Guto Harri takes the knee. GB News & the contradictions of Tory Culture Wars
Guto Harri the well-known journalist and presenter has taken the knee on GB News, an obscure and little watched TV channel.
GB News has subsequently said that taking the knee is against its policy. This seems odd since as far as one can make out its key focus is on allowing things that aren’t said or covered on other media to be aired. Unless I’ve missed something Newsnight presenters don’t take the knee at the start of each broadcast not least because it would be against BBC Editorial policy.
We can leave the internal contradictions of GB News to them but the whole incident reflects a wider contradiction of Tory Culture Wars.
Boris Johnson is determinedly against taking the knee and Priti Patel called it gesture politics. From 2008-2012 Guto Harri was Director of External Affairs for the Mayor of London who at the time was, er, Boris Johnson.
The argument I understand is that taking the knee is somehow Marxist. There is not a huge amount about knees in the Collected Works of Marx and Engels. However Engels in the Condition of the Working Classes in England noted occupations where unsafe condition led to workers developing stiff knees. Both Marx and Engels were keen walkers and took solidarity as a given so perhaps they would have taken the knee and supported Harri sensing a wider shifting of political tectonic plates
Harold Wilson’s 1966 record remains safe. England only win football finals under a Labour Government
The only time England have won the World Cup was in 1966 just months after Harold Wilson had led Labour to a 97 seat majority in the March Election of that year, Wilson noted:
Have you noticed how we only win the World Cup under a Labour government”
He may well have got the line from comedian Mike Yarwood
Wilson was also privately, and correctly, concerned about the impact England’s failure in the 1970 World Cup would have on Labour’s chances in the June General Election of that year. Labour lost.
Boris Johnson might reflect after England’s defeat to Italy on penalties at Wembley on Sunday. Can England really win the 2022 World Cup under the Tories?
A BEARD GROWN OR REFOCUSED ON A DRY ST SWITHINS DAY WILL FLOURISH FOR 40 DAYS
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that a beard grown or refocused on St Swithins Day, 15 July, is guaranteed by tradition to flourish unimpeded for 40 days provided that it does not rain on the day itself.
St Swithin is depicted in surviving relics as hirsute and while his ‘Day’ is more traditionally associated with concerns about rain, there is also an important impact on beards, which has been largely hidden from history due to pogonophobic prejudice.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said If it doesn’t rain on 15th July, then a beard started or refocused and realigned on this day, according to the principles of St Swithin, is set to flourish for 40 days by which time it will be well on the way to the organic style apparently favoured by the Saint himself
The better team won the Euros but England won the political contest
In general on sporting occasions I’m an Anyone But England person. That’s not because I deny great sporting achievements made by English women and men. On the contrary they can be celebrated, as can those of other teams.
However I am international socialist and my flag is not that of England or Scotland (I’m a Scottish North Londoner who lives partly in Wales) but the red flag.
English sporting teams are mostly much better representations of the nation they represent than they once were and that is positive. The reality is however that one only needed to look at newspaper headlines around Sunday’s Euro final to see that English sporting success encourages racism and reactionary attitudes.
I have been and remain however fully behind Gareth Southgate and the England teams taking the knee against racism before each game. The claim it was not political has been rather surpassed after Sunday’s game with the racism shown to some of England’s players, the defence of them, and the criticism of Boris Johnson and Priti Patel made by Tyrone Mings.
Johnson cancelled plans for a reception for the players suggesting the criticism had hit home. The political impact of this on a Government that has been all too keen to use racism to stoke Culture Wars cant be ignored.
Fighting racism is an international question and England weren’t the only team to take the knee at the Euros at the final. Italy joined them at the final as Scotland had in an earlier game.
David Olusoga has written a piece on the link between the England team and the better aspects of Englishness. I don’t think E P Thompson was a big football fan (it gets a couple of mentions in the Making of the English Class) but he might agree. He however always saw it as a contradictory thing. His retort about why English socialists had not arguably produced the body of theory that their European counterparts had was because they had had ‘so bloody much to oppose’ meaning English and indeed British imperialism.
These are matters which socialists should be engaged in discussing and debating not just amongst themselves but in workplaces and pubs.
Beard Campaigners issue warm weather guidelines for the hirsute
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has issued guidelines for the hirsute as much of Britain moves into a period of warmer weather.
Tips for protecting the Beard in warm weather
If the beard is above six inches in length moderate summer pruning may be in order. However this will only be needed if the warm weather continues
If the beard starts to overheat immersing it in a chiller cabinet of the nearest supermarket will provide an instant remedy. Alternatively a hand cranked fan may be used.
During warmer weather it is important to fully air the follicles by exercising the beard out of doors
If the beard starts to dry out in the heat and follicles become brittle regular immersion in a glass of craft beer or lager will moisturise and nourish the beard
Do not use beard oils. In heat these may make the beard a sticky mess
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as well as warmer temperatures the UV index will be high
For those who have not been out much so far in 2023 there is an additional danger to the follicles. Shielding the beard with a mask or bandana may be prudent in this case.
The real victory for England was not the football but taking the knee against racism
The England team in my view lost to the better side at Wembley on Sunday and the only flag I ever wave is a red one.
However football is only a game and Gareth Southgate and the England players have scored a far bigger victory off the pitch in taking the knee against racism. You can almost hear the tectonic plates shift as hard right Tory MPs begin to realise that perhaps cheering racist knuckleheads is not electorally popular in Britain 2021
My Guardian fletter which briefly (less than 280 characters) sums this up is here:
“Gareth Southgate and the England team took a knee against racism, even when criticised by government ministers. That will be the enduring legacy of the European Championship, and a good one. They can be proud of what they did”
Patriotism & the Freeborn Englishman. Would a genuine internationalism be better?
The Freeborn Englishman of William Cobbett, that EP Thompson wrote about in the Making of the English Working Class (1963/8) is a deeply contradictory figure.
Thompson’s focus on the Freeborn Englishman suggests that he (and it was always a he) was a complex figure who was identified neither fully with left or right but could appear in either space depending on context.
For example Thompson notes that the Freeborn Englishman claimed a right to riot against oppression founded in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688.
The Freeborn Englishman did not however claim many rights but what he did not like was authority telling him what to do, or restricting his activities. Hence things like freedom from arbitrary arrest, jury trial and equality before the law were very important matters.
The British Government of the early nineteenth century, referred to by William Cobbett as The Thing, liked, as Thompson notes, to flatter the Freeborn Englishman by claiming that it held to these principles, whereas OTHER COUNTRIES did not.
Certainly the Freeborn Englishman was not an internationalist or an enthusiast for what happened in other countries.
In reality of course, for example at Peterloo in August 1819, the gap between the appearance of some kind of liberty and the reality often led to the Freeborn Englishman and the defence of his liberties to appear on the left rather than the right.
I’m not sure that Englishness has moved on all that much in the subsequent 200 years. There will be some cheering on an England football team notably more inclusive and more explicit in its anti-racism than some of recent decades. There will be others who note that some of England’s support will also be fans of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon the far right troublemaker.
Bridging that contradictory divide is no easy matter and it remains a question of whether in any case it is a prudent project where promoting a genuine internationalism might be a better option. It is one which the British left has in fact a proud history of. EP Thompson commenting on criticism that the left had not become more hegemonic or developed more theory suggested this might have been because there had been ‘so bloody much to oppose’ when it came to the activities of British imperialism. And the British imperialists currently in Government are still at it.
Epidemics. Back to the nineteenth century with Boris Johnson
The Government in its usual chaotic manner is removing remaining restrictions in England as COVID-19 infections rise again. The ‘debate’ such as it is hasn’t changed significantly in some ways since Governments attempted (or not) to control epidemics in the nineteenth century
In pre-modern history plagues could wipe out significant sections of the population and create conditions for what is now known as ‘regime change’. The Black Death in 1348-9 is thought to have killed around 40% of the population in some cases for example, sparking social upheaval.
From the nineteenth century on this has been less the case. Societies began to be able to control and disease better. While successive epidemics of diseases like Cholera and TB swept the world in the 1800s-and in fact still do in some parts the globe- and large numbers died as a result, the proportion of now much larger populations impacted was more limited. Even the most severe cholera epidemics killed at local peaks 15-20% of people.
The two largest nineteenth century cholera epidemics took place between 1830-32 and 1848-49. These were times of social change and revolution around the world. Wars and revolutions, also provoke population movements and refugees. This was a way epidemics spread in the nineteenth century and remains so in 2021.
The link between epidemics and revolution was a strong one at least in the mind of reactionaries. In France in 1849 some called cholera a ‘revolutionary infection’ seeing its spread as being caused by the ‘dangerous classes’ every bit as much as revolt could be.
More often though it was not revolution but riot and protest around epidemics and their impact that was seen. With job losses, poverty and lack of adequate food the issue was who to focus protest on. Governments were an obvious and relevant area with claims that they did little because they were not troubled by deaths of poor people. Sometimes it was medical authorities themselves who were faced with protests that they had not done enough. Much of this may seem rather familiar in 2021 as well.
Of relevance to 2021 is that while many Governments used similar techniques of control when epidemics first broke out-isolation, quarantine, control of movement, these didn’t ultimately work. That was because not only the cause of epidemics such as cholera was poorly understood but also because there was no effective medical remedy.
In 2021 we are in a different place. COVID-19 while a new virus is at least partly understood and there are effective vaccines against it
In the nineteenth century when epidemics reasserted themselves as they invariably did, Government reaction was mixed.
Some, where they had the ability to do so- such as Prussia- implemented police measures which remained mostly in force long after the epidemic had retreated. Others did little. In Hamburg for example nothing was done because of the impact quarantine had on trade but also because police measures posed a threat to public order. Clearly deaths took place as a result.
The health v wealth axis remains key to understanding the current actions of the UK Government. Their preference is on wealth. Many others might prefer health, a longer term guarantee of wealth for the many too.
The key text on the subject is Richard J Evans, Epidemics and Revolutions, Past and Present 120, August 1988
Youngs sells 53 pubs to Punch. Pubs as real estate..
Youngs was once a brewer in Wandsworth-indeed I had the dubious pleasure of meeting John Young on several occasions. It was described by CAMRA back in the day as the brewery that stood against the keg tide in London in the 1970s.
Indeed it did and thankful for it we were. A pint of Youngs Ordinary or Winter Warmer was something to look forward to.
Youngs haven’t been a brewer for a while now though- having sold that side of the business to Wells in Bedford-now owned by Carlsberg via Marstons.
That left the Youngs pub estate. They have now confirmed the previously announced sale of 53 tenanted pubs to Punch. They will retain pubs where they have direct control which are more profitable.
Given the last year it is perhaps an understandable move although not likely to be great news for either tenants or pub workers impacted (but who cares about them one wonders?)
Punch are still a pub group but in fact quite a few pubs were sold to Heineken and they are owned by a real estate company. One might conclude that the pubs which were thought to be ‘viable’ went to the Dutch brewer to sell their beer in. The others including the ex-Youngs pubs might well end up as more profitable private residences..
Fortunately its not automatic. CAMRA is still with us and there are campaigning and legal avenues to make sure that pubs stay as pubs. There is more to the pub than just the financial bottom line although obviously in a market economy that can’t be ignored.
Boris Johnson & racism, ‘wishes to apologise for any offence’
As Sonia Purnell notes in her biography of the current PM Just Boris he has become an almost habitual apologiser for ‘any offence’ that his earlier words, often racist, have caused.
His complete refusal to recognise taking the knee against racism as something legitimate that people concerned about injustice might do has been compounded by his disdainful approach to the England football team doing so in the European Championships.
It is a reminder that Johnson has a long standing history of racist comments and of dismissing reports that highlight the role racism had and has in British society, to go along with his history of apologising for these when called to account.
One example is the 1999 Macpherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence that found institutionalise racism in the Met Police. Johnson dismissed the findings as ‘Orwellian’ ‘weird’ and ‘crazy’.
Purnell points out that following discussions with his then wife, prominent lawyer Marina Wheeler, by 2001 he was prepared to concede that Macpherson may have had a point. Not of course that when he later became Mayor of London he did anything about this.
Update: Oops he did it again
Johnson made a speech about ‘levelling up’ on 15th July. Afterwards he was asked by the Independent if he would disown earlier comments about Muslim women he said:
The best thing I can say is that I’ve obviously apologised in the past for the things that Ive said that have caused offence and continue to apologise for them.
So carry on apologising and carry on making the remarks too
