In Medieval Times the marking of Christmas by Class started with Advent Sunday.
The period between the fourth Sunday before Christmas and Christmas Day was a period of a limited diet, the more so for the poor than the rich obviously.
From Advent Sunday they had been enjoined to limit their diet. For the wealthy this meant soups, stews and fish instead of roasts or pies. The poorer, however, could find the reduction a misery. In the fifteenth century James Ryman complained of eating ‘no puddings nor sauce, but stinking fish not worth a louse’
Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun
If you are following an Advent diet or if you arent putting food aside for your local Foodbank seems like a good tradition
‘Unacceptable face of capitalism’ Philip Green’s ban from Beard Awards increased
In the light of fresh news stories about Philip Green, who has been labelled the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’, the Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that his ban from consideration for all Beard Awards will now run until at least 2025. He had previously been barred until 2021.
The BLF which runs the annual Beard of the Year Award, says that while Sir Philip sometimes sports what some might call a designer beard, the only real impact is to bring the hirsute into disrepute
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, one of the main reasons for our existence is to promote a positive image of the hirsute in public life. Sir Philip Green manages precisely the opposite. By his conduct he is helping to promote pogonophobia
Guidelines for beard wearers eating a Scotch Egg as a ‘substantial’ pub meal issued
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has issued guidelines for beard wearers who may under new pub restrictions in force in some areas of England from December 2nd decide to eat a Scotch Egg as a ‘substantial’ pub meal.
The campaigners say that there are a considerable range of Scotch Eggs, meat and vegetarian, but the specific concern is with the consistency of the egg at the centre of the delicacy.
Scotch Eggs with ‘soft’ as opposed to ‘hard’ eggs are currently popular and eating these can cause issues for the hirsute. Getting egg yolk in the beard is particularly messy and can easily cause significant follicle damage.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Scotch Eggs, whatever variety is chosen, can be a very tasty and substantial meal but in eating one the beard wearer needs to both prepared and to take precautions.
Beard Liberation Front guidelines for Scotch Egg eating
1 Always eat the Scotch Egg, either soft or hard, with a knife and fork. Eating it directly from hand to mouth poses a significant risk of getting crumbs or egg yolk lodged in the beard.
2 Where possible use a napkin to protect the beard when eating the egg. This can capture crumbs and yolk
3 When eating a soft Scotch Egg the BLF recommends cutting the egg into relatively small pieces to maximise the area of meat or vegetarian casing compared to the egg yolk.
4 If either egg yolk or crumbs do interface with the beard take immediate action to remove these from the beard.
December 1st. World AIDS Day: Remembering the ‘other’ pandemic
December 1st is World AIDS Day when time is taken to remember the many millions who have died (and, in lesser numbers) continue to die of the illness.
Cases and deaths still occur in Britain from AIDS but they are relatively limited. There remains no cure or completely effective vaccine against AIDS but there are treatments that can very significantly increase life expectancy.
I’ll take time to recall several friends who did die of AIDS in the 1980s before it became understood how important it was to keep to ‘safe sex’ practices.
In 2020 AIDS is a chronic illness in the UK rather than a pandemic but there remain significant numbers of cases and deaths around the world which impact, as is more or less always the case, the poor more than the rich and in areas where early treatment is less easily available.
In the context of COVID-19 it is interesting to note the similarities with AIDS and the downsides.
The origins of AIDS remain unclear but the line that it was deliberately started by scientists (American rather than Chinese in this case) is fanciful. Certainly transmission from the animal world appears a possibility but there are numbers of histories and theories
There were a number of false stories about how AIDS could be acquired including from toilet seats and through kissing mostly underwritten by a considerable level of homophobia, although AIDS is by no means entirely confined to gay men.
Likewise and this may also seem familiar there were those who denied that AIDS was a significant or noteworthy issue at all, the most well known UK exponent of this was Dr Michael Fitzpatrick who argued that AIDS prevention was an industry and the scale of illness was vastly overstated.
The tough reality that AIDS is still with us and still kills might one think cause a re-think but Fitzgerald has moved on to other issues.
That aside keeping in mind this December 1st that COVID is not the only pandemic around in the world- TB and Cholera remain killers too-is a sobering thought.
Parliamentary Beard of the Year 2020 vote opens with highest ever Tory representation
The Beard Liberation Front has said that the voting process for Parliamentary Beard of the Year 2020 is underway.
Eight candidates will attempt to shave each other for the coveted annual accolade. 2020 sees the highest proportion of Tory MPs on the shortlist ever reflecting more hirsute Parliamentary times
The first of two votes runs from 30th November until the 4th December, with a second from 5th December until December 9th. Each vote will consist of four MPs with the winner of each vote going to a Beard Off vote on 10-12th December.
The winner of Parliamentary Beard of the Year will be announced on 13th December
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as usual its not about whether the politics of a particular MP are approved of or not. It is about the positive impact their beard has had in the public eye during the year, or not as the case may be. There are no whips or block votes involved so its entirely down to public support.
The vote is pinned @kmflett on twitter or via this link
The British Pub: You don’t know what you’ve got until its gone
As there is a continuing high level of COVID-19 infections there is also a media focus on pubs as the source. Indeed, some are. In fact anywhere that sees people meet together, workplaces, transport, cafes and pubs are more likely to see transmission.
How likely it is to be the case provided legal safety measures are in place is important to keep in mind though.
There remains media hyperbole about thousands rushing to the local and getting drunk. No doubt some do but most who use the pub regularly know its core reason is much more than just selling drink.
In fact drinking in a pub is drinking in a socially controlled and licensed environment. These days it’s also a socially distanced space.
There is no evidence that pubs are a particular source of COVID-19 infection and what appears to be a hastily cobbled together SAGE document arguing that they could be is not a serious study but instead a series of reports often bordering on the anecdotal, that at some point in a bar, in another country, whose safety precautions are unknown, infection took place.
One suspects the work of temperance campaigners here who believe that keeping pubs shut, preferably for ever, is a good thing. It’s a point of view but why not say so and see if it an acceptable one?
Government restrictions in all four of the UK nations mean pubs are either completely closed currently or can open in only very limited ways. Hopefully this will end during the first months of 2021 but the damage done to pub businesses, staff and infrastructure will mean that numbers of pubs will close.
Arguably given that social interaction is a key way of COVID-19 infection spreading keeping pubs shut until there is a vaccine with proper support is one way forward. However there would be little point in doing that if schools remain open as they are and a lot more is not done to enforce working from home where it’s possible.
Beyond that while the pub is not for everyone it is a key social place, where people mix and chat (again not at the moment) and the fabric of life is woven as it were.
John Harris in the Guardian makes the point well here:
One need only look for example at radical working-class history in the first half of the nineteenth century to see that from the Luddites to the Chartists the pub was a central meeting place. This was perhaps particularly so after the 1830 Beer Houses Act which led to a considerable increase in pubs, perhaps a little like the micro-pubs of today.
The idea of the ‘pub as the hub’ of local community activity has long been one promoted by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). CAMRA was founded in 1971 to combat moves by the big corporate brewers to replace traditional cask ales with bland artificially carbonated keg beer. To its credit, it has been one of the most successful consumer campaigns of recent decades and has also been active in trying to stop pub closures. Recent legislation in England, supported by CAMRA, allowing pubs under threat to be classified as Assets of Community Value (ACV) has helped.
Traditionally many pubs have supported a variety of social activities ranging from pub games through support for local music, theatre and other performing arts, to support for local football clubs and beer festivals. A pub which recognises its important role in the local community and offers well-kept beer at a fair price is far more than just a boozer. It’s a social location and inclusive of community.
Of course that doesn’t describe every pub, there are an infinite variety, the good, the bad, the indifferent. But they have a vital role in society. At the height of the temperance movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century temperance pubs and hotels were opened. They didn’t of course sell alcohol (or not much anyway) but with or without drink people are social.
Bill Bailey, David Olusoga & Michael Rosen head Beard of the Year 2020 shortlist
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers has announced the final shortlist for the Beard of the Year 2020.
The list consists of eight names after two ‘trim-off’ votes shaved the longlist of twelve names
There will now be two ‘Beard-Off’ votes for Beard of the Year 2020 which will open on 14th December and close on 22nd December. The winners of each vote will face each other for a final Beard of the Year vote on 23rd and 24th December.
Beard of the Year will be announced on 28th December.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we’ve made some changes to the way the Beard of the Year vote runs for 2020. We’ve moved the vote to twitter where polls often have great engagement and instead of two polls which ran for many weeks we’re running a series of shorter more focused polls. May the best beards win!
Gavin Moss will turn ‘Queen’s Evidence’ on Philip Moss.
One way or another last orders are approaching for Philip and Gavin Moss. As his father prepares to bow out of his modern slavery business and moves to Wales, Gavin has twigged that he will be left to carry the can, as it were. His current strategy appears to be to become more friendly with the ‘horses’ i.e. modern slaves perhaps on the basis that they can be persuaded to say they were working of their own free will. That might be ok for Sergeant ‘Knacker’ Burns but the police force does employ people with some reasonable investigative sense….
Eddie Grundy still being victimised by the Archer Dynasty over Xmas Show
Time is running short for the Xmas Show but Freddie Pargetter is still refusing to let Eddie Grundy take part. There has however been a split in the Archer Dynasty with David Archer opining that Grundy has ‘lucked out’ in being victimised by Pargetter.
Eddie Grundy’s Detectorists: in the best tradition of Joe Grundy
Under the guise of protecting David Archer, Eddie Grundy has infiltrated a group of treasure hunters who plan to search Brookfield for Roman coins. This may protect Archer’s farm but the bottom line is of course to reserve any actual treasure that is there for Eddie. It is truly a scheme in the best traditions of Joe Grundy but updated for the technologies of 2020.
Tumble Tussock apple now ‘discovered’ in Wiltshire
Who said Tumble Tussock’s don’t exist. The BBC has the story. Joe Grundy was right
Upper Class Struggle at Lords as Priti Patel pays £45K to become a life MCC member
In October 2020 it was reported that Home Secretary Priti Patel had paid £45K to become a life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club(MCC). Which cricket team Ms Patel actually supports is unknown but officially she can now claim to pass the Tebbit Test.
Like many sporting bodies Lords and the MCC are suffering a shortfall of funds. Unlike many however they have very well heeled supporters who think nothing of paying up to £45K to help out and at the same time by-pass the lengthy wait to become a member. There are 18,000 members and 500 vacancies arose in the last year mainly because existing members had died (of old age).
The Financial Times (28.11.20 ) has a fascinating article on what is clearly an upper class struggle at Lords. It is firewalled but key points are summarised below if you don’t subscribe.
According to the FT MCC members divide between ‘the merely affluent and the super-rich. Those of the City versus those from the shires’.
There has been a petition to demand a vote of no confidence in Chair Gerald Corbett, who is also chair of the logistics group Sergo. One signatory describes the current MCC Committee as a ‘geriatric chumocracy’.
It was felt unfair that the 12,000 on the current waiting list for MCC membership have been bypassed by those with £45K to spare who have leapfrogged them. One MCC member who is banker told the FT ‘if you’re lucky enough to have some money then you have more choices than the poor people who don’t’. A critical member however commented that ‘Ive tried to count the amount of men who wear red trousers and there’s quite a few’
The MCC has 781 female members now including Ms Patel and it is ‘developing’ an action plan in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. The FT reports that the MCC has ‘temporarily’ removed a portrait and bust of Benjamin Aislabie the club’s first honorary secretary and a slave plantation owner.
The report is by Murad Ahmed the FT’s Sports Editor.
Friedrich Engels was born on 28th November 1820 and died in North London (where else)on 5th August 1895.
After taking early retirement from the family firm in Manchester he moved to London and lived in Regents Park Rd until his death.
Writing to Karl Kautsky on 27th December 1891 Engels reported on the activities of his cat Tidlums:
Tidlums has grown into a large, majestic tomcat, the sultan of all the female cats in Regent’s Park Road and the terror of all competitors and rivals.
Tidlums sounds like a rather worrying cat though not quite as bad as Rosa Luxemburg’s cat Mimi who she reported had ‘whacked Lenin with her paw’ on one occasion:
