London Beard Week 2023 Revolting into style in the Capital
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that London Beard Week which begins on 1st August will mark the continued growth of beards in the Capital.
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.
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.
Times Tory members focus group finds Truss eats a more frugal lunch than Sunak
The Sunday Times managed to gather together some Tory members in Surrey (aged 30-60 they claim) and ask them (amongst other things) what they thought the lunch choices of the leadership contenders were.
Most had Truss as a Tesco meal deal person (sandwich, drink etc). Sunak was thought to be more upmarket and eat slightly doubtful perhaps not really British food such as sushi. The problem is that sushi doesn’t cost anymore in Tesco than the meal deal. Presumably the Tory members servants who visit the shops for them haven’t let on. In a separate interview with the Times Truss notes she particularly enjoys cooking regional Chinese food. Don’t tell the members..
Ralph Miliband, Tony Benn & Keir Starmer on Parliament and Protest
Keir Starmer has said that Labour is not a party of protest but a party that wants to win Parliamentary power. Indeed, that is what it says in Sidney Webb’s 1918 Labour Party Constitution.
Hence as below Starmer is merely repeating a long held point and one can only wish him success. One might note that Blair focused absolutely on it and did not let himself be distracted by factional issues or protests.
“I am now leading a Labour party that wants to change lives and give Britain the fresh start it needs. That means turning from a party of protest into a party that can win power – then hand that power to working people. I make no apologies for that”. Keir Starmer, Observer 31st July 2022
Empirical and flexible about all else, its leaders have always made devotion to that system their fixed point of reference and the conditioning factor of their political behaviour. Ralph Miliband, Parliamentary Socialism 1961
Every morning I wake up and realise that it is my responsibility to see Labour get into Government. Tony Blair at PLP meeting 24th January 1996 (recorded in Tony Benn’s Diary)
August marks the 183rd anniversary of the 1839 Grand National Holiday or Sacred Month.
Ignored or derided as a failure by many historians it was an early attempt at a General Strike- its aim being to bring down capitalism.
The ‘Holiday’ was the idea of William Benbow. Like many radical activists in the nineteenth century he ranged across a variety of occupations, from pornographer to coffee house keeper to grocer and journalist, to survive.
He had been pushing the idea of a Sacred Month for decades in radical circles with no great immediate impact. He did however publish it as a pamphlet in the early 1830s and this can be freely accessed on the internet today!
Benbow’s plan might well have stayed simply an interesting idea were it not for the fact that the Chartist Convention of summer 1839 adopted it as policy and determined to put it into operation in August of that year, starting on the 12th of the month.
It is very much a view of the early labour movement. We are familiar with General Strikes around the world which are in protest at something or which are demanding specific things. The Grand National Holiday was neither of these. It simply planned to disengage from capitalism until the system stopped working.
This meant that not only was no work to be done, but that supporters of the Sacred Month should withdraw any savings they had in banks or other institutions. They were also required to abstain from all excisable articles such as drink and tobacco. On 12th August 1839 in many, mainly northern areas, the pubs were shut.
It was argued that aside from anything else this prevented any disorder and drunkenness as the month got underway.
How was the call for the Sacred Month implemented?
Again as with more recent General Strikes it was not and could not be a matter of trade unions issuing instructions to members to stop work, mounting picket lines and so on. The labour movement infrastructure for this did not exist in 1839.
Instead the method used- and it was one to be echoed in the 1842 General Strike, which is better known to history-was different.
The weekly Chartist newspaper The Northern Star for the 17th and 24th August 1839 reports meetings across the north, often with very large turnouts comprising a majority of the working population of particular areas, which then proceeded to march to surrounding locations to pull others out in support of the Sacred Month.
Perhaps the best way of describing it is a mass flying picket, but before the motor vehicle, the only way to do this was to march on foot.
There is not a uniform picture of how long people stayed out for- some days in a number of areas- but not the whole month. Again the logistics were complicated. With so many out, and long before any kind of welfare system, people had to balance support for the holiday with the need to survive in terms of eating and providing for those unable to work.
Perhaps some had small holdings that allowed them to survive without wage labour, possibly being only recently agricultural workers. This was part of the project that became in the later 1840s the Chartist Land Plan, but for the Sacred Month itself detail on this remains, as yet, scarce.
Even in areas where the strike did not take hold there was at least symbolic support. In London on 12th August there was a mass Chartist meeting on Kennington Common for example.
Why did the Grand National Holiday fail?
Firstly because many leading Chartists were preoccupied with State persecution, arrests and trials, relating to the 1839 Convention.
Secondly because the 1839 Metropolitan Police Act had seen the introduction of new police forces in some areas. For example in Manchester the police, known as the ‘bludgeon men’ attacked and arrested strikers.
Yet this was not the last of the Chartist Challenge. The Sacred Month was just part of a repertoire of strategies that were being tried, mostly for the first time anywhere in the world, to see which might succeed in bringing an end to capitalism.
In November 1839 in Newport South Wales there was an attempt at armed revolution. It almost succeeded.
My first degree was in Humanities. Should I have bothered?
Kenan Malik (Observer 31.7) has argued that education is now focused on getting a job and the skills needed for it. The liberal education of the Robbins Report (1962) where learning and knowledge were seen as good in themselves is fading in the face of an educational profit nexus.
Recent developments at Roehampton and Goldsmiths suggest Malik is right. Arts and Humanities course have been closed or downgraded. After all they don’t attract money or lead to jobs. This is wrong in itself, there are many jobs in the area of arts and humanities (just not as well paid as bankers).
It is a continuation of a process E PThompson identified 50 years ago when he wrote of the University not as a place of learning but of business.
The world has certainly changed and not for the better(it can change again btw). My first degree in 1978 was in Humanities. In due course I joined a part of what was then the Civil Service as a property manager. I knew nothing about the job but the view was this didn’t matter. If you had a degree-in any subject- you’d pick it up. And actually I did…
Malik isn’t quite right about wider working class education outside of the academy btw. Trade unions do a lot of this for activists and left groups and indeed the Labour Party in some places still do political education of various kinds.
There is hope but it doesn’t lie in the Business University
Can Sgt ‘Knacker’ Burns solve the mystery of the Ambridge post box fire
The village post box outside the village shop has gone up in smoke and with it the contents. Several laws have been broken and Sgt Knacker Burns is investigating. Did for example the post box also include the still missing village bunting? All concerned proclaim that the matter is a mystery so unless someone blabs Knacker Burns will once again draw a blank.
The Ambridge Socialist poll. Sgt Knacker Burns & the smouldering postbox. Can he solve the crime or will it remain a mystery?
The WI have been subjected to tasting of pizza varieties from Ian and Adam’s new pizza van. Unfortunately WI leader Jean Harvey almost choked on an olive stone. However the Borchester Echo has reported that Ian saved the day and Jean Harvey is still with us, albeit voiceless
Threatening Letters
E P Thompson (with the help of his researcher EE Dodds) spent some time looking at the threatening letter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Sending one was then a Capital offence. Mostly they were anonymous threatsherh from individuals to farmers or landlords although Luddism gave some a more political edge.
One might think that in the age of social media the threatening letter was no more. However Susan Carter sent one to Jean Harvey threatening to expose her long time liaison with Derek Fletcher. What happened to the letter is officially a mystery
It’s the twins
The twins, Natasha, Caitlin and Tom to be more specific. A new generation of the Ambridge ruling class is in production
One might think that New Labour might have done more in this respect but as Brown notes a combined opposition of those who wanted no change, abolition and something in between was problematic.
Boris Johnson advised by cynical ‘fixer’ Lynton Crosby has been advised to nominate new peers (Johnson previously said he wouldn’t increase the size of the Lords) based on them agreeing to back Tory policies amongst other things.
As Gordon Brown notes this is the anti-democratic politics of pre-1832 Old Corruption, something William Cobbett campaigned against and later amplified by E P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class.
Essentially it meant people in favour with the Government being offered sinecures to keep them loyal or as a reward. Turning up to vote in the Lords when told to do so fits the criteria and Keir Starmer should call it out.
Boris Johnson and his current wife Carrie are having a belated wedding party today. Originally scheduled for Chequers it was moved to Daylesford an historic house owned by JCB boss Bamford who is a Tory donor. Hopefully he and not the taxpayer is picking up the bill. Daylesford Organics were reported to deliver daily food hampers and flowers to Downing St during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
Daylesford was largely built to the design of Warren Hastings from 1788. Hastings was the first Governor of Bengal and no doubt the imperial connection will not have escaped Johnson.
Warren Hastings Wiki entry appears to be factual but rather avoids the point that the British werent in India to benefit Indians:
Reports suggest around 200 attended including Dorries, Rees Mogg and Ben Wallace as well as Stanley Johnson and a former Neighbours actress.
Rum punch was available along with South African BBQ from Smoke & Braai which uses locally sourced meat and veg. The menu included grass fed British beef braai boerwors rolls, masa corn tortilla tacos, smoked barbacoa lamb and ancient grain salad. Ice cream came from Dalton’s Diary.
It sounds decent aside from the guests and a suitable mix of the imperial and British food wise. Whether this is what Tory members eat is less clear but if South African BBQ starts appearing in M&S and Waitrose we’ll know…
The Guardian has reminded 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 wind 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
Campaigners issue updated guidelines for summer beard trimming, after unprecedented demand
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it has been inundated with requests for updated summer beard trimming.
It comes after Beard of the Year Michael Rosen tweeted to the BLF on Friday morning that he had been to his North London barbers for a hair and beard trim.
The campaigners say that while caution is needed when getting a beard trim at the barbers in case a No.1 is ‘accidentally’ given, Michael Rosen is a sufficiently experienced beard wearer to avoid such a calamity.
BLF organiser Keith Flett said, some suggest that a summer beard trim is known as ‘having a Rosen’ but names for it vary even in North London
Update
Following review on available angles the Beard Liberation Front trimming review committee (TRC) has confirmed the trim as fully acceptable. Some Rosenesque lines on social media were also noted:
We’re going on a Beard Hunt! We’re going to trim a big one! What a beardiful day! We’re not sheared!
August 2022 Hot Weather beard trimming and shaving guidelines
1 Visit a barbers only with extreme caution
Trimming at home
2 Before trimming, dampen the beard with a little water so that the hairs are supple
3 Use a pair of fine scissors and a comb. DO NOT use any form of battery or electric powered shaver.
4 Make sure you are in front of a good sized mirror in a well-lit room
5 Be sure to cover the area where beard trimmings may fall and collect these afterwards. They may be useful to spread on the garden.
6 Snip judiciously and lightly and take time to review regularly
7 Make sure that trimming is symmetrical on both sides
8 When satisfied, wash the beard and comb it through.
