Kmflett's Blog

The S*n at Labour Conference: the long shadow of Blair hangs over Starmer

The S*n paper will be at Labour’s Brighton Conference and there will rightly be protests. Keir Starmer when running for leader said he would not entertain the paper but since then his political relationship with Peter Mandelson appears to have grown.

Mandelson while in later years critical of Murdoch’s media empire in the New Labour period was known to be close to the Murdochs.

The paper banned by most on Merseyside, well-known for phone hacking and virulently anti-union is no friend of the labour movement.

New Labour however believed that winning an Election without Murdoch on board would be difficult.

As early as August 16^th 1994 Alastair Campbell was recording in his diary:

‘I’d read an interview with Murdoch in Der Spiegel in which he said he could see himself backing Blair. TB said he was probably messing around. I wasn’t so sure. The right wing have had it with Major, and I think we can really make trouble. The aim should be to keep the left press on board, neutralise the Mail, and if possible get the S*n to back us’.

The S*n did end up backing Labour in 1997 and Campbell went on to write many pieces for Blair that appeared in the paper.

The S*n then had a vast circulation pre the internet and social media.

The Murdoch papers no longer make their circulation figures public but the S*n sells a fraction of what it did 25 years ago and is just one voice, discredited by events, amongst many.

Of course if Starmer reads the New Labour playbook, then the S*n being at a Labour conference is important. Actually in 2021 it isn’t and it’s also political poison.

Beard Liberation Front

24^th September

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Starmer’s Road Ahead ushers in new era of clean-shaven revisionism

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that as Labour meets in Brighton it is concerned that Keir Starmer’s Road Ahead pamphlet ushers in a new era of clean shaven revisionism.

One of the reasons for the foundation of the BLF in the mid-1990s was to oppose what was seen as the clean shaven revisionist politics of New Labour.

A search of Starmer’s pamphlet reveals that there are no mentions of beards, facial hair or follicles. Despite the fact the Labour leader is a regular attender at the hairdresser to have his hair styled, there is no reference to the importance of image either.

The BLF says that Beard Power is an important factor in 2021 and Labour needs to show it understands the importance of follicles in politics.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we have long urged Keir Starmer to adopt beard friendly policies but instead he seems to be opting for clean shaven revisionism. Its like a tribute act to the 1990s but we doubt it’s a voter winner 30 years on.

Keir Starmer & roads

Keir Starmer writes near the end of his Fabian pamphlet (2021) that ‘the road ahead will be long, the journey will not be simple,

Road imagery on the left is quite common.

Stalin was reputed be perpetually on the road to socialism though some found themselves diverted to the gulag. Hence the British Communist Party’s long running programme when first produced in 1951- the British Road to Socialism-was claimed to be inspired by Uncle Joe.

Charles Parker’s radio ballad, The Long March of Everyman was also about a road journey but here people were marching not walking properly on the pavement as one suspects Sir Keir envisages.

Eric Hobsbawm, definitely a road man, saw the forward march of labour being halted by Thatcherism

On the other hand Sir Keir’s road is certainly not the kind of shining path preferred by several varieties of Maoist.

The problem with road imagery in general is its lack of engagement with actual history and how change occurs. Of course modest incremental changes often take a long time to happen, hence a journey.

More radical change though more often occurs in bursts, sometimes quite unexpectedly (to most anyway). People are not on a journey they are seeing the world change suddenly before their eyes, not as bystanders or fellow travellers but as participants.

Beard Liberation Front

23^rd September

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front confirms it did not speak to the S*n on beards & dirt ‘story’

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has confirmed that it did not speak to The S*n about a story regarding dirt in beards that appeared in some editions on 23^rd September.

The story first surfaced in 2019 and the S*n has simply cut and pasted it over 2 years later including a comment from BLF Organiser Keith Flett

The Big Issue investigated the original story and revealed that it is totally made up

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the BLF neither reads or buys the S*n and we urge others to follow the same practice. Pogonophobia is but one of its very many prejudices

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

23rd September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Friendly Pub of the Year (Classic). Finalists revealed

The Beard Liberation Front has said that the delayed vote for Beard Friendly Pub and Bar of the Year has now reached the final round with the winners of the three preliminary rounds plus the highest second placed pub going through.

The Lost and Grounded Tap in Bristol shaved The Bumble Inn in Peterborough to win the third preliminary round.

Former winner The Cock Tavern in Hackney won Round Two, shaving The Maltings in York. The Hackney Tap bearded Bubs in Cardiff in Round One.

The Maltings, York received the highest number of second place votes across the three rounds and becomes the fourth finalist.

The on-line poll featured three rounds each consisting of four of the most beard friendly pubs. A final beard off vote will now feature 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 is 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 in January each year.

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

The decisive winner in the Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2020 poll which saw 11,000 votes cast in 10 days was the Bumble Inn micropub in Peterborough. The runner up was the Cock Tavern in Hackney

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expect the Beard Off final to see hairs being splitting for the winner

The Beard Friendly Pub of the Year Beard Off Final will open at Midday on Friday 24^th September and close at Midday on Tuesday 28^th September

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(Classic) Beard Off Final

The Cock Tavern, Hackney

The Maltings, York

Lost & Grounded Taproom Bristol

Hackney Tap

Starmer’s Road Ahead: Progressive not socialist

Keir Starmer has published his views of the past and future as a Fabian pamphlet, The Road Ahead:

I don’t think it is all his own work. Philip Collins a rather dull right-wing columnist seems to have been involved. Suffice to say that he neither likes the left or in any way understands it.

That said there is nothing that much that is hugely problematic or indeed interesting here. Starmer prefers the ‘progressive’ of the late nineteenth century rather than the ‘socialist’ of the twentieth. Much as I disagree with Tony Blair and his advisors (like Starmer he was no history man) he did this kind of thing much, much better.

Starmer notes that the standard version of Labour history is well-known, just not by him. Ralph Miliband opened his Parliamentary Socialism(1961) by noting that Labour had always been the most dogmatic of parties,  not about socialism but about sticking to Parliamentary rules. That might sum up Starmer’s approach as he mentions no extra-Parliamentary protest at all from Extinction Rebellion to Black Lives Matter but he hasn’t read Miliband.

He talks (page 16) of Labour’s vision of Government working with the private sector. Indeed that was Blair’s vision and it was a disaster. Try public ownership.

I might say more but the whole tone of the document is that of something that Labour could have produced after 1945, in 1959, in 1970, 1979 and so on. In short if Starmer actually did know his Labour history he’d know that this is not something to meet the very serious challenges of the 2020s

London Socialist Historians Group

27th May

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Chelsea Flower Show: historians call for allotments & parks to be the ‘new normal’

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, has said that with the  Chelsea Flower Show open until the weekend, a reminder about the wider role of allotments and parks needs to be made.

While the Flower Show is often seen as an event for the better off in society it reflects a much wider interest in gardens, flowers and plants.

However as recent ONS statistics underlined those who have access to gardens are more likely to be at the better off end of society. By contrast the poor who live in shared accommodation, with a higher proportion of ethnic minorities, rely much more on parks for outdoor space and enjoyment, with access to gardens at best limited.

Public parks have been a focus of campaigning since the 1830s with growing provision in the late Victorian period aimed at allowing the least well off with poor living conditions the ability to get outside. In recent times parks, including displays of flowers and plants, have fallen victim to austerity inspired cuts.

A related movement developed around allotments, with the first Act providing for provision dating back to 1908. While the focus here was and is on growing fruit and vegetables they also allowed less well-off people the chance to get outside. Well known current allotment holders include Jeremy Corbyn and Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, many enjoy the Chelsea Flower Show. However if we are looking at provision of outdoor space for the many not the few there needs to be more of a focus on the provision of parks and allotments. They must become one of the benchmarks of the new normal and there is an impressive history of people fighting for their provision that needs to be renewed now.

Beard Liberation Front

22^nd September

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard of the Year Michael Rosen sets Autumn Equinox trend for the hirsute

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that joint Beard of the Year 2020, Michael Rosen, has set an Autumn Equinox beard trend for the autumn months.

A picture of the author and Arsenal supporter wearing shaded glasses and a semi-pork pie style hat together with a prudently trimmed beard has been posted on social media.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, of course there are many autumn beard styles, but when the joint Beard of the Year, posts this is definitely one that will be on trend in the weeks to come.

Electing a Labour leader: a matter of historical perspective

I don’t always agree with what the political correspondent Stephen Bush of the New Statesman writes but when it comes to media reports on changes Keir Starmer’s plans to how Labour leaders are elected he is right.

Every available position has been held by the key sections of the Labour Party at some point in the last 40 years or so.

Originally the Leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party was elected only by MPs. One might speculate that the changes in how people saw the world after 1968 led to a mood reflected in Labour but also elsewhere that this was not democratic enough.

Labour held a Special Conference at Wembley on 24^th January 1981 to look at moving away from the MP only method of electing the Labour leader.

Tony Benn and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy which had pressed for change wanted an Electoral College. Benn recorded in his Diary:

Eric Heffer moved the principle of the Electoral College and Frank Chapple of the EEPTU then proposed the ballot of individual members. Moss Evans (TGWU now Unite)spoke for the College at conference. David Owen said he stood by the principle of one member one vote..

In the end an USDAW motion proposing an electoral college of 40% trade unions and 30% for MPs, 30% for CLPs was passed by 5 million votes to 1.8 million.

The right supported OMOV because they wanted to split from the unions. So committed were David Owen and others to Labour democracy that shortly afterwards they walked out to form the SDP.

The Electoral College was seen then as an advance by the left, while both Neil Kinnock and John Smith backed OMOV.

Labour moved to OMOV under Ed Miliband in 2014. By this point the left saw the trade union leaders(not union members) as a conservative layer who blocked any chance of an effective radical Labour leadership

Meanwhile the Tories had moved to OMOV in 1998 and William Hague was the first leader elected under the system in 2001.

Reports suggest that Starmer wants to move back to an Electoral College. I suspect this is not because he has been reading the collected works of Tony Benn. He sees a union vote as a block to a more radical membership. It might be reflected though that it was precisely this membership that gave him a resounding victory as leader just last year. Meanwhile the current leaders of the largest affiliated unions, certainly Unite and perhaps the GMB, may be less than thrilled with the idea that they again will be charged with a significant role in determining the Labour leader. They have other priorities in 2021 often focused on practical policies to defend members.

Gas & Haulage. E P Thompson on the impact of crisis on a sense of people power

The late historian E P Thompson wrote an essay’, Writing By Candlelight’ on the 1970 power strike which led to power cuts, about one of the impacts this had on how people saw the world.

He noted ‘it is only when dustbins linger in the street, unsorted post piles up or petrol pumps run dry that people know suddenly the great hidden unspoken fact about our society, their own daily power’ (paraphrased by Francis Wheen, Guardian 13^th September 2000)

The current crisis of gas supplies and shortage of goods due to lack of HGV drivers is not due of course directly to industrial action. It does however serve as a reminder that society works because it is based on what ordinary people do, rather than the pronouncements of the rich and powerful and this is as true now as it was 50 years ago.