Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

26^th March

The Beard of Spring 2021 vote: what’s it all about?

The vote for Beard of Spring 2021 is currently open.

Round Two (of two) ends at midnight on Saturday. The two leaders from Rounds One and Two will then go to a final round with the Beard of Spring 2021 announced on Easter Saturday, as it is every year.

Quite recently the polling method has been changed to a twitter focused poll. This was partly for technical reasons but as much because there is much greater engagement on this platform.

How are the contenders for Beard of Spring determined and what is the criteria?

This hasn’t changed for some years.

There are four quarterly seasonal awards, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. They help to determine the annual Beard of the Year vote in December.

While contenders for Beard of the Year are expected to have been consistent beard wearers, those shortlisted for the quarterly Award can be much more of ‘the moment’.

BLF experts keep a close eye on beard wearers in the public eye during the run-up to the announcement of the shortlist.

What is looked for is a beard wearer who is presenting a positive image of the hirsute in the public eye.

Obviously this is to an extent subjective- hence the poll.

The list will comprise a mixture of those who have newly grown a beard or who haven’t come to notice before and well-known beard wearers who have been in the public eye. Hence co-winner (with Michael Sheen) of the 2020 Beard of the Year, Michael Rosen, is on the Beard of Spring 2021 shortlist as he has continued to have a high and positive public profile as has his beard.

The style and length of beard are not considerations despite persistent efforts of Twitter uses to ‘judge’ someone’s beard. The BLF is looking at something different- the positive public impact of the beard.

Beard of Spring Round Two vote here:

Class & Sexual Politics. Should there be female hereditary peers?

Last weekend the Sunday Times revealed that of the 85 Hereditary Peers currently sitting in the Lords 46% went to Eton. They are of course all men. It has, to date, not been possible to have female Hereditary Peer.

One reason might be because Eton doesn’t admit female students. In a rare, possibly unique, progressive thought Education Secretary Gavin Williamson opined in December 2020 that perhaps it should do. He was promptly put in his place by Old Etonian Jacob Rees-Mogg who underlined that it should not.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-55174370

There is, the London Evening Standard reports (26.3) a campaign called Daughter’s Rights pushing Tory Ministers to allow female Hereditary Peers. As the Standard notes the double-barrelled founder can trace her privileged title back to Charles 1^st.

This might give some encouragement to those on the left who claim that Britain never really had a complete bourgeois revolution and the aristocracy remains of political importance. I’m not one of those but one wonders who the Tory Minister is who is blocking change.

Gender equality in the Lords should be a given, as should its abolition and replacement with a more democratic second, overseeing, chamber.

Ms Charlotte Carew Pole is right on something else too. Not all feminism is Marxist although organising for the right of a handful of women to be allowed to join the men who by accident of birth govern, doesn’t really do anything for gender equality I’d suggest.

Charlotte Carew Pole, the founder of Daughter’s Rights, claims a minister is attempting to “discredit” her campaign to ensure women as well as men can inherit hereditary peerages.

Carew Pole, the wife of a baronet-to-be whose title was granted by Charles I, founded the organisation so her daughter could inherit the family title, says her proposals are “just continuously blocked”.

Carew Pole adds: “There’s a sort of principle that feminism is all Marxist these days and only the poor and the downtrodden women are worth fighting for but actually, anything that affects any woman affects all women.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/charlotte-carew-pole-minister-blocking-anti-male-primogeniture-campaign-b926425.html

125,000+ dead from COVID. Minister Dowden: put up more flags

In yet another cheap shot in the Tory Culture wars, Minister Oliver Dowden, who is doing an increasingly good impression of being a complete idiot, backed up by hard right Tory MP John Hayes, has decreed that the Union Jack must be flown on Government buildings not just on appropriate occasions but every day.

Dowden claims it will be a ‘proud reminder’ of Britain’s history. Many will agree with him provided the word ‘proud’ is deleted.

Of course the actual result will be that most flags will be flown the wrong way up. The Government guidelines (this has no force in law) suggests a high level of union jack anorakism, possibly because they were drawn up by someone checking the internet in their bedroom:

Where UK Government buildings have more than one flagpole, and two flags are being flown, the Union Flag must always be flown in the superior position which is either:

the highest flagpole

the centre flagpole where there is an odd number of poles of the same height or;

the left centre flagpole viewed from the front of the building, where there is an even number of poles of the same height.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/designated-days-for-union-flag-flying

Aside from support from the Tory backbenches Dowden will one expects be able to rely on the support of at least one senior Opposition MP.

BBC Report

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56514501

One Year On: fake news about beards and masks re-appears

23^rd March is the first anniversary of lockdown in the UK and rightly it is a day for remembering the too many who have died and reviewing what has happened, and what might and should have happened.

However pogonophobes, beard haters, never lose a chance to retail their prejudices. Hence claims about beards and masks have surfaced again:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/23/health/beards-affect-mask-fit-covid-19-wellness/index.html

A year ago the Beard Liberation Front made it clear that if medical quality masks needed to be worn in a medical setting and the beard was getting in the way, then the beard temporarily, needed to go.

There are clear exceptions for those who wear a beard for religious and health reasons where comprises may well be possible.

In general however the requirement is to wear a mask over the beard in enclosed spaces such as shops and transport.

The key points are firstly that the mask is worn (unless there is an exception as noted above)and that this covers both the mouth and the nose.

Various theorists have suggested that medical masks should be worn by all or that people should wear more than one mask. The BLF focus has remained on encouraging the hirsute to wear a mask and to do so properly.

How much this reduces the possibility of infection is debated but there are a few who doubt that it does.

Some myths debunked
1] Beards do not harbour bacteria or disease, any more than any other part of the body

2) Beards do not protect against COVID-19. Wear a mask (and get vaccinated when it’s your turn)

3] The CDC chart published again by CNN does not relate to COVID-19.

Media stories of proof of a COVID jab to enter a pub are, naturally,hyperbolic. What seems to be the actuality is that if pubs want to ditch social distancing, have more customers and stand a chance of actually making a profit, this might be a way. Detail some way off.

Something that can be done straight away though is a patriotism test.

SInce Culture Minister Oliver Dowden is becoming increasingly obsessed with a ‘display the union jack’ culture war surely a requirement to show that an individual is wearing union jack underwear- John Major style, externally (as depicted by the great Steve Bell) is the way forward for pub entry.

It will show that the drinker is ideologically safe, which is a key issue for the present Government

William Morris, the great socialist and beard wearer was born on 24th March 1834.

Morris and the late nineteenth century socialist movement had to fight for the democratic right to protest, just as the left does now in the face of new Tory attempts to restrict it. He recognised that the rich always aimed to restrict the right to protest which could challenge their wealth and rule:

William Morris remarked on the impatience of ’the more luxurious part of society’ to ’clear the streets of costermongers, organs, processions, and lecturers of all kinds, and make them a sort of decent prison corridors, with people just trudging to and from their work’….

Beard Liberation Front

24^th March

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Vote now open for Beard of Spring Round Two

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that voting is now open for Round Two of the coveted Beard of Spring Award.

Four leading beard wearers are in contention with the top two going through to a final round.

They are author Michael Rosen, teachers union leader Kevin Courtney, railway historian Tim Dunn and brewer Garrett Oliver

ICU Doctor Prof Hugh Montgomery and Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell shaved the opposition to win Round One and go through to the final.

They will be joined by the top two from Round Two.

Beard of Spring is the second of four seasonal awards that lead to the Beard of the Year in December.

The campaigners say that while the second seasonal award of the year traditionally focuses on new beard growth, the focus in 2021 is as much on those whose beards have appeared in a positive public light during the quarter.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard of Spring poll sets the beard-benchmark for the period ahead when beards can be flaunted in public as the weather improves.

The vote is open now and will close at midday on Good Friday, with the winner announced on Easter Saturday

Vote here:

Round One March 20-23

Round Two March 24-27

Final March 28-31

Beard of Spring 2021

Steve Bell, cartoonist

Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York

Michael Rosen, Author

Tim Dunn, railway historian

Kevin Courtney, Joint GS NEU

Garret Oliver, Brewer, Brooklyn brewery

Prof. Hugh Montgomery, ICU doctor

Prince Harry, personality

Beard Liberation Front

24^th March

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

ICU Doctor Prof Hugh Montgomery & cartoonist Steve Bell win Beard of Spring Round One

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that voting is now open for the coveted Beard of Spring Award.

ICU Doctor Prof Hugh Montgomery and Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell shaved the opposition to win Round One and go through to the final.

They will be joined by the top two from Round Two.

Beard of Spring is the second of four seasonal awards that lead to the Beard of the Year in December.

The campaigners say that while the second seasonal award of the year traditionally focuses on new beard growth, the focus in 2021 is as much on those whose beards have appeared in a positive public light during the quarter.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard of Spring poll sets the beard-benchmark for the period ahead when beards can be flaunted in public as the weather improves.

The vote is open now and will close at midday on Good Friday, with the winner announced on Easter Saturday

Round Two vote here:

Round One March 20-23

Round Two March 24-27

Final March 28-31

Beard of Spring 2021

Steve Bell, cartoonist

Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York

Michael Rosen, Author

Tim Dunn, railway historian

Kevin Courtney, Joint GS NEU

Garret Oliver, Brewer, Brooklyn brewery

Prof. Hugh Montgomery, ICU doctor

Prince Harry, personality

23^rd March 2020-23^rd March 2021. Some untold histories of the present

It is far too soon to write the history of the last year of lockdowns, illness and death, and job losses.

That doesn’t mean however that some of the constituent parts of that history should not be gathered.

There are a lot and some have been covered by the media, but not all.

The point most often made was that Johnson locked down too late a year ago and contributed to the UK having amongst the highest COVID death rates in the world.

A people’s inquiry on this and other matters is already underway and an official one might follow. It will probably be ponderous, go on a long time and lead to not much (think Iraq War).

There are lots of other matters that should go to making the pre-history of the last 12 months.

One key area because it will be one of the hardest to record is the world and the people that Boris Johnson doesn’t know exist. These are often ethnic minorities, but not always. They are always from the poorest less well-off parts of society.

There are the issues of poor housing conditions that have led to increased COVID infections and deaths in some areas. In the first lockdown it was London Boroughs, subsequently it has moved elsewhere, as it were.

Numbers have been left to work in unsafe conditions. Over 50 London bus drivers have died of COVID. Meanwhile teachers and the NEU in particular have had to fight, and been vilified for doing so, for safety at work.

We can’t and never will forget the NHS and the range of those who work so hard to keep it going. Their reward? A 1% pay rise (in practice a cut)

It goes much wider than this. While there have been large numbers thrown out of work-think pubs, theatre, music etc who have not been picked up in the furlough schemes, there are also many who have continued to work throughout, keeping things going. That includes the telecoms managers and professionals who I represent as a trade union officer.

Finally we must not forget those who have done very well out of the last year. The very highly paid consultants who haven’t delivered track and trace. The friends of Tory Ministers who have got large contracts to do things only for it to be eventually discovered that the NHS and local authorities do it better and much more cheaply.

There is a lot of history to be discovered and recorded here. It is our present but it will be future generations past and it needs to be documented and told.

Dr Keith Flett convenes the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

Boris Johnson condemns Bristol ‘Kill the Bill’ protest on visit to BAE weapons factory

Hypocrisy is nothing new for Boris Johnson but his condemnation of Sunday’s ‘Kill the Bill’ protest in Bristol while touring a BAE systems factory in Lancashire does warrant note (not the media did note it obviously).

The Bristol protest appears to have been peaceful enough until police deployed batons, pepper spray, dogs and horses. By contrast the protesters seem to have let off some fireworks. If one delved deep enough into reports it might be suggested that the protest probably could and should have been policed without the need for force. However it seems that officers who knew how to do that weren’t around and it was left to officers who did not have experience of demonstrations.

None of that perhaps rather mundane detail stopped a condemnatory pile on by the ‘great and the good’ of course.

Even so for Boris Johnson to do so from a BAE factory, a company that is in the process of signing a deal to sell fighter jets to human rights abusing Saudi Arabia, seems to relate to a different kind and scale of violence altogether.

BAE employs thousands of skilled workers in Lancashire btw. Hopefully eventually they can turn those skills more specifically to the UK’s own defence efforts rather than the Saudis and more particularly to more peaceful projects altogether.

The Prime Minister said: “I think that all that kind of thing is unacceptable.

“And I think that people obviously have a right to protest in this country, but they should protest peacefully and legally.”

(Daily Mirror 22^nd March)