Kmflett's Blog

Brewdog: time to recognise a trade union is long overdue

The latest issues to arise around the Scottish brewer Brewdog and its figurehead James Watt are as predictable as they are unsurprising and disgraceful.

An attempt to broker an agreement between ex-Brewdog employees who have raised issues around what has been described as a ‘toxic’ workplace culture and Brewdog, who have engaged with the process has at least temporarily halted. It has become clear that another Brewdog representative not party to these discussions has sought to discover details of those who have complained through legal representations. It appears that Brewdog may have been negotiating in ‘bad faith;.

James Watt has previously complained that those anonymously raising issues have ‘an axe to grind’ said their identities might become public, made a number of allegations against so far unnamed people and threatened Court action.

Bryan Simpson of Unite is right that if Mr Watt had spent time addressing and resolving issues instead of trying to discredit those who complained matters might not have got to this stage.

Brewdog has still not recognised a trade union. If it had done it could have put in place a grievance process, where individuals could raise issues, get them heard and reviewed with independent union representation and probably in many cases put in hand measures to sort matters out without attracting any external publicity at all.

As it is Brewdog’s latest actions would appear to make it even more unlikely that existing employees would feel safe in raising any concerns, even though in reputable employers where unions are recognised this is just part of the business as usual workplace environment.

Brewdog is a brand leader in craft beer. Sadly its actions continue to damage the brand.

Many Different Kinds of Love. A history of the present by Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen does not describe himself as an historian but that doesn’t stop him from writing interesting and important histories mainly of the present or near present.

His memoir of the 1950s and some of the 1960s, So They Call You Pisher, is relatively rare account of someone growing up on the left in that period. It’s not only that of course, but it’s an important addition to a, so far, relatively slim number of volumes covering the period from that perspective.

His more recent The Missing is the account of his search for his relatives- a search which took many years and involved painstaking research- and what happened to them. Some, too many, ended up murdered by the Nazis.

One of his latest books which covers the present day is Many Different Kinds of Love, out now in paperback form.

It spans the period from March 2020 when he fell ill with COVID-19, the time- 47 days- he spent unconscious in the ICU at the Whittington Hospital in North London, and his subsequent rehab. It continues to this day, although fortunately, considerable improvements have occurred.

The book consists of prose poetry, extracts from a daily diary nurses wrote while he was in the ICU and a range of messages and tweets.

When we think of COVID in Britain over the last two years, it tends to be about how many(far too many) have died, how many have been infected, how many have been and are in hospital. It’s all about statistics and graphs and models.

But it’s not just a Gradgrindian exercise in counting how dreadful it’s been. There are people involved here and Michael Rosen is one of them.

Particularly in the era of texts, tweets, e-mails, WhatsApp messages and so on (yes I use all of those) the chances of the historical record capturing events, compared to periods when things were written down and filed, is significantly reduced.

Of course Rosen’s book is not yet history, but it will in due course be an important part of the historical record of COVID.

Perhaps this all sounds a bit dull, as if I’d just emerged from the archives to write a quick post. The book is not dull but compelling perhaps most of all in focusing on what  Long COVID is.

Many will already know through personal experience about what the impact of COVID is but Michael Rosen has written and put together a very human account which helps us to make sense of the last two years.

It will also be part of the public record that allows future generations to do that too.

Keith Flett convenes the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London

Beard Liberation Front

31st March

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

2022 Beard, Shorts & Sandals Pre-Season suspended due to inclement weather

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the 2022 Beard, Shorts and Sandals Pre-Season has been suspended until at least Monday 4^th April due to inclement weather.

The  2022 pre-season began a month earlier than 2021 recognising a spell of dry and warmer weather across much of the UK. However temperatures have dropped again and much of the country has seen snow.

2022 Pre-Season guidelines

1] Shorts should ideally be three-quarter length-‘culottes’ for the 2022 season. The length of shorts is particularly important as climate change may mean that unprotected legs get sunburnt.

2] Footwear should be casual. There is a considerable range of sandal type footwear now available. Some leaves parts of the feet and toes open to public view, while some does not. The BLF is not prescriptive about the matter.

3] Socks should usually not be worn. However in the pre-season they are optional

3a] If the beard, shorts and sandals are to be displayed in relatively busier urban areas it is likely to be prudent to wear closed rather than open casual footwear and ankle socks, not visible to others may be worn.

4] There is no prescription or definition on what type of beard may be worn, or how this may match with the shorts and sandals. This is left up to the individual.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard, Socks and Sandals season has been a major influence on summer fashions in recent times and we expect the 2022 season to be no different. While we understand that some wear a beard and shorts year round we think it is prudent to implement a temporary suspension to the Pre-Season due to inclement weather.

Truth is the first casualty of war but the Guardian needs some new spectacles

Last Wednesday the Guardian carried an Editorial noting that truth is the first casualty of war but its perspective on the matter was curiously one-dimensional. I doubt that too many take the propaganda of the current aggressor in Ukraine, Putin. But a considerable number of countries abstained on the question of the war in a recent UN vote. A few may be in hock to Putin but most will have looked back on US and NATO statements on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and understood that these did not contain the truth and nothing but either.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/22/the-guardian-view-on-disinformation-truth-is-a-casualty-of-russias-war

While the Guardian has carried a couple of comment pieces from Lindsey German from the Stop the War Coalition, which condemns Putin’s war but wants a negotiated settlement not NATO sabre rattling, it has published attacks on Stop the War from George Monbiot and Zoe Williams. Fair enough it might be said. But beyond that the general thrust of reports and comment has been pro-NATO including several pieces along the lines of World War Three, Wahey!!. Discussion of how the fighting might be stopped and an agreed peace restored is harder to find. Likewise commentary on the reality that while refugees from Ukraine deserve the support Boris Johnson has no intention of giving them, and there is an important duty of solidarity, Ukraine as a country before the war had many issues and was not fully in the democratic category, even by Britain’s limited standards.

It’s a rather a long way from the roots of the Manchester Guardian and its difficult to avoid the point that this stems from its lamentable at best coverage of the period when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader. It got into the habit of reporting and commenting on matters not as they were but as the Editorial team thought they should be. A quite common trend on the left but in the past one often expected or at least hoped for better from the Guardian.

I’m not giving up on or boycotting the Guardian, as I know numbers have. I don’t expect, and indeed I hope not, to agree with a good deal it publishes. There is still a lot of good journalism there but the trajectory of the last few years raises some concerns about the important traditions in British journalism the Guardian stands for, or at least did stand for.

The Ambridge Socialist

29^th March

Berrow Farm reprieved after protests. The fight to save jobs goes on

After a protest at today’s meeting of Borchester Land (not covered by the BBC unfortunately) the Board has decided to reprieve Berrow Farm for 3 months when the matter will be reviewed again.

However the issue of job cuts remains firmly on BL’s agenda and today’s protest was just the start of the campaign.

We say: Save Berrow Farm, no job losses. Maintain existing terms and conditions

Make Justin Elliott pay

Ambridge Socialist Editor Keith Flett said, the bosses of Borsetshire have had it their own way for far too long. Its time for workers to organise and fight back starting with Berrow Farm

Ambridge Socialist​.​Save Berrow Farm, No Job Losses – Sign the Petition! chng.it/gLFQx6wx via @UKChange

Boris Johnson, Partygate & why he doesn’t support being ‘soft on criminals’(The Sun 2011)

With the first fixed penalty fines being issued on what is known as Partygate, various activities that took place at 10 Downing St in 2020 and 2021 that broke COVID restrictions laws, Boris Johnson faces two questions.

Firstly having persistently denied that any such events took place should he not now consider his position? Secondly, if he does a fine, which indicate that he broke the law(though not give him a criminal record) will be resign?

As ever Johnson is obsfucating about both questions. Fortunately we do know what his view is on criminality because he told The Sun in June 2011 when he was starting to position himself as a possible Tory leader. He commented that ‘soft is the perfect way to enjoy French cheese but not how we should approach punishing criminals’

Beard Liberation Front

29^th March

Campaigners raise concern on new Taliban beard policy

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has raised concerns about multiple reports that the Taliban Government of Afghanistan has changed its policy on beard wearing for Government employees.

From Monday Government employees have been required to wear beards and reports suggest that the new policy is being enforced at the entrance to offices.

The campaigners note that views on whether Islam requires men to wear a beard varies, depending on traditions, customs and interpretation. This is a matter for the Afghan Government but the Beard Liberation Front view has been consistently that there should also be a right for people impacted not to wear beards if they have a reasonable objection or health impediment to doing so.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, one of our founding principles was and remains that people should be able to dress and appear as they want. By definition this takes a dim view of dress codes but also allows for people to consent to them if they feel they are reasonable or appropriate.

Report

https://thehill.com/policy/international/middle-east-north-africa/600010-taliban-requiring-beards-dress-code-for

Wild Garlic crisis: a first world problem

According to a report in the Guardian (where else some might suggest..) there is an issue with foraging for wild garlic in some areas of Cornwall.

As the name suggests wild garlic can be found growing in parks, commons, and country lanes (and lots of other places) at this time of year. It usually seems to grow best in slightly damp and shaded areas. It can be bought at some markets but mostly people collect their own for personal cooking.

Its use does seem to have increased considerably in recent times and there is at least one wild garlic cookbook. I don’t recall it appearing in Masterchef or Great British Menu but no doubt its just a matter of time.

I certainly enjoy it in a range of dishes- mostly I should underline created by my partner Megan. We both forage for it in a local park occasionally at this time of year.

The issue in Cornwall seems to be that there are people being paid (not much one suspects) to forage quite large amounts for commercial use and that this might damage supplies in subsequent years. Strictly speaking its not (it appears) legal to do this but I doubt Inspector Knacker will be troubled.

Its very much a first world problem when there are lots of other concerns in the world.

You can also rub the wild garlic leaves in your beard (if you have one) which will perk up the follicles and make them smell of garlic but that’s for another post.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/mar/24/its-trendy-wild-garlic-foragers-leave-bad-taste-in-mouth-of-cornish-residents

Beard Liberation Front

28^th March

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Would a beard have protected Chris Rock against Will Smith’s punch?

There is much news currently and the fact that Will Smith punched host Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars presentation is at best an also ran. Rock’s comment aimed at Smith’s wife, who was in the audience, might well have been seen as offensive. Rather it merited a punch is perhaps another matter.

It does however raise the question of whether if Rock had worn a beard- he sometimes has a moustache- he would have been better protected from punches any Oscar winners threw at him due to comments made at their expense.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Utah suggests this might be the case

The study argues ‘that hair is indeed capable of significantly reducing the force of impact from a blunt strike and absorbing energy, thereby reducing the incidence of failure. If the same is true for human facial hair, then having a full beard may help protect vulnerable regions of the facial skeleton from damaging strikes, such as the jaw. Presumably, full beards also reduce injury, laceration, and contusion, to the skin and muscle of the face’

The researchers did not test their theory by whacking men with full beards in the face, prudently for them. Rather they constructed a model using sheep wool to test their thesis. A link to the full results is below.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, while the study is interesting it does stereotype men with organic beards as masculine types not averse to the occasional punch-up. In reality not just biological but also cultural and social factors at a play. Men with organic beards are just as likely to be pacifists and pugilists. As for the Oscars we think there should be more beards all round, punches or not

Impact Protection Potential of Mammalian Hair: Testing the Pugilism Hypothesis for the Evolution of Human Facial Hair

E A Beseris, S E Naleway, D R Carrier

Integrative Organismal Biology, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2020

https://academic.oup.com/iob/article/2/1/obaa005/5799080

Beard Liberation Front

28^th March

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Rupert Murdoch starts a beard war in The Times

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has criticised perpetually clean shaven newspaper owner Rupert Murdoch for starting a new Beard War in The Times.

The front page strap headline in the 28^th March 2022 print edition reads ‘Men, time to shave, why the beard is over’. Inside Simon Mills has written a lengthy piece underlining that sales of Gillette shaving equipment are up, and that with an end to lockdowns and people out and about more, a beard is less popular.

His piece reads rather like an Advertorial for the shaving industry beginning: ‘I write this as a freshly-barbered clean shaven man, the pleasurable sting of neroli cologne still smarting on my sensitive pores. It feels good.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, whether or not someone wears a beard should, with a few exceptions, for example in the NHS, be a matter of personal choice. I don’t think that in 2022 people need guidance or instructions from The Times about whether to shave or not.