Kmflett's Blog

Boris Johnson’s holidays.

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.

London Socialist Historians Group

The Red and the Black: the Russian Revolution and the Black Atlantic.

Monday 18^th October 5.30pm

Speakers include

Winston James (University of California, Irvine).

Olga Panova (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

David Featherstone (University of Glasgow)

Christian Høgsbjerg (University of Brighton)

Link to recording

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/xc9VgOh7HvHPxx0UzZxDRpycWlCs40BXZ3e3gDuKGQJX2LukC_M4-1buZ_42jkq-.7H2hSukQPRO2Rg5D Passcode: !H.YbYB8

The recording includes contributions from those named above, including Prof Winston James on Claude McKay, the black supporter of the Russian Revolution who was in London in 1919 and 1920 and worked with Sylvia Pankhurst

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was not just a world-historical event in its own right, but also struck powerful blows against racism and imperialism, and so inspired many black radicals internationally. This edited collection explores the implications of the creation of the Soviet Union and the Communist International for black and colonial liberation struggles across the African diaspora. It examines the critical intellectual influence of Marxism and Bolshevism on the current of revolutionary ‘black internationalism’ and analyses how ‘Red October’ was viewed within the contested articulations of different struggles against racism and colonialism.

Challenging European-centred understandings of the Russian Revolution and the global left, The Red and the Black offers new insights on the relations between Communism, various lefts and anti-colonialisms across the Black Atlantic – including Garveyism and various other strands of Pan-Africanism. The volume makes a major and original intellectual contribution by making the relations between the Russian Revolution and the Black Atlantic central to debates on questions relating to racism, resistance and social change

More details contact: Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

The Ambridge Socialist

10^th October

Jazzer: working-class hero

Blake has been sleeping at the bird watching hide and is discovered by the Professor and Jazzer. Jazzer is far better than Kirsty and Lynda at relating to Blake’s experiences. They share details of their proletarian backgrounds and Jazzer accepts Blake on his own terms. True class solidarity

Stella averts latest ruling class crisis

New manager at Home Farm Stella has managed to keep the Borchester Land contract for the farm, after outlining details of modernisations. She has her own agenda, which is bad news for former associate Justin who is clearly hoping Brian will sell the farm, and he can profit from the result. The ruling class war in Ambridge is set to continue

Vince Casey makes another error

Vince Casey is a hard headed meat dealer who in current times should be very well placed indeed. His personal angsts however can’t be assuaged by the thought of increased profit. He seriously embarrassed himself at a dinner he had invited Beth and Ben to, though it being Ambridge, in this case all ended happily… So far.

Jazzer is teaching Chelsea how to ride a motorbike

Possibly…

When will an Ambridge resident make it on to Strictly?

Jazzer? Tracey? Eddie Grundy?

Johnson goes on holiday to Andalusia: Crisis, what crisis?

The Sunday Mirror has reported that after the Tory Conference in Manchester Boris Johnson left for Spain for a week’s holiday.

It seems likely that Johnson is staying at a villa owned by Lord Fink.

Fink a former Tory Treasurer funded Johnson’s campaign to be London Mayor. He is best known for being a hedge fund manager and enthusiastic tax avoider

The villa is in Marbella Club Hills, Benahavis and Fink described it as the ‘nearest thing to paradise’ although this must be balanced by the fact that his London residence is in Northwood (NW London)

The area is apparently known for excellent restaurants and golf. One suspects the former more than the latter interests Johnson

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 an important consideration for Johnson

Jack’O’Lanterns, Pumpkins & the Hobgoblin of Communism

Ever since journalist looking for something to fill some space reported that there was a shortage of pumpkins, I’ve seen piles of them. Clearly the shortage here is relative..

The pumpkin of course is a relatively modern part of Halloween, the invented tradition originating from America.

The doesn’t mean that there was no tradition, although until the twentieth century it seems to have been confined mainly to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Somerset(see Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun). The vegetables used traditionally for a jack’o’lantern were either turnips or mangel wurzels.

Hutton notes that they were ‘carved out with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins’.

In that context its worth keeping in mind that the opening line of the Communist Manifesto talks of not a ‘spectre’ haunting Europe but as the original English translation by Helen Macfarlane in the Chartist Red Republican paper in November 1850 had it, a ‘frightful hobgoblin’ stalks Europe.

Beard Liberation Front

9th October

John Lennon b.9^th October 1940: ‘the establishment will irritate you-pull your beard..’

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that on the 81st anniversary of his birth on 9th October 1940, it looks to John Lennon for important advice to beard wearers who are provoked by beard haters and pogonophobes.

Lennon warned that the establishment would seek to provoked beard wearers by pulling their beards. He underlined that the appropriate way to react was to avoid the provocation by using ‘non-violence and humour’

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, John Lennon was one of the twentieth centuries most iconic beard wearers, and is advice on how to deal with pogonophobes remains relevant

“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humour.”

John Lennon

So Bloody Much to Oppose: English exceptionalism & why Perry Anderson is still wrong

In the case of Britain the idea that the British left and working-class are uniquely useless has been around for 50 years or so. This point is a sort of offshoot of declinist theories of British history that sees the country as never really becoming a modern industrial power, still stuck firmly in an aristocratic past.

David Edgerton continues to do excellent work in debunking declinism (New Statesman 5^th October).

British industry is in a slow decline in many areas- competing with China really wont be happening in the political structures the UK has however authoritarian Johnson tries to make them or Starmer dreams of making them.

The British working class movement is hardly at a peak either. Organised workers are increasing slightly in number but the age of the average trade unionist suggests there is trouble ahead. On the other hand before Starmer, the Labour Party had managed to become by far the largest social-democratic party in Europe. Of course for those that think winning Elections is the be all and end all that didn’t matter (I’m in favour of winning elections btw) but a social force was created that one way or another will be around probably for a generation now.

That is the 2021 backdrop in labour movement terms of the declinist analysis.

Perry Anderson and Tom Nairn, writing in New Left Review in the mid-1960s declared themselves to be profoundly disappointed with the ‘labourist’ traditions of the British working class, compared to more exciting developments elsewhere in Europe.

While it’s true that TUC General Secretaries and Labour leaders are rarely radical firebrands leading militant action- so Anderson and Nairn had a point- the general thrust of their argument that Britain was exceptional was answered by the historian EP Thompson.

He noted that while it was true that the British working class had perhaps not developed a sustained and sophisticated marxist analysis of capitalism, this might have been because it was too busy opposing the activities of British imperialism and its numerous foreign interventions and wars. It still is.

For the historian the claim that something is exceptional always needs to be viewed with care. Comparative history is one of the most difficult aspects of the historians art because comparing like with like is so tricky.

But it is better history to explain what has or has not happened by careful reference to objective circumstances rather than simply noting things are better or worse elsewhere.

That said, it is true that the British labour movement does have one claim to exceptionality.

It genuinely was the first in the world.

When the Chartists formed the National Charter Association in 1841 it was the world’s first working-class party, although the development of working class political organisation in France and Germany, along similar but slightly different lines followed closely on.

An alternative way of understanding Anderson/Nairn is that the British labour movement paid a price for being first. It developed into forms of organisation that have been sustained but might have been different if they had been formed later…

Campaign for Real Conkers 2021

Media Release

9th October

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Conker World Championships: don’t just watch conkers, give it a go yourself say campaigners

The Campaign for Real Conkers which backs ‘no rules’ conker playing has said that it is once again boycotting the World Conker Championships on 10th October due to its obsession with rules and regulations.

There are serious concerns that conkers lie uncollected in many areas of the country as the traditional autumn game declines in favour of screen-based activities

The campaigners say that in particular rules are killing conkers as a game. The World Championships dictates who can play who and what conker is to be used. The CRFC says that if conkers is to survive it must be a free for all and free to play.

In recent times the World Conker Championships have recognised that playing conkers is very much up to individual preferences and local traditions but the Championships themselves remain rule bound.

The campaign encourages conker players to hold their own ‘no rules’ events on the day

Campaign for Real Conkers Organiser Keith Flett said, conker playing is part of the traditional British autumn, but if action is not taken to promote it and encourage people to play in a few years it will be a folk memory. Conkers is not a rule bound spectator sport, it’s something to play yourself and sod rules.

Campaign for Real Conkers

1] There is no restriction on where and when a conker match may be played, or between whom

2] There is no restriction on how the conker is presented. It may be organic, baked, soaked in vinegar etc

3] There are no winners or losers as such but if a player is unable to carry on due to an unusable conker it may be taken that their opponent has prevailed on that occasion

4] Conker matches can only take place when two players who have conkers are present.

5] if for any reason someone at 4 is unable to proceed for any reason then the other player prevails by default.

World Conker Championships

https://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/play.php

More developments in Brains Brewery

Brains has announced (I think) that it plans to sell the freehold of 99 pubs in its estate. The pubs are currently leased to Marstons on a 25 year deal (but still sell a core range of Brains beers). Brains are retaining some other freehold and leasehold pubs (again I think) and have also sold some. The pub estate was originally 250 pubs.

It’s a labyrinthine story the latest twist of which seems to be about Brains selling the pubs in question as a financial investment.

Brains has previously said it planned to close its new Dragon brewery (opened in 2019) but this is currently brewing again after much reduced COVID activity and its unclear what the position there is.

There is no question that Brains has been hit hard by the pandemic but before March 2020 it was already selling pubs and offloaded its apparently successful Coffee No.1 chain.

I haven’t been the greatest fan of Brains beers in recent times but they are one of the great regional cask brewers and Brains Dark (brewed again in recent weeks) remains a superb beer.

One gets the impression that Brains are still looking for a way out of brewing and pubs which would be a significant loss to Wales. Perhaps its time for the Welsh Government to step in it and nationalise it…

BBC Report

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58847939

Writing the history of the New Labour years. From PFI to Stop the War

History is generally accepted to start from 30 years after an event, even if sometimes it is too soon to say at that point what the impact of a particular event has been. Its worth noting though that in recent times many Government papers (although perhaps not the most interesting ones) have been released after 20 years

The beginning of the New Labour period in 1997 is moving towards the history books while the end in 2010 is still a way off in that historical framework. However attempts are being made by both the Tories and Labour and by many media commentators to assess what the legacy of New Labour is. The process isn’t helped by the regular ‘rare’ interventions by Tony Blair in public life either attempting to justify what he did or did not do as Prime Minister or seeking to persuade people that things would be much better if he was still in charge. Not many agree with that anywhere on the political spectrum.

Keir Starmer appears to be equivocal on the matter although given his less than commanding public presence people could be for forgiven for having missed that.

Starmer recently told the New Statesman that the reason why Labour still doesn’t get support from some was the decision to back the war in Iraq in 2003. Starmer noted that he had opposed it. On the other hand he has tried to reclaim the modest reforms of the 1997-2010 period, no doubt reminded by advisors like Peter Mandelson.

How far the changes of that time made a positive difference to ordinary people, and how far they simply ushered in greater private sector involvement in public services, something continued and magnified by the Tories, should be discussed more.

The decision to back the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and then Iraq usually only features 20 years on in a framework that notes it didn’t really work out but was not that controversial at the time.

It was of course very controversial

The Stop the War Coalition which was formed in November 2001 is perpetually derided by right-wing critics and those who like wars as either pacificists or supporters of terrorism (it’s quite difficult to be both). Like any social movement it has its ups and downs in support. It is however still here and held a 20th anniversary event at Conway Hall in London on 18th September.

You might be forgiven for not noticing. While the recent withdrawal from Afghanistan marked the end of a 20 year strategy by the US, the UK and others, those who said it would all end in tears (and for many much worse than that) have not featured much in media coverage.

This tells you unsurprising things about the British media of course, points about its narrowness of focus that have been made many times.

The forces that came together to form the Stop the War Coalition- CND, the Muslim Association of Britain and a spectrum of the left  held a meeting full to overflowing shortly after the invasion of  Afghanistan started on 20^th September 2001. The first demonstration, organised by CND, took place in London on Saturday October 13th 2001. I was at both.

With the invasion of Iraq pending the STWC organised what remains the biggest demonstration in British history in central London on 15th February 2003.

So it went on and goes on, protesting against Western military interventions but still often ignored by the media for whom the basic message of opposition to war was and remains an inconvenient one

After the Labour Conference in Brighton at the end of September a preliminary assessment of the New Labour years has some significance.

An earlier version of this post appeared in the Morning Star