Kmflett's Blog

COP26: not enough change, not fast enough. A movement from below is needed.

The outcome of COP26 was as unsatisfactory as negotiations tend to be. There was some agreement on measures to address climate change, but not enough to make the significant difference really needed. Often in a negotiation one might bank what has been achieved, far short of what was needed as is often the case, regroup and have another ago.

The problem is that when it comes to climate change time is not on our side. Johnson didn’t actively sabotage the discussions but whether he could have done more is a moot point. Firstly because of a (lack of) personal ability but also because while the UK can do a lot more a lot more quickly, there are bigger issues.

What the US and China are or are not doing is part of a wider superpower agenda that COP talks will never resolve. India were also in the frame. A reminder here that India is not a developing country but a developed one(in terms of a market capitalist economy, of course there is huge poverty and deprivation) with a  GDP more or less the same as the UK. It also has in Modi an even more right-wing Government than the UK. Not perhaps because Modi is actually more right-wing than Johnson but because he is much more determined to pursue such an agenda of harm.

So what is to be done? George Monbiot in the Guardian has been reading some sociology that argues that according to a model developed by researchers 25% of people have to be mobilised on an issue and then the world will change. It might I suppose but change doesnt happen on the basis of mechanical models but on what people actually do.

Protest stunts-see Insulate Britain and some Extinction Rebellion activities- are very good at highlighting issues but don’t really achieve change. For that Monbiot is right that people need to be mobilised but it’s not percentages that matter here.

The message that action on climate change is needed and needed now needs to reach every workplace, community, pub, club and café. And the message needs to be that those at the top will need to pay for change not those at the bottom. They after all are the ones benefiting from the way things currently are.

When the movement against war in Iraq led to what is still the biggest ever demonstration in British history on 15^th February 2003 it was estimated that more or less everyone in the UK actually knew someone who had been on it, even if they hadn’t themselves. That’s what we need again and it would be only a start.

At the Cenotaph from Michael Foot 1981 to Boris Johnson 2021

40 years ago the late Labour leader Michael Foot was criticised for wearing a ‘donkey jacket’ at the Cenotaph. In fact it was a perfectly decent winter coat (see below). Jeremy Corbyn was also criticised (it was the beard obviously). Boris Johnson by contrast, whose appearance is permanently dishevelled, seems to get a free pass.

I’m no fan of formal dress (you will very rarely find me wearing a tie and even less a suit) but there are occasions when it is appropriate and Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph is one.

Johnson today appeared wearing a blue tie (everyone else wore a black tie) an ill-fitting jacket and his collar was somewhat crumpled. His hairstyle was the familiar, ‘I’ve spent the night on a park bench’ style but it had been combed- forward to cover his bald patch.

Hardly very statesmanlike but then whoever thought Johnson was a statesman..

Michael Foot at the Cenotaph in 1981 wore a rather smart and warm coat. It’s now in the National Museum of Labour History

one of the museum’s most striking exhibits – the coat worn by the Labour Party leader Michael Foot at the National Service of Remembrance, held at The Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, on Remembrance Sunday, 1981.  This coat was depicted in the press as a donkey jacket, which is something a manual worker might wear.  As a result, it was widely believed that Foot, whose party then supported unilateral nuclear disarmament, had disrespected those who had sacrificed their lives in defence of the nation.  He was, the argument went, consequently unfit to become Prime Minister.  Yet, if you see the coat in the museum it is perfectly respectable and indeed Foot was praised by the Queen Mother for his choice.  But, as Foot’s private papers held in the museum archive show, he received many letters from those who believed he had worn a donkey jacket.

(Steven Fielding 2018)

The Ambridge Socialist

November 14^th

Free Pass for Sgt Knacker Burns

Knacker Burns has been called in to see the boss. Not about his now legendary failure to find the missing bunting but a more recent transgression. Burns had told Kirsty that Blake wanted to visit Philip Moss in jail. Because Knacker wanted information about the slave gang network Moss was involved with from Blake he had agreed to ‘see what he could do’. Kirsty then contacted Moss and told him whereupon Moss made a complaint to the police.

Knacker Burns had jeopardised an important investigation into modern slavery by his unprofessional approach. However it being the police, Knacker was told to take more care in future and sent on his way.

Natasha: no direction home

Natasha is still looking for an office space at Bridge Farm. Tony’s model railway bunker is too small and the milking shed is required for, er, milking the cows. What’s wrong with using a tent?

The Mystery Plays: Ambridge Socialist poll backs No God, No Master option.

The search for God- that is someone to play God in the forthcoming Mystery Plays has continued. Oliver was in the frame but understandably is not keen. The Ambridge Socialist readers poll found most support for there being no need for a God or indeed any Masters. However if God is absolutely essential Eddie Grundy came a close second.

In other news

Eddie has talked Oliver into allowing the use of the Grey Gables ballroom for the renewal of his wedding vows with Clarrie. Baggie’s homebrew is involved…

Mike Tucker & Co. are set to return to Ambridge over Christmas. Perhaps he’ll bring some union recruitment forms with him.

Remembrance Sunday is not a Tory Culture War. It’s about Never Again

In recent times Remembrance Sunday has been extended to include a range of imperial wars Britain has started or fought in. Certainly the working class soldiers who signed up because there were no other jobs deserve to be remembered.

However in also in recent times Remembrance Sunday seems to have been extended over weeks and become part of a Tory Culture War.

I often have worn a poppy on the Sunday (reasons below) but I don’t now. Its not about silly Tory games, its about fascism, a matter of life and death to numbers. I take that seriously and always have done. The Tory poppy obsessives don’t.

The below dates from 2017 but remains relevant.

I’m no fan of wars (although not a pacifist) but there are reasons to remember those that have taken place (and those that still are). Not the politicians and generals who order them and promote them but the ‘poor bloody infantry’ who have to fight them. Sometimes there is a good reason for the fight and a good reason to remember it

Simon Jenkins* no doubt has a point about an obsession with the second world war and Nazis to the exclusion of other history – that of colonialism and imperial wars for example. It is hardly time, though, to forget all about the second world war. My late father fought at Monte Cassino in 1944 and saw some of his comrades die there. A lifelong socialist, he would invariably wear a poppy on Remembrance Sunday. He wasn’t interested in Tory flag-waving. His concern, as when he was to be found on Anti-Nazi League protests in his later years, was to make sure that the industrial scale of murder represented by the Holocaust was both never forgotten and never repeated.

Keith Flett

Guardian 10th November 2017

*Simon Jenkins piece

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/09/no-more-remembrance-days-consign-20th-century-history

From E P Thompson’s Writing by Candlelight (1980) to The Times letters page(2021)

The late socialist historian E P Thompson (1924-1993) was an enthusiast for letter writing. He wrote many himself although most unfortunately are locked away in the Bodleian for the time being.

He researched the history of aspects of letter writing, along with his researcher E E Dodds, and one result was his essay The Crime of Anonymity which has considerable relevance in 2021 although it was about the first decades of the nineteenth century.

He also wrote letters to the papers and was entertained particularly by the reactionary nature of some letter writers to The Times.

He would certainly have found one in today’s Times to be of interest

Sir,

It is possible that many voters prefer MPs who are judged sufficiently competent as to attract business interest and extra income. It is to be hoped that MPs elevated to the second job of ministers of state are actually not ‘only there for their constituents’.

The Rev Canon Dr Simon Cox, Bispham, Lancs

I’ve visited Wetherspoons & here is why

I sometimes post that I don’t drink in Wetherspoons because of the anti-trade union attitude of Tim Martin, but I’m also careful to note that I’m not boycotting Wetherspoons pubs. Union members there are not calling for that, it makes no difference to Martin whether I go there or not (plenty do) and the company is hardly unique in the hospitality sector in not having good terms and conditions for employees (indeed there are worse operators).

The key point is that given the size of the Spoons estate they can and should recognise a union.

Any way it was the 2022 Good Beer Guide that prompted me to pay a couple of visits. I’m a member of the North London branch of CAMRA (and have been since 1975) and I was intrigued by the number of entries the Guide had for the area which were Spoons.

I’d be inclined in the GBG to note that more or less all Wetherspoons sell cask beer and in some places may well be one of the few pubs that does. On that basis you can always give them a try and the Spoons App allows you to check what cask beers are on before doing so (would that more pubs did that). The quality in my experience over the years varies. Its rarely dire but not great that often either.

Spoons and CAMRA do have a certain relationship-though the CAMRA discount is now much wider than Spoons. If you flick through Wetherspoons News (mostly but not entirely harmless) there is plenty of cask/CAMRA material. Given that Spoons is one of the largest cask sellers in the UK it can be understood.

So it was that on an early lunchtime a week last Friday I found myself in the Mossy Well, a vast, well appointed and comfortable Spoons at the top of Muswell Hill. They had 5 London cask beers on at the far too reasonable price of £1.99. I tried a half of Big Chief from Tottenham’s Redemption and it was indeed in top condition. Hence the pub is in the 2022 GBG and rightly so.

This Friday I stopped by the Central Bar, a 2022 GBG entry, which is in central Cardiff in the main shopping area. A little before midday it was busy. A half of Bowmans(Hants) darker shade of pale set me back £1.15. I’m not familiar with the beer so I cant say if it was in top condition but it was certainly perfectly drinkable. Much craft beer in Cardiff is keg only (not an issue for me) so again for a Guide focused on cask it makes sense to feature a bar that clearly sells a good deal of it.

My conclusion (not that its of great concern I’m sure) is that it seems fair enough to include specific Wetherspoons pubs in the 2022 Good Beer Guide but I do think the Guide should mention that inclusion is entirely related to the beer quality (which it rightly is) and not a wider judgement on bars included.

I still wont be making a habit of visiting Spoons though, except perhaps for the Mossy Well which was in fact a good deal more pleasant than some Indy bars I can think of…

Action is being taken on racism in cricket at last: a lot more is needed yet

After a year when action on racism in cricket at the top has amounted to official statements and (sometimes) taking the knee (better than nothing but not a motor to change in itself)at last things are beginning to happen.

I pointed out in the Guardian on 8^th November that the issue had been raised in the Commons in the Spring. Nothing is usually expected to come directly from Early Day Motions but they do signal issues that need to be addressed. They weren’t, until the last few days:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/59220663

 On 8 March 2021 a small number of MPs including Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn supported an early day motion in the Commons raising the issue of racism in domestic cricket and the lack of senior black and minority ethnic people at all levels of the game. Nothing was done, and Yorkshire CCC continued to cover up an investigation into racism at the club. That has now caused a reputational crisis for English cricket. What many anti-racist cricket fans, myself included, want to know, is what is actually going to be done about the matter beyond just words and gestures.

Keith Flett

Essex chairman resigns

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/59262824

Joe Root’s comments and reaction

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/59252631

53 years since the release of Led Zeppelin IV. A stairway to social history

Led Zeppelin IV, the bands fourth album that had no official name but instead four symbols was released on 8^th November 1971.

I bought it on release and I think the music still sounds fine but realistically its part of social history now. No one much under state pension age can have got it at the time, but there may well of course be younger enthusiasts as well.

The album contains the rock anthem Stairway to Heaven, a regular on John Peel’s Festive 50, that concludes with the words ‘to be a rock and not to roll’. Given that this was the start of the 1970s, a lively decade in Britain, perhaps there was an element of prophecy…

There is another Zeppelin anthem featured, Black Dog, not anything to do with Winston Churchill but apparently a dog that was hanging round when the record was made..

But aside from the blues, Zeppelin’s core music, what made them interesting then (something Robert Plant has pursued in a long solo career) was exploration of other musical styles. The Battle of Evermore features the great and sadly late Sandy Denny one of the great folk singers.

The social history context? On 31^st October a small bomb exploded in the restaurant at the top of the Post Office (now BT) Tower in central London. It was probably the work of the Angry Brigade a group of libertarian anarchists. The view from the top (I’ve been up-work reasons) is panoramic still.

On 10^th November Spaghetti Junction on the M6 was opened.

The fact that the record is remembered at all is also interesting social history. The music of 1921 was not well recalled in 1971…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin_IV

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

12th November

contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Friendly Pubs Of the Year feature in CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2022

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it is pleased to see confirmation that Beard Friendly Pubs are also ones that sell good beer.

The Campaign for Real Ale’s Good Beer Guide 2022, published today, features the overall Beard Friendly Pub of the Year, the Cock Tavern in Hackney and the wider national winner, the Maltings in York.

The pubs were winners of a democratic on-line vote in September 2022 (delayed from January). The Good Beer Guide is compiled by CAMRA members who check on the quality of beer in pubs, entirely independently of any other consideration.

The Guide describes the Cock as a ‘bustling, friendly, town centre establishment’ and on the Maltings it notes ‘a popular pub near the station (York).

The campaigners say that a key criteria for Beard Friendly Pub of the Year is that it is friendly and open to all well disposed people, hirsute or not.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expect the Beard Friendly Pubs of the Year to sell excellent beer but it is good to get confirmation from the Good Beer Guide.

Bells Brewery: Big Beer& capitalism’s tendency to monopoly

The respected beer writer Matthew Curtis has posted various points about the sale of the Michigan craft brewery, Bells to Australia’s Lion. Lion itself is owned by Kirin.

They own several craft brewers in the UK including Magic Rock and Fourpure.

Bells has a long-ish history for a craft brewery and its 7% ipa Two-Hearted, is viewed as one of the best in the world, albeit little seen currently in the UK.

The owner reportedly wanted to retire and having no succession plan a sale was the best way to keep things going

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/11/10/bells-brewery-sale-lion-new-belgium-brewing/6377845001/

That’s how Ashai came to own Meantime of course as well.

Lion also owns Little Creatures (which has a brewpub in Kings Cross) and Matthew Curtis clearly sees links between them, Bells and Fourpure, in part via New Belgium (another Lion acquisition).

Those who are really only here for the beer (which is after all the point) may wonder by this stage if any of this really matters.

Actually it does. Craft brewing was (and is) about sustainable, locally produced beer for particular tastes. It is meant to be different from and indeed in opposition to global big beer brands, where you get the same beer whichever pub you go in.

What Lion and Kirin are doing here is creating global big beer brands. Capitalism which claims to be all about free market competition in fact leads to monopoly.

There is nothing however in the first part of the free market/monopoly equation to stop new craft beer brewers appearing. The point is enjoy them while you can, before long big beer will come knocking

An alternative view

I note an interesting social media discussion which has been arguing that the takeover of Bells is not a bad thing.

The first point is that the owner wanted to retire and from that perspective why not sell the brewery (which keeps it going) and take some profit from a life’s work. Indeed but in a more equitable world that profit would be shared with all who have contributed to the brewery’s success which is a lot more people than the owner.

The second point which is perhaps more implied than openly stated is that takeovers by Big Beer can lead to better working conditions. Indeed again Big Beer may well recognise a union (most large employers do recognising the mutual benefits) and will have job standards which regulate working conditions. As a trade union officer who deals with private sector big business I’d say that is true. If an employee has an issue in a small outfit often the only way forward is to leave. In a big unionised company that’s not usually necessary, there are ways to raise and resolve issues within agreed processes.

The third point, not discussed in these exchanges, is the impact on the beer itself. The new owner may leave it much as is for a while, but Big Beer is all about efficiencies and cost cutting and sales targets. That’s how it got to be Big Beer and in the end what you drink often (but not always) suffers.