Kmflett's Blog

International Beer Day: join a union

The first Friday in August is International Beer Day

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

While its origins in California may not have been commercially driven, judging by my mailbox numbers of breweries are promoting sales based on it (and why not?) it is now. It follows IPA day which falls on the first Thursday in August.

Certainly in 2026 Big Beer is in on the act.

The Drinks Business reports:

Speaking about IBD and the way people connect over a beer, AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris said: “Beer is universal and woven into cultures and communities around the world. No matter who you are, what you do for a living, or where you live, when someone says, ‘Let’s grab a beer,’ you know it means something more. It’s an invitation to celebrate or to simply connect.”.

ABInBev will certainly celebrate it if it boosts their sales and profits.

Of course numbers of independent brewers around the globe will also be marking IBD and they certainly deserve support

Why not enjoy a beer, alcoholic or not to taste. In doing so keep in mind that the best way of celebrating those who brew and serve beer is to unionise the industry and sort out decent wages and conditions for all.

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

5th August

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

London Beard Week 2022. Corbyn, Freud, Marx & Rosen face off for Most Iconic London Beard title

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that London Beard Week ends on 6^th August with the announcement of the Most Iconic London Beard. The week highlights the continued growth of beards in the Capital.

For the first time since 2019 it alsocoincides 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.

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. Jeremy Corbyn shaved Sigmund Freud to win Round One. In Round Two Karl Marx bearded Michael Rosen. The top two from each round now enter a final Face Off for the coveted Most Iconic Beard of London 2022 title

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, London is striking a decisive blow against pogonophobia, the irrational dislike of facial hair. It’s now respectable to wear a beard in London but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for hirsute rebellion as well.

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

Liz Truss’s lunches & dinners at 5 Hertford St. A sense of class & place more than fine dining

Questions have been asked about why Liz Truss has not declared the cost of a dinner she held for Tory MPs at 5 Hertford Place on 26^th October 2021:

It’s a West End club she appears to frequent in various capacities

Her claim for £1400 to cover a 2021 lunch for herself a US Government official and it would seem some others rightly raised considerable criticism. Coming from the Government that has cut Universal Credit and thinks £96 a week sick pay acceptable the hypocrisy is outrageous but not surprising.

The significant cost of the lunch appears to have been more for wine and gin than the food. Obviously 5 Hertford St is not the kind of place I frequent or would be allowed into (although I have been in some similar West End clubs over the years by invitation for some event or other- the beer is always crap). Its owner is Robin Birley a donor to UKIP and the Tory Party and it seems to be frequented by assorted members of the upper class and Tory MPs.

Given that it’s a members club- yearly cost £1800 (possibly more now) that’s not surprising and nor is any detail of what its actually like easy to find. There are it seems several bars, a downstairs night club and a cigar room. What reviews that can be found suggest that the cocktails are decent (if expensive) but the food (the point of lunch I would suggest) seems to be thought at best OK and certainly over-priced even compared to similar places in the West End.

The wages paid to those who actually keep the place running is another matter. Mirror reporter Dan Bloom tweeted that kitchen porters are paid £10.55 an hour. An advert for an assistant chef ( 4 shifts 9am-11pm a week) indicated a salary of ‘up to’ £25,000- that’s a year btw not a week.

None of that unfortunately is out of line with the notoriously poorly paid hospitality sector.

Clearly 5 Hertford St is somewhere that people go to be seen and to see others of a like-minded world outlook. A reminder of what a Truss Premiership would be like- for the few not the many

The past weighs like nightmare on the brain of the living. Tory interest rate rises 1992-2022

The Bank of England has raised interest rates to 1.75% and predicted that a recession is looming.

For those who have bothered to look at the detail of the Tory leadership ‘debate’ this plays directly into it. A key issue for Sunak and Truss is how to boost the economy (that doesn’t mean increasing wages btw as it should do and Starmer almost managed to say). Truss favours tax cuts while Sunak possibly would raise interest rates.

The actual decision rests with the Bank currently and 1.75% is the biggest rise in 25 years. Compared to that period rates are low but the impact is similar. For savers- think well off Tory members- its good news. For those trying to buy a house or raise a business loan its bad news.

The title quotation is from Marx’s Eighteenth Brumaire

It reflects the re-appearance of the Tory nightmare.

On 15th September 1992 Tony Benn recorded in his diary that the ‘Government has made a hash of the economy’. The following day the Chancellor Norman Lamont took the UK out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism as interest rates headed briefly to 15% (they settled at 10%)

The Guardian reported the day here:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/sep/13/black-wednesday-20-years-pound-erm

It was the start of major splits in the Tories over Europe in which led to the Brexit debacle of 2016 and remains a live political issue.

It was just 4 months after the Tories had won the 1992 General Election but shortly afterwards they slid in the polls and Labour had a substantial lead right through to the 1997 Election. The problem that the Tories had in 1992 is that they are supposed to be the party that knows how to run capitalism.

A sudden lurch in interest rates reminds many, particularly the many who find themselves even more out of pocket as a result that this isn’t true.

Cost of living crisis. E P Thompson on how ‘the Regulators’ dealt with in 1766

E P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class looks at eighteenth century food riots, and argues that in many cases these were well thought through protests designed to ensure a fair price was paid for bread.

He notes one example in the Thames Valley in 1766:

The villages and towns, Abingdon, Newbury, Maidstone) were visited by large parties of labourers, who styled themselves ‘the Regulators’,  enforcing a popular price on all provisions (the action commenced with gangs of men working  on the turnpike road who said ‘with one voice, Come one and all to Newbury in a Body to Make the Bread cheaper’

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

4th August

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

London Beard Week 2022. Jeremy Corbyn wins first Round of Most Iconic London Beard. Round Two open

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that London Beard Week which began on 2nd August markx the continued growth of beards in the Capital.

For the first time since 2019 it 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.

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. Jeremy Corbyn shaved Sigmund Freud to win Round One. Round Two is now open with a deciding vote between the winners of Round One and Two on Friday.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, London is striking a decisive blow against pogonophobia, the irrational dislike of facial hair. It’s now respectable to wear a beard in London but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for hirsute rebellion as well.

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

The Hundred: first time as tragedy..

The Hundred is back this week. A hundred ball a side cricket competition it is backed by the cricket authorities Sky and BBC.

It appears in the middle of a very busy cricket schedule and the question remains why it exists. The original plan was to tweak the existing 20 over format (120 balls) and as a short form game the Hundred is very similar.

There are two plus sides to the Hundred. The first was the boost that it gave to women’s cricket. This was not intended and reflected years of neglect by cricket authorities. The other was free to air coverage. Sky cricket coverage gets a few hundred thousand viewers mostly one suspects men of a certain age. Free to air gets a much bigger and broader audience.  As the Lionesses underlined, if you can see it you can be it.

The substantial downside was that the Hundred was designed to destabilise the existing structure of cricket and lead to a move away from its County base- which in the main is decently supported, even if struggling financially as it has done for many years.

The Strauss Review has placed the whole question on a wider level though and while the Hundred was a motor for that its not the only factor now.

Then of course there is the whole issue of racism in cricket and the widening of the basis of support and participation in the game. The ECB finally recognised the issue after the Hundred was devised. What is the competition doing to address and change things? Perhaps scrutiny of the evening crowds for games at Lords and the Oval will give some idea

Anyway will the crowds show up in season two? We shall see..

London Socialist Historians Group

Media Release

3^rd August

contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Sunak’s plan to extend Prevent to include those who ‘vilify’ Britain is political correctness gone mad warn historians

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London has strongly criticised Rishi Sunak’s plan to extend the Prevent programme, officially aimed at potential terrorists, to include those who ‘vilify’ Britain.

The historians say that ‘vilify’ is a loose term and often a matter of judgement but in the era of culture wars Conservatism it is easy to see historians who write on the realities of British history being caught up.

Examples might be:

Peterloo where the Government killed 16 people and injured many more for demanding the vote

Detailing the history of racism that was a key part of Winston Churchill’s politics

Campaigning for statues and memorials to slave traders and imperialists to be taken down or moved

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, Rishi Sunak is just making things up on the hoof to appeal to hard core Tory members. The problem is that once ideas like those who ‘vilify’ Britain being put on a list are out there they become part of political debate rather than what they are, Tory political correctness gone mad.

 Liz Truss’s Oxford tutor on the contradictions in her ideas

In the Marc Stears(now at UCL) wrote about the time he was Liz Truss’s tutor during her time as an undergraduate at Oxford in the Murdoch Sunday Times (31^st July)

At the time it seemed mildly diverting and rather really useless knowledge. After all, who cares? Since then events may have turned it into really useful knowledge, after the debacle of Truss’s regional pay non-policy.

The reporting of the matter reflects the demise of the labour correspondent. Regional Pay is not new. Call centre workers are not paid as much in the north-west as they are in London (except where unionised). In fact call centres are not a feature of the London labour market. Employers wont pay the higher rate needed to attract workers.

The Civil Service as Truss didn’t appear to know operates differently. Many employees are mobile grades. That is they may work or be based somewhere but may be required and may actually work all over the place. Hence there is a national pay rate.

According to Marc Stears Truss’s time at Oxford was marked by an ability to come up with unusual angles on issues and stick to them even when informed that facts showed she was wrong. Secondly an ability to fiercely argue a position only to drop it and equally fiercely promote something different.

There are many MPs, both Tory and Labour that fit that description, but they are not likely to be Prime Minister

Preston 1854. Trade Unionists arrested for conspiring to stop scabs. Where Truss wants to go with union law.

The Preston lock-out of 1853/4 was one of the great labour disputes of the nineteenth century.

My thanks to Robbie Judkins who has written a new piece on workers organisation in Preston in the 1840s and before for reminding me that Marx had written on the lock-out

https://libcom.org/article/workers-organisation-1843-radical-unionism-and-preston-cotton-martyrs

Writing in the New York Daily Tribune on 31^st March 1854 Marx noted that, while there seemed little real legal basis for it, several workers leaders had been arrested for conspiracy. They had successfully persuaded scabs hired by the employers not to work but to return home.

Until the 1871 Trade Union Act the provisions of which appear to be in the sights of Liz Truss collective union action to stop scabs was regarded as conspiracy. Hiring scab labour while a balloted industrial dispute is underway was recently legalised by Kwasi Karteng, although whether he had the power to do so remains disputed.