Kmflett's Blog

Keir Starmer comes out as a Wengerist

Keir Starmer is a long-time Arsenal supporter. He both represents as an MP and lives in areas of North London that fall within the Arsenal diaspora.

His line on Arsenal hasn’t been entirely consistent recently

He told the Sunday Times on 20th September:

‘I’m an Arsenal fan, yeah. But I could watch any football game whoever was playing’.

Back in 2009 however he spoke to Stephen Moss in the Guardian:

Starmer’s hobby is football, and as well as watching Arsenal he turns out twice a week for Homerton Academicals, who play not far from his home in north London

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2009/sep/21/keir-starmer-director-public-prosecutions

The Observer (5th April 2020) had an update

He is a huge Arsenal fan,” says Patrick Stevens. “He goes with the same group of his mates to a pub off the Holloway Road before every match. Keir also organises five-a-side games every Sunday and Monday. He sends out the texts and collects the subs.” Asked about his playing abilities Stevens added: “He is a midfield general … with a silky left foot

However in the Observer (4^th October) he has come out finally as a Wengerist. He lists his boyhood hero as Thierry Henry and his favourite footballing memory as the 2003-4 season when under Wenger Arsenal were known as ‘The Invincibles’.

Finally he notes that he wishes he could be a better footballer.

It seems clear from this that Starmer is a Wengerist. A measured, cautious and defensive approach to matters without excessive scoring.

From the Battle of Cable St to the Battle of Wood Green & beyond. Fighting fascism

Today is the 84^th anniversary of the battle of Cable St when an attempt by  Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists to march through and intimidate Jewish communities in London’s East End was stopped by a mass mobilisation of thousands of ordinary Londoners, Jews and non-Jews, trade unionists, socialists, communists and many others.

It was not a protest that received the support of any part of the Establishment. It was organised from below and it worked.

David Rosenberg the socialist historian who has done so much work on the radical East End has written in the Morning Star about why Cable St remains important.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/lessons-learn-cable-street-never-leave-others-fight-alone

As he notes the fight to stop fascists from marching and intimidating communities is not something that is over. It needs to be done again and again.

There were many post-1945 battles against Mosley’s fascists but by the 1970s they had been replaced by the National Front. The Battle of Wood Green in April 1977 saw another mass mobilisation to stop a Saturday afternoon fascist march along a busy North London High Rd.

Is the Battle of Wood Green on 23rd April 1977 more than history?

Similar battles and mobilisations were needed against the British National Party and the English Defence League and the far right and fascism remain something that needs to be opposed in 2020.

Cable St on 4^th October 1936 set the template on how to do it

The Ambridge Socialist

4^th October

Of Babies & Beer

Ambridge this week has seen much talk about babies and beer. The two have a complex relationship at best.

Alice has decided (probably) to continue with her pregnancy but there are potential issues with her drinking. Meanwhile Fallon has decided that she doesn’t want children. Some might say that if you were married to Sgt ‘Sherlock’ Burns anyone would reach the same decision. This is Ambridge though and the decisions represent wider issues played out through village life.

Flower & Produce Show Report

Ultimately Robert proved to be the best cheat, outdoing Lynda who may or may not also have been cheating. Trellis was involved

The Moss Bros and the ‘horses’. The lies continue

Yet again this week Philip and Gavin have been lying to Kirsty about the ‘horses’ which they claim is a gambling issue. It is a gamble because cover-ups for the modern slavery activities can unravel. They will be aware however that Sgt ‘Sherlock’ Burns wont be on the case.

Lager

Jazzer has stepped in to be the public face of The Bull’s ‘naughty milkman’. His price is 5 pints of lager at the Bull plus another pint for squaring it off with Jakob. Meanwhile his price for allowing Jakob to gracefully stand down from the role is apparently 12 pints of lager. That’s quite a session by 10pm.

Panto beckons

Lynda has officially retired (again) from the Xmas Panto. Freddie has been approved as the successor which means unfortunately that the show will go on.

Beard Liberation Front

3^rd October

Media Release

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front says Spitting Image has outdated pogonophobic tendencies

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the new series of Spitting Image which begins on 3^rd October has unfortunate echoes of the pogonophobic tendencies of the original 1980s programmes.

In 1986 the programme caricatured ZZ Top with a ‘We Got Beards’ sequence, although beards were generally less common in the 1980s than now.

The new series has puppets of well-known hirsute characters such as Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Prince Harry but the campaigners say these don’t really work because the relationship between beards and humour doesn’t seem to have progressed beyond the 1980s ‘ha, ha, he’s got a beard’ school of pogonophobia.

The BLF says it is absolutely right that beard wearers are satirised but just like their clean shaven counterparts this should be based on their quirks not just the fact they wear a beard.

Prince Harry for example almost certainly spend ages trimming and styling his beard, possibly with professional help, while Jurgen Klopp is an organic beard wearer, absently minded growing facial hair while his mind is on higher matters.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we are all for satire, the more biting the better. However in 2020 the fact that someone has a beard is not funny in itself. More is needed.

Map: The Guardian

Revealed: Why San Serriffe will not feature in Cummings & Patel’s asylum plans

This week has seen reports that the Government plans to offshore asylum seekers, either in a foreign location or on a ship. This disgraceful and racist plan has been visited before by the Tories and is used by hard right Governments such as Australia.

One place that will not feature in Cummings and Patel’s plans though is the island of San Serriffe in the Indian Ocean

Why is revealed below:

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

Guardian 3^rd October

Looking at the latest disgraceful ideas of the government on asylum seekers, the residents of San Serriffe will be thankful that neither Dominic Cummings nor Priti Patel has ever read the Guardian.

Keith Flett

Tottenham, London

The cricket season 2020. Not quite the last summer

Uniquely, cricket is shaped by the forces of nature. The season starts in spring, a time of renewal, and ends in September, with conkers on the ground and woodsmoke in the air. Its charts an emotional course from hope to melancholy.

That Will Be England Gone, Michael Henderson 2020

Michael Henderson’s elegy to the 2019 cricket season is a ‘world we have lost’ book and I have some sympathy with it.

I started watching cricket in the early 1960s as a young boy and played it badly for the school side.

I get the excitement of the 50 and 20 over games but the battle between bat and ball is heavily skewed in these forms of the games to the former. The occasional six is a great spectacle. Several in an over seems excessive.

CLR James Beyond a Boundary sees cricket as an art forms mirroring the ebbs and flows of life and I still much prefer longer forms of the game and have no trouble at all with a draw. As trade union officer I know that’s how matters often work out in life even if I personally might prefer sharper outcomes.

Henderson’s book is well worth a read and he is certainly right that cricket does usually mirror the seasons. That’s only partly true in 2020. There was no cricket in April, May and June for reasons anyone reading this knows well enough.

There was however cricket in July, August and September and the season ends at Edgbaston this weekend, given the weather forecast, as a damp squib it would seem

Yet the 2020 season was not a damp squib thanks to Herculean efforts of players, staff, administrators and broadcasters.

The 100 which caused Henderson to write his elegy did not appear and we’ll see about 2021.

There was Country Cricket, there was a short form competition and international contests involving the West Indies, Pakistan and Australia. Women’s cricket also made a belated return and saw 5 T20s against the West Indies.

There were rarely any spectators but Sky and the BBC particularly for County games did a great job in making sure cricket could still be watched even if not in quite the circumstances one hoped.

There was also grassroots cricket without which the infrastructure of the game will eventually fail as interest and young players disappear.

Its not time to write the obituary for cricket yet, even if Henderson has a decent try.

Edward Royle in his book Revolutionary Britannia suggests that the Freeborn Englishman saw patriotism as meaning three key things at the most basic level:

Roast beef

White bread

No Wooden Shoes

Perhaps there is the basis for a new political party here?

Beard Liberation Front

2nd October

contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has said that the poll for Beard of Autumn 2020 is now open

It is the last of the four seasonal awards that conclude with the Beard of the Year in December 2020.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as the year wears on we looks for autumn beards that have resilience against the elements, weather beaten perhaps, and of course deployed positively in the public eye

The vote for the Beard of Autumn is now open and will close at midnight on 15th October

Lenny Henry, actor

Adil Rashid, cricketer

Nuno Espirito Santo, football manager

Julian Alaphilippe, sportsman

Vaughan Gething, Welsh Health Minister

Harry Kane, footballer

Jofra Archer, cricketer

Michael Rosen, author & Arsenal fan

Benjamin Zephaniah, author

Adam Jogee, Mayor of Haringey