The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that Che Guevara, who was executed by CIA backed Bolivian forces on 9th October 1967 was one of the most iconic of post-1945 beard wearers.
The campaigners say that Che more than most led the revolt into style of the beard in the modern era.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, of course Che Guevara left an important political legacy still much debated, but his hirsute image was important too. He set a style for the left that is still much admired and copied
Historians say ‘history man’ Boris Johnson should have stepped in over National Trust job cuts
The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, London University has said that Boris Johnson should have stepped in to stop cuts at the National Trust.
Hundreds of compulsory and voluntary redundancies are due to go ahead, as the charity has struggled with income over the COVID-19 period.
Prospect, the trade union which represents National Trust employees, has been able to successfully protect many other jobs, but the reductions will still have a significant impact.
The historians say that just earlier this week Boris Johnson was opining again, in his speech to the 2020 Tory Conference about the importance of history.
He said:
We are proud of this country’s culture and history and traditions
The historians say that given the situation at the National Trust is directly due to Government lockdown policy Ministers should have stepped in to help.
London Socialist Historians Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, Boris Johnson goes about the importance of history but as usual he is not putting his money where his mouth is
Perpetual calls to restrict or shut pubs reflect the divorce between the Tories & their traditional base
A hundred years ago the Tories were the party of the Beerage. That is the brewers and come to that whisky distillers and others drinks producers.
As the proposals for the Small Brewers Duty Relief underline the Tories still do have links to regional brewers. But these are not central in the greater scheme of things.
In reality the big brewing and pub concerns in the UK are very largely owned by global companies- ABInBev, Heineken, Carlsberg etc etc. They owe no particular allegiance to the Tories and vice versa.
It reflects a small part of what the historian David Edgerton has written about in terms of the divorce of the current Tory Party from its traditional UK business interests.
You may be one of those (as I am) who wondered what exact evidence there is that closing pubs at 10pm has any impact on the far too high rates of COVID-19 infection. It does impact on the income and jobs of many casual and precarious workers but the Government cant save every job and particularly not any of those…
There was of course no evidence and the long heralded plans to shut pubs again in swathes of the UK falls into the same category. There is indeed much evidence of concerningly high infection rates amongst University students. The UCU has rightly called for a halt to face to face teaching. Perhaps something will be done…
Aside from the broken link between brewers and the Tories what else accounts for the ‘something must be done, lets shut pubs’ policy?
The answer, not much discussed, are temperance campaigners who have strong influence in public health bodies across the four nations.
I’m sometimes criticised for writing that this is understandable. Alcohol problems are only one health issue but they are an issue and medical people have to deal with them.
There are some however who have crossed the line between a fully reasonable concern with excessive drinking amongst a minority and a campaigning desire that any step that stops people from drinking is worth a go.
To be clear they don’t care or at least don’t appear to care about the impact on jobs or the mental health impact of restricting social interactions(or if they do they never say so). They just want to stop drinking. Full stop.
Measured discussion in these times is not easy. I do think however that it is not a binary choice between more lockdown measures or just letting infections rise.
The disgracefully low rate of Universal Credit could be increased to living wage levels so that where restrictions are needed people who lose their jobs can pay the bills.
Anyone who thinks pubs might need to close and also includes in their thought that measure will get my qualified support.
Needless to say Nicola Sturgeon’s evidence light diktat to shut or curtail pubs in Scotland didn’t get anywhere near that. The Chief Operating Officer of Brewdog tweeted that the support package (obviously not worked out beforehand or anything tedious like that) of £40m amounted to £2,000 a business.
Meanwhile Han-cock the English Health Minister has claimed that as pubs are the key source of COVID-19 infection- as ever with his statements evidence free- they would have to shut in hotspots (as vicariously determined).
If this did limit the spread of COVID-19 infections it would be prudent to do it of course, with proper support. Unfortunately I suspect in a few weeks it will be found that it hasn’t.
I shall watch with interest what increasingly looks like a temperance campaign that wont speak its name. Not so far anyway.
Press Release 7th October Contact Keith Flett, 07803 167266
Campaigners say grey squirrels pose threat to 2020 conker season
The Campaign for Real Conkers, the group that opposes bans on conker playing, has said that with the 2020 conker season in full swing, grey squirrels are posing a significant threat to conker supplies.
The campaign says that numbers of grey squirrels in many areas of the country are increasing. The squirrels can be seen carrying off and burying conkers on a regular basis leading to a shortage of the nut for players to pick up.
Squirrels don’t eat conkers but few seem to realise this and either collect and bury them or bite into them, destroying them as game conkers.
Campaign organiser Keith Flett said, we have nothing at all against squirrels but those who want to play conkers this year face a race against time to collect the nut before they are carried off by squirrels.
Notes
The CFRC believes that conkers is one of the few sports that can be played for free. All that is required is a conker and some string.
It is opposed to championships, rules, regulations, separate teams for men and women and commercial sponsorship.
It seeks to encourage young people to play conkers. It should not be the preserve of those of mature years
George Orwell, Hop Picking & trade unionism in the 1930s
Its more or less the end of the hop picking season in the UK and Green Hop beers are being produced.
In 2020 except for very small scale amounts it’s a mechanised process in the main.
A reminder below however of what up until at least the 1950s was a significant early autumn source of seasonal work.
George Orwell’s commentary reminds us in the final line of his own prejudices but also underlines the difficulty of unionising in many areas of the brewing and beer industry, an issue that is with us still.
When one starts work the farm gives one a printed copy of rules, which are designed to reduce a picker more or less to a slave. According to these rules the farmer can sack a picker without notice and on any pretext whatever, and pay him off at 8 bushels a shilling instead of six – i.e. confiscate a quarter of his earnings. If a picker leaves his job before the picking is finished, his earnings are docked the same amount. You cannot draw what you have earned and then clear off, because the farm will never pay you more than two thirds of your earnings in advance, and so are in your debt till the last day. The binmen (i.e. foremen of gangs) get wages instead of being paid on the piecework system, and these wages cease if there is a strike, so naturally they will raise Heaven and earth to prevent one. Altogether the farmers have the hop-pickers in a cleft stick, and always will have until there is a pickers’ union. It is not so much use to try and form a union, though, for about half the pickers are women and gypsies, and are too stupid to see the advantages of it.
Johnson’s speech to Tory Conference 2020: still editing our history
Boris Johnson’s speech to the virtual Tory Conference on 6th October again made reference to British history:
We are proud of this country’s culture and history and traditions; they literally want to pull statues down, to re-write the history of our country, to edit our national CV to make it look more politically correct.
We aren’t embarrassed to sing old songs about how Britannia rules the waves
These of course are at one level yet more throw-away culture wars lines.
Yet Johnson himself has written a fair bit about British history (not just Churchill) and he is very far from above doing his own-editing.
His favourite British historical figure (after Winston) is probably John Wilkes a London Mayor in the late eighteenth century. Wilkes was a libertarian in politics and morals and a member of the Hellfire Club. This is where Johnson gets his freedom loving rhetoric and his propensity to father children from.
Yet Johnson also edits out awkward bits of history himself.
He was Prime Minister on 16th August 2019 the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre, one of the foundation events of British Parliamentary democracy. The massacre is (to be kind) indirectly linked to the Tory Party and about it Johnson said precisely nothing.
Likewise one will never find Johnson praising the Tolpuddle Martyrs as people who stood up for democracy at work in terms of being able to join a trade union.
He has by contrast noted the radical agenda of the Peasants Revolt (Spirit of London 2012) but that was in 1381..
From the Six Acts to the Rule of Six. The strange ruling class fixation with the number six
The recently introduced across the UK COVID-19 safety measure known as the ‘Rule of Six’ has attracted some criticism.
I’m far from being a COVID-19 denier particularly regularly exchanging thoughts with Michael Rosen on social media, who nearly died from it, including the period just before he went into hospital and now he is thankfully in a lengthy recovery phase. It can be an awful illness and safety measures are very important.
Even so it might be thought there is something arbitrary with the number six. Restrictions in other countries, for the same prudent reasons, sometimes have different numbers. Interestingly though six has begun to feature more for example in limits now in force on some kinds of gatherings in Madrid and NewYork
Not long after the ‘Rule of Six’ was introduced the Government started to reconsider whether it was in any case the right number. However Boris Johnson, currently, seems intent on keeping it.
It remains interesting and perhaps significant that it was the number chosen though.
There is some evidence that somewhere deep in the memory of the British ruling class lies an odd fascination with ‘six’. In the first decades of the nineteenth century when challenges to the State sometimes involved armed resistance it often seemed to be six people who ended up being hanged, although invariably far more were involved.
The concern is with civil liberties. Temporary restrictions however well justified tend to end up becoming more permanent. In fact the rubric around the Rule of Six specifically allows for protests and demonstrations to take place provided adequate safety precautions have taken place.
Reality of course can vary. The most recent Extinction Rebellion protests which took place just before the Rule of Six was introduced were nevertheless subject to all kinds of restrictions and bans by the police. The Metropolitan Police Federation tweeted that all demonstrations should be banned, although whether this is really related to COVID-19 or just their general position is unclear.
After the Cato St Conspiracy to kill the Cabinet which took place in February 1820 in fact five men were hung and then beheaded.
However that event was used to justify what became known as the Six Acts- that number again.
These attempted to crack down on civil liberties and democratic politics in ways that Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings can only dream of.
In fact Cato St, although an outcrop of an armed revolutionary tradition that did not fully decline in England until after 1848, presented no real threat to the State. Indeed there is some evidence that it was provoked by Government spies in part to justify repression.
One of the Six Acts, which were actually formally passed in December 1819, was the Seditious Meetings Act.
Under the Act all meetings of more than 50 people- in reality no more than 49 persons- were allowed. This included any meeting: “for the purpose…of deliberating upon any public grievance, or upon any matter or thing relating to any trade, manufacture, business, or profession, or upon any matter in church or state,”.
The only exception were meetings called by an ‘authorised official’. In addition a meeting of people in one specific area could be called provided permission was given by a Justice of the Peace. He of course required six days-notice. At such meetings no banners, flags or emblems of any sort were allowed.
While the Act was repealed in 1824 a related limit of no more than 49 delegates at any representative gathering remained in place through the Chartist period up to1848.
Indeed in order to try and avoid official interference in protest meetings, these were often held out of town in remote rural spots well away from the reach of the authorities.
Johnson does policy U-Turns every few days but the underlying British ruling class fixation with ‘six’ remains an interesting one. Perhaps not least because while we can see there is a past history in the 1980s when an earlier Tory Government introduced restrictions on the numbers who could stand directly on a picket line the number chosen was of course six..
Competition bristles for Beard of Autumn 2020 accolade
The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has said that the poll for Beard of Autumn 2020 is now well underway and competition is bristling for the seasonal accolade.
It is the last of the four seasonal awards that conclude with the Beard of the Year in December 2020.
As usual there is a wide ranging field of beard wearers who have made a positive impact in the public eye recently.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as the year moves on we look for autumn beards that have resilience against the elements, weather beaten perhaps, and of course deployed positively in the public eye. As usual there is a shortlist of outstanding contenders
The vote for the Beard of Autumn is open and will close at midnight on 15th October
Campaigners say Jurgen Klopp must have consistent snood policy or face more defeats
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that Liverpool F.C. manager Jurgen Klopp must adopt a consistent snood policy or face more Premiership defeats this season.
Liverpool lost 7-2 to Aston Villa at Anfield on Sunday one of their worst defeats for some time.
The BLF says that Jurgen Klopp’s snood may be causing issues and he needs to make sure he has a consistent policy on wearing it during games.
At the moment Klopp sometimes wears the snood covering his beard and leaving only his eyes and glasses visible. At other times the snood is used as a beard hammock with all of Klopp’s facial expressions clearly visible to players.
The campaigners says that inconsistent snood wearing means players may be confused about signals Klopp’s facial expressions are sending them. In the current situation it would be prudent for the Liverpool manager to wear the snood at all times during games and use his arms and hands for any instructions to players.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Jurgen Klopp’s inconsistent snood wearing policy is causing issues, as Sunday’s result underlined. A consistent policy is urgently required.
Boris Johnson had COVID-19 and Donald Trump now has it. I’m no fan of either man but there is a wider point here.
Namely that, just as with nineteenth century epidemics, disease may well hit primarily the poor, but the rich and powerful are not immune, despite what they might think.
That led often to attempts to address issues like public health and housing- too little and too late as we might now say-but an understanding that if the issue of the poor and disease was not at least acknowledged then revolt might follow.
For Johnson and Trump the poor and disadvantaged are mostly the people they don’t know exist. The phrase was used by an aide to George W Bush over the impact of Katrina.
Johnson has now in the broadest terms noticed the less well off and decided that it is their complacency that has led to a new rise in COVID-19 infections.
Johnson is of course the King of Bluster but that is going too far.
He is the Prime Minister who locked down too late in March. He also handed out contracts to vital track and trace systems to the Tories mates rather than making sure the public sector had the investment to make them work. He also is the PM who hasn’t done enough in terms of financial support to allow those who may have come into contact with COVID-19 sufferers but are not ill themselves to isolate and stay off work. Then there was the question of trying to re-open schools unsafely in June and allowing the whole thing to happen again in September but with Universities added in too.
I wont comment in detail on Trump’s record which is one of neglect, golfing and bizarre statements.
One hopes though that any complacency about the need for regime change in Britain and the US is fading fast.
