Kmflett's Blog

From the Making of the English Working Class to the Goldsmiths University Strike

Over 50 redundancies are currently planned at Goldsmiths College in London. They will hit English and History teaching and the equally important support staff. Goldsmiths UCU have voted for and are taking strike action to get the College to think again.

As Michael Rosen who teaches at Goldsmiths has pointed out, behind the job cuts, lie further developments in the Business University. In summary Goldsmiths has sought financing from Lloyds Bank. Part of that, though not something they have discussed with staff or students, seems to be a plan to cut jobs. In other words what is dictating the kind of learning and education that goes on at Goldsmiths is not a search for knowledge and enlightenment but a financial agenda set by others. It is the neo-liberal University 2021 style.

It does represent a significant development in the Business University but the concept itself is not new. Indeed over 50 years in the late 1960s students and staff at Warwick University took action over the secret influence that Coventry business had gained over the new institution.

E P Thompson edited a Penguin Special Warwick University Ltd on the matter and was a lecturer himself at Warwick heading up the newly developed Centre for Social History. The Centre attracted postgraduate researchers such as Peter Linebaugh and David Montgomery impressed by Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class (1963).

Thompson wrote in conclusion to Warwick University Ltd:

‘Is it inevitable that the university will be reduced to the function of providing, with increasingly authoritarian efficiency, pre-packed intellectual commodities which meet the requirements of management? Or can we by our efforts transform it into a centre of free discussion and action, tolerating and even encouraging “subversive” thought and activity, for a dynamic renewal of the whole society within which it operates?

Although Warwick represented a significant marker in the development of the Business University there was no talk at that time of shutting places like the Centre for Social History. Thompson and others were pointing to where the trend would lead-correctly.

Thompson was not in full agreement with all the tactics that the students used, although very much part of the protest. For him the parallel was the battle for the first Great Reform Bill in 1831/2.In 1831 significant protests in favour of reform took place but those involved had no influence or representation at all in the structures that eventually carried the reform in1832. Hence they could protest and hope. Thompson argued the same was true at Warwick and that protest should be made but end before the authorities tried to crush it (as they did).

Not all the students agreed. The wider parallel with Goldsmiths though is clear. The Making is all about the development of liberal (small ‘l’) and radical ideas and traditions in the English working class with a focus on knowledge and enlightenment. 60 years on from the Making that is what Goldsmiths is engaged in doing and what the new Business University wants to stop.

All Yesterdays Parties: a matter of class as with COVID deaths

You probably wont have missed the continuing furore about the Christmas Party at Downing St on 18^th December 2021. We don’t know who was there (Johnson almost certainly wasn’t-though he was at a leaving party on 29^th November where he gave a speech)but the Tier 3 Lockdown restrictions then in place in London means it would have been very difficult to hold such an event legally.

I wasn’t a great fan of making lockdown restrictions law. Often they were badly written, not properly scrutinised and not understood by police. Further they were of course impossible to police except selectively. Most of those arrested and convicted who challenged it seem to have had matters over turned.

Even so the restrictions were law and that included for those attending No.10 parties whether they liked it or not, just like everyone else.

We know that deaths of people from COVID perhaps particularly in the first wave from March 2020 were a matter of class. Far more of the less well off, and particularly ethnic minorities died. They were in often essential jobs- like bus driving- where they could not work from home. Poor sick pay meant they avoided taking time off ill and housing conditions were also often poor.

So also with policing restrictions. The police would have had to let people into the Downing St event. It’s a gated and secure area. They did nothing, In Ilford, a working class area of East London a few miles away, a party that also took place on 18^th December 2020 is currently being prosecuted. Again a matter of class.

I attended no parties in December 2020, met no friends or relations inside during lockdown and generally stuck to the rules. It can be argued (as above) whether the legal framework was helpful but I entirely accepted that the rules were there for a good reason and stuck to them. So how come the people who made them decided it was ok for them to be ignored? And how come the police ignored the matter under their noses as it were?

A matter of class arrogance and potentially a deadly one. Don’t imagine for a moment they were the only well to do people who ignored the lockdown and were left alone to get on with it. Try it in working class London and you might have expected a knock from the police though.

Beard Liberation Front

7^th December

Media Release

Contact: BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

After Telegraph picture ‘confusion’ campaigners urge Sajid Javid to grow a beard

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has urged Health Minister Sajid Javid to consider growing a beard after a report in the Daily Telegraph confused him with Education Secretary and long time beard wearer Nadhim Zahawi.

The campaigners say that while the Telegraph’s error was deplorable, it still raised the question of whether follicly challenged Mr Javid would add gravitas by growing a beard.

As far back as 2015 Zahawi urged Javid on twitter to grow a gravitas adding goatee in the style he himself wears.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we have long suspected the Telegraph of pogonophobia and worse, and whether Sajid Javid chooses to remain follicly challenged or grow a beard is entirely a matter of personal choice. However he might find that a designer goatee would add further to his Ministerial presence.

Beard Liberation Front

7^th December

Storm Barra: emergency guidelines for beard wearers issued

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that as high winds caused by Storm Barra are set to hit the UK on Tuesday beard wearers are strongly advised to take special care of their beards.

The campaigners say that while danger to life and limb is the central issue when extreme weather hits, a secondary concern for organic beard wearers is that exposing the beard to high and blustery winds may blow the beard out of shape and can cause permanent hair and follicle damage in some cases.

It is less likely that designer and some hipster beards will suffer significant wind damage

The BLF advises the following precautions:

Keep the beard slightly damp at all times by immersing it in a glass of hazy IPA or imperial stout. This will give solidity to the beard hairs and prevent them being blown around.

Use a scarf or snood to protect the beard at all times

Secure the beard with elastic bands, strapping the hairs to the chin

If the beard is blown out of shape use a hair dryer to re-form the hairs in the correct position and then stay indoors for a several hours to allow the hairs and follicles to recover

BLF organiser Keith Flett said, the answer is most definitely not blowin’ in the wind today. We advise the hirsute to take care out there

When Rod Liddle was a youthful anti-racist

Rod Liddle, a columnist for the Murdoch Times and the Spectator, has been in the news again. He made or attempted to make an after dinner ‘speech’ to a student Christmas event at Durham University. Many of the students took exception and walked out. The University authorities then took exception to the walk out.

Liddle’s remarks were it appears of the usual standard he currently promotes, sexist, laddish etc. His Islamophobia is well known.

One might be tempted to ask where it all went wrong for Liddle. After all he worked for the Labour Party as a speech writer between 1983 and 1987 and Edited the Today programme on Radio 4 until he departed after the BBC complained about the (left-wing) politics of one of his Guardian articles.

However Liddle is hardly being ‘cancelled’ and I’m sure is still doing very well for himself.

I knew Liddle as teenager when he lived in Nunthorpe a well to do area of Middlesbrough. He and some mates had formed a punk band, Dangerbird, and he appeared at the local SWP branch meetings occasionally to see if the band could get involved with Rock Against Racism. I was then student organiser of the IS/SWP on Teesside, and hence probably more in touch with what he wanted to do than some in the meetings.

After all at the start of punk a band playing on Teesside would have struggled to find, perhaps not an audience, but people prepared to try and sort out gigs. I think I heard Dangerbird play but have no memory of what they were like. I suspect that means they were at least not terrible or I would have remembered.

My memory of Liddle was that he seemed quite pleased with himself, but then he was young and confident, and perhaps to a degree entitled to be so, given he had taken the initiative to start a band.

Of course he’s far from the first person to have had a left-wing youth and turn in an unpleasant right-winger in later years. It’s a well-travelled path. It reflects the pressures society exerts on people who want to ‘get on’ but it also underlines how difficult the left find it in most generations to hold on to talented young people before they end up turning sour in older age.

Beard Liberation Front

Press Release 6th December. Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

A guide to the beard friendly mince pie 2021

December is the season for mince pie eating, but it can provide particular challenges for the hirsute.

The Beard Liberation Front has identified two key issues:

Icing sugar in the beard: this can have the effect of turning it prematurely white and can be difficult to remove. It may also lead to white beard syndrome and people shouting ‘Oi Santa’ at you.

Pastry flakes and crumbs in the beard: If this occurs it is guaranteed that any pogonophobe within 100 metres will shout ‘oi mate you’ve got the remains of your breakfast/lunch etc in your beard’.

There are several ways of avoiding the issues above:

1] Wear a special mince pie beard snood

2] Focus on eating only beard friendly mince pies. In particular pies where the ratio of filling to pastry lies with the former are likely to be more beard friendly.

3] If time and culinary skills allow you can of course make your own beard friendly mince pies

The Beard Liberation Front continues to research the beard friendly mince pie. Initial results from 2021 tests will be available shortly.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there are some reasonably beard friendly mince pies out there but the hirsute need to choose carefully. For the unwary eater icing sugar and pastry flakes in the beard can be a serious concern

Beard Liberation Front

5th December

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Jeremy Corbyn in close shave vote for Parliamentary Beard of the Year

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that voting for the first close shave round of Parliamentary Beard of the Year 2021 has ended with Andy McDonald and Stephen Kinnock going through to the Beard Off round.

Voting for the second and final close shave round is now open with Jeremy Corbyn, the MP who has won the accolade more times than any other MP facing three contenders to get into the Beard Off

Eight candidates will attempt to shave each other for the coveted annual accolade. Last year’s winner Stuart Anderson MP has mislaid his beard during the year and does not feature.

The winner of Parliamentary Beard of the Year will be announced on 14th December

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as usual it’s not about whether the politics of a particular MP are approved of or not. It is about the positive impact their beard has had in the public eye during the year, or not as the case may be. There are no whips or block votes involved so it’s entirely down to public support.

Parliamentary Beard of the Year 2021 shortlist

Jeremy Corbyn, (Independent Labour, Islington North)

Andy McDonald (Labour, Middlesbrough)

Jon Trickett (Labour, Hemsworth)

Stephen Crabb (Tory, Preseli)

Stephen Kinnock (Labour, Aberavon)

Colum Eastwood (SDLP, Foyle)

Stewart McDonald (SNP, Glasgow South)

Simon Fell (Tory, Barrow & Furness)

Voting began on 1st December. Two preliminary close shave rounds will provide four finalists for a Beard Off round with the result announced on 14th December

Close Shave Round One Dec 1-4

Close Shave Round Two Dec 5-8

Beard Off final Round Dec 9-12

The Ambridge Socialist

5^th December

Chelsea does Knacker Burns work for him on Blake

While Sgt Knacker Burns has managed to persuade Blake to talk about who Philip Moss sold him and the other two modern slaves to, this time last year, it was Chelsea that did the real work. She was able to get Blake to see, through discussion of an interview with Blake in the Borchester Echo, that Moss was not the person he thought he was, paying him nothing while claiming his benefits. Next Knacker can resolve the issue of the bunting.

Mia and Virtue Signalling

After a ‘discussion’ with Chelsea Mia has agreed that much of climate activity amounts to virtue signalling and asked Lynda Snell for some guidance on effective campaigning. It may be that Mia really knows more about the matter than she thinks. While virtue signalling wont change the world, given how few people in Ambridge do it, its still an important matter.

Hazel is back

Occasional Ambridge visitor and noted all round nuisance Hazel is back. She has Long COVID and so has been circumspect on life, the universe and everything. So far

Eddie & the donkey

Benjamin the donkey cant do the Mystery Plays. He has a unique Grundy charisma (possibly due to the cider he drinks) and Eddie is struggling to find a replacement. Couldn’t Call Me Russ Jones be called in as a substitute?

In other news

Its time for the traditional Grundy Christmas turkey crisis

OFSTED- Gradgrindism in 2021

Michael Rosen has written a devastating critique of OFSTED school inspections in 2021

They are he argues focused on finding outs ‘facts’ to the exclusion of humanity. Teachers absent with COVID? OFSTED not interested. Pupils impacted by COVID illnesses and deaths? OFSTED not interested. They just want the performance statistics, for which there can be NO EXCUSES.

It is a familiar story that goes much wider than education in the modern workplace. Key Performance Indicators and whether they are achieved or not often rule. Reasons for non- achievement are given scant attention.

It’s the same too with the COVID  statistics that appear daily. Infections are up but sometimes down. The same goes for deaths. Keeping track of this is important.  But its important too, and not often discussed that behind these figures are real people and real communities grieving.

The lack of humanity in all this is trademark of neo-liberal politics but its exactly what Dickens’ character Gradgrind (Hard Times) had in mind

“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.” Thomas Gradgrind

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/dec/04/dear-nadhim-zahawi-please-sort-out-ofsteds-lack-of-humanity-theres-no-excuse

37^th Pigs Beer Festival, Round Chapel Hackney. A welcome return

After a difficult two years of the pandemic, clearly not over yet, it was welcome to see the return of the Pigs Beer Festival, organised by City and East London CAMRA, this week.

It was the first beer festival I’d been at since mid-February 2020 and of course the first Pigs Ear for two years.

It was the 37^th Pigs Ear and I’ve been at nearly all of them, from the Bethnal Green days to Stratford and now Hackney. The grade 2 listed Round Chapel does make a great venue, although one might note some accessibility issues. There are lots of steps.

It was I think almost certainly the most cask beer Ive drunk since early 2020. Its been cans and craft keg (more likely to be found in uncertain times because it has a longer life than the few days for a cask) which was interesting in itself a lifelong cask beer drinker.

The beer range (cask, keykeg, keg, cans/bottles) was excellent as ever. In recent times there are of course lots of not just London brewers but east London brewers. In that sense the two stand out beers for me were the Redemption/Kernel Victorian mild, first brewed in 2011 and then again in 2017 and Fuller’s  London Porter the cask version of which has just made its annual appearance.

The range of styles from ordinary bitters to stouts, porters, IPAs, sours and much else reflected how much the beer world has changed in the last 10 years or so.

There was plenty of space and I didn’t feel uncomfortable (plenty of seating upstairs) with no queues at the bars and COVID safety to the fore. Perhaps the attendance was not quite as diverse as in recent festivals with hardcore CAMRA members (like ahem myself) more to the fore but in times like these just getting the festival on deserves applause.