Kmflett's Blog

Brewdog avoid the obvious way forward

Brewdog are on the front page of the BBC website today:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57428258

Its not a story that shows the owners of the Company in a good light but if beer writers are Boak and Bailey are right they wont feel too concerned. They have suggested on Twitter that Brewdog is about getting the brand name known widely and the story certainly helps with that.

The story in case you missed it is that a considerable number of ex-Brewdog employees have made a public statement about a culture of fear. Punks With Purpose @PunksWPurpose have posted the statement on social media.

Brewdog and James Watt have responded not by refuting the allegations. Rather Watt claims there are two sides to every story and has asked current Brewdog employees to sign up to a statement saying that the Company is a good employer. If they don’t agree they can of course raise issues with Watt….

I reposted details of a 2020 Private Eye investigation into the finances and structure of Brewdog earlier which has attracted considerable interest.

I also posted a piece on why craft beer needs to be unionised. I post this from time to time (suitably tweaked) when issues arise, as they seem to do quite frequently.

The post never attracts much interest. As a union officer in a highly unionised private sector environment I well understand why. Even there not everyone feels comfortable on speaking out about ‘the union’. In a Company that doesn’t recognise unions there is a fear factor. Speaking out can lead to losing your job. I don’t know if Brewdog would do that btw, it’s a general point. It is actually illegal but it still happens frequently.

When Brewdog sent staff its statement there was another, far better way to act. Nearly all large companies carry out staff surveys. Most make efforts to ensure they are confidential(i.e no names). Obviously there are limits but in unionised workplaces the survey and outcomes are shared and discussed with unions which gives those filling it in some degree of confidence.

The question which needs to be asked of Brewdog, is given the events of the week, what exactly is your problem with recognising a trade union to provide a proper framework for employee relations and provide agreed ways of making sure that James Watt & Co hear things they don’t want to hear, but within the Company not on twitter?

Cricket & Racism: a movement not a moment.

This week Sky Cricket’s coverage of last year’s England v West Indies series won a BAFTA. Fronted up by Michael Holding and Ebony Rainford Brent there was a focus on Black Lives Matter.

The moment passed but both presenters were rightly critical that it did. There is a lot of work to do in cricket to address institutional discrimination and sometimes actual racism. The ECB were no doubt looking at matters but not much has happened, although very recently two black Umpires were appointed.

That failure to really keep working away at matters came back to bite cricket at Lords last week when a series of historic racist and sexist tweets sent by debutant in the England v New Zealand Test Ollie Robinson were revealed. He duly apologised and was suspended.

Then further social media issues with others players came to light.

Certainly the players themselves need to address the matter but there is an institutional issue that is more important, The question of racism and discrimination in cricket is not something that is raised, a few boxes are ticked and matters move on.

It is a question of constant awareness and education, in short as that BAFTA Award underlined this is not just a moment.

Theresa May: The Enemy Within (Boris Johnson 9^th June)

In the last few days former Tory PM and Boris Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May has been one of those leading Commons opposition to cuts in Overseas Aid. At PM’s Questions on 9^th June responding to SNP leader Ian Blackford Johnson labelled those opposed to cuts as purveyors of ‘lefty propaganda’. So, Theresa May, the enemy within…

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/03/theresa-may-joins-tory-rebellion-over-aid-cuts

Commons question on Overseas Aid 9^th June

Boris Johnson

Anyway, the answer is clear: as I said to the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer), the people of this country were given a vote on this and many other matters very recently and they adjudicated very firmly in favour of the balance that the Government are striking. We are in very, very difficult financial times, but you should not believe the lefty propaganda, Mr Speaker, that you hear from those on the Opposition Benches. We are spending £10 billion overseas. We have actually increased—[Interruption.] All they want to do is run this country down when we have increased spending on girls’ education alone to half a billion pounds—almost half a billion pounds. That is a fantastic sum of money to be spending in difficult times and we should be proud.

 Ian Blackford 

I have to say that I do not think I ever heard the previous Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead rs May), call the left propagandists. The simple fact of the matter is that every single party, every single Member of this House, stood on a manifesto commitment of 0.7%. The Prime Minister has reneged on that, and Mr Speaker has indicated that the Government should allow a vote on it. It is pretty basic stuff. After a year dealing with the deadly virus, why cannot the Prime Minister get this? In a pandemic, no one is safe until everyone is safe. Now is the time to support each other, not to walk away from those in need.

House of Commons debate on Statues, cricket and racism

Looking (virtually)at Hansard, the Parliamentary record for the last 5 years there are hundreds of references to cricket. Jacob Rees-Mogg is particularly keen on mentioning Somerset, the cricket team he supports.

There are very few mentions of racism and cricket amongst all the Parliamentary interventions however. Full marks therefore to Labour MP Rupa Huq for raising the matter in the context of Tory Culture Wars in a Commons adjournment on Monday evening. An extract and link to the full debate is below.

In the meantime Lord Ashcroft has tweeted a cartoon showing the W G Grace statue at Lords being attacked by the ‘woke’. I think not. W G’s beard is quite safe.

The Culture Secretary vowed in his most recent interviews to have more statues erected to unspecified British heroes, blocking what he sees as a kind of Britain-hating, statue-toppling metropolitan bubble that controls cultural institutions. He wants to replace it with red wall voters in the latest “war on the woke”—or front, battle, cultural cleansing or whatever we call it. Again, it looks like Government interference in a traditionally independent sector motivated by electoral calculation. I think people are saying the same about today’s cricket controversy.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-06-07/debates/21060769000002/PreservingHeritageAndStatuesInCities?highlight=cricket%20racism#contribution-D26EB37D-1FFF-4AD5-B82E-809B10FDC142

Rupa Huq (Ealing Central & Acton) Adjournment Debate, House of Commons,7^th June 2021

Once again on statues: our plinth will come

One year on the statue of Edward Colston that was toppled in Bristol on 7^th June 2020 is still in the news.

It has been put on display in the M Shed Museum in Bristol as part of a democratic consultation about what should eventually happen to it. Some have found it controversial because it remains daubed with paint and is displayed at angle.

The interestingly named Save Our Statues, who I suspect have little more existence than a twitter account (at least under that name) claim they want the statue restored to its original plinth because they have decided this is democratic.

They reportedly tried, and of course failed, to block people from seeing the statue at M Shed. They could have had an in person protest except one suspects very few of their twitter followers actually live anywhere near Bristol.

One statue I suspect they would not be campaigning for is that of Guardian letter writers, myself included. As I note in today’s paper (9.6) a statue is, I hope, a bit premature.

I also agree with fellow Guardian letter writer and beard wearer Toby Wood @tobywoody that we don’t really need more statues of old white blokes. Having an imperial stout named after oneself would be much more suitable.

While there may not be enough statues of letter writers, I’m pleased that Michael Cunningham came out against the idea. I would prefer to avoid a premature appearance in Guardian obituaries – surely an essential requirement for a statue.

Keith Flett

London

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jun/08/someday-their-plinth-will-come-guardian-letter-writers-on-a-statuary-fantasy

March  2021. Commons motion tabled on racism in English & Welsh cricket. What happened?

In March this year a Commons motion was tabled on racism in English & Welsh cricket. The aim was to put the ECB & Minister Dowden on a sticky wicket.

A number of MPs tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons on the issue of racism in English and Welsh cricket.

As ESPN’s George Dobell noted such motions are rarely debated but serve the function of publicly tabling a matter:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/parliamentary-motion-condemns-institutional-racism-blighting-english-cricket-1254366

Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer there have been fine words from the ECB on the question but as the EDM notes evidence of progress or accountability for previous failings is scant.

The EDM asks the appropriate Minister Oliver Dowden to take action. Given Dowden’s well-known views on BLM getting change it certainly requires much more than an EDM. Very probably a campaign by those ‘activists’ who Dowden regularly complains about.

That this House expresses its serious concern at the underrepresentation of African, Caribbean and Asian coaches, umpires and match officials at all levels of Cricket in England and Wales; recalls the 1997 report Racial Equality in Cricket by the Cricket Board of England and Wales, which promised to tackle racism in cricket; expresses its alarm at the subsequent failure to address the institutional racism that is present at all levels of the game; condemns the failure of the English Cricket Board to appoint any African, Caribbean and Asian umpires and match officials to such panel positions in the last 29 years; deplores the bullying, racial harassment and victimisation suffered by African, Caribbean and Asian, players, umpires and coaches within first class cricket; welcomes the establishment of the Asian Cricket Association to promote the careers, training, and development of Asian cricketers and professionals in the game; calls upon the English and Wales Cricket Board to support and fully fund African, Caribbean and Asian Cricket Associations to remedy the historical injustice of race discrimination that has excluded ethnic minority cricket players, umpires, coaches, managers, and teams from reaching their true potential and position in the game; and urges the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to make anti-racism and equality and diversity targets within cricket a ministerial priority, and to report annually on the progress being made.

https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/58224

2017 General Election (8^th June) compared to the 1997 General Election

Elections are perhaps crude measures of sentiment but they are basically democratic.

The 2017 General Election was held 5 years ago today. Unfortunately Labour didn’t win, the reasons remain hotly contested.

The 1997 General Election was held 25 years ago in May 1997. Thankfully for those of us who had endured the Thatcher and Major years, and whatever subsequently happened, Labour did win.

The difference in seats won is striking as in different ways are the other indices. Perhaps one conclusion is that a fairer and more democratic voting system might do something to address this. There are of course other potential perspectives

Seats

1997 418 2017 262

Increase in Labour vote from previous Election

1997 1.96m 2017 3.52m

Increase in % vote from previous Election

1997 8.8% 2017 9.5%

Total Votes

1997 13,518,167 (43.2%) 2017 12,818,460 (40%)

Boris Johnson & cricket. A different world

Boris Johnson has backed Sports Minister Oliver Dowden’s view that the England and Wales Cricket Board’s suspension of Ollie Robinson for a series of racist and sexist tweets he made when he was 18 was over the top.

Former England batsman Mark Ramprakash has expressed a different perspective:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/57398052

In 2020 Boris Johnson blocked a return of recreational (grassroots) cricket in the Commons arguing the cricket ball is allegedly a ‘vector of disease’. Was this because he knows nothing of the game?

He was of course a member of the Bullingdon Club which was founded in 1805 to play cricket whatever else it may have gone on to do.

Johnson was not around in 1805 but there is ample evidence of him not only watching cricket (he was booed at the Oval Test in 2018 when he was a backbench MP as he’d been spotted asleep, surely a perfectly acceptable afternoon pursuit at a cricket match) but also playing it.

Indeed he has been the captain of the Spectator cricket team in its annual game against Lord Althorp (see below). It would seem that these matches contain a good deal of gamesmanship (or cheating as its generally known) and it may well be that Johnson was not that clear on how a cricket ball can be safely used in the current moment (sanitiser, regular cleaning etc).

Its fair to say that cricket and Black Lives Matter simply do not compute in the mental world of Boris Johnson and he sees no reason why they should.

Boris Johnson & cricket

My week began with the annual Earl Spencer v Boris Johnson cricket match, held at Charles Spencer’s Althorp House in Northamptonshire. This is a truly wonderful event in a wonderful setting. Boris’s team has not yet notched up a victory, even though we once fielded Kevin Pietersen. This year, we actually came close to winning. The Johnson team made 127. Charles Spencer’s, with one over left, was on 123. It was a nail-biting finish, and they finally beat us with only two balls left to bowl.

Stanley Johnson Diary 20th July 2017

Lord Spencer’s ringer

Sir: Charles Moore is right to draw attention to Boris Johnson’s appalling behaviour in bringing on Kevin Pietersen as a ringer for a friendly against Lord Spencer’s XI at Althorp (Notes, 21 June). But to be fair, there is history there. I once played for Boris’s ramshackle team in this fixture and was appalled to see who the cad Spencer had persuaded to open the batting for the home side: Jimmy Adams, the former West Indies captain.

Nigel Farndale

Liss, Hampshire

Spectator 28th June 2014

Jonathan Agnew gets it right on Ollie Robinson, the ECB & racism in cricket

Finding measured and balanced views on anything in times like these is no easy matter and I’m not against taking sides. That said as an historian I’m interested in trying to look at things in context and understand them. Sometimes doing that may challenge my view of something but that is surely no bad thing.

Fortunately for Aggers comments are not open on the piece he has written on the BBC website (link below) or he would undoubtedly have been called ‘woke’ by one of the booing-brigade.

His central argument is the ECB who run English and Welsh cricket and who are not, shall we say, known for their revolutionary socialist approach to matters, messed up on their duty of care all around with the Ollie Robinson case. They should make as sure as they can be before someone gets to be an England player that there aren’t ‘issues’. If there are they can be addressed before, as it did this week at Lords, it becomes something that distracts from the cricket. It’s not a matter of policing cricket or individuals. It is a matter of protecting both from those who may have other agendas.

Agnew argues that suspending Robinson was the right thing to do while the ECB investigate and decide what to do next. Agnew is clear that doing something not just gestures needs to come. Issues of racism and discrimination in English cricket are not unknown. What is unknown so far is anything specifically being done to address them and move cricket to a more inclusive culture.

Of course Sport Secretary Oliver Dowden has criticised the ECB and has been backed by Boris Johnson whose own cricketing activities might make a good comedy sketch one day, so bad is he.

Johnson has nearly always got away with any manner of misdemeanours and worse and so doesn’t easily grasp the point that others shouldn’t. Most England cricketers still have (often minor) public school backgrounds (as does Agnew)and it was no surprise to find David Gower backing Dowden.

There is a further point that Agnew doesn’t touch on which has been widely made on social media.

Looked at globally cricket in the main is a very diverse but inclusive sport. Its more with teams like England and Australia that issues arise and that no doubt relates to an historic culture of racism and discrimination. Probably much of this was institutional rather than directly personal but not all of it.

Changing that takes time and it takes more than statements. A year on from the resurgence on a global scale of Black Lives Matter it’s time for the ECB to lay out their roadmap (apparently the 2021 word for plan) on what they are going to actually do.

As for Aggers I suspect the prospect of Lord Agnew of Legover has further receded.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/57387781

Histories of the present. Dowden becomes England cricket selector, ignores BAFTA Award for Sky Cricket Black Lives Matter coverage

It probably came as a surprise to England cricket selector Chris Silverwood but Sports Minister Oliver Dowden appears to have nationalised the job and appointed himself to the role. Dowden complained that the decision by the ECB to suspend Ollie Robinson who had made a good Test debut at Lords against New Zealand, for a series of racist and sexist tweets he made when he was 18 (he’s now 27) was wrong.

Given England’s less than dynamic performance at Lords, it might well be a good idea for Robinson to play. However despite an apology, and to be fair what else could Robinson do, the ECB is the employer in this case and suspension would be normal.

Of course the ECB as they now admit should have checked and dealt with the matter before the Daily M**l did. It now needs to understand if there is more out there (in the nature of these matters there often is, played deliberately by the ‘leaker’) and even a basic precautionary absence for Robinson seems unavoidable. No doubt he’ll get advice from the players union the PCA.

In the meantime Dowden had not a word to say about the BAFTA win on Sunday for the excellent black lives matter focused Sky coverage of last year’s England v West Indies cricket series fronted up by Ebony Rainford-Brent and Michael Holding.

As Dylan noted you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing when it comes to Oliver Dowden.