The Pandemic has hit beer and brewing hard. Independently owned pubs, craft breweries have suffered huge financial hits often with little Government help. Those who work in them perhaps particularly have often been furloughed at best and lost their income in many cases.
One sector however has not been so badly impacted.
The Financial Times (26th February) reported on giant brewer ABInBev’s latest results that a ‘smaller hit’ on profits than had been thought had taken place and expected better times ahead.
Like for like revenue was down 3.7% to $47bn. Beer volumes were up 1.6% in Q4 indicating the start of a recovery.
In 2020 drinks volumes were down everywhere except South America with Europe and Asia the worst hit. ABInBev noted that on-line sales in 2020 had reduced the impact of bar closures but expected its ‘strong portfolio’ to be a key factor when ‘consumers are allowed out’.
Shares were down 6% on concerns about margins.
Some reading this may need reminding we are talking about beer here rather than widgets and many others will feel the need for a beer though not one made by ABInBev I suspect.
The Financial Times on the politics of the Modi cricket stadium
The new cricket stadium in Ahmedabad which hosted the third India v England Test this week, and will host fourth Test next week, seats over 100,000 people at full capacity (which in present circumstances it is not).
It was named this week after the Indian PM Narendra Modi. Cricket writers noted the point with some bafflement but the Financial Times (27.2) provides both background detail and an Editorial judgement.
Before he became PM Modi’s local base was in the area and he ran the Gujarat Cricket Association. When Modi became a politician on the national stage, his close colleague Amit Shah took charge.
Stands at the ground are named after leading businessmen. Meanwhile Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah is Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Attempts have been made to make sure that proper governance rather than just political preferences are to the fore but the FT notes that even critics concede that at least Modi and Shah did get the stadium built and open. One thinks of Boris Johnson’s various, failed, schemes.
The Editorial is strongly critical of Modi.
It notes that despite his huge ego Trump didn’t manage to name any particularly significant buildings or places after himself while in office. Stalin did but that didn’t last.
It concludes:
Modi’s act of vanity is part of a wider effort to rewrite the country’s history and sense of self. And if you are building a cult of personality why not link it to the country’s sporting obsession? But the move might also be added to the growing list of warning lights that are already flashing about the state of Indian democracy.
For there is one other reason why political leaders start naming places after themselves while they are still in power. It is that they are not confident their nation will be quite so keen to honour them once they have gone.
The problem Johnson has about naming a rugby, football or cricket stadium after himself is that he has to get it built first. Nothing in his career to date suggests that would be a likely achievement.
Statue of Donald Trump erected. Time to kick over the statues
A gold statue of Donald Trump has been unveiled at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida. Trump is expected to address the conference on Sunday and hint at a run for the Presidency in 2024.
The golden statue shows Trump with a red tie and wearing a pair of stars and stripes shorts. The golden appearance has some interesting potential connections with Trump (see report below) although it is unlikely these will be in the mind of the hard to far right politicians attending the event.
The British Government has spent a good deal of time recently arguing and often demanding that statues of slave traders and other at best discredited historical figures should stay in place. One wonders if any Tory Minister will defend the Trump statue
Michael Sheen leads Best Beard of Wales 2021 vote, with journalist Martin Shipton 2nd
The annual vote which will determine the St David’s Day Beard of Wales, the Welsh beard that offers the most positive national image, has reached a final Beard Off.
The first round saw journalist Martin Shipton and rugby player Jake Ball shave Sir Tom Jones and Carwyn Jones to reach the final vote from February 25th. Voting on Round Two saw actor Michael Sheen & MS Hefin David bristle to victory over James Dean Bradfield and Vaughan Gething.
Michael Sheen has taken an early significant but from unassailable lead in the Beard Off. Well known journalist Martin Shipton is 2nd placed with the vote ending at midnight on Sunday.
The Beard Liberation Front says that images of St David suggest that the Welsh Saint himself may have had an organic beard
Welsh rugby prop Adam Jones won the Award in 2013, voted for by BLF supporters, just shaving former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Another rugby player Leigh Halfpenny won in 2014. In 2015 the Award went to Thee Faction musician Chris Fox in 2016 footballer Joe Ledley and in 2017 to Charcutier Illtud Llyr Dunsford, with Chris Fox winning again in 2018. In 2019 journalist Grant Tucker shaved the opposition to claim the accolade. Michael Sheen won in 2020 and went on to share the Beard of the Year Award with Michael Rosen in December 2020.
It is the ninth time the Award has been given following the traditional UK Beard of the Year at the end December each year and the BLF says it is a mark of Wales as a modern nation on St David’s Day that beards are now playing an increasingly significant role in national life.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, The Best Beard of Wales will be named on St David’s Day. Michael Sheen has a lot of support as the current holder of the title but there is plenty of time for that to change over the weekend.
There were two preliminary rounds leading to the final Best Beard of Wales 2021 vote between 25-28 February
Vote here:
Best Beard of Wales 2021 Final poll(25-28 February)
As Government attacks Black Lives Matter, major Brewer takes action on it.
The first period of 2021 has been marked of course by the pandemic and the roll-out of the vaccination programme but also by Ministers criticisms and attacks on one of the key and continuing features from 2020- the Black Lives Matter movement.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s arrival in the White House will present many issues but the departure of Trump meant a summary end to his 1776 Project an attempt to re-write US history to minimise the issue of slavery amongst other things.
In Britain Home Secretary Priti Patel has attacked Black Lives Matters protests while Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has continued to emphasise that on no account must such protests be allowed to influence the way British history has been viewed.
As often the Tory Party and its traditional business supporters part company on this matter. Big business in particular has its reputation to consider, not least because it has to serve all sections of society and aim to make profits. The matter may be ethical but it is also strictly practical.
Greene King is a leading British brewer and pub operator, now Hong Kong owned, but previously and recently associated with the Beerage- brewers who back the Tory Party (as they traditionally have).
In 2020 it apologised and agreed to make reparations for the reality that part of its historical wealth was based on the slave trade.
In 2021 it has decided to rename several of its pubs which are currently called the Black Boy
Greene King have acknowledged that there is no definitive evidence to link the names to the slave trade but having consulted customers have noted that as in 2021 many will assume this is the case, changing the name makes a degree of sense.
This BBC report discusses the possible origins of ‘Black Boy’ pub names, the importance of changing them and who was consulted on this together with details of some of the pubs involved:
Their press release also references a number of other measures they are taking around BLM.
These all look fine, but as a trade unionist I know that while fine sounding policies and consultation are better than nothing getting things to actually happen is much harder. Measures on equal pay and ability to raise issues of discrimination and get them reviewed seriously for example are part of the real bottom line here.
Below is an extract from a letter in the London Review of Books (March 4th 2021). It refers to Robert Henderson’s important recently published book on Lenin in London. It refers specifically to a period when Lenin was researching in the old Round Reading Room of the British Museum, where I, many years later, researched labour history before the current British Library opened.
I’m pleased to see that Lenin was ‘fully bearded’ while he researched as indeed was I..
an Icelander, Jón Stefánsson, was researching in the reading room at the same time as Lenin. His memoir, Úti í heimi (‘Out in the World’), was published in 1949. My rough translation:
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (i.e. Lenin), 1870-1924, sat, in the first years of the 20th century, sometimes next to me in the British Museum reading room. I recognised him from pictures in the papers. He had a high, convex forehead, almost completely bald, with traces of ruddy hair, and was fully bearded. He spoke to no one and no one dared speak to him. He arrived every day before the reading room opened and always sat in the same seat, L13. I often sat at L14. He worked all day until closing time. When he went out to eat, he put all his papers in a bag and took it with him. He left his books behind to keep the seat. Once he dropped a page of writing on the floor. I picked it up and handed it to him. He said: ‘Thanks.’ His pronunciation of the ‘th’ in ‘thanks’ was as if he were German and, indeed, he called himself Richter when he applied for a ticket to the reading room. That is what Ellis, the head of the reading room told me.
Ingólfur Gíslason University of Iceland, Reykjavík
Museums Director defends professional independence & talks of ‘additions’ not ‘subtractions’ to history after Dowden meeting.
Sir Ian Blatchford, Chair of the National Museums Directors Council, has written about a meeting that Museums and Heritage organisations had with Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden on Tuesday in the Daily Telegraph (25.2).
I don’t read the Telegraph on a regular basis, although it can be entertaining and the cricket coverage is decent. Rather I was alerted to the article by a tweet from Oliver Dowden.
It may be recalled that Dowden had complained that airbrushing of history was taking place and there was a focus on the bad bits of British history rather than the glorious bits. This seemed to follow complaints from the oddly named Common Sense group of Tory MPs and Peers who had written a letter on it to the, er, Daily Telegraph in November 2020.
Perhaps in that context it made sense for Blatchford to write his report on the meeting with Dowden in the Telegraph but it does suggest that it is focused on the right-wing audience that had pushed the issue in the first place.
At the same time the impact of the Communist Party historians and, later, feminist history notwithstanding English history has tended to have a lot of Conservative white men in suits writing on it. When one looks at the work of David Starkey or Hugh Trevor Roper amongst others one can see that there is plenty of scope for additions to history.
Before the meeting the unions representing museum and heritage workers, Prospect, PCS and the FDA issued a joint statement underlining the need for professionals to be able to do their work in this area without Government interference.
Blatchford’s report sort of echoes this but hints that the Minister is watching them for transgressions. Even so if a defence of professional independence was made and understood that is not to be sniffed at because it is most certainly not what the Common Sense group has in mind.
The additions and subtractions point is more controversial. There can be no issue with the first of these- as historical research uncovers new things to display or new information. The subtractions is more problematic.
Of course in the on-line world we are currently in its not really an issue- except the order in which things appear or are highlighted on websites. In physical spaces it is. Rotation of displays is common so why doesn’t Blatchford say that additions and subtractions are just part of a normal process of deciding what to focus on from time to time? Hmmmm
Keith Flett is the Convenor of the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
Beard Liberation Front bars Narendra Modi for life after stadium renaming stunt
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that is has barred Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for life after he suddenly renamed the huge Ahmedabad cricket stadium- venue for the 3rd India v England Test- on Tuesday after himself.
The campaigners say that he is bringing the hirsute into disrepute.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expect a degree of eccentricity amongst some beard wearers, but Modi’s action is about self-promotion and that is not something that puts the hirsute in a positive light
Rugby Player, Actor, Journalist, Politician in Best Beard of Wales 2021 vote
The annual vote which will determine the St David’s Day Beard of Wales, the Welsh beard that offers the most positive national image, has reached a final beard off.
The first round saw journalist Martin Shipton and rugby player Jake Ball shave Sir Tom Jones and Carwyn Jones to reach the final vote from February 25th. Voting on Round Two saw actor Michael Sheen & MS Hefin David bristle to victory over James Dean Bradfield and Vaughan Gething.
The Beard Liberation Front says that images of St David suggest that the Welsh Saint himself may have had an organic beard
Welsh rugby prop Adam Jones won the Award in 2013, voted for by BLF supporters, just shaving former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Another rugby player Leigh Halfpenny won in 2014. In 2015 the Award went to Thee Faction musician Chris Fox in 2016 footballer Joe Ledley and in 2017 to Charcutier Illtud Llyr Dunsford, with Chris Fox winning again in 2018. In 2019 journalist Grant Tucker shaved the opposition to claim the accolade. Michael Sheen won in 2020 and went on to share the Beard of the Year Award with Michael Rosen in December 2020.
It is the ninth time the Award has been given following the traditional UK Beard of the Year at the end December each year and the BLF says it is a mark of Wales as a modern nation on St David’s Day that beards are now playing an increasingly significant role in national life.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, The Best Beard of Wales will be named on St David’s Day. Will it be a close shave this year?
There were two preliminary rounds leading to the final Best Beard of Wales 2021 vote between 25-28 February
Vote here:
Best Beard of Wales 2021 Final poll(25-28 February)
Revealed: Hard Right Tory MPs behind Oliver Dowden’s ‘retain & explain’ agenda for British history
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden had a virtual meeting with leaders of Museums and Heritage organisations to discuss his ‘retain and explain’ agenda for British history on Tuesday 23rd February.
Essentially the agenda is that, whatever local communities and democratically elected Councillors may want, statues, monuments and place names associated with the slave trade, slavery, imperial wars and so on should remain in place.
Instead an explanation can be displayed as to how such figures and acts are understood now.
The agenda is controversial one although after the meeting Dowden tweeted that a working party had been informed to look at how to implement ‘retain and explain’.
Dowden has been informed and influenced by a group of hard right Tory MPs and Peers, the ‘Common Sense Group’. They laid out their agenda in a letter to the Telegraph last autumn. As may be gathered they are definitely in favour of retaining the statues and monuments of imperial Britain about which, in their view, no explanation and certainly no apology is required.
Letter, Daily Telegraph 9th November 2020
SIR – The Common Sense Group (59 Conservative MPs and seven peers) was formed to speak for the silent majority of voters tired of being patronised by elitist bourgeois liberals whenever issues such as immigration or law and order are raised.
Part of our mission is to ensure that institutional custodians of history and heritage, tasked with safeguarding and celebrating British values, are not coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the “woke agenda”.
So, when National Trust directors implicitly tarnished one of Britain’s greatest sons, Winston Churchill, by linking his family home, Chartwell, with slavery and colonialism, 20 of the group wrote to the Culture Secretary requesting he review the trust’s funding applications to public bodies.
After revelations that the National Maritime Museum, guardian of Nelson’s Trafalgar coat (pierced by a bullet on Victory’s deck) would, in light of Black Lives Matter protests, portray “multiple perspectives on history” and thus review Nelson’s “heroic status”, our group challenged the museum’s CEO, Paddy Rodgers.
Subsequently, both the National Trust and Maritime Museum have attempted to reassure the public about their intentions, and kindly invited Common Sense Group members to visit Chartwell and the Museum.
However, recent comments by the trust’s chairman – as ill-informed as they were unwise – prove the good judgment of the chairman of the Charity Commission, Baroness Stowell, in reminding charities that their purpose is far from involvement in the theory or practice of politics.
History must neither be sanitised nor rewritten to suit “snowflake” preoccupations. A clique of powerful, privileged liberals must not be allowed to rewrite our history in their image.
