Kmflett's Blog

Hwyel Francis 1946-2021. Socialist historian who chronicled the making of the C20th Welsh working class.

The historian and former Labour MP Hwyel Francis has died at the age of 74. His Wiki entry gives some idea of his life and works:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hywel_Francis

I didn’t know Hywel, although I heard him speak on occasion, and I, after all, convene the London Socialist Historians Group and the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research at London University. On the other hand I have lived partly in central Cardiff for over 25 years now.

There is no doubt that Hywel Francis did a huge amount to chronicle the making of the Twentieth Century Welsh working class. Of course its traditions and organisation were not hugely different to elsewhere in the UK. Wales based land owners and businessmen made money out of the slave trade and imperialism, as their counterparts in England did. But on our side, to give one example, the great miners leader in the 1926 General Strike A J Cook who was a Welsh miner came from Somerset.

My concern is how the history of the working class in Wales has been written or not. Both Eric Hobsbawm and E P Thompson had holiday homes in Wales but it was quite deliberately The Making of the English Working Class.

It has fallen to others to write the history on (as the English see it) the far side of the Severn. Gwyn A Williams wrote and spoke marvellously and invariably idiosyncratically on Welsh history but when it came to the history of Welsh workers Hwyel Francis was central. His book (with Dai Smith) The Fed, the history of South Wales miners in the C20th is a fascinating piece of labour history and stands out as such. Likewise his Miners Against Fascism, Wales and the Spanish Civil War brought to life the input that Wales had to the International Brigades.

Francis was key to setting up the South Wales Miners Library at Swansea University which is a great resource for historians. I researched there myself looking at the impact of the 1984/5 miners strike and its defeat.

Somewhere in that one can find some of the seeds of what became New Labour (I making the point historically not as a political judgement) and Hywel Francis became a Labour MP from 2001-2015. I’m sure if you delve far enough you’ll find occasional chunterings from myself that he would do much more important work focusing on the history. However clearly he did a good deal in this time that was appreciated although not support for the Iraq War.

The Welsh working class of 2021 is not employed in mines (or in most cases steel works)but in quite different occupations from which develop different attitudes and traditions and ways of grappling with capital.

At the same time the history remains a live presence and ideas of solidarity and working class organisation are just as important now as they were in 1926, 1948 and 1984. Hywel Francis did a huge amount to help our understanding of that.

Geoffrey Boycott argues the condition of pitches is not the key to success in cricket matches

For many years, some may say since the birth of time, Geoffrey Boycott has been going on (and on) about cricket pitches and his view that in the days (his day) when pitches were left uncovered this provided a real if tough test of a cricketers skills.

The current India v England Test series has given rise to comments about the pitches, largely to the effect that they had been prepared to take spin and this was not therefore a level playing field.

In contrast I think its expected that pitches in India might take spin just as English and Welsh pitches are often good seam bowling strips.

However Boycott in his regular Telegraph column (18.2.21) has now decided that pitches are not that important.

He argues ‘nothing in the laws of cricket says the pitch should be flat for batsmen..the challenge for England is to look at their own batting and stop being so one-dimensional’

Like one of Boycott’s innings its taken time but he has got there.

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

19^th February

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front gives Ted Cruz a lifetime ban

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it has banned Texas Senator and Trump supporter Ted Cruz from any association with it for life.

The campaigners say that just taking the first couple of months of 2020 Cruz has been involved in or associated with a number of activities that have brought the hirsute into disrepute.

His latest transgression involved attempting to go on holiday while the area of the US suffered a weather related emergency.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we promote positive images of the hirsute in public life. Ted Cruz represents the complete opposite. For that reason we have taken the decision to implement a lifetime ban from any association with the cause of beard liberation.

Harold Wilson’s Moral Crusade, Keir Starmer & the moral economy of capitalism

Keir Starmer’s speech on 17^th February about the way forward for Britain post-pandemic referenced more Labour history than is usual in a Labour leader’s speech, at least since the arrival of Tony Blair.

He spoke a fair bit about the 1945 Labour Government and concluded with quoting a line that Harold Wilson made in a speech on the 1^st October 1962 to that year’s Labour Party conference

Harold Wilson once said that the Labour party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.

He was right.

Our moral crusade now is to address the inequalities and injustices that this crisis has so brutally exposed – and to build a better, more secure future.

Keir Starmer 17^th February 2021

Wilson is credited with being the founder of War on Want (the idea more than the organisational detail) after reading a letter from Victor Gollancz (a left-wing publisher) in the Guardian in 1951. The use of the term ‘crusade’ reads, at best, a bit oddly in 2021 but 60 years ago frames of reference and thinking were different. That is an historical point not a judgement.

I’m a socialist historian so obviously the history in Starmer’s speech and why he chose to include it interests me. In particular perhaps because one task an historian on the left and of the left has is to try and engage people with the ideas and activities of the left from previous eras. Its not too likely they will come across them accidentally unfortunately.

Anyone familiar with the Wilson Premierships (1964-70 & 1974-76) would probably struggle with a link between Wilson and morals and morality although as time goes on it might be argued his positive achievements- and there were some-do stand out more.

 There is an argument that the left is after not so much industrial power (though some of us still are) but what the historian E.P Thompson called a moral economy.

That is a society where other things than profit and the market are the priorities.

The moral economy Thompson wrote about in eighteenth century England he described thus ‘ a popular consensus as to what were legitimate and what were illegitimate practices in marketing, milling, baking etc.. an outrage to these moral assumptions.. was the usual occasion for direct action’

Were judges involved at all in this? They certainly were and intervened from time to time to remind those who transgressed that a moral economy existed and should be observed. That is they simply tried to make sure that popular custom and will were actually the things that mattered most on the day.

When Harold Wilson’s early involvement with War on Want termed the Labour Party a ‘moral crusade’ it was not necessarily all that left-wing and certainly not revolutionary but it did suggest that there are other values than those of the market worth pursuing.

I’m not sure Starmer means to pursue that, but his speech at least raises the point.

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

18^th February

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Survey finds men with beards are better in bed, at snoring

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that in a snap social media survey on Wednesday a poll has found that men with beards are better in bed- at snoring. In the survey 70% thought snoring was what hirsute men stood out for in bed, while 30% thought it was sex.

The survey was a corrective to one carried out by the e-commerce site OnBuy.com which according to newspaper reports had found that men with beards were best in bed at sex.

The survey was hetero-normative- asking only women, while the BLF survey covered everyone

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, underlying the OnBuy survey is some kind of age old prejudice around hair and virility in men since it suggested that men with beards who also wore a beard were best in bed at sex. Frankly we think our result of snoring is less exciting but much closer to reality.

E P Thompson on Ash Wednesday in Bristol in the eighteenth century

In his essay Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture E P Thompson notes the following:

Bristol in the early eighteenth century saw an annual pugilistic combat on Ash Wednesday between the blacksmiths and the coopers, carpenters and sailors, with the weavers sometimes joining in on the side of the smiths.

His point is that as the working-class emerged its shape in terms of trades and allegiances also began to appear in this case in the form of a boxing match. One of those traditions that has become hidden from history, possibly in this case for the good. Its interesting to reflect however that while Ash Wednesday is meant to be a religious occasion marking the beginning of Lent the Bristol activities of three hundred years ago appeared to have quite other traditions in mind

Freedom of speech, airbrushing history & historical research

My Fletter in the Guardian (17^th Feb) with link to others below.

Richard Evans on twitter has commented far more pointedly than I do below! @RichardEvans36

Plans by the government to appoint a free speech champion for universities and tell cultural institutions that they must not airbrush British history is part of a Tory culture war. It has little to do with history and a lot to do with the Tories striking stances on things they think will win them votes.

At the same time, the ignorance that ministers like Oliver Dowden have about history and what historians do cannot go unchallenged. British history is not some static, unchanging thing. How each generation understands events and which bits of British history are discussed and remembered is subject to change. At least some of that relates to work that historians do to better understand British history.

I would suggest that Dowden reads Sheila Rowbotham’s Hidden from History and Peter Fryer’s Staying Power. Without those foundation texts, the history of women and ethnic minorities would have stayed airbrushed out of the historical record.

Dr Keith Flett

London Socialist Historians Group

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/16/a-free-speech-champion-will-only-impose-tory-values

Beard Liberation Front

PRESS RELEASE   17^th February

Contact Keith Flett      07803 167266

HIRSUTE URGE: GIVE UP SHAVING FOR LENT

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with Lent now underway it is the ideal opportunity for people to give up shaving

The BLF says that a beard grown between now and Easter, can add significantly to the diversity of British life.

The Lent beard is a long religious tradition which in recent times has crossed over into secular fashion as well.

The BLF is not religious though it respects those who grow Lent beards for that reason. However the pre-Easter beard also has a place in British folk custom, with the facial hair representing the new growth of Spring to come.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said it is the best time of year to grow a beard as Spring blossoms so do beards. It is time to revolt into style and grow an organic beard for Lent. I personally will not be shaving during Lent, or pruning my beard in that period

Beard Liberation Front

17^th February

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Vote underway for the Beard of Wales 2021

The annual vote which aims to determine the St David’s Day Beard of Wales, the Welsh beard that offers the most positive national image, is once again underway.

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, in lockdown conditions beards have boomed even if the First Minister remains resolutely clean shaven himself.

There are two preliminary rounds leading to the final  Best Beard of Wales 2021 vote between 25-28 February

Round One: vote at this link

Beard of Wales 2021

Carwyn Jones

Hefin David

Martin Shipton

Michael Sheen

Jake Ball

Vaughan Gething

Tom Jones

James Dean Bradley

Shrovetide & the Lords of Misrule

Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday which for some means pancake eating. Some will know that the origins of Shrove Tuesday are around eating up things like cheese and butter before the start of Lent. Lent is a period of abstinence (for some) in the traditional calendar that goes on to Maundy Thursday (2nd April).

In the traditional calendar Shrove Tuesday was the end of a period called Shrovetide which lasted for several days beforehand. It was, again before Lent, a time of merrymaking, drinking and celebration.

Some of those who voted for Brexit might see it as the kind of English tradition (elsewhere in the UK matters varied) that could be reclaimed. The irony is that Shrovetide like many traditional pastimes, particularly those with a religious connection, was and is marked across mainland Europe.

In fact Shrovetide was celebrated more vigorously elsewhere in Europe where the February weather was often a little better.

Like many traditional festivals there was a strong element of the Carnivalesque about Shrovetide, in short of subversion and turning the world upside down.

Shrovetide marked the end of the reign of the Lords of Misrule who first elected on All Hallows Eve (October 31st) and were particularly active in the Twelve Days of Christmas and perhaps at Candlemas (2nd February).

A couple of examples. Thomas Tucker of St Johns College Oxford was invested as ‘Prince of the Revels’ on All Hallow’s Night 31st October 1607 and kept the position through to Shrove Tuesday on February 9th 1608.

There may not have been anything particularly subversive about that but Gladman’s Riding in Norwich (riding meant procession)) was described as an insurrection. It took place on 22nd January 1443 clearly some weeks before Shrovetide. It was in fact framed by that time in the calendar because it was designed to take place before Lent, but after Christmas. The underlying reason was political and related to the potential closure of local mills meaning that Lent would be even more difficult in respect of food provision than usual.

The Lords and Ladies of Misrule tend to re-appear after Easter by the way