Kmflett's Blog

Social media discussion from beer writers such as Matthew Curtis and Boak and Bailey has touched on rough pubs. That is a pub where some night feel uncomfortable.

There are many pubs and many different ways of running them so the idea is a bit vague

There is certainly a strong gender angle. Women may feel uncomfortable in pubs where they are pestered by men, but where I’d be left alone

There are some pubs I would swerve. Those known to be frequented by racists or no surrender types. For me, no thanks.

The working man’s pub (aside from being rightly illegal) where people gathered after hard manual labour is largely gone. A world we have lost but perhaps not mourned.

Then there are fight pubs- sometimes Wetherspoons. Perhaps best avoided on a Friday night but no one is forced to fight..

In short perhaps each to their own, except action is still required on gender

Beard Liberation Front

31st May

Beard of the Year Michael Rosen is also keen on words and what they mean. A subset is measuring things by the beard. Some examples are below:

By a hair’ s breadth

By a whisker

A close shave

Bearding the boss (or lion)

Bristling

Work in progress, further examples welcome…

Nottingham Forest will be in the Premier League next season, the return of one of the great proletarian sides

Michael Rosen tweeted ‘Notts Forest’ & sparked Twitter outrage. It’s Nottingham Forest & Notts County.

One suspects that Arsenal fan Rosen knew what he was about. When Woolwich Arsenal were promoted to the First Division in 1904 they played Nottingham Forest at home and lost 0-3.

In Worlds of Labour looking at the rise of working class culture 1870-1914 Eric Hobsbawm notes ‘The worker identified with the local team against the rest of the world. In sufficiently large towns, City or United. Forest or County, defined a citizen’

Hobsbawm goes on to note that even so there was a national footballing culture, distinctly working rather than middle class. Over a century on judging by twitter it endures still

29th May

There will be forelock tugging aplenty in the days to come in Ambridge. Expect Roy ‘scab’ Tucker & ‘yes boss’ Will Grundy to lead the way with any manner of Royal grovelling

But we say Stuff Royal Ambridge.

All weekend on the green the flag of the red republic will be raised high together with stuffing things, music & a few speeches.

We’ll also be at the Cider Barn

There will be a gazebo, stuff the Royals camp and sound system outside the Dower House all weekend.

Celebrate the Red Republic!!

In other news

Failure to fight at Grey Gables has led to a generalised outbreak of class sniping. Neil, Brian, Chris, Alice and what is Martyn Gibson up to at the Stables?

Ferretts. The vet surgery has sorted out a ferret this week. We need more ferrets in Ambridge.

Kitchens. Please conclude this story line. The cost of living crisis is not a farce

28th May

The Beard Liberation Front has announced an inquiry into the failure of Jurgen Klopp’s Beard Power in Paris as he was beaten by Ancelloti’s eyebrow 1-0 in the Champions League Final

A BLF poll had backed Klopp’s beard by 69% to Ancelotti’s eyebrow on 27%

Several avenues of inquiry are open:

The Beard had been excessively trimmed

The Beard wilted in a big match atmosphere

Klopp did not the deploy the beard properly

BLF organiser Keith Flett said

Michael Rosen tweeted on Sunday as Burnley were relegated from the Premiership that former manager Sean Dyche had been subject to pogonophobia discrimination.

This puzzled some tweeters. What is it? Pogonophobia is the fear of facial hair and prejudice on that basis

It derives from the Greek and the Beard Liberation Front uses the term beardism

Does it still exist? Check when the last British PM with a beard was…

Provisional issue 22nd May

Call out scab Roy Tucker. 10pm tonight Rough Music at Willow Farm

Roy Tucker has scabbed on fellow Grey Gables workers. He said he would fight for every job. Then he said he would never work there again. Then he crawled to new manager Adil Shah for a job. Now he is the public face of the new Grey Gables

Tucker has scabbed on his workmates & the Ambridge community. Protest tonight. Gather at the Bull at 9.30pm to march to his house at Willow Farm. Bring pots, pans, whistles. Make a noise. Tucker is a scab!!

In other news

Chris rightly wants a decent divorce settlement out of the Aldriches. It’s class war out there though and Brian will play dirty

The London Socialist Historians Group has said that a move by the National Trust to include the Sycamore tree under which the Tolpuddle Martyrs met in 1833/4 as part the Queen’s Jubilèe celebrations is wrong and should not go ahead.

The Martyrs were not monarchists and the Crown only intervened in the case in 1836 when keeping them in Australia became inconvenient

LSHG organiser Dr Keith Flett said Boris Johnson is against rewriting history of which this is a good example. The NT need to own it’s error here.

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Update 20th May

It’s been pointed out that with the June 2002 Jubilee the Martyrs Tree was dedicated to the Queen with a plaque. However history is not static. In 2002 the Labour Government was involved in an historical culture war.

Nigel Costley’s argument that Tolpuddle should be part of a great national celebration in 2022 has a point but it has problems. The chances of arguing that this is the story we want to tell as opposed to the one Johnson is going to tell in wall to wall media are slim

Ho Chi Minh the revolutionary with a distinctive beard style was born on 18 May 1890. He was in the UK working in hospitality between 1913 and 1919 including at a Fullers pub in West Ealing. At some point he lived in Crouch End

Between July and October 1967 Young Boris Johnson lived in Crouch End as Stanley and Charlotte moved across London.

Later still in 1985 Bob Dylan stayed in Crouch End while working with Dave Stewart at his recording studio, 145 Crouch Hill, N8.

In the case of Ho Chi Minh or Johnson is the Crouch End location known, so far, although Dylan’s is. Perhaps a collective blue plaque on the clock tower is in order however?

Tim Martin Wetherspoons CEO opened a number of pubs in Crouch End over the years but none still exist. One is a craft beer bar, and the other a branch of Boots. However his first pub was in Colney Hatch Lane Muswell Hill N10 (a short W7 bus ride and 10 minute walk) in 1979 and at that time he lived in Halliwick Rd N10. One wonders if Bob Dylan ever entered a Spoons pub in Crouch End…

Michael Rosen claimed people were sombre as Arsenal lost to Newcastle on Monday. Socialist Historians claimed they were not mourning. Keith Flett claimed there is a fine difference between dancing & sombre and it’s called goal difference