Kmflett's Blog

EP Thompson on polemic, academic rigour & the Matthew Goodwin issue

The socialist historian E P Thompson died in 1993 and certainly never heard of or knew Matthew Goodwin the GBNews presenter and former academic.

It is perhaps worth noting how I came across a Thompson paragraph that relates directly to the issues Goodwin has faced with his latest volume. Namely that while his status has been that of an academic he is currently a polemicist. As critics have pointed out while the polemic may appeal to some (not myself) is it not soundly based academically.

I was trying to check if Thompson had actually delivered a series of lectures on his book Customs in Common (1991) before it was published at Queens University Canada in the Spring of 1998.

A Canadian Professor had pinged me a flyer for the lecture series on BlueSky but other sources seem to suggest that Thompson was worried about how rigorous his research was at this point and perhaps did not actually lecture. I haven’t yet found a definitive answer.

Thompson most well-known book The Making of the English Working Class (1963 and still in print) was a lengthy and well researched book but it was aimed at a general audience and perhaps particularly a left activist one. The book contained ground breaking historical research but also polemic.

Thompson was criticised from the right for doing this and as he noted he made a distinct effort to keep his researches and his polemics separate even if they often informed each other.

Goodwin might usefully ponder Thompson’s words, but I don’t think he will

Thompson wrote in a monograph

I have been invited to say something about the relationship between writing, history and politics, as it comes to me through my own experience. In one sense, there is little to say that is not obvious. Or so it seems to me. One writes history as a historian and engages in political polemic as a citizen, and the one does not exclude the other. Yes, the two roles may sometimes overlap or become confused, but this need not be made into a big deal. It is less a theoretical problem than a practical one, which practical measures can sort out. I am very much against mixing teaching with political (or any other sort of) proselytising, since this is to take unfair advantage of the students. It is my decided impression that this offence is more flagrantly committed from the Right –who sometimes suppose, in all innocence, that its views are the only possible “objective” orthodoxy- than from the Left. But that is no excuse for the Left to imitate the offenders.

I hav3 been invit~d to say something about the relationship

Source Sunday Times 5th April

Former England fast bowler Jimmy Anderson is playing on at 43. The captain of Lancashire this season he took 5-66 on the first day of the season. Brendan McCullum is in New Zealand.

The late socialist historian E P Thompson noted as long ago as 1959 the difference between psephology, the study of political trends, and ephology. The latter practice is designed not to analyse trends but by promoting a particular trend to influence them.

Reform for example are currently posting a series of entirely made up polls which show them leading which come firmly into the Ephology area.

Lord Ashcroft’s polls by contrast are genuine and he publishes tables to back them up. But as YouGov quite recently noted the answer you get to a question depends on what question you ask, and who you ask it of.

Lord Ashcroft’s poll published on 4th April was timed to get publicity over Easter and to an extent it has.. The main news stories are the Moon space mission and an expletive filled post from Trump threatening Easter armageddon.

As Zach Polanski has posted the poll is interesting because it shows the Greens in the lead, as he notes the first time a party to the left of Labour has led. That’s true although opinion polling has a relatively recent history. Were they around in 1848 the Chartists would certainly have led (as E P Thompson also pointed out).

A strong left vote is in my view a good thing but beware Ashcroft’s agenda. He is a Tory and the actual seat based outcome of the poll is to show the Tories with most seats and Labour with 30 odd seats. Clearly Labour is unpopular but so are the Tories. What Ashcroft is doing here is to try and influence political sentiment that the Tories are doing a lot better than they likely are.

Meantime I hope the Greens now have enough money to do some private polling and enough activists to know what is actually happening in the workplaces, communities, clubs and pubs.

175 years ago Marx visited Engels in Manchester where he was working at the family firm. Engels letter of invitation has survived. He explains that there are three trains a day from London to Manchester. The first left at 6.30am and took seven and half hours.

The second was the Parliamentary Train. Under an 1844 Act the train had to travel at no more than 12 mph and could charge no more than 1d a mile in fare. The distance from London to Manchester is 140 miles hence the train took eleven and half hours…

Unfortunately since social media did not exist in 1851 we don’t know what Marx and Engels actually did in Manchester at Easter 1851 but visiting the pub seems likely.

M a n c h e s t e r , T u e s d a y , 15 April [1851]
D e a r M a r x ,
Herewith POST OFFICE ORDER for £ 5 .

If your  wife’s state of h e a l t h and your other circumstances
permit , come up the day after tomorrow , Thursday .  There a r e
three trains for you to choose from: 1. at half past six in the
morning , arriving here at 2 o’clock (has 2nd class); 2. the
PARLIAMENTARY TRAIN at seven in the morning ( 2nd and 3rd class),
arriving at half past six in the evening ; 3. at 12 o’clock midday ,
arriving at 9 in the evening ( 2nd class). Then , from Friday to
Monday we could make a tour of the  neighbourhood
Anyway, write and tell me by return whether you ‘are coming and
by which train; I shall then be at the station. If you can’t come up
on Thursday , although sous beaucoup de rapports that would be
preferable , then come up on Friday. At any r a t e , let me know at
once how and  when . All else I’ll leave for verbal discussion, since I’d better go and
get the POST OFFICE ORDER straight away.

My regards to your wife and c h i l d r e n .
Y o u r
F. E.

The Ambridge Socialist

April 5^th

Tony loses the Angus herd, Brian loses his marbles

Easter seems to be a season of pre-valedictories in Ambridge.

Brian determined to protect Ruairi has fallen out with Miranda and appears to be going through a late life crisis. Miranda, reasonably, has had enough and terminated their relationship. At the moment

Oliver has revealed some of the truth about Brian to Miranda but has also suggested that bad knees may cause him to give up riding

Tony has been trying to say goodbye to his beloved Angus herd but has found that Helen has already put them up for sale.

Health Issues

Dr Azra continues to play a central role. She has been pursuing her mental health awareness campaign, a much needed one, even if resources are scant. She has also referred Pip for a scan after she discovered a small lump in her breast. Again prudent.

The cricket crisis

As if all this was not enough the crisis over the Ambridge cricket team continues. It has warranted a discussion on the Archers podcast with Mark Pougatch. Meanwhile Oliver has made clear that use of the cricket pitch is open to all (including Eddie’s sheep) and Lynda’s control freakery is unwarranted. Robert, revealing an unexpected previous career at ACAS, has brokered a solution which Lynda accepts. There will be Ambridge cricket 2026.

Easter Promises

Not as interesting as when Sgt Knacker Burns was crucified on the village green

Meanwhile there is war in the Middle East although news has yet to reach Ambridge…

Beard Liberation Front

5th April

EASTER MESSAGE TO THE HIRSUTE: AVOID CHOCOLATE-BEARD INTERFACE

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has sent Easter greetings to its followers but urged them to beware any chocolate-beard interface on Easter Sunday.

The campaigners say that chocolate in the beard can lead to a sticky mess which can only be satisfactorily removed with collateral damage to beard hairs and follicles.

Particular caution is urged when eating Easter eggs with creme or soft centres.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Easter is a traditionally a time of new growth and BLF supporters will now be getting in training for the traditional May Day Beard Waggle. In the meantime we urge enjoyment with care for Easter eggs to avoid beard damage

While Allister Heath is the Editor of the Sunday Telegraph this is a random headline generator produced by the New World. Suffice to say that random and reality are often closely related.

Even Keir Starmer who has a few other things on his mind has noticed that the price of Cadbury’s mini eggs has gone up while also noting that he can’t do anything about it.

The price of chocolate Easter eggs has gone up by 9% in the last year. A key reason is the cost of the raw material cocoa. The main global suppliers are in West Africa and poor harvests in 2025 saw prices rocket. According to the FT (4th April) most producers brought beans in May-July 2025 for 2026 Easter Eggs and paid a premium price.

Since then cocoa prices have dropped by 70% meaning that Easter Eggs should be cheaper in future. The FT notes that this is unlikely since prices mostly only go one way and its not down.

Marks and Spencer have reported that neither the weight or price of their Easter Eggs have changed in the last four years (they are still expensive of course).

Perhaps an Easter thought might be that while a little chocolate may be OK, more really isnt. Another thought might be how much of the increased cost of Easter Eggs in 2026 found its way into the finances of West African producers. On this the FT is silent.

Eric Hobsbawm on the FA Cup

The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote about the link between a working class identity and culture and the rise of professional football. Hobsbawm himself was certainly a football fan and was suspected of being an Arsenal fan.

In the Invention of Tradition (jointly with Terence Ranger) Hobsbawm argued that the history of football cup finals tells the historian more about the development of an urban working class culture than more conventional sources.

In the Making of the Working Class 1870-1914 (a nod and a critique of E P Thompson as Hobsbawm notes) he argues that an increasing secular tendency saw working class support for unions and the Labour Party but it was also characterised by fish and chip shops and cup finals.

Where that culture is on the first weekend of April 2026 which saw four FA Cup quarter finals played is perhaps worth discussion.

The voice of BBC cricket Jonathan Agnew is 66 on 4th April

He announced in April 2024 that he would be stepping down as the BBC cricket correspondent at the end of that summer, a job he had been doing with some distinction for many years. It seemed prudent. With the ever extending global nature of cricket, changing formats and often audiences too, it was time for others from a new generation to grapple with the challenge of the new. It’s not entirely clear who has filled Aggers role, perhaps in the context of unfortunate at best BBC budget restrictions. Perhaps also several people have, particularly in the context of the welcome coverage of women’s cricket now.

The good news though is that Agnew continues to host Test Match Special until at least 2028. I’ve been listening to TMS since the 1960s and it has evolved and changed over the years. Indeed it had to or it wouldn’t still be on air. Agnew has been an important part of the journey. Someone who shares the curiosity of the late Brian Johnston about what people are like and why they do what they do, a sense of basic humanity too often lacking in the world of 2026.

Agnew as a commentator very largely avoids what has unfortunately become the style of too many sports commentators, the shouty and the hyperbolic. He is mostly calm and thoughtful and above all someone who can be listened to as perhaps in some ways a voice of an English summer.

Of course now he is 66 it really is time for him to heed the generously given advice of the Beard Liberation Front and add even more gravitas to his commentaries by growing a beard.