Kmflett's Blog

Once Again on Geoffrey Boycott & Test Match Special: now blaming the ‘political climate’

It’s fair to say I think that Geoffrey Boycott is not someone that keeps to the first law of holes.

When it was announced at the weekend that he would not be part of the Test Match Special team this year it was couched in terms of his health as a 79 year old in a time of COVID-19.

He had an exchange with the BBC’s Head of Sport to the effect that this was understood and he had enjoyed his time with TMS and hoped still to make the occasional appearance.

At the same time he managed to retweet a line that claimed he was dropped because while he knew about cricket he was a white, straight Tory etc. He subsequently deleted it.

He then proceeded to return to the fray with a column in Monday’s Telegraph.

He claims that the real reason why he was dropped from TMS was because his knighthood (from Theresa May) opened up again his conviction in France for beating up a previous partner, a conviction he continues to dispute.

He goes on to claim that therefore the political climate is responsible for his being dropped by TMS. Given that it’d be difficult to find a more politically incorrect than PM than Boris Johnson it might be wondered what he is on about (as often).

The detail of the article is of course equally controversial. Geoffrey opines that while female ex-players are ok as commentators as are both men and women who haven’t played at all they can’t be analysts and summarisers (like Geoffrey) because they don’t know what real Test cricket (played by men) is like.

Given that Boycott last played a Test in 1982 one wonders how relevant his experience, except at the very broadest level, is now.

There are some of course who feel (probably correctly) that he should have been dropped long since

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/jun/09/farewell-geoffrey-boycott-a-mess-of-contradictions-whose-tms-innings-lasted-far-too-long

London Socialist Historians Group

Media Release

10^th June

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Historians back call by leading researcher on the UK slave trade for black studies in schools

The London Socialist Historians Group which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, has backed a call by Marika Sherwood, a leading researcher on the history of the UK slave trade, for black studies to be included in the national curriculum.

Ms Sherwood is the author of After Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807 (published by I B Tauris)

She has written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson asking him to consider curriculum changes in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the historians are asking people to wrote to Mr Williamson in similar terms.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett, it may seem like a matter of detail in terms of the urgent protests at the moment. The reality is however unless changes are made to curricula to cover the history of the slave trade, colonialism and Britain’s role future generations will grow up still not cognisant of some of the difficult realities of our history.

_______________________________________________________________________________

To: ‘gavin.williamson.mp@parliament.uk’; ‘sec-of-state.ps@education.gov.uk’

Subject: History Curricula

Dear Mr Williamson,

As I trust you now agree that Black Lives Matter, it is more important than ever to change the school curricula. How would you feel if you attended school from the age of 4 till 18, and you just did not exist in any section of the school curricula! ‘English’ courses should include novels and poetry by Black authors, from Africa, the Caribbean and Britain. As Art courses should include the work of Black artists, whether these are paintings, sculptures, drawing/carvings. History courses should include not only the presence of peoples of African origin/descent in the UK since they arrived as a regiment within the conquering Roman army, but also the history of Africa prior to the arrival of Europeans.

If you don’t exist in the school curricula, wouldn’t you join a gang to become ‘somebody’? And as probably someone in your family has been at least once subject to ‘stop & search’, and probably experienced some level of racial discrimination while searching for work and at work, how would you feel towards the ‘mother country’?

We also need Black Studies departments in our universities with funding for research, as the history of Africans (and Indians) here has generally been ignored. (Many of the published works are by non-academics like me.) And our Teacher Training colleges/institutions need to include this in their curricula, which probably means training their lecturers – as well as the existing school teachers. Equally important is the need to educate the police!

Please, Mr Williamson, include the above in your response to Black Lives Matter.

I must conclude by telling you that when with a colleague I founded the Black & Asian Studies Association in 1991, this necessary change in the curricula and teacher training was one of the issues we took up. Even met with one Secretary of State many years ago. But got nowhere.

Yours, in hope,

Marika Sherwood

Black & Asian Studies Association

http://www.blackandasianstudies.org/research-html

Bernie Grant Trust appeal for black history teaching resources

https://berniegranttrust.org.uk/

Cecil Rhodes Must Fall, the Muswell Hill angle

Protests demanding the removal (to a museum) of the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College Oxford are continuing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-52975687

The post below dates from 2016 but remains relevant. Since then a new statue of Oliver Tambo has been unveiled. It is surely time now for Rhodes Avenue to be renamed Tambo Walk

https://www.haringey.gov.uk/news/statue-anti-apartheid-campaigner-oliver-tambo-unveiled-haringey

Discussion about the statue of British born imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University and what should be done about it, if anything, continues.

Statues surely exist to be taken down but most often in the context of wider movements for social change. Otherwise one might think that a statue of Rhodes serves to remind us of Britain’s inglorious imperial past. It is undoubtedly something that David Cameron would prefer us to forget, assuming he ever knew much about it in the first place.

Cecil Rhodes was the son of a Bishops Stortford vicar who packed him off to South Africa at the age of 17 as he had been a sickly child. The thought was that the South African climate would be good for the young Rhodes health, and this at least was correct.

The predecessors of Rhodes’ father, Francis William Rhodes had been brick manufacturers. They were in short part of the industrial class that built early British capitalism, if you like, from the bottom up.

They owned substantial areas of land including some in North London such as Tottenham Wood and areas of Muswell Hill.

The Rhodes in Rhodes Avenue N22 refers to Thomas who was Cecil Rhodes great uncle

I went to school in the same area of North London in the 1970s at Alexandra Park Comprehensive School. It was a school with a left-wing reputation, although perhaps not quite as well known as the nearby Creighton School where the head teacher was Molly Hattersley, at that time the distinguished partner of Roy Hattersley.

Alexandra Park School was on the corner of Alexandra Park Road and Rhodes Avenue, London, N10.

Of course this being North London in the 1970s we knew well enough who Cecil Rhodes was and the role he had played in the development of British imperial endeavour in Africa. But we thought little of the matter beyond that.

Rhodes Avenue was however named to mark the land ownership that the Rhodes family had had in Muswell Hill. Cecil Road is nearby.

Street names that recall Britain’s imperial past are hardly unusual though.

Sometimes however truth is stranger than fiction.

The African National Congress had emerged as the leading force opposing the apartheid South Africa that Cecil Rhodes had helped to lay the foundations of.

One of the leaders of the ANC was Oliver Tambo who fled South Africa in the early 1960s partly to evade arrest by the apartheid Government but primarily to make sure that the work of the ANC could continue in exile.

In due course he made his way to London, the centre of the old imperial power.

Money was short but Muswell Hill at that time was not the area of super expensive property it now is.

Tambo and his wife lived in a house in Alexandra Park Road, N10 with other ANC sympathisers living nearby.

His house was just several blocks and less than 5 minutes walk away from Rhodes Avenue.

As the struggle against apartheid intensified and Tambo became an international figure, Nelson Mandela visited Muswell Hill and the local Tottenham MP Bernie Grant was also a visitor.

After Tambo’s death in 1993 the story of his North London years became increasing well known. In 2007 a bust of Tambo was erected on Albert Rd recreation ground N10 again just a few minutes walk from his old home and from Rhodes Avenue.

Imperialism and the man that helped to end its rule in South Africa are marked within a few hundred yards of each other in Muswell Hill.

Whatever the fate of the Oxford Cecil Rhodes statue, the bust of Oliver Tambo continues to stand proud.

This post appears in the Morning Star 1st February 2016

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-caad-A-tale-of-two-statues

Beard Liberation Front

9^th June

Campaigners mark 150^th anniversary of the death of Pogonophile, Charles Dickens

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has marked the 150^th anniversary of the death of writer Charles Dickens by recalling his pogonophilia

Dickens did not grow his distinctive beard until he was in 40s but from that time became a resolute defender of facial hair.

When told that wearing a beard made him look older Dickens responded that: “the beard saved him the trouble of shaving, and much as he admired his own appearance before he allowed his beard to grow, he admired it much more now, and never neglected, when an opportunity offered, to gaze his fill at himself”

There are more details in this British Library blog post from 2012:

https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2012/02/dickens-grows-a-beard.html#:~:text=Dickens%20grows%20a%20beard,a%20man%20of%20his%20time.&text=The%201850’s%20saw%20the%20advent%20of%20the%20’beard%20movement‘.

Dickens also published in Household Words in 1853 an article by Henry Morley and W H Wills an article entitled Why Shave? In a lengthy exposition on the importance of beard wearing they describe shaving as an ‘unwholesome custom’

https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2012/02/dickens-grows-a-beard.html#:~:text=Dickens%20grows%20a%20beard,a%20man%20of%20his%20time.&text=The%201850’s%20saw%20the%20advent%20of%20the%20’beard%20movement‘.

When it came to facial hair Dickens knew what side he was on.

Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol should have been taken down ages ago. So why wasn’t it?

Opining on the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol on Sunday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer commented on LBC that it should have been taken down years ago and deposited in a museum.

I agree. Unfortunately while Sir Keir’s allies often describe him as ‘forensic’ this wasn’t true today.

There is a reason why the statue had to be pulled down.

It wont be news to many Bristol residents and I suspect others that there has been a long campaign to expunge links to the slave trader Colston from Bristol. Colston Hall has agreed for example to change its association.

The Colston statue in central Bristol was subject, unsurprisingly, to regular amendment by protesters and a large scale petition to get it removed. Historian Professor Madge Dresser was commissioned by Bristol Council to produce a plaque for the statue with wording that summarised who Colston really was (i.e a slave trader).

It never happened. Why? In effect because the Merchant Venturers blocked it.

The Merchant Venturers are a group of local businessmen (and recently the occasional businesswoman) that date back to the sixteenth century.

They own property in the Bristol area and fund private schools, alms-houses and so on. They are sometimes described as secretive but I’m not sure that is true. Far from all of this in 2020 appears to be a bad thing. That is not really the central point though.

There is a useful HTV documentary dating back to 1995 that gives a decent summary of who they are and what they get up to. They also have a working website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVAq1YRK0RI

The problem is not secrecy but unaccountability. They appear to have a finger in many pies in Bristol. It’s easy enough to find this out. How to do anything about it we don’t know.

They opposed the attempt by a democratically elected Council to add a plaque to the Colston statue. Why? We can guess but we don’t know. What could be done about it? How could they be challenged?

Effectively Sunday was the last remaining option.

Black Lives Matter: time for a memorial to black leader of London Chartism, William Cuffay

It’s the 150^th anniversary of the death of the black leader of London Chartism William Cuffay.

He died in Tasmania where he had been transported for his alleged part in the fight for the vote in 1848. He received a Royal Pardon in 1854.

The current Black Lives Matter wave of protest in America has seen further pressure to take down statues of racist figures going back to the US Civil War.

That was echoed in Britain with the toppling of a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol on Sunday:

https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2020/06/07/edward-colston-statues-are-for-heroes-heroines-not-zeros/

If memorials to racists are rightly dismantled surely it is also time to celebrate and mark the lives of prominent black people.

No memorial to William Cuffay exists in 2020 despite a lengthy campaign. Chatham his birth place would be an excellent location (see below)as would central London where he lived. There were plans to put up a plaque in the Strand but it appears the property owner refused permission.

Work still in progress and protest

Letter in the Guardian Tue 25 Nov 2014

In his victory speech at Rochester on Friday, Mark Reckless argued that Ukip stood in the radical tradition of the Chartists (Difference between Tories and Ukip? A fabricated chasm, 22 November). That gives Ukip a rare opportunity to puts its money where its mouth is.

Chatham was the home town of one of the most famous Chartists, William Cuffay. Cuffay’s father, a former slave, had travelled to Medway as a cook on a British navy ship, and married a local woman. Cuffay learned his trade as a tailor and he became a prominent trade unionist in London. He went on to become the organiser of London Chartism and was arrested and deported to Tasmania for his role in an attempt at armed revolt in central London in August 1848. He continued to be active in Hobart as a trade unionist until his death in 1871.

Surely Mr Reckless will want to ensure a statue of this great Chartist is promptly erected in his constituency?

Keith Flett

I would love to see recognition in Medway for William Cuffay – an inspirational activist as part of the Chartist movement.

2020 is the 150th Anniversary of his death and I hope that as a community we take the opportunity to see him recognised appropriately.

Vince Maple

Shirin Hirsch on William Cuffay

https://phm.org.uk/blogposts/william-cuffay-black-chartism-and-a-treasured-object/

Boris Johnson on protest: from John Wilkes in 1769 to Black Lives Matter in 2020

Boris Johnson is known to be a fan of John Wilkes a late eighteenth century radical(1725-1797)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes#Middlesex_election_dispute

Wilkes was a libertarian in political outlook and a libertine in personal life- a member of the Hellfire Club. Johnson’s behaviour often seems to mirror that of Wilkes.

When he was London Mayor he included a chapter on Wilkes in his 2012 book the Spirit of London. Wilkes had been elected as a radical Mayor but lost support when, in a separate role, he led the army against Gordon rioters trying to burn down the Bank of England in 1780.

In 2012 however Johnson saw no reason to criticise the popular ‘mob’ who backed Wilkes.

In 2020 he is to be found complaining about thuggery by some Black Lives Matters protesters.

Consistency however is not one of Johnson’s strong points

Johnson on the election of John Wilkes as Brentford MP in 1769

After Wilkes had been elected mobs several thousand strong marched down the Great West Road to London, stopping every carriage they could find, calling on its occupants to huzzah for Wilkes , and hurling mud and stones at all who refused to join in the jubilation. John Wilkes, the Father of Liberty. Boris Johnson, The Spirit of London 2012

The Prime Minister later tweeted: “People have a right to protest peacefully & while observing social distancing but they have no right to attack the police. These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery – and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account.” Boris Johnson on Black Lives Matter protesters 2020

London Socialist Historians Group

7^th June

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Socialist Historians renew call for teaching of history of colonialism & the role of Empire in schools

The London Socialist Historians Group which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London, Senate House has renewed its call for the history of colonialism and the role of Empire to be a key part of the school history curriculum.

As recently as November 2019 the Labour Party launched a Race and Faith Manifesto at the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham on 26th November (link below).

While Labour didn’t win the Election the ideas put forward remain highly relevant as Black Lives Matters protests demand justice on racism and discrimination

Part of the Manifesto called for ‘the creation of an Emancipation Educational Trust to ensure historical injustice, colonialism and role of the British empire is taught in the National Curriculum’

The historians say that while it is the case that Empire and colonialism may feature in some school history lessons today it is not done systematically or as part of the examined curriculum.

Britain’s imperial heritage from the slave trade, to its control of countries across the globe from the late nineteenth century, to the modern day descendants of those impacted on this who play such an essential role in Britain today is something that every school student needs to know about

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, we’re just coming up to the 150th anniversary of the death of  William Cuffay in Tasmania in July 1870. Cuffay the black leader of London Chartism in 1848 fought for democracy and the vote. For his pains he was arrested and transported to Australia, where he continued fighting for democracy. Cuffay is not a figure who will be familiar to most school students but he should be. The proposals Labour brought forward in 2019 point to one way that this can start to be addressed

https://labour.org.uk/press/labour-launches-ambitious-race-and-faith-manifesto-rooted-in-social-justice-internationalism-and-human-rights/

Edward Colston: Statues are for heroes & heroines not zeroes

Kick Over the Statues for those unaware is the title of a song by the Redskins:

They had in mind the struggles of the time, the fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe and the end of apartheid in South Africa.

The wider point was clear however. Statues of the rich and powerful are swept away as popular movements arise to change the state of things.

The felling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston and its subsequent unloading into the harbour by Black Lives Matters protesters in Bristol on 7^th June 2020 reminded, as if we should need reminding, that 2020 saw the arrival of a powerful, and worldwide movement against racism and injustice.

The felling of Confederate statues in America had some feel of this. A final settling of scores with a racist past that unsurprisingly the current President Trump would like to maintain.

In general kicking over the statues is a good idea, even from an historical angle. A US Democrat tweeted in 2017 that Confederate statues could be replaced with figures from the underground railroad that helped free slaves. Why not?

Does that mean that Confederates, the US South and racism or the history of the slave trade and slave traders in the UK should be white-washed from history as it were? Certainly not. Those times need to be remembered and understood historically. That is the role of museums and sometimes of plaques.

Meanwhile it is more than time that a statue of the black leader of London Chartism in 1848 William Cuffay, who was transported to Tasmania for righting for the right to vote for all, was erected in central London.

Statues are for heroes and heroines not zeros.

While a tweet describing Geoffrey Boycott as ‘white,male,straight,Tory,knows about cricket’ might be thought to be a criticism in fact he agreed with it and RTd it before deleting it.

It seems a like a decent, if partial, description, but the official explanation for his departure as a regular feature on Test Match Special is that given his age and health is not sensible to use him this year (except for possible appearances as a summariser) and that is probably that. Boycott is 79 while Henry Blofeld was 77 when he bowed out.

Writing in the Sunday Times (7.6) Simon Wilde makes two relevant points. Firstly that Boycott is not really part of the cricket Establishment. When Blofled departed he did it with a lap of Lords. That’s not currently possible but even so the departure of the former player from a Yorkshire pit village is more of a whimper than a bang.

Secondly Wilde notes that across cricketing commentating there are few now that played before the late 1980s and there are fortunately more women.

That begs the question of whether a Boycott replacement is required. Of course a simply a replacement is not available,as whatever view one takes of him Boycott is a one-off.

But the wider point is whether the TMS box needs someone who was on the ‘player’ side of the classic Gentlemen v Players divide. Actually Michael Vaughan already at least partly fits that (he didnt go to public school) but its not something he plays up to in ‘my day’ style.

As a listener to TMS since the 1960s I still think it needs distinctive characters to attract a wider audience though. Whether it was Brian Johnston (well known outside of cricket commentary), Fred Trueman or John Arlott there was hinterland.

Is that what an audience in 2020 wants? I’m hardly the one to judge being 63 but it remains I think a relevant question. I’d hope Jimmy Anderson can be persauded into a permanent broadcasting role once he eventually retires from playing.