Kmflett's Blog

Back to School with Boris Johnson

To use a phrase much loved by the media (& which is also meaningless) Johnson has been ramping up the need for pupils to return to school in England this week.

I agree. Education is very important and school is a central although not the only place where learning occurs.

Johnson did not of course get around to underlining that a return should be safe and include masks.

Nor did he reference his own inevitably mis-spent school days

Sonia Purnell’s 2012 biography of Boris contains some interesting extracts from his school reports at Eton which suggest that he learnt what he could get away with there and has not changed since.

His personal tutor Andrew Hobson wrote a report which says in part ‘I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else’.

In a report of 5th April 1981 his Master in College Martin Hammond raises concerns about ‘lateness, non-appearance of work and a lack of organisation’.

In 1982 Hobson noted ‘Boris seems affronted when confronted with what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility’.

In July 1982 Hammond wrote, ‘Boris has something of a tendency to assume that success and honours will drop into his lap’. He went on to note that ‘efficiency and organisation have been constant problems’

None of the above of course prevented Boris Johnson from shining at Eton or, on occasion, since.

It does however underline that learning and ‘success’ are about more than turning up to school, even if that still remains essential, even in reality for the young Johnson. He did not gain his knowledge of the classics, such as it is, by osmosis.

Beard Liberation Front

3rd September

contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

As Bill Bailey joins Strictly 2020, the beard waggle could be the dance craze of the year

The Beard Liberation Front has welcomed the news that comedian Bill Bailey is to appear on Strictly Come Dancing 2020. He joins along with fellow beard wearer J J Chalmers:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53989685

Bailey has told Zoe Ball that his history of dancing is a ‘little patchy’ but the campaigners say that this could be the year of the Beard on Strictly which has previously favoured the clean shaven.

The campaigners say that the beard waggle could become a new dance craze as a result.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, at last Beard Power could be coming to Strictly, although we dont expect the pogonophobic judges to be keen

The discussion about Rule Britannia and the Last Night of the Proms continues

As Joseph Harker argues while it is largely a culture war type argument confected by the right to distract from rather more fundamental points that doesnt mean that the left can just ignore it. Below is a 2020 version, not Rule but Cruel Britannia

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/02/rule-britannia-black-lives-matter-last-night-of-the-proms-races-britain?CMP=share_btn_tw

Cruel Britannia by Rip Bulkeley

Full words at: https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/poetry/item/3477-cruel-britannia

Cruel Britannia,
This song shall be your grave.
No more victims seek, and no more slaves.
Cruel Britannia,
This song shall be your grave.
No more victims seek, and no more slaves!

Beard Liberation Front Rule Britannia for 2020

Rule, Beardies, Beardies rule the razors!

Beardies never, never, never will be shavers

When Beardies first, at heaven’s command,

Arose from out the azure main,

This was the charter of the land,

And Guardian Angels sang this strain:

Rule, Beardies, Beardies rule the razors!

Beardies, never, never, never will be shavers.

Rule Britannia to be sung at the Last Night of the Proms. Alternative words from 1793

In a U-Turn one must suspect is influenced by the new BBC Director General, Rule Britannia will now be sung at the Last Night of the Proms.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53998584

I wont be watching or singing but if you will be a reminder that there is a long radical tradition of singing alternative words to the tune.

The words below, which are about the French Revolution and liberty, are written by the radical Thomas Spence (1750-1814) and appear in his journal Pigs Meat:

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

I don’t think the tradition of alternative words to Rule Britannia included getting them to scan to the original tune btw

THE PROGRESS OF LIBERTY.

Tune—”Britannia rule the Waves.”

HARK! hark! on yonder distant shore,

The noisy din of war I hear;

The sword’s unsheath’d—the cannons roar,

And Gallia’s sons in arms appear,

‘Tis France, ’tis France, the people cry,

Fighting for sacred Liberty.

Though num’rous armies her invade;

Of warlike slaves a barb’rous host;

Of Despots crown’d, a grand crusade,

To crush her Liberty they boast.

But France like Britain will be free,

Or bravely die for Liberty.

No more the grinding hand of Power,

The op’ning bud of Reason blights;

On eagle’s wings fair Truth shall tower,

For Man begins to know his Rights.

The iron yoke we crumbling see,

Beneath the Cap of Liberty.

Go on, great souls, no dangers fear,

Your glorious Standard high erect;

Then Freemen to it will repair,

And Providence your cause protect.

Go, plant on distant shores the Tree,

Sacred to god-like Liberty.

No dreams of conquest you inspire,

Great Nature’s Cause depends on thee;

Europe will catch the sacred fire,

And bid adieu to Slavery.

Then raise your warlike banners high,

And rally under Liberty.

No longer war, of Kings the spoil,

Usurping nations shall divide;

Nor stain with blood each fruitful soil,

By Nature form’d to be allied.

But Britons hope the world to see

Unite in Peace and Liberty.

Beard Liberation Front

2^nd September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Barbe de Tour de France vote launches

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it is keeping the 2020 Tour de France under close review for all matters beard related.

The 2020 Tour was delayed from earlier in the summer but is still taking place at a time when COVID-19 infections in France are rising.

Criticism has been made that the event is driven primarily by commercial and broadcasting interests rather than a central focus on participant and spectator safety.

The campaigners say they are monitoring the daily stages of the Tour and are now launching a Beard of the Tour 2020 vote with a winner to be announced on 19^th September.

Beards have been particularly controversial in the Tour with a Belgian team banning them on the grounds of hygiene at one point.

Conversely German rider Simon Geschke has his own beard balm while France’s Thibaut Pinot may have suffered some follicle damage after he fell off his bike on Saturday.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, of all sports beards in cycling are amongst the most controversial. Do they promote wind resistance and slow the rider down, or do they allow a cyclist to manipulate those same air currents to positive advantage?

As often in Beard Liberation Front polls the vote is not so much about winning beards but those that make the positive public impact during the race. However clearly there is a focus on front runners as others, no matter how impressive their beard, may make less impact.

Sagan (Slo)

Getschke (Ger)

AlaPhilippe (Fra)

Cousin (Fra)

Soupe (Fra)

Roglic (Slo)

Pinot (Fra)

Beard Liberation Front

Press Release

1st September

contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

New Hirsute Cabinet Secretary welcomed, but caution urged on ‘cuts’

The Beard Liberation Front,the informal network of beard wearers, has welcomed the news that newly appointed Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, 41,has come out with a beard in his new role. Case was previously clean shaven.

The campaigners say that while beards are not entirely unknown amongst senior civil servants, historically moustaches were the preferred form of facial hair where worn.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Simon Case will be Secretary to an entirely clean shaven Cabinet and we urge him to adopt and implement an agenda of no cuts

According to a piece in the Spectator(the non-political bit of the magazine)there is a resurgence in London pie and mash shops:

https://life.spectator.co.uk/articles/whats-behind-the-pie-mash-revival/

Pie and Mash consists of mashed potato, a meat pie (invariably with very little actual meat) and green liquor (parsley sauce).

The liquor combines with the mash and pie to make a beard friendly mixture that rarely ends up in the beard rather than the mouth.

Pie and mash is an ideal meal for hirsute flexitarians, those people who mainly dont eat meat but occasionally do because it is 95% vegetarian with only very small amounts of meat. The stewed eels also traditionally sold by pie and mash shops are not recommended to beard wearers.

Karlsbad 1875. Marx draws a distinction between craft pilsner & big beer

In August 1875 Marx was in Karlsbad, for health reasons. It was and is a well-known spa town.

He wrote to Engels on 21^st August 1875 that on the previous day he had been to the Hopfenstock (Hop poles) which he noted was ‘renowned for its beer’. Marx claimed that he drank mineral water.

He became involved in a conversation with some locals about ‘an ever lasting bone of contention.. the respective merits of the Old Pilsner, Burgerbrau and commercialised beer’. Marx reports that one drinker claimed that he could drink 15 glasses of the craft pilsner and be ‘none the worse’ while another said he drank either.

Marx records that the claim for Bohemia made by the regulars was that ‘its pilsner beer goes to every country in the world; Salzmann, the big brewer, has got a branch in Paris now, and it goes to America as well. A pity we cant also supply them with our big natural rock cellars for they’re part and parcel of Pilsner.

Clearly the journey from craft to big beer is not a new one.

Karlsbad, now Karlovy Vary is in the Czech Republic but I’m no historian of its brewing heritage. Comments welcome!

Raymond Williams (31^st August 1921- 26th January 1988) Why protest is essential in the age of mass media

Raymond Williams who died in 1988 would have been 99 today.

A Welsh Marxist and leading writer on literature and language, he was key figure in the first new left from 1960.

I remember him as a softly spoken, pipe smoker. I recall disputing with the Guardian on his death that they were not taking his significance seriously enough, but in the intervening 32 years, that significance has continued to grow.

Of the key figures of that old new left in March 1968 EP Thompson was lecturing on William Blake in America. Raymond Williams however was on the anti-Vietnam War protest in Grosvenor Square and wrote about his reasons why in The Listener, 25th April 1968.

Robin Blackburn in a New Left Review piece on Williams death (NLR 1/168, Raymond Williams and the Politics of a New Left) quoted the Listener article as follows:

‘Today in a score of countries, the protest march has become a regular part of political activity. In the past in Britain, as at Peterloo and in the marches of the Chartists, there was a style of demonstration that pre-dated liberal democracy, the march of men without votes representing that majority who were excluded from political decision, and a march through the streets with banners because this was still the quickest and most visible means of communication. Today the means of communication are much more developed. . . . Yet parliamentary democracy has become increasingly formal under the pressure of consensus. . . . Moreover the theory of representative democracy, with all its strengths and limitations, is being itself surpassed in practice by the pressures of modern organized capitalism to channel decisions to many non-elected bodies. And a key role in this replacement of representative democracy is being played by the modern communications system, which is not, and does not pretend to be, democratic at all, except in purely negative ways. When the German students, after the shooting of Rudi Dutschke, demonstrated against a press monopoly, they were taking into the streets, and for their own good reasons, what had been for many years a central part of New Left theory: that in any large and complicated society, the communications system in newspapers, broadcasting and television is a major political institution—in its supply of necessary information, in its capacity to select, emphasize or exclude, and in its power to influence and campaign. But this institution . . . is permanently up for auction to rich men, to the new communications combines, who then claim by simple purchase this immense political power. . . . Parliament itself has conceded many decisive areas of power, in economic planning and in communications, to wholly undemocratic institutions which it is in no way prepared to fight. The measure of the failure of the social democratic parties in Western Europe is that by compromising on just those issues, they’ve excluded themselves from any serious consideration as the means to democracy and socialism. It is in the gap left by that failure that the new movements are being formed. . . . It is necessary to say soberly and quietly that the decay and corruption of the political system, and the intolerable violence now actually directed against the poor of the world, will go on being fought by all effective means.’