But as some made their way in existing society camping became less attractive and second holiday homes more so.
The socialist historians Eric Hobsbawm and E P Thompson both owned cottages in a fairly remote part of North Wales near Snowdonia, the Croesor Valley. This is a practice much frowned on by many people that live there all the time, although of course the point is invariably made that it does boost the local economy (while making it more difficult for others to get homes to live in full time).
In her recent book Meet Me in Buenos Aires (2019)Marlene Hobsbawm gives some more detail about the summer holiday experience of both her partner Eric Hobsbawm and Dorothy and E P Thompson.
‘We usually went up to Wales during holidays, half-terms and all of August. We were always surrounded by friends.. in fact the whole area should have been called Cambridge in the Hills… Historians Edward Thompson and his wife Dorothy Thompson and family were neighbours in a farmhouse over the hill. They had been many visitors (often historians from the USA) and people liked to say one could hear more typewriters clicking than birds chirping in our valley.
A way of life I suspect that given the pressures of modern academic life is now largely past
Elizabeth has said that she no intention of becoming Vince Casey’s fourth wife. Good for her. Getting married is rarely a good idea, at least for the woman. Vince however may have other ideas. He clearly worked out a while ago that everything in Ambridge is run by the Archer Dynasty and may have a plan to take it over. Ben Archer has decided to part with his existing partner and start a liaison with Beth Casey, one of Vince’s official daughters. So that’s Brookfield and Lower Loxley in Vince’s sights already…
On the plus side Vince’s favourite track appears to be Paul Weller’s Walls Come Tumbling Down which is about the crisis of capitalism. Maybe Vince is more of an enemy within that suspected
On Dinners
There were two keynote dinners this week. We didn’t really get much insight into the food but that’s not the point of dinners of course. Neil and Susan ate at Grey Gables. They didn’t get on. The Ambridge Socialist thinks they haven’t been getting on for years. Meanwhile in the latest twist of Patrician Ambridge, Call me Russ Jones and Lily Pargetter have had dinner with Tracy & Jazzer. Lily could be a useful ally when Grey Gables and Lower Loxley merge as Historic Ambridge Retreats. One hopes no attention was paid to Mr Jones.
New manager at Home Farm
A new manager, Stella, has been appointed at Home Farm. Hopefully we will hear a bit more of her than we do of the Guptas the actual current occupants of Home Farm
Shires
The Ambridge Socialist poll on whether Shires is a craft beer found only 28% in favour this week. However the always excellent beer related site Pellicle has published a fascinating piece on The Bull and Shires bitter. Link below
E P Thompson d 28th August 1993: ‘the working class did not rise like the sun at an appointed time. It was present at its own making’.
These are the words that begin the Preface to E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class published as a hardback by Gollancz in 1963 and then as a Penguin paperback in 1968. It remains in print.
Thompson was born on February 3rd 1924 He died on 28th August 1993 aged 69.
Almost 30 years after his death his work remains much referenced, not least perhaps some of the ideas and concepts he was most associated with such as the moral economy and time-work discipline. Both are central to the Making because they were central areas of contention as the world’s first proletariat was in the process of both being made and making itself.
Thompson was a socialist, long term peace campaigner and author of several other important history books such as Whigs and Hunters, and the collection, Customs in Common.
Thompson’s wider position on class and class formation remains an important statement. Class is not a static category, it’s something forged in the heat of the struggle.
I belong to a later generation of socialist historians to Thompson. While I’ll occasionally had a beer with him or a discussion about history and politics in his later years, I never knew him well.
All the same time I still recall vividly when I heard of his death on that late August day in 1993. I was on holiday in Scarborough. This of course was long before the era of 24 hour news and social media. His death was briefly reported on a Radio4 news bulletin.
Much discussion of his work has taken place since and as the 60th anniversary of the Making of the English Working Class approaches no doubt there will be more.
The mother of Boris Johnson’s first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen on his character
Gaia Servadio (1938-2021) has died at 82. A Jewish Italian who worked in culture and the arts, she was also a socialite and in the later 1950s a member of the Italian Communist Party.
She was also the mother of Allegra Mostyn-Owen who became Boris Johnson’s first wife in 1987. By 1992 the marriage had broken down
Servadio took a very dim view of Johnson. Indeed the Times obituary (August 21st) records that she persuaded the US novelist Philip Roth to offer Allegra a job in America to draw her away from Johnson. She refused to take it.
Before the marriage Johnson had been invited to join the family on a skiing holiday in France. He turned up with a suitcase full of dirty sheets and no ski clothes and made disparaging remarks about the Italian politics of Servadio.
In more recent times the Times records that Servadio said ‘I didn’t like the fact that he was on the right..but above all I didn’t like his character. For him the truth doesn’t exist’
Even so both of Servadio’s husbands were like Johnson Old Etonians…
After latest defeat Beard Liberation Front calls for Michael Rosen to be Manager Emeritus at Arsenal
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has called for urgent action after Arsenal lost to Manchester City 5-0 and remained rooted to the bottom of the Premiership table.
The campaigners say that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta while quite capable of making a stubble to beard performance enhancing appearance in the technical area, seems to have got into the habit of being clean shaven, and it’s a losing habit.
Particularly after the appointment of Nuno at Spurs Arsenal lack managerial beard power and for that reason the Beard Liberation Front is calling for the appointment of long time Arsenal supporter Michael Rosen as Arsenal Manager Emeritus.
Rosen would not be expected to get involved in day to day management, which can be handled by technical and support staff. However his many years-experience of Arsenal games could be used to provide strategic guidance and most importantly hirsute appreciation and encouragement.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Michael Rosen is joint Beard of the Year 2020. His Beard Power combined with the breadth of his knowledge of Arsenal can boost morale and confidence in the team so they can at least score a goal.
Concerned at the lack of official response to our call the BLF is running a poll to demonstrate support for Michael Rosen as Manager Emeritus of Arsenal. As usual with BLF poll it is democratic and even handed. Aside from Michael Rosen two well known clean shaven figures feature as well as Ron Knee the veteran Neasden manager who may on occasion by hirsute. The link to vote is below:
Who should be the Manager Emeritus of Arsenal? Someone to inspire & unify?
On several days this week in more or less any summer in recent years I’d be found in Peterborough.
The August Bank Holiday week is usually the Peterborough beer festival, organised by CAMRA.
It’s the second largest beer festival in the UK, although as my account of the 2018 festival below suggests it’s not one that attracts the attention of most of the beer cognoscenti.
This year’s event was cancelled (for the second year running) and I’m not in Peterborough. The local CAMRA branch have organised a city wide real-ale trail I note for those in the area and the Stoneworks has an EU v US tap takeover.
Some things have changed since 2018. Beavertown and Magic Rock have been swallowed by Big Beer and Purely Pickled Eggs is very sadly no more.
It can only be hoped that Peteborough Beer Festival is back in 2022 although like so much during the pandemic it may be that the world has moved on from the blockbuster festival. Pub based festivals, more locally based are currently much in vogue
Peterborough Beer Festival 2018: combined & uneven development
I was at the Peterborough Beer Festival this week on Tuesday and Thursday. Held in tents on land by the river Nene in the city centre it is one of the biggest UK beer festivals and it has been going for over 40 years.
It is also as I’ve written before a rather unfashionable event amongst those who write about beer (though certainly not amongst the large numbers who attend). You can find much comment about the Great British Beer Festival held earlier in August (i.e I’m not going, I’m going but there are issues; actually there were some very good beers etc etc) but usually little or nothing about Peterborough.
So let me say straight away, there aren’t really that many beards and you’ll struggle to find people looking at their smartphones. Hackney it isn’t.
There are around 350 cask beers and there the picture is perhaps a little mixed. I tried and enjoyed a few (in thirds) but a whacky name, while it may be fine in a local pub, tells me nothing about the beer and CAMRA’s classification system and programme notes don’t always help as much as they might.
Still Peterborough is a place for combined and uneven development so the now officially named key-keg bar had 45 beers with 13 on at any one time. It seemed to be doing well. You know beers like Cloudwater, Track, Beavertown, Magic Rock, those names so familiar to CAMRA festivals…
There is ample seating and a decent range of food (including of course the incomparable Purely Pickled Eggs) and if you can’t find beers to enjoy at Peterborough one wonders if you really do enjoy beer.
There is also a gin bar which seemed to be popular (I like malt whisky) and the whole event is about 10 minutes-walk from the train station. If you are in Peterborough there is a very good craft beer bar, Stoneworks, right in the centre near the Cathedral and an equally good micro-pub, the Bumble Inn on the short walk from the station to the centre.
The beer festival is open all day on Friday and Saturday. You’ll enjoy the beer and also find out what people are up to outside of London..(good news, it’s not unpleasant)
Beard, Shorts & Sandals Season extended until September 30th
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the Beard, Shorts and Sandals Season has been extended until the end of September.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Lockdowns seriously disrupted the first months of the 2021 season and many have been unable to flaunt their stylish beards, shorts and sandals. For that reason we’ve extended the season until the end of September.
Guidelines
1] Shorts should ideally be three-quarter length-‘culottes’ for the 2021 season. The length of shorts is particularly important as climate change may mean that unprotected legs get sunburnt.
2] Footwear should be casual. There is a considerable range of sandal type footwear now available. Some leave parts of the feet and toes open to public view, while some do not. The BLF is not prescriptive about the matter.
3] Socks should generally not be worn. However if the beard, shorts and sandals are to be displayed in relatively busier urban areas it is likely to be prudent to wear closed rather than open casual footwear and ankle socks, not visible to others may be worn.
4] There is no prescription or definition on what type of beard may be worn, or how this may match with the shorts and sandals. This is left up to the individual.
Met Police claim Extinction Rebellion protests are ‘unreasonable’
The Met Police have released their general plans for policing London over the Bank Holiday weekend. I’m not sure how common such statements are but it certainly makes interesting reading in respect of the current Extinction Rebellion protests in central London.
According to the Met many of these have not been ‘reasonable’. Quite what determines what is a ‘reasonable’ protest no doubt keeps lawyers busy. The term is quite widely used for example in employment where its actual meaning is also usually imponderable.
There is also of course another way of looking at. Given the scale of the climate emergency might not robust protest being perfectly reasonable short obviously of threats to life and limb.
The Met also claim that the ER protests have been causing ‘serious disruption’ a term that features a good deal in the current Police, Crime & Sentencing Bill which, whatever the Government may claim, aims to restrict yet further the right to protest.
Hegel b 27th August 1770. Marx’s critique of Hegel’s view of beards
In his Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843) Marx made a specific reference to Hegel’s error of understanding about the role beards played in society.
For Hegel a beard was something abstract, something worn by a beard wearer. For Marx the key thing was the social interaction that the beard and beard wearer had. Hence the focus was on human relationships rather than abstract principles. The key passage is here:
The activities and agencies of the state are attached to individuals (the state is only active through individuals), but not to the individual as physical but political; they are attached to the political quality of the individual. Hence it is ridiculous to say, as Hegel does, that ‘it is in an external and contingent way that these offices are linked with particular persons’. On the contrary, they are linked with them by a vinculum substantiale, by reason of an essential quality of particular persons. These offices are the natural action of this essential quality. Hence the absurdity of Hegel’s conceiving the activities and agencies of the state in the abstract, and particular individuality in opposition to it. He forgets that particular individuality is a human individual, and that the activities and agencies of the state are human activities. He forgets that the nature of the particular person is not his beard, his blood, his abstract Physis, but rather his social quality, and that the activities of the state, etc., are nothing but the modes of existence and operation of the social qualities of men. Thus it is evident that individuals, in so far as they are the bearers of the state’s activities and powers, are to be considered according to their social and not their private quality.
Ted Dexter (1935-2021) England cricket captain who secured the political career of Jim Callaghan
The England cricketer Ted Dexter has died at 86. I recall him as one of the most stylish of cricketers and tributes will rightly focus on this aspect of his life.
Dexter did however make a brief foray into politics. He was parachuted into to stand for the Tories at Cardiff South-East in the 1964 General Election.
The seat was at this point marginal held by future Labour PM Jim Callaghan by less than 700 votes in 1959. The seat now abolished covered a wide area from some of Cardiff docks to the now beard friendly area of Roath where I’m typing this (Cardiff Central is held by Labour MP Jo Stevens with a large majority these days).
Dexter apparently knew nothing of Wales or the constituency, urging working class voters to send their children to Eton. Callaghan’s majority was over 7,000.
Fortunately Dexter was much more successful as England cricket captain for which he will rightly be remembered
The Conservative History Group published a fascinating account of Dexter’s campaign in 2015
