Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

21^st September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Trudeau wins Election despite spin doctors beard shaving stunt

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that results from the Canadian Election indicate that Justin Trudeau has survived a spin doctor beard/clean shaven trick earlier in the year, which saw him shave his beard.

Trudeau shaved what had been a trademark beard in late June

The move to go clean shaven came just weeks after Data Sciences, a digital analyst connected to Trudeau’s Liberal Party, placed a series of Facebook ads in English and French. The ads showed Trudeau with and without a beard and asked which one was favourite.

The outcome of the ad campaign is unknown except that Trudeau lost the beard.

The BLF says that the campaign is strikingly similar to one that Blairite spin doctors ran against the late Frank Dobson in the 2000 London Mayoral Election. Voters were shown pictures of Dobson, a well-known beard wearer, hirsute and non-hirsute. Dobson a man of principle refused to shave his beard come what may. He lost the Election to then independent Ken Livingstone but his beard was not thought to be a factor except by clean shaven revisionist Blairites.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it was a sad moment to see the Frank Dobson beard stunt played on Trudeau over 20 years on. However on this occasion it didn’t work. Its entirely possible that the image many Canadian voters had of Trudeau included his stylish beard not noting he had shaved.

Thanks to Justin Horton for info

Beard Liberation Front

21^st September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Trudeau victim of Frank Dobson style pollster beard/clean shaven trick

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that as Canadians go to the polls it has become clear that Justin Trudeau fell victim to a spin doctor beard/clean shaven trick earlier in the year.

Trudeau shaved what had been a trademark beard in late June

The move to go clean shaven came just weeks after Data Sciences, a digital analyst connected to Trudeau’s Liberal Party, placed a series of Facebook ads in English and French. The ads showed Trudeau with and without a beard and asked which one was favourite.

The outcome of the ad campaign is unknown except that Trudeau lost the beard.

The BLF says that the campaign is strikingly similar to one that Blairite spin doctors ran against the late Frank Dobson in the 2000 London Mayoral Election. Voters were shown pictures of Dobson, a well-known beard wearer, hirsute and non-hirsute. Dobson a man of principle refused to shave his beard come what may. He lost the Election to then independent Ken Livingstone but his beard was not thought to be a factor except by clean shaven revisionist Blairites.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it is a sad moment to see the Frank Dobson beard stunt played on Trudeau over 20 years on.

Thanks to Justin Horton for info

Nine Elms Station, April 1848 & the Chartists

Two new London Underground stations (Northern Line branch from Kennington) opened today, Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station.

Nine Elms will serve the new US Embassy (handy for demos) and New Covent Garden market. It will also serve some new (largely unaffordable) housing being built to offset the cost of the project to TFL. Both stations are in Zone 1 which reflects Sarf London Exceptionalism.

There was however a previous Nine Elms station designed by Sir William Tite. It was opened on 21st May 1838 and was the terminus of the London and Southampton railway. It was not then in central London (is it now one wonders?)and passengers used steam boats on the Thames for onward travel to London Bridge

It closed to passenger traffic on 12th July 1848 when Waterloo opened, although Queen Victoria still used it to welcome Royal and other notable foreign visitors. Garibaldi entered London at Nine Elms in 1864.

The railway company extended the railway to Waterloo, 2 miles of marsh covered by railway arches which cost £35m in today’s money. One of the many joyful tasks Ive had over the years was to negotiate lease details for several of the arches on Goding St which were used to house specialist telecoms equipment for some years.

The line carried freight traffic until hit by a German bomb in 1941. The station and other buildings had been knocked down by 1968, despite opposition from John Betjeman and New Covent Garden Market occupies the site.

After the railways were nationalised in 1848 Attlee’s Labour Government proposed a national museum for larger railway memorabilia such as locomotives and hit upon Nine Elms as the ideal location. The plan had support but British Rail refused to release the site and the museum of course ended up in due course in York.

When the Chartists demonstrated for the vote at nearby Kennington Common on Monday April 10^th 1848 the station was used (with the full support of the railway company of course..) to hold troops in reserve who had come up from Gosport. That included 35 marine artillery soldiers with two light guns and 450 infantrymen.

The expected revolutionary assault on London did not occur and they were probably not used, although some troops were deployed at Blackfriars Bridge to stop the Chartists going north of the Thames. The late historian of Chartism Malcolm Chase argues however that the main purpose of the troops was to protect the railway operation from the Chartists.

Boris Johnson & Climate Change. Changing his mind to suit

Boris Johnson has defended comments made about climate change by the new International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan in 2010 and 2012 noting that just like him she now saw things differently.

A Guardian report and extract from it is here:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/20/johnson-defends-new-trade-secretary-after-climate-crisis-denial-tweets

“I don’t want to encourage you, but if you were to excavate some of my articles from 20 years ago you might find comments I made, obiter dicta, about climate change that weren’t entirely supportive of the current struggle, but the facts change and people change their minds and change their views and that’s very important too,” he said, adding: “The fact is the UK is leading the world and you should be proud of it.”

As recently as 2015, Johnson claimed “global leaders were driven by a primitive fear that the present ambient warm weather is somehow caused by humanity; and that fear – as far as I understand the science – is equally without foundation”.

He also wrote an article in 2013 suggesting the government should consider preparing for a mini-ice age caused by solar activity, drawing on a discredited theory by the climate denier Piers Corbyn –

Piers Corbyn claimed that his theory focused on sun spots was based on Marxism (it wasn’t) and it was in any case completely wrong.

Last month Boris Johnson described the UN report on the impact of climate change as ‘sobering’. It was lunchtime and that suggested perhaps that he had already been following a Churchillian regime that morning (i.e alcohol for breakfast).

At least however he managed to appear to take the matter seriously, which is rare for Johnson and also marks him out from a swathe of right-wing politicians, including some in his own party, who don’t think the matter deserves serious consideration.

Of course its unlikely Johnson will do anything beyond words.

As Sonia Purnell notes in her biography of Johnson, Just Boris, he has developed, as in other areas a method of moulding his views on climate change to what he thinks is the current mainstream.

She writes:

He was once noted for scorning the global warming agenda, with caustic rants about the cult of climate change. Since then he has flipped sides so many times that petrol-heads and eco-warriors take turns to denounce him.

As ever action from below by climate activists, trade unionists and others will be essential

BBC Country File highlights growth in interest & demand for British hops

Many of the hops used to make beer in Britain come from the US and Australia and New Zealand. These give the more vibrant hop forward tastes to beer that is growing in popularity particularly in the craft beer sector.

Many people who read my blog will be fully aware of this.

However there is a resurgence of interest in and the growing of British hops. Not just new variants of old standards like Fuggles and Golding but entirely new hop varieties.

On Sunday Country File on BBC1 focused on this. It looked at hop growing in a large, and mostly new, hop farm in Bromyard, Herefordshire. It looked how hop picking takes place in 2021 and the battle to keep hops disease free.

The programme also interviewed a surviving hop picker (mechanisation had taken over by 1960) and discussed new hop varieties and the kind of beer they could produce.

The coverage is split up through the programme at (roughly) the start, 16 mins, 37 mins and 52 mins

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000zx0r/countryfile-bromyard-hops

Given it was show on BBC1 the audience is likely to have been far larger than discussion of such matters usually reaches.

The Ambridge Socialist (Late Extra)

19^th September

Poppy Grundy scoops special Flower & Produce Prize to mark Joe Grundy’s 100^th anniversary

Eddie Grundy’s plans to enter and win the Flower and Produce Show to mark the 100^th anniversary of Joe Grundy’s birth on 18^th September 1921 saw a successful conclusion on Sunday. Joe died in October 2019 as the first Grundy cider of the year was produced.

Eddie’s plan was focused across a range of Grundy produce including trimmed beetroot but it was  Poppy Grundy’s monkey collage that attracted a special prize to mark Joe’s 100^th.

Reactionary pub landlord Kenton Archer originally tried to sabotage Eddie’s plan, entering the Bull’s hanging basket with a view to stopping Eddie winning. Kenton appeared motivated by a dislike of proletarian drinkers like Joe and Eddie. However later following the intervention of supporters of the Ambridge Socialist he saw the error of his ways and brought Eddie a pint.

The Ambridge Socialist’s tribute to Joe Grundy

Alice is back again

Alice is back in Ambridge but not living with Chris, needing to continue to sort matters out without his well-meant but not particularly helpful assistance. It continues to be an important storyline, well told and acted.

Adam and Ian may leave Ambridge

Adam and Ian are Ambridge’s foremost gay couple. Unconnectedly they are also some of Ambridge’s most boring people(though competition for this is sharp). Brexiteer Adam is perpetually whingeing about something. This week it was his new boss. The Ambridge Socialist has little sympathy for the boss class but Adam himself doesn’t appear a particularly sympathetic person. By contrast Ian is clearly an excellent chef at Grey Gables and appears a decent sort but is rather one-dimensional. Adam has discussed moving out of Ambridge to be nearer to his new job. The Ambridge Socialist could accept this as a way forward.

In other news

Sergeant Harrison ‘Knacker’ Burns cant butter bread properly. Who knew?

A proletarian salute to Joe Grundy

Beard Liberation Front

19^th September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Tribute paid to Jimmy Greaves a pioneer of facial hair on TV & great footballer

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to former Chelsea, Spurs and England footballer and TV presenter Jimmy Greaves who has sadly died at 81.

Through the iconic football analysis programme Saint and Greavsie, which aired on ITV from 1985-1992, Jimmy Greaves promoted his trademark moustache as a sign of analytical gravitas.

There were other pioneers of facial hair in TV presenting, including Jimmy Hill with his goatee chin beard and Des Lynam(moustache) but Greaves did more than anything to make the moustache fashionable on TV at time when hirsute broadcasters tended to be confined to radio.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, we salute Jimmy Greaves a great footballer, a great TV presenter and a great moustache wearer.

London Socialist Historians Group

Media Release 19^th September

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Historians say blowing up of Dorman Long Tower on Teesside is industrial vandalism

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, has said that the blowing up of the Dorman Long Tower on Teesside in the early hours of Sunday is an act of industrial vandalism.

The Dorman Long Tower was built to store coal for the Redcar/South Bank steel works in the mid-1950s and is held to be a good example of brutalist architecture.

Steel production ended at Redcar in 2015 but it had been a process of decline since the Thatcher Government provoked and won a strike of steel workers in 1980. The Thatcher years saw the widespread destruction of jobs and industry on Teesside.

The Dorman Long Tower was recently given Grade 11 listed status by Historic England. However in her first act as Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries agreed it could be blown up after lobbying by Tory Mayor for the area Ben Houchen.

The historians say that having destroyed industry and jobs in the 1980s it appears the Tories of the 2020s want to remove any evidence that they ever existed from the landscape. Teesside is not an industrial museum and new jobs and industry are needed. At the same time simply erasing all evidence of past industry is unacceptable.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, The last Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden was insistent that monuments of British history such as statues of slave traders must be left exactly as they are. It seems Ms Dorries has a rather different view on whether historical artefacts and structures need to be preserved.

The Ambridge Socialist

19^th September

Kenton scabs on plans to mark 100^th anniversary of Joe Grundy’s birth

Eddie Grundy plans to enter and win the Flower and Produce Show to mark the 100^th anniversary of Joe Grundy’s birth on 18^th September 1921. Joe died in October 2019 as the first Grundy cider of the year was produced.

Eddie’s plan is focused on the excellent Grundy cider

Now reactionary pub landlord Kenton Archer is threatening to sabotage Eddie’s plan, entering the Bull’s hanging basket with a view to stopping Eddie winning. Kenton appears motivated by a dislike of proletarian drinkers like Joe and Eddie. The Ambridge Socialist condemns Kenton and anyone who backs him.

Alice is back again

Alice is back in Ambridge but not living with Chris, needing to continue to sort matters out without his well-meant but not particularly helpful assistance. It continues to be an important storyline, well told and acted.

Adam and Ian may leave Ambridge

Adam and Ian are Ambridge’s foremost gay couple. Unconnectedly they are also some of Ambridge’s most boring people(though competition for this is sharp). Brexiteer Adam is perpetually whingeing about something. This week it was his new boss. The Ambridge Socialist has little sympathy for the boss class but Adam himself doesn’t appear a particularly sympathetic person. By contrast Ian is clearly an excellent chef at Grey Gables and appears a decent sort but is rather one-dimensional. Adam has discussed moving out of Ambridge to be nearer to his new job. The Ambridge Socialist could accept this as a way forward.

In other news

Sergeant Harrison ‘Knacker’ Burns cant butter bread properly. Who knew?

A proletarian salute to Joe Grundy

The Ambridge Socialist

18^th September

Joe Grundy (b 18^th September 1921): A Proletarian Salute

Edward Kelsey, a lifelong trade unionist, died in April 2019 aged 88 and the character he represented for so long in the Archers Joe Grundy died a little short of 100 years of age in October 2019.

Joe Grundy was born 100 years ago on 18^th September 1921

Joe’s funeral was held on 8th November 2019, at St Stephens Church Ambridge

There was a lot of memorialising about the late Joe Grundy in Ambridge after his death. His nemesis Bert Fry wrote a poem and the Professor tinkled the keyboards with a special tune, believed to have been a variation on The Wurzels, I am a cider drinker

Some of the memories were less than satisfactory however. David Archer claimed that Joe Grundy was a poacher and, by definition that this was wrong. The Ambridge Socialist believes that Joe Grundy was not poaching but taking animals from common land for his own use and purposes. Further Archer claimed that Joe Grundy’s dog had to be shot by the Archer Dynasty as it was worrying sheep. This was simply an act of class war and vengeance on the Archers’ part and deserves to be remembered as such.

Joe Grundy was a fearless and tireless opponent of the rich of Ambridge and deserves to be remembered on the 100^th anniversary of his birth as a proletarian hero. Someone who was always for the many of Ambridge not the few, otherwise known as the Archer Dynasty