Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

1st February

Contact: Keith Flett 07803 167266

My Hairy Valentine 2022 launches with dual focus

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has launched its annual search for My Hairy Valentine ahead of Valentine’s Day on 14th February.

This year it has been refocused to include two categories:

1 Beards that are sexy, allowing for the reality that this is in the eye of the beholder

2 Beards that are loved because they add a reassuring presence to public life and should be celebrated.

There will be a round covering each category with the winners of both contests sharing the title in 2022

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we know that not all beards are sexy, think Ted Cruz, but at Valentine’s each year we celebrate those that are.

Voting for Beards that are loved runs from Friday 4th February to Monday 7th February

Beards that are  loved

Kris Kristofferson

Neil Diamond

Michael Rosen

Mooen Ali

Voting for beards that are sexy runs from Wednesday 9th February to Saturday 12th February

Beards that are ‘sexy’

George Clooney

Idris Elba

Eric Cantona

Tom Jones

Sue Gray, the Tottenham angle

Sue Gray the senior civil servant charged with investigating Downing St’s lockdown parties was born and brought up in Tottenham.

This has nothing to do with her job or the report and neither does the history of her family.

However it is not without some interest. She lived initially in West Green Rd N15 and then in Philip Lane N15. Subsequently it seems the family moved to Hermitage Rd N4 (a long road that runs between St Ann’s Hospital and Green Lanes in South Tottenham) and her mother worked at the Oakdale Arms pub.

The Oakdale I’m afraid is no more though I (as the then Secretary of Haringey TUC) and many others were involved in a long running campaign to save it. Of course Ms Gray’s mother was no longer working there- this was in the years before 2010,she died in 2003. In fact the pub had passed into the hands of Milton a Cambridge micro-brewery and was known for good cask beer and food. It was run by Tom Behan- who now runs the Bumble Inn in central Peterborough-the 2020 Beard Friendly Pub of the Year. The pub was overseen by Steve Early who also ran the Pembury Tavern in Hackney-now Five Points brewery tap.

The pub was owned by North London property developers C and S Shah whose aim was to build flats on it. The pub was a profitable going concern but flats were more profitable. They got planning permission after an appeal to a planning inspector claimed that there was an alternative pub nearby, the Woodberry on Seven Sisters Rd. It has not been a pub for a good while and last time I checked flats had not been built on the Oakdale site. An all too familiar story of C21st Britain.

All that being said Ms Gray due to family circumstances did not do a degree but entered the civil service direct from school and based on her ability rose to a senior level. I’m not sufficiently familiar with the 2022 Civil Service to know if its still possible to do that-but in the private sector where I work, there are management apprentice schemes designed to facilitate that. It’s world of which old Etonian Boris Johnson has no conception.

Histories of the present: Johnson lies but he doesn’t resign he has to be sacked

Boris Johnson is not someone given to resigning. It no doubt goes back to his Eton days when it was noted that he felt that rules that applied to everyone else did not apply to him.

This clearly applies to his current job as Prime Minister. Pressed by Keir Starmer and others to resign after Sue Gray’s initial report into Downing St’s numerous lockdown parties, Johnson evaded the issue, blamed others and claimed he was just the person to sort matters out. A brief history of Johnson underlines that he has only ever resigned once and that was because it suited his personal ambition.

Johnson has departed from several journalistic jobs at the Times and the Spectator but he has also been sacked as a politician.

In 2004 when Michael Howard was leader of the Opposition, Johnson was Shadow Arts Minister and Tory Vice-Chair. He had an affair with Petronella Wyatt and she became pregnant. She decided to have an abortion and Johnson tried to keep the matter out of the public domain.

However news of it started to appear in the tabloid press. Johnson tried unsuccessfully to lie his way out of it. Howard decided that Johnson would have to go not over the affair or the abortion but because he had lied about it. He instructed his spokesman Guy Black to speak to Johnson and get him to resign. Johnson refused. After watching a Liverpool football match Howard then spoke directly to Johnson at 6.30pm and sacked him. It was November 13th 2004.

Johnson’s view was that only by being sacked would get sympathy, a resignation would not do it.

There is an exception that belongs in a different category. In July 2018 he resigned as Foreign Secretary in Theresa May’s Government. He had done nothing wrong on this occasion (in fact he had done very little in the role at all). The issue was that he wanted a harder Brexit than May. His resignation was part of the strategy to get elected as Tory leader in get the harder Brexit he wanted.

Many might feel that what he actually wanted was not a particular kind of Brexit but the position of PM which he thought his support would get him- correctly. As ever it was all about Johnson’s personal fortune.

When it comes to his current political position, whether resignation or sacking by his own MPs, he’s got to go

Source Sonia Purnell, Just Boris

Beard Liberation Front

January 31st

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Author Philip Ardagh voted Beard of Winter 2022

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has announced that author Philip Ardagh has been voted Beard of Winter 2022 in an on-line poll.

In the final Beard Off round Ardagh won 41% of the vote shaving opponents such cricketer Virat Kohli and actor Benedict Cumberbatch

The shortlist for Beard of Winter contained a diverse range of contenders for the annual seasonal accolade.

It is the first of four seasonal awards that lead to the Beard of the Year Award in December 2022.

The Beard of Winter focuses both on fuller organic beards, suitable for winter weather but also on beards that have made an early New Year impact in the public eye.

The first Trim Off round saw Philip Ardagh and Benedict Cumberbatch shave opponents to reach the Beard Off final. The Second Trim Off concluded with Hugh Dennis and Virat Kohli taking the follicular honours.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we congratulate Philip Ardagh on his poll success. His magnificent beard truly symbolises the winter and the need to keep stylishly warm during the early months of the year

Philip Ardagh said, Winter is a time of biting cold and bitter winds, and this winter has been bleaker still, with COVID casting its dark shadow, with the accompanying rules and the deceit and barefaced lies of politicians. But winter is also time of hands cupped around a mug of hot chocolate, warming by the fire, pets on the hearth, and reading a book in the light of the flames; of dressing in a Fair Isle jumper and wrapping a long, hand-knitted scarf around the neck before stepping out of the door. It is amongst these simple pleasures that the Beard of Winter proudly sits upon my face. I thank you. My beard thanks you. It is a great honour to have been voted Beard of Winter.

Beard of Winter 2022. Final Beard Off

Virat Kohli, cricketer

Hugh Dennis, comedian

Benedict Cumberbatch, actor

Philip Ardagh, author

Peterloo 1819 to Derry 1972. Civil Rights protesters killed, no one held to account

On Monday 16^th August 1819 a protest for the vote in central Manchester was attacked by the Yeomanry, soldiers on horse back with sabres. 16 were killed and many others injured. No one was ever held to account although Henry Hunt the speaker on that day was jailed. It became known as Peterloo.

In the Making of the English Working Class E P Thompson argued that one key outcome of Peterloo was that the Government would never again peaceful political protesters, (different ‘rules’ apply for industrial disputes and other forms of protest).

The book was published in 1963 and on Sunday 30^th January 1972, in Northern Ireland rather than England it did happen again. A march in Derry to protest against internment in jail without trial was attacked by paratroopers. 14 were killed and others injured.

Two inquiries were held Widgery and later Saville. The latter took many years to report but was clear that there was no justification for shooting protesters. David Cameron apologised but no one has ever been successfully prosecuted.

Such an event, although relatively rare historically in the UK, could happen again and if it does no manner of inquiries is likely to see anyone held responsible enough to call them to account

Bloody Sunday 53 years on. Still not just history

Its 53 years ago today that British paratroopers fired on a civil rights march in Derry killing 14 and injuring others. The Saville inquiry subsequently found that the shooting was completely unjustified.

There have been small scale memorial events today in Derry and London. The reality is that the relatives of those who were shot dead on that day have still not seen justice done.

Another bit of, recent British history, that those who want all British history to be told would perhaps prefer not to be included in Our Island Story, one suspects.

The Ambridge Socialist

30^th January

How is the deer David Archer tried to kill?

David Archer has been at it again. He is already a convicted badger murderer and doubts remain about how exactly Nigel Pargetter came to fall to his death from the roof of Lower Loxley in 2011. Now has attempted to kill a deer on returning from a night out with Roooth. Both were injured enough to have to hand temporary control of Brookfield to Pip and Josh but we suspect the deer is no more. No one aside from ourselves seems concerned.

Who will run Brookfield in future?

The Archers has seen much discussion about which of the Archers Dynasty will run Brookfield in the future, Josh or Pip. The Ambridge Socialist remains clear on this. It should be the Grundys.

Bonsai Trees

Iris Casey and Leonard share a mutual fascination with Bonsai Trees. Anyone else?

London Socialist Historians Group

Media Release

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

30th January

Historians call for 30th January to be a national holiday to mark first ever Parliamentary Democracy

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in central London, has renewed its call for January 30th to be made a national holiday from 2023.

January 30th in 2022 marks the 373rd anniversary of the Regicide that saw King Charles executed in Whitehall for treason.

This ushered in the Commonwealth and the idea that Parliament not the Divine Right of Kings and Queens should decide what happens. The despatch of King Charles was the beginning of a modern Parliamentary Democracy (in fact since 1660 a Constitutional Monarchy)

The historians say that the event rather cuts against the idea that nothing particularly exciting or dramatic ever happens in British history.

Oliver Cromwell who headed the post-1649 Government died in 1658 and was succeeded by his son Richard.

However in 1660 the monarchy was restored and King Charles 11 dated the start of his reign from 30th January 1649 in the first attempt to write the Commonwealth period out of history. That is probably a key reason why the day is not a national holiday (as it certainly would be in France for example).

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, you don’t need to be a republican to grasp that the moment when Parliamentary Democracy laid down its first roots is worth marking and a day off at the end of the bleak month of January would surely be no bad thing.

He continued, of course history is complex and while England and Wales can rightfully celebrate the events of 30th January 1649 as a democratic advance, in Ireland where Cromwell’s armies waged a bloody war things look rather different.

30^th January 1649. A day missing from much of British history

On 30^th January 1649 after a trial King Charles 1^st was executed by Parliamentary forces in Whitehall.  A Commonwealth was proclaimed under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. It lasted until 1660 when the monarchy was restored. It was in essence the world’s first ever Parliamentary democracy, albeit of a very limited kind. When Charles 11 took the throne he dated his reign from 30^th January 1649 thereby attempting to write the Commonwealth out of history.

Of course the event is remembered and remains controversial to this day. Cromwell in Ireland and Scotland was very far from a democratic force but his role in ushering the system of Government we have today is not officially celebrated, as it certainly would be for example in France.

Don’t expect Boris Johnson who frequently tell us that all bits of British history must be recalled to have anything to say either.

Martin Kettle is right, that while Britain remains a constitutional monarchy, it is absurd that the crown can’t be discussed in parliament. No doubt that means 30 January, the day in 1649 when Westminster saw the world’s first parliamentary democracy instituted, will pass without note in the Commons. Another bit of history Boris Johnson probably prefers not to remember.

Keith Flett

Tottenham, London

Guardian 29^th January 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/28/mps-must-end-this-code-of-silence-on-the-queen

Government Reports from Sir John Chilcot to Sue Gray

The report of Sue Gray into parties at 10 Downing St during the various lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 is awaited daily but has not appeared. Sections of the media and some MPs appear obsessed by it, apparently oblivious to the history of such things.

No doubt Ms Gray will report in due course, but these things are not hurried and are invariably finessed. The aim of this is not to avoid exposing wrong doing or pointing to those responsible but to place this in a framework that makes it unlikely that anything will actually happen as a result.

We have a recent example

Gordon Brown set up the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War which held hearings between 2009 and 2011. Sir John Chilcot (who died in October 2021) did not report until 2016 when the then PM Dave Cameron decided it was all in the past and nothing needed to be done.

The Guardian’s view of Chilcot was that it ‘could hardly have been more damning of Tony Blair’ but Blair himself claimed he had acted in ‘good faith’. The fact that the original war was illegal and its impact continues to cause significant global issues today remains unacted on.

The point being that Blair should have faced a Court after Chilcot (The Inquiry itself didn’t have the status of a Court of Law) either in the UK or at the Hague and if he had done the issue of him being appointed a Knight of the Garter would probably have never arisen.

If there was illegality at Downing St it is a matter for the police who are reported to be investigating. Any offences attract summary fines (in my view lockdown offences should never have been a criminal matter. Numbers were prosecuted and fined at the time, but not of course anyone at Downing St although there is a police presence there 24-7). What the political fall out is may depend on how long it takes Ms Gray to report and that is largely a matter for her, although she is not fully independent of Government, as Chilcott was. Even that did not prevent the late Sir John from presenting a report from which no practical conclusions followed.