Campaigners warn on ‘beard trims’ as barbers re-open
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has warned beard wearers against getting a beard trim at the moment, as barbers shops re-open in England.
Barbers shops in Wales have been open for two weeks but close work such as beard trims was not initially allowed. In England from 12th April they are in the ‘highest risk’ category.
The campaigners say that barbers are known for being over zealous when trimming beards and in the current circumstances the risk of a trim is disproportionate.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, its chilly weather and there is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping the full Brian Blessed organic beard look for a while longer.
picture @hackneytap which opens for the first time on 12th April
Cask Ale: why it still matters
Pubs with gardens or outside spaces can re-open in England on 11th April. It will be chilly and be prepared for tabloid pictures of people doing something other they shouldn’t be- taken of course by other people who are behaving with complete proprietary.
However beyond that, and CAMRA and SIBA have been running publicity campaigns, the key thing is that cask is back. That is pub conditioned beer sold via handpump or straight from a cask. Of course it has not been completely absent during the lockdown. Mini-casks were available at brewery taps and by post but that was really for the dedicated (yes, I did share a mini-cask of Five Pints Best last month).
When I was a young drinker in North London in the first half of the 1970s the choice of beer was simple. There was no Wetherspoons. There was Watneys, Ind Coope and Whitbread keg. They were widely available and to my mind undrinkable. In North London the nearest Youngs pub, the Spreadeagle, which sold cask was in Camden Town and the nearest Fullers pub was the Anchor and Hope on the Lea. Both are still there, still selling those beers
Otherwise for cask ale you had to hunt out pubs that sold Charrington IPA and/or Bass. There were just a handful of pubs that sold Whitbread (Marlow bitter)- the Victoria in Highgate for example and Courage best (John Baird in Muswell Hill).
Charrington IPA by this time was on its way to blandness but the other beers were decent pints (you drank pints in those days).
If a pub sold only keg I would walk in, check and walk promptly out. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one because by the mid-1970s Ind Coope had restored handpumps in many pubs with Draught Burton Ale (a cask Double Diamond in effect) at the then amazingly strong 1048 OG. The only regularly available beer in London that was stronger was Fullers ESB at 1055.
This is where we were the best part of 50 years ago.
Thanks to the work of CAMRA, then primarily full of young activists like me, cask made a return to many pubs and it stayed. Until recently the number of London breweries did not increase but beers from around the UK, say Regionals like Greene King, Sam Smiths, Shepherd Neame, started to become available here and there in London.
After the law changed, again largely thanks to CAMRA, and many pubs could have guest ales, things moved on further. Wetherspoons was probably the game changer here, surprising as that will seem to many in 2021. A Spoons would often have cask beers on from around the UK that otherwise would not appear in London. Whether they were any good or not is another matter but some, like Hop Back Summer Lightning and Oakham JHB- Spoons regulars- not really seen much elsewhere, certainly were.
Obviously if the cask beer was warm or cloudy (it was not meant to be, and nor was it meant to have twigs in it) or had off notes back it went. Generally though the cask beer was drinkable enough. Did we know, or care much if the beer was a little green, a little tired or not in top condition? Not that much because the alternative was undrinkable keg.
The world has moved on further as it does. Cask is not the only decent beer game in town now. Nor is drinking beer in pints always a great idea given the proliferation of different strengths and styles.
In recent times though cask has started to make an appearance on the bar arguably as a quasi-craft beer. Some might reasonably argue it always was in the hands of some well-known regional brewers a craft product.
Five Points in Hackney for example have brewed cask Best and Ordinary bitters based on new iterations of well-known hops such as Fuggles and East Kent Goldings.
They are a reminder of how good well brewed, well-kept cask beer can be which suggests that even in the era of COVID cask has a real future and one well beyond the 1970s when even mediocre cask was hard to find.
And the good news is that from Monday its once again available, provided you wrap up well against the elements of course.
Prince Philip: TV interview with Harold Evans March 1968 on North-South divide, student protest &’racialism’.
I’m no monarchist. In 2021 we should be talking about citizens not subjects. However I am an historian and the 37 minute programme from March 1968 (on Tyne-Tees) is of some social historical interest.
Prince Philip had waited 15 years since becoming Prince Consort to give a TV interview and this one reveals the concerns of the time and reflects ruling class perspectives of the moment. The panel of Ludovic Kennedy, Harold Evans, Brian Redhead and William Hardcastle are all, like the Prince now, no longer with us.
How will Ambridge mark the death of Prince Philip?
Given the BBC’s relentless forelock tugging so far we will probably have to accept that there will be a significant difference between how Ambridge actually marks the death of Prince Philip and how the BBC reports it, if it does.
However we can report some potential if preliminary possibilities
Toasting the Prince with glasses of Tumble Tussocks all round at the cider barn
Mia Grundy leads a roll on the Red Republic rally on the village green
Professor Jim and Jazzer raise the Saltire on a flag pole at Grey Gables
Brian Aldridge leads a loyal toast in the Bull
Ambridge Socialist poll. How will Ambridge mark the death of Prince Philip? Full details: https://t.co/T3MKkHH9qQ vote below
This week saw Jazzer break up with Jade as she was rude about Jimbo at a birthday celebration. Instead at Jimbo’s urging Jazzer has decided to re-kindle his relationship with Tracy. Perhaps they are the dream team but what will be the implications for the Ambridge cricket team.
Meantime it clearly remains a man’s world in Ambridge…
Kate’s Yurt plans cause split
Kate has announced plans to move her Yurts, part of the whacky Spiritual Home venture to Phoebe’s new site. Phoebe does not agree. Neither does Brian.
Alice and Chris.
Alice has fallen off the waggon thanks to a bottle of Rioja Brian left her (and presumably other imbibements). Chris is full on angst again. Hopefully those that are paying attention will have got the point that drinking should be done responsibly or not at all and help sort it if there are issues.
Meanwhile the problem most of Ambridge has is not drink but the lack of it as the Bull has been closed. We hope the garden is re-opening on 12th April and The Bull can survive as the centre of Ambridge community life. In short a good story about controlled drinking in a social setting.
10th April 1848 Chartist protest for the vote on Kennington Common & the Royal Family
Today marks the 173rd anniversary of the Chartist protest for the vote on Kennington Common.
Interestingly there is a direct connection with 2021.
The photograph, the first ever photograph of a working-class protest in the UK, is held in the Royal collection and the copyright lies with the current Queen. It’s good to know that the Royals have an abiding interest in preserving labour history.
The photo is a form of a long exposure known as daguerreotype. Part of it is almost certainly missing so we can’t see the full extent of the protest and it is generally thought that it was taken fairly on in the protest before numbers peaked.
Those in the foreground of the picture are probably observers, perhaps sympathetic middle-class radicals, but may include some who found the Common itself sodden after rain.
The Queen and other Royals were so concerned about the possibility of a Chartist attempt to seize power in London on 10th April 1848 that they cleared off beforehand to the Isle of Wight and stayed there for several weeks
Socialist Historians say the coverage of Prince Philip’s death suggests ‘there is no future in England’s dreaming’
The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, has said that coverage of the death of Prince Philip, aged 99 on 9th April, has reflected a lack of understanding that the Royal Family has rarely had a consensus of support in Britain.
The historians say that socialist historians, perhaps particularly, have sometimes kept away from researching and understanding the nature of patriotism in the working class and the links this has had to Conservatism.
However since at least the Falklands War in the early 1980s History Workshop and many others have done considerable work in this area.
This is more than balanced by the reality however that there remains little official recognition of the strength of anti-monarchist sentiment and the links certain elements of patriotism can have to racist ideas.
Willie Hamilton (1917-2000)who was Labour MP for Fife constituencies between 1950 and 1987 was known for example for his anti-Royalist sentiments and in his 1975 book The Queen and I was mildly rude about various Royals including Prince Charles who he labelled a twerp.
In 1977 on the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, the Sex Pistols God Save The Queen which contained the line ‘there is no future in England’s Dreaming’ is believed to have reached No.1 in the official charts but was denied the status.
London Socialist Historians convenor Dr Keith Flett said, there are of course plenty of historical examples of anti-monarchism but Prince Philip passed away in 2021 and even in recent history the question of Royalty is a contested one. This needs to be reflected and understood in any national reaction to his death otherwise as the Sex Pistols sang there will no ‘future in England’s Dreaming’
Tony Cliff. Palestinian Jew, Revolutionary Socialist d. 9th April 2000. Nothing So Romantic
Tony Cliff, real name Ygael Gluckstein was a leading figure in the International Socialists and UK Socialist Workers Party.
Below is link to an interview he gave to Nicholas Walter in 1970. It is interesting exposition of Cliff’s thinking though of its time.
The opening exchange goes:
Your name is not in fact Tony Cliff. Why do you find it useful to use a pseudonym?
I worked for 13 years in illegal conditions in Palestine under British rule and there we had to use pseudonyms, and I think it just became habit forming.
It isn’t part of the Bolshevik tradition, this use of pseudonyms?
No, I don’t think it came from that, nothing as romantic.
What’s wrong with trade unions criticising Labour policy & promoting their members interests?
I’m not a huge fan of Guardian columnist Martin Kettle (though he certainly can write interesting columns) and his piece on Joe Biden’s pro-worker agenda was not an exception:
Biden is not my kind of left of centre politician either but sometimes it is more useful to see what politicians actually do when in office as opposed to what they say they will do. Biden has only been US President for a few months but I’ve noted some decent domestic policy announcements. Foreign policy has been less good and no doubt there will be many things to criticise in times to come. This however is not Trump.
The letter I wrote on Kettle’s piece appeared on-line only in the Guardian on Friday and so presumably was read by hardly anyone as you have to make some efforts to find letters in the main digital versions of the paper.
It’s not usual to explain letters either. They stand or fall on their own merits. However it’s worth noting that I had in mind here in particular the Survation poll that the CWU commissioned in Hartlepool. It showed Labour behind the Tories but with much support for what have been Labour policies.
It was criticised by some right-wing Labour MPs because it raised questions for Keir Starmer and the CWU is an affiliated union. Why shouldn’t it however? Unions should represent their members. Surely its not thought that Joe Biden is pursuing a pro-worker agenda but the AFL-CIO didn’t intervene in Democratic Party debates and lobby for policies? Of course they did. It’s a healthy part of democracy.
Martin Kettle is right (8.4) that Joe Biden’s decision to promote decent conditions and respect at work and to tie this into the collective organisation of trade unions, is something that is much needed in Britain. 10 years of a Tory Government should be sufficient reminder that in the present day only a Labour Government will do anything on this agenda.
However that is the first not the last word. Kettle thinks some unions are stuck in the past but then criticises those leaders who are critical of Keir Starmer, as if himself wanting a return to the days, when unions sometimes represented not so much the interests of their members, as the perspectives of the leaders and their desire for political careers.
Certainly many trade unions and trade unionists would hope and work for a Labour Government. They’d also expect to shape and influence its policies in relevant areas. That is surely what US unions have successfully done with Joe Biden.
Prince Philip gave up distinguished beard for Royal life say beard campaigners
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that one little known aspect of the life of Prince Philip, who has died aged 99, was the distinguished beard he had while serving in the Navy.
Prince Philip joined the Royal Navy as a young man in 1939 and rose to the rank of Commander in 1951. He had married Elizabeth in 1947 and became a full-time member of the Royal Family in the early 1950s giving up a successful naval career.
During at least some of this period Prince Philip wore a distinguished naval beard. Given the pogonophobia- dislike of facial hair-in senior Royal circles that then existed, Philip’s beard disappeared after 1951.
Prince Michael of Kent has been the only significant member of the post-1945 Royal Family to wear beard consistently until Prince Harry. Prince Charles did wear one briefly as a young man.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Prince Philip will not be remembered as a beard wearer but he should be. He had kept the beard he could have set a fashion that would literally changed the face of modern Britain.
Rishi Sunak’s texts to Dave Cameron. The Chumocracy & its limits.
The Government under FOI has released two texts from Chancellor Rishi Sunak to former Tory PM Dave Cameron.
Cameron was attempting to lobby Sunak for COVID grant money for the now collapsed Greensill finance company who he was then working for.
The texts from Cameron to Sunak remain private.
Sunak promised to try and ring Cameron when he had finished meetings and in a second text said he was pushing officials to find a way to provide funds. Ultimately the senior officials did not.
It reflects what is now known as a ‘chumocracy’ William Cobbett’s world of placemen and sinecures before the 1832 Reform Act that he called The Thing, a sort of many headed hydra of power & money. Cameron did PPE at Brasenose College Oxford and some years later Sunak did PPE at Lincoln College Oxford. The two colleges are adjacent.
Sunak went to Winchester whereas Cameron was at Eton but there is an assumption of favours and special treatment here based on class background. Ultimately it didn’t work out and we can thank not the Tory politicians but the professional diligence of civil servants for that.
In Mr Sunak’s reply to a text from Mr Cameron on 3 April 2020, the chancellor said: “Hi David, thanks for your message. I am stuck back to back on calls but will try you later this evening and if gets too late, first thing tomorrow. Best, Rishi.”
In the second reply on 23 April, Mr Sunak said: “Hi David, apologies for the delay. I think the proposals in the end did require a change to the Market Notice but I have pushed the team to explore an alternative with the Bank that might work.
“No guarantees, but the Bank are currently looking at it and Charles should be in touch. Best, Rishi.”
