Kmflett's Blog

Ralph Miliband on Labour as a ‘Broad Church’. Has Starmerism changed that?

The late Ralph Miliband wrote one of the best books about the history of the Labour Party, Parliamentary Socialism,1961, albeit of course it doesn’t cover the last 60 years.

Miliband, the father of David and Ed, opens the book by making the statement that as a democratic socialist party Labour had always been amongst the most dogmatic. Not about socialism but about the use of Parliamentary as opposed to extra-Parliamentary forms of struggle.

His view at that time was that Labour under Hugh Gaitskell was not a vehicle for socialist advance and the leadership of the rather more ‘left-wing’ Harold Wilson did nothing to change his mind.

He did however keep the matter under review and sometimes returned to the subject, for example in the Socialist Register 1983:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/miliband/1983/xx/advance.htm

Here he see the rise of the Bennite left from the early 1980s as a sign that may be Labour could be claimed for socialism. Significantly perhaps it appeared in the year that a, then young, Jeremy Corbyn first became an MP.

Tom Watson before he stepped down described an effort to abolish his then Deputy Leader position as going against the idea of Labour as a ‘broad church’. Harold Wilson was probably right that Labour owes more to Methodism than Marx but as Miliband noted the ‘broad’ part of the description is harder to justify historically.

Pious references to the Labour Party being a ‘broad church’ which has always incorporated many different strands of thought fail to take account of a crucial fact, namely that the ‘broad church’ of Labour only functioned effectively in the past because one side – the Right and Centre – determined the nature of the services that were to be held, and excluded or threatened with exclusion any clergy too deviant in its dissent.

Socialists can certainly be active in the Labour Party and have been but managing to control it as an institution and grapple with its Parliamentary focus is much harder.

Ralph Miliband never reached a definitive conclusion as to whether socialists could best organise effectively within the Labour Party or outside it, or perhaps both. After the 2021 Labour conference it’s a discussion that remains as relevant as ever.

James Bond & the Tory Party

I have never been a great fan of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books or the films that came from them. I don’t like the machismo, the sexism or the politics and the world of spies and the cold war is not something that I find myself engaged with.

You might think that the Bond books and particularly the movies are mainly about sex and stunts, and No Time to Die has plenty of both, but there are politics too

What, for example, was James Bond up to in 1956? In the novel From Russia With Love, Bond jumps from the Arlberg Express as Heinkel and associates confront him at about the time of the Hungarian uprising. It is not clear if Bond was in Hungary, but those who have spent more time pondering the book than I have suggest that this is very likely, since the train in question ran through Hungary, Austria and Switzerland to London.

This may amount to no more than Fleming providing a topical reference to events in his book. However, the Old Etonian Fleming was closely connected to the British secret service and his plots were based in many cases on real-life scenarios. It may be suggested that his story lines were often fanciful and far-flung affairs, but this may tell us more about the secret service than it does about the plots’ likely veracity.

I should note that according to the Financial Times MI6 does indeed find Bond a bit far-fetched. Not so much so that he might not be a modern CIA agent, but British intelligence prefers to think of itself more in the Smiley model of espionage.

Fleming, not surprisingly, was a Tory. Slightly more surprisingly, he was the kind of Tory that David Cameron might have claimed for his own.

After the 1951 general election victory, Fleming argued that the Tories had no long-term future unless they ditched their association with the rich and renamed themselves the People’s Party.

Fleming, partly through marriage, had serious connections with the upper echelons of the Tory Party. He was a friend of John Profumo and also an acquaintance of Anthony Eden, the Tory Prime Minister in 1956.

Hence, when Eden’s health collapsed after the launch of the illegal invasion of Egypt at the end of October 1956 and his doctor ordered “complete rest,” it was to Fleming’s Jamaican retreat Goldeneye that Eden and his wife decided to go.

Incidentally, Fleming lifted the name James Bond from the leading authority on Caribbean birds of the same name.

The arrival of the British prime minister sent the colonial administration and the ex-patriot community into something of a flap. Noel Coward, who lived nearby, procured some caviar and Earl Grey tea for Eden and arrived at the gates of Goldeneye to deliver them. He did not, however, get beyond the gates.

Unfortunately, Fleming’s house was infested by rats, with which Eden became obsessed. After a late night rat hunt, when seven of the vermin were killed, Eden had to return to London, before the whole thing made his health even worse.

Still with the Tory Party shaken if not stirred by political and economic crisis the return of James Bond may remind them of a time, pre Suez 1956, when the sun had not quite set on the British Empire and the kind of values that Boris Johnson holds dear were still something that found some kind of popular echo in some quarters.

Still politics is one thing and entertainment rather different (if far from unrelated). Hopefully after such a long delay the film will get audiences and with them help to secure the jobs of many in the cinema industry.

Beard Liberation Front

30^th September

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2021. Full details of the winners

The vote has concluded for the Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2021.

The overall winner was the Cock Tavern in Hackney who regained the coveted title after losing it in 2020 to the Bumble Inn in Peterborough:

The Maltings York was voted the most Beard Friendly in the UK outside of London:

There is a press report here:

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/19616784.maltings-york-voted-beard-friendly-pub/

George Orwell, Hop Picking & trade unionism in the 1930s

The hop picking season in the UK is underway and Green Hop beers are being produced.

In 2025 except for very small scale amounts it’s a mechanised process in the main.

The good news in this respect is that there is a resurgence in the growing of and brewing with British hops including modern variants of hops like Fuggles and East Kent Goldings that at one point became associated with distinctly un-hoppy beers.

A reminder below however of what up until at least the 1950s was a significant early autumn source of seasonal work involving many thousands of workers from London picking hops in Kent.

George Orwell’s commentary reminds us in the final line of his own prejudices but also underlines the difficulty of unionising in many areas of the brewing and beer industry, an issue that is with us still.

When one starts work the farm gives one a printed copy of rules, which are designed to reduce a picker more or less to a slave. According to these rules the farmer can sack a picker without notice and on any pretext whatever, and pay him off at 8 bushels a shilling instead of six – i.e. confiscate a quarter of his earnings. If a picker leaves his job before the picking is finished, his earnings are docked the same amount. You cannot draw what you have earned and then clear off, because the farm will never pay you more than two thirds of your earnings in advance, and so are in your debt till the last day. The binmen (i.e. foremen of gangs) get wages instead of being paid on the piecework system, and these wages cease if there is a strike, so naturally they will raise Heaven and earth to prevent one. Altogether the farmers have the hop-pickers in a cleft stick, and always will have until there is a pickers’ union. It is not so much use to try and form a union, though, for about half the pickers are women and gypsies, and are too stupid to see the advantages of it.

Orwell Sept 1931

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

30th September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

York pub voted the most beard friendly in the UK outside London

The Beard Liberation Front has said that the vote for Beard Friendly Pub and Bar of the Year has seen the Maltings pub in York win the race for the most Beard Friendly Pub outside of London.

While the 2019 winner the Cock Tavern in Hackney regained the overall title after losing it to the Bumble Inn micropub in Peterborough in 2020, the Maltings was best placed for the rest of the UK.

The campaigners say that in the annual vote, simply due to population size, it is often the case that a London pub wins the overall title. For that reason a separate award is given to the best placed pub outside of London.

The on-line poll featured three rounds each consisting of four of the most beard friendly pubs. A final beard off vote featured the winner of each round and the highest placed second placed pub.

Because of the circumstances of 2021 with many pubs only able to full open in the last couple of months, the poll was largely focused on Beard Friendly Classic pubs with the addition of a few notable newcomers.

The Beard Friendly Pub of the Year is an annual feature usually held in January each year.

However in the extraordinary circumstances of 2021, the Beard Liberation Front decided to run a vote in September with most pubs now open post the easing of COVID restrictions

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, congratulations go to the Maltings in York, a pub known for many years for excellent beer and food and is now known as one of the most beard friendly too.

The criteria for the Award include:

A safe environment for all.

Beard Friendly Pub: a pub that welcomes the hirsute and often has a significant number of hirsute customers, including but certainly not confined to those with modern styles of beards.

Beard Friendly Ambience: a pub that may have fewer hirsute customers but is welcoming to the hirsute through some bearded bar staff and beard friendly beers, plus has a generally relaxed atmosphere for all.

The campaign group says it welcomes diversity in both appearance and drinking. The truly beard friendly pub will have a genuine mix of customers not just a load of old blokes grumbling about life.

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year Beard Off Final contenders

The Cock Tavern, Hackney

The Maltings, York

Lost & Grounded Taproom Bristol

Hackney Tap

The art of answering the political heckle from Harold Wilson to Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer was heckled during his leaders speech to the Labour conference in Brighton. That was a little odd because this was not a public meeting but a ticketed affair.

Starmer stumbled on at least one heckle but did manage a riposte which got the largely friendly audience on his side. He is on a political learning curve so he deserves some credit. At the same time he has a way to go before he can match the master of the post-1945 response to political heckling Harold Wilson.

Starmer, Brighton, 2021

Sir Keir Starmer asked “shouting slogans or changing lives conference?” as he was heckled at his first party conference as leader of the Labour Party.

Harold Wilson, Birmingham,1966

Wilson was talking about his public expenditure plans when a heckler cried, “What about Vietnam?” – the burning issue of the day. “The government has no plans to increase public expenditure in Vietnam,” rejoined Wilson. Heckler: “Rubbish!” Wilson: “I’ll come to your special interest in a minute, sir.”

The key to it is both an immediate response, but also a witty one that demeans the heckler.

I’m no great fan of either man, but in a democracy, both heckling and responses to it have a role to play

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

29th September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Hackney’s Cock Tavern regains Beard Friendly Pub of the Year title

The Beard Liberation Front has said that the vote for Beard Friendly Pub and Bar of the Year has seen the 2019 winner the Cock Tavern in Hackney regain the title after losing it to the Bumble Inn micropub in Peterborough in 2020

The Maltings, York was shaved by the Cock and took second place getting 27% of the vote compared to the Hackney pub’s 62%. It takes the Outside of London title.

The on-line poll featured three rounds each consisting of four of the most beard friendly pubs. A final beard off vote featured the winner of each round and the highest placed second placed pub.

Because of the circumstances of 2021 with many pubs only able to full open in the last couple of months, the poll was largely focused on Beard Friendly Classic pubs with the addition of a few notable newcomers.

The Beard Friendly Pub of the Year is an annual feature usually held in January each year.

However in the extraordinary circumstances of 2021, the Beard Liberation Front decided to run a vote in September with most pubs now open post the easing of COVID restrictions

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there are a lot of beard wearers in Hackney so perhaps its no surprise that the Cock E8 has regained the title. Congratulations also go to the Maltings in York, a pub known for many years for excellent beer and food that has taken the outside of London title in 2021.

The criteria for the Award include:

A safe environment for all.

Beard Friendly Pub: a pub that welcomes the hirsute and often has a significant number of hirsute customers, including but certainly not confined to those with modern styles of beards.

Beard Friendly Ambience: a pub that may have fewer hirsute customers but is welcoming to the hirsute through some bearded bar staff and beard friendly beers, plus has a generally relaxed atmosphere for all.

The campaign group says it welcomes diversity in both appearance and drinking. The truly beard friendly pub will have a genuine mix of customers not just a load of old blokes grumbling about life.

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year Beard Off Final contenders

The Cock Tavern, Hackney

The Maltings, York

Lost & Grounded Taproom Bristol

Hackney Tap

A Chartist prompt from 1839 for Keir Starmer’s conference speech

This question of Universal Suffrage was a knife and fork question after all; this question was a bread and cheese question, notwithstanding all that had been said against it; and if any man ask him what he meant by Universal Suffrage, he would answer, that every working man in the land had a right to have a good coat to his back, a comfortable abode in which to shelter himself and his family, a good dinner upon his table, and no more work than was necessary for keeping him in health, and as much wages for that work as would keep him in plenty, and afford him the enjoyment of all the blessings of life which a reasonable man could desire. [Tremendous cheers.]

Joseph Rayner Stephens Kersal Moor 24^th September 1838 (reported Northern Star)

William Banfield: A Bakers Union Labour MP in the 1930s

The BFAWU,  Bakers Union has decided to disaffiliate from the Labour Party with which it has been associated since 1902.

Some of the Labour right who don’t see the need for a link between Labour and the unions are no doubt quietly pleased (this doesn’t btw cover all the range of views on the Labour right).

The link between Labour and the unions has from the start in 1900 been a institutional one. So William Banfield (1875-1945) was a very long running General Secretary of the Bakers from 1915-1940

He was also the Labour MP for Wednesbury from 1932 until 1945.

Known as the ‘Baker’s MP’ he spoke hundreds of times in Parliament often raising specific issues on bakers working conditions such as working at night and on Sundays.

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

The specific context of his election is of interest. Wednesbury had been held by Labour from 1918 but at the 1931 Election had gone to the Tories. That was because Labour had split with Ramsay Macdonald becoming Prime Minister in a National Government which aimed to make working people pay the price for the late 1920s world slump.

Banfield won the 1932 By-Election as a Labour MP, someone who opposed the austerity agenda and in fact the seat stayed Labour until it was abolished in 1974.

Banfield’s maiden speech in Parliament gives a flavour of where he was coming from:

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1932/oct/25/conduct-of-national-affairs#S5CV0269P0_19321025_HOC_346

Mr. BANFIELD May I crave the very kind indulgence of the House in making my first speech here. It is very fitting indeed that I should speak upon this Vote of Censure. My very presence in this House, as a matter of fact, constitutes a Vote of Censure on the Government. The electorate in my constituency were fully conscious of the fact that the mere return of one more Labour Member would hardly be sufficient to convert hon. Members opposite, but they were profoundly dissatisfied with the Government, they were tremendously disappointed with the work of the Government, and they registered in the only way they could their disapproval by defeating the Government candidate. The main reasons for the dissatisfaction were the fundamental problem of unemployment, the administration of the means test, and the general lowering of the standard of life which had gone on since the Government came into office. Twelve months ago people all over the country supported the Government in the hope that thereby some possible hope of prosperity would be brought into their lives. The fact remains that during the last 12 months unemployment has become worse, wages have been reduced, and poverty is more apparent, and probably never in the history of this country has a Government fallen from popularity so quickly as the present Government. When we take the Division, I suppose the Government will win, but if a vote of the electorate could be taken to-morrow the result would be very different. There is tremendous resentment over the administration of the means test, a resentment which is not confined to people who are unemployed. It is a resentment which is deep in the hearts of the people who are employed, and people in different stratas of society, including ministers of religion and all kinds of classes and creeds of men and women. They are resentful because they resent the pauperisation of decent people…

London Socialist Historians Group

28^th September

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Socialist Historians to mark Black History Month with a look at what the Tories leave out of history

The London Socialist Historians Group which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical, University London, will mark Black History Month on Monday 4^th October

Monday Oct 4th 5.30pm Marika Sherwood ‘George Orwell told us that ‘the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their own history’. What has been obliterated from ‘our’ history here in the UK and in what used to be our colonies?’

Register for the seminar here(free on Zoom):

https://www.history.ac.uk/node/8133

Marika Sherwood is one of the most well-known historians working in the area of black history in the UK. She was one of the founders in 1991 of the Black and Asian Studies Association.

Her 2007 book After Abolition, Britain and the Slave Trade since 1807 is an important contribution to black history.

The historians say that as part of the Tories Culture Wars the real history of black and minority ethnic people in the UK is increasingly whitewashed. However historians continue to do serious and important research to discover and recover this important part of Britain’s imperial history and resistance to it.