or two but in the meantime the GBBF is open Friday and Saturday at Olympia

https://gbbf.org.uk/

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

2nd August

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

London Beard Week 2023. Call for review of all statues with beards in the Capital

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that as part of London Beard Week which runs until 5th August it is calling for a thorough review of statues with beards in the Capital.

The campaigners say that some statues such as that of Henry Tate, erected at the Tate Library, Brixton in 1905, have associations with the slave trade and bring the hirsute into disrepute.

Meanwhile other well-known London beard wearers such as the black leader of London Chartism in 1848 William Cuffay do not have statues.

London Beard Week is a celebration of London, now one of the most beard friendly Capital cities in the world, and of London’s great hirsute heritage from Charles Dickens to Karl Marx through to modern day beards such as England football captain Harry Kane and author and Arsenal fan Michael Rosen.

As part of the week the BLF is running a poll to find the most impactful and impressive figure with a beard who is associated with London. The result will be announced on Saturday 5th August.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it’s time for a review of statues with beards in London. Some are bringing the hirsute into disrepute, while other well-known London beards do not have statues at all. Let’s call it a clean shaven Culture War