Mikkeller Beer Celebration: pressure from below works. A lot still to do
On Thursday social media saw identical posts from 8 UK brewers who were planning to attend next week’s Mikkeller beer celebration in Copenhagen but have now decided after, they say, engaging with criticism, not to.
It’s not really clear who they engaged with, aside from reading the comments on their own social media feeds, anymore than it was clear who they had asked about their earlier now abandoned plan to hold a meeting around the festival to see what should be done about sexism, harassment and bullying in craft beer.
As employers they are not ideally placed to determine problems raised by employees without first having a proper framework in which this can be done. As I’ve previously noted, trade union recognition is one obvious way.
The exit of UK brewers reflects the pressure from below exerted by those who have been victims one way or another of a macho craft beer culture being prepared to speak out. That is no easy matter for them
The wider question now raised is what is going to be done. The temptation perhaps will be to view the Mikkeller fest as a ‘regrettable mistake’ and move on with nothing changing. That is not acceptable and should not be accepted.
To check the scale of the issues the Brewdog Collabfest and the Wetherspoons autumn beerfest both start shortly. Both companies have significant questions marks over how they treat their employees and neither recognise a union. Check the breweries taking part and you will find some familiar craft beer names…
THE CRYPT DOOR SWINGS OPEN ON THE SCARIEST HALLOWEEN BEARD POLL
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, which campaigns against irrational prejudice against the hirsute, has said that the crypt has opened on the Scariest Beard of Halloween 2021 poll
The title, awarded each year on October 31st, takes a wry look at Halloween festivities by identifying the scariest beard in the public eye. The winner is likely to win by the narrowest crack of a squeaky floorboard.
The BLF does not generally believe that beards are scary a view promoted by generations of pogonophobes.
It is accepted though that on a dark moonless night as a beard looms through the gloom, nerves may rise a little as to what lies behind the beard.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, facial hair is part of Halloween tradition. We aim every year to subvert some of the pogonophobia that lies behind that, while looking in a light hearted way at ‘scary’ beards.
Michael Rosen retains Beard of Autumn title in close shave with cricketer Moeen Ali
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that author Michael Rosen has narrowly retained the Beard of Autumn title he won in 2020 after a close shave with England cricketer Moeen Ali
In the Beard Off final Michael Rosen got 39.2% of the votes cast to Moeen Ali’s 35.3%
The Beard of Autumn is the final quarterly award of the year with the vote for the coveted Beard of the Year 2021 which gets underway at the beginning of December
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expected the Beard Off for the Beard of Autumn to be a close shave. Of course the beards of Michael Rosen and Moeen Ali are very different in style but both signify enormous hirsute gravitas. We congratulate both.
Michael Rosen in accepting the coveted Award has commented:
Thank you very much. Much appreciated. Respect to Moeen. Proud to be the Autumn Beard but remembering that pride comes before the Fall. As it were.
Boris Johnson is absent again this week. He is on holiday in Spain while allegedly still working. Ministers and Tory papers continue to call for people to return to offices to do this but for Johnson an exception of course applies. Indeed a belated ‘apology’ for deaths caused by COVID was delivered not by the PM but by a spokesperson.
This week is not the most serious of his absences though.
In the crucial weeks before March (2020) Boris Johnson did not attend any of the five virus meetings held by Cobra, the emergency committee, in January and February and spent 12 days out of the public eye while on a ‘working’ holiday at (Chevening) in Kent.
Sunday Times 19th April
The reality is though that Johnson has a lifelong history of absence
James Griffin, then Professor of Classical Literature at Balliol…was tolerant of Boris’s absences and late or non-existent work
Sonia Purnell, Just Boris
Boris’s persistent absences meant that mistakes were made that a more meticulous editor might have avoided
Sonia Purnell on Johnson’s period as Editor of the Spectator
‘not for the first time..the cry went up: Where is Boris’.
Sonia Purnell on attempts to contact Johnson, Mayor of London, after the start of rioting in London on 6/7th August 2011
Histories of the Present. Remembering March 2020, Boris Johnson & British Exceptionalism
Labour Shadow Minister Jon Ashworth in an interesting Guardian piece on Downing St and COVID in March 2020 revealed that the virus was widespread at the centre of Government in Whitehall as Boris Johnson havered over lockdown measures:
On Monday 16th March Johnson suggested people avoid pubs and theatres (I’d been in a London pub on Sunday 15th March- the Cock Tavern in Hackney and didn’t go into one again until July-the same pub as it happens). On 20th March he ordered them to close and on Monday 23rd March he announced the first lockdown.
Yet it was all too late. COVID was already widespread in the community-certainly in London. As the Guardian article notes numbers may have had it but getting a test was virtually impossible.
However many, myself included, started to act before Johnson. I cancelled a socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research on 16th March (the building was open) and also a London union officers committee meeting in central London I was due to chair the previous week. In both cases there was a sense that getting people together in small rooms was not a great idea.
It was still happening in Downing St though.
On Friday 13th March I attended the annual Bernie Grant Memorial meeting in Tottenham. It was packed with hundreds of people and I felt uneasy. I’m not aware though of a significant COVID spike related to it, thankfully. At this stage the precautions stage was at elbow bumps rather than handshakes. Social distancing and masks were a way off.
Probably the thing that really brought home how far Johnson was behind much of public sentiment was the start of the cancellation of Premiership football matches.
The game between Spurs and Manchester United on Sunday 15th March was much anticipated. It was cancelled at short notice. As often business (which is what Premiership football mostly is)was in front of Johnson.
He stuck to his Podsnappery, ‘Not English’ line that COVID restrictions were for *other* countries for another week. As a result many more got ill, died and suffered long term illness than might have been the case.
Keir Starmer deserves some credit for pitching up at an HGV driver training centre in Oldham on Tuesday. After all Johnson is on holiday while the Labour leader is at least focusing on an issue of central importance.
That said and taking into account that Starmer is hardly my flavour of Labour leader (tbh they rarely are, I even had issues with Jeremy Corbyn, though not the beard) but I want a Labour Government ASAP, it must be asked why is a comedy video of the occasion appearing on the front page of the BBC website(link below)? Is Starmer in fact planning to star in a new series of the Thick of It?
Neil Kinnock falling over on a beach was unfortunate but it was not meant to be a stunt. It was an accident.
On this occasion Starmer is in the cab of an HGV but due to an inability to turn the truck left he crashes into some bollards. The instructor tells him he has failed the test.
Circumstantial evidence suggests driving is not Starmer’s strong point (an unfortunate incident in Kentish Town involving a cyclist..) and this whole episode makes him look not like a future PM but simply inept. I think that is an issue.
Mikkeller: a further reminder about why craft beer needs trade unions
The Mikkeller beer celebration takes place in Copenhagen on October 22nd.
Some breweries have pulled out including to their credit Kernel, amidst concerns about harassment and bullying at some locations run by the brewer.
Mikkeller have issued a statement noting that they are addressing the issues but it goes rather wider than that.
They are a brewer that grew quickly with the rise of craft beer, but like some others, did not put in place the people framework, procedures and policies that an employer on any significant scale needs.
Hence incidents took place with no way to resolve them or even raise them.
As beer writer Matthew Curtis has argued (@totalcurtis) craft beer needs to recognise this and change its practices.
However allowing employers to self-regulate, however well intentioned, is just not enough. There needs to be independent scrutiny and accountability where people are not afraid to speak out. That means that its time for craft beer to recognise trade unions. That wont resolve issues in itself but it will be a start
Update
After Kernel, Three Hills Brewery has now pulled out too. This wont change the world or things overnight but as a marker about where craft and modern beer should be heading- towards decently paid employees with good conditions in workplaces where they have independent representation by a union- it is an important.
Michael Rosen faces Graham Potter in Beard of Autumn Beard Off final
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the final of the Beard of Autumn 2021 is now open.
The Beard Off final features the winners of the second preliminary round, cricketer Moeen Ali and author Michael Rosen.
They join Brighton FC manager Graham Potter and actor David Tennant who topped the first round vote and go through to the Beard Off final
The winner will be announced on 15th October
The Beard of Autumn is the final quarterly award of the year with the vote for the coveted Beard of the Year 2021 getting underway at the beginning of December
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expect the Beard Off for the Beard of Autumn to be a close shave
Boris Johnson’s holidays. Nice for those who can afford it
After the Tory Conference in Manchester Boris Johnson left for Spain for a week’s holiday.
For those who have just seen a cut in their Universal Credit benefit, this may seem like a different universe. The latest Johnson holiday has aroused some comment. Enough it would seem for Tory Security Minister Damian Hinds to be despatched to tell the media that the PM should have time to relax, unwind and be with his family. Millions might feel that this is nice if you can, as they struggle to get by.
Johnson is now reported to be staying at a property owned by Lord Zac Goldsmith who failed in a bid to replace Johnson as Tory Mayor of London at the 2016 Election.
The Guardian has now revealed (and Goldsmith has not denied) that the ultimate ownership of the property is linked to offshore tax havens of the kind exposed in the recently published Pandora papers. It is not of course illegal but it underlines a fundamentally immoral approach to wealth, how it is gained and how it is used
The villa is in Marbella Club Hills. The area is apparently known for excellent restaurants and golf. One suspects the former more than the latter interests Johnson.
The area is a long standing favourite of the wealthy and both Tony & Cherie Blair and Dave Cameron have been there in recent years. A range of other even more dubious but rich individuals own property or have business interests in the area.
Johnson who is paid £155,000 a year as PM often claims to be broke (he does have a lot of children to support…). Even so one might think he could afford a week in Marbella. That of course is not the Johnsonian worldview. His spokesperson has refused to confirm that he is paying which very probably means he isnt. He will have to declare the cost of the holiday as a donation in the Parliamentary register again…
Is Johnson paying?
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson earns £155,000 a year. Is he paying for a week in Marbella himself or is it another donation?
Johnson appears to have been on holiday in Spain only once before in the 1980s(not quite his ideal location) with sister Rachel.
No doubt he would have preferred Italy or further afield but the Spain holiday no doubt comes free, always a factor of the perpetually cash strapped Johnson (Prime Ministerial salary c£150,000 a year).
Indeed while he was recently on a brief and interrupted break at his father Stanley’s house in the West Country and in 2020 had an equally ill fated stay in Scotland. Its far away climes that have generally attracted Johnson
Sonia Purnell in Just Boris noted that in 2010 he took his then wife Marina Wheeler on holiday to India. It was not a short affair. They were still at Serai on New Year’s Eve.
Purnell describes the location as ‘a luxury camp of tented villas in the Thar desert, Rajasthan.. Conde Naste Traveller observed the 24 ‘tents’ around a pool (in a desert) inspired by a traditional Indian step-well represented ‘a new level of luxury’.
Suites for two cost up to £716 for bed and breakfast per night.
While no one can object to people taking holidays usually they are expected to do some work in between, not least to earn the money to pay for the holiday. This is not the Johnsonian model.
Perhaps its time for a Grand National Holiday. The Chartists tried this in 1839 calling for people to stop work until the Government treated people equally and fairly. It didn’t work then, but it may be time to have another try.
There were many media reports that after the Tory Conference in Manchester Boris Johnson left for Spain for a week’s holiday.
Johnson is stayed at a villa owned by Zac Goldsmith in Marbella
Its now been revealed that he did free of charge since the two are of course mates
For those who have just seen a cut in their Universal Credit benefit, this may seem like a different universe.
It mirrors somewhat the ‘confusion’ over where Johnson stayed when in Mustique in January 2020 (see below). It was reported that Johnson had persauded Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross to let him use a villa he owned on the island. When it became clear that this was an issue ‘donation’ wise he started claiming that he had not infact stayed there but at an unidentified residence nearby.
The point being that if the holiday location is not paid for by Johnon but donated it needs to be properly declared as a gift under Parliamentary rules
The area is apparently known for excellent restaurants and golf. One suspects the former more than the latter interests Johnson.
The area is a long standing favourite of the wealthy and both Tony & Cherie Blair and Dave Cameron have been there in recent years. A range of other even more dubious but rich individuals own property or have business interests in the area.
Johnson appears to have been on holiday in Spain only once before in the 1980s(not quite his ideal location) with sister Rachel.
No doubt he would have preferred Italy or further afield but the Spain holiday no doubt comes free, always a factor of the perpetually cash strapped Johnson (Prime Ministerial salary c£150,000 a year).
Indeed while he was recently on a brief and interrupted break at his father Stanley’s house in the West Country and in 2020 had an equally ill fated stay in Scotland. Its far away climes that have generally attracted Johnson.
Johnson’s last holiday abroad was in January 2020 in Mustique. That led to a Parliamentary inquiry as to who had paid for the villa he stayed in.
He has taken breaks at Chequers a country house owned by the Government several times in the last 18 months and these are mostly cost free..
Sonia Purnell in Just Boris noted that in 2010 he took his then wife Marina Wheeler on holiday to India. It was not a short affair. They were still at Serai on New Year’s Eve.
Purnell describes the location as ‘a luxury camp of tented villas in the Thar desert, Rajasthan.. Conde Naste Traveller observed the 24 ‘tents’ around a pool (in a desert) inspired by a traditional Indian step-well represented ‘a new level of luxury’.
Suites for two cost up to £716 for bed and breakfast per night.
While no one can object to people taking holidays usually they are expected to do some work in between, not least to earn the money to pay for the holiday. This is not the Johnsonian model.
