Kmflett's Blog

How Boris Johnson’s obfuscations led to his sacking as Tory Vice-Chair in 2004

Watching Boris Johnson’s defence of Dominic Cummings on 24^th May numbers clearly felt that we were some way from the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

While Johnson may not be quite in the parallel fact free universe that Trump lives in he has a long history of evading the truth, and hoping he gets away with it.

It hasn’t always worked.

One such occasion was in November 2004.

News of Johnson’s long running affair with Petronella Wyatt and the fact that she had just had an abortion of a child they conceived was about to appear in several Sunday papers. While the story was true Johnson simply denied it on the basis, according to his biographer Sonia Purnell, that he felt lying to the press was OK.

He had also managed to deceive the then leader of the Tory Party Michael Howard who promptly sacked him as a Shadow Minister and Tory Vice Chair on the Saturday evening. As Howard made clear the sacking was not about the affair or the abortion. It was because Johnson had tried to cover it up by lying about it publicly

History repeats itself…

Beard Liberation Front

Press release 24^th May

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Cummings remains barred from Beard Liberation Front despite further overnight beard growth

Dominic Cummings pictured in London May 24th

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that after evidence emerged on Sunday of further overnight beard growth by Dominic Cummings, its stubble/beard advisory panel of beard experts has confirmed that he remains barred from being a supporter of the Beard Liberation Front.

The updated ban relates to Cummings public appearances on 2^nd January, 23^rd and 24th May 2020 where he has been pictured with facial hair growth.

The campaigners stress that Cummings has not been in touch directly but underline that there is a general expectation that the BLF will defend beard wearers in the public eye unless there is a good reason not to.

Barring someone from the BLF is rare but action is taken when the BLF believes that the association of someone with the organisation may risk bringing not just it but beard wearers into disrepute.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, It remains the case that we don’t bar supporters lightly but Cummings is not someone we feel we brings any positive associations to hirsuteness. We will continue however to take guidance from our stubble/beard advisory panel.

Dominic Cummings: A graduate of the Stone Age

Dominic Cummings is in the news again. This happens from time to time and its never for good reasons. On this occasion it is reported that he broke lockdown rules to travel to his parents in Durham despite the fact that he lives in London.

Cummings last media appearance was as a result of him attending meetings of SAGE the committee of scientists who advise on the COVID-19 crisis. Cummings is an historian. The Tories claim he was just listening. If so he could surely just have read minutes or a meeting summary.

Cummings was taught modern history at Oxford by Prof. Norman Stone who died in 2019. Stone’s most well known work was on the Eastern Front in the First World War and it’s not likely he had much to impart about epidemics.

What he will certainly have impressed on Cummings is the public role a right-wing historian can play. Stone was a larger than life character, a controversialist, fond of a drink or two and sometimes rather more than that. He was also on occasion known for being abrasive and rude.

Otto English (Byline Times January 2020) has noted of the period when Stone was at Oxford:

Stone was an arch manipulator who specialised in malice, abuse and dismissiveness of those with whom he disagreed. He was a man lost in his own self-absorbed myth, who had an over-arching belief in his intellectual prowess over those of others.

Richard J Evans Guardian obituary of Stone is here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/25/norman-stone-obituary

Stone advised Mrs Thatcher on German Re-unification in 1990 a subject on which he certainly had an opinion (he was for it) but about which he was no expert.

He used his academic status to write a right-wing column on the state of the world for the Sunday Times and another historian he taught at Oxford, Niall Ferguson, has followed in his footsteps, rather more surely than Stone himself it should be said.

Boris Johnson has been advised in the Tory media to take guidance from historians and Cummings could, at least in the manner of Stone, offer a view.

Whether Cummings can be drawn away from dabbling in dodgy science to opine on something he has some background in and whether Johnson wants to hear it is another matter but he would certainly be better doing that than trying and failing to be chief advisor to the Government.

The Ambridge Socialist

24th May

Graham Seed calls for the arrest of David Archer

Graham Seed who was Nigel Pargetter until an unfortunate event took place in January 2011 spoke at a Dum Tee Dum Zoom meeting on 22^nd May and made reference to the events that led to his demise. He made the case for a return to Ambridge as Nigel Pargetter’s long lost brother and underlined that since his departure the village had been lacking an upper-class twit.

Most significantly he echoed the Ambridge Socialist’s long standing call for David Archer to be arrested for manslaughter for pushing him off the roof of Lower Loxley. He was there so is uniquely well placed to know whether his fall was an accident or a criminal act…

The New Normal beckons in Ambridge: Tracy Horrobin reveals all

Thursday 21^st May was the last of three weeks of Archers Archives editions (or as the ever to the point BBCW1A describes them ‘repeats’). Here is the BBC’s Head of Values on the question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirr5CvseNI&feature=youtu.be

From Bank Holiday Monday new normal Archers starts with key figures from Ambridge pontificating on life, the universe and everything.

The Ambridge Socialist poll on the people we want to hear from remains open here

One person we will be hearing from is proletarian heroine Tracy Horrobin. Susie Riddell explains her part in new normal Ambridge here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dr0sv

In Other News

A reminder that Shula was once in the YCs (Young Conservatives not Young Communist League)

Boris Johnson is missing

While Boris Johnson took Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, looking somewhat dishevelled and not arguably at his best he didn’t take the daily COVID-19 press conference, despatching another clean shaven Minister in a suit to do the job.

While when the daily briefings were launched in mid-March they were styled as Boris Johnson speaking to the nation each day in practice since his return from illness at Easter he has appeared rarely.

He didn’t appear again on Saturday when the crisis over his enforcer Dominic Cummings threatened to cause a lockdown crisis.

Of course he may be still be less than well, or feel that delegating the task is sensible. However the wider context is his history of absences.

Even The Times has now noticed, writing in an Editorial (23^rd May)

The government is also paying the penalty for its poor communications. This risks undermining public confidence at a vital stage in the fight against the pandemic. For this much of the blame lies with Mr Johnson. It is the prime minister’s job to provide leadership. Yet he has been largely missing in action and not only when he was in hospital. Since his televised address two weeks ago, he has made one statement to the House of Commons, which remarkably was his first since the crisis began, and he has turned up twice to prime minister’s questions. Apart from that he has attended no press conferences and given no interviews. Instead he has left the communication of public policy to a succession of ministers, whose uneven performances have often added to the confusion.

It is not however a new pattern of absence

In the crucial weeks before March (2020) Boris Johnson did not attend any of the five virus meetings held by Cobra, the emergency committee, in January and February and spent 12 days out of the public eye while on a ‘working’ holiday at (Chevening) in Kent.

Sunday Times 19th April

James Griffin, then Professor of Classical Literature at Balliol…was tolerant of Boris’s absences and late or non-existent work

Sonia Purnell, Just Boris

Boris’s persistent absences meant that mistakes were made that a more meticulous editor might have avoided

Sonia Purnell on Johnson’s period as Editor of the Spectator

‘not for the first time..the cry went up: Where is Boris’.

Sonia Purnell on attempts to contact Johnson, Mayor of London, after the start of rioting in London on 6/7th August 2011

Beard Liberation Front

23rd May

BLF Statement: Dominic Cummings remains barred from the Beard Liberation Front

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has confirmed that Government advisor Dominic Cummings remains barred from being a supporter of the Beard Liberation Front.

The updated ban relates to Cummings public appearance on 23rd May where he was pictured with several days facial hair growth

Barring someone from the BLF is rare but action is taken when the BLF believes that the association of someone with the organisation may risk bringing not just it but beard wearers into disrepute.

While Cummings is usually pictured as clean shaven this is the second time in 2020 that the BLF has received photographic evidence that Cummings has been trying to grow a beard.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, We dont bar supporters lightly but Cummings is not someone we feel we brings any positive associations to hirsuteness

After Fullers & Greene King, Marstons set to lose independence with joint venture

Capitalism tends to monopoly is a phrase I expect few readers of my blog will be surprised to see me use but the joint venture between Carlsberg UK and Marstons announced today underlines the point.

While the current crisis may have been a spur to get on with it the discussions seem to date back to at least Q3 of 2019/20 (i.e. the late autumn)

https://carlsberguk.co.uk/newsroom/carlsberg-uk-and-marston-s-plc-form-joint-venture-carlsberg-marston-s-brewing-company/

The Marstons PR is a bit more forthcoming noting that it will focus on its pubs business suggesting that Carlsberg will lead on breweries (they have one in Northampton). Whether the synergies mentioned will be brewery closures and job losses will no doubt become clear over time. Roger Protz has suggested that excess capacity might threaten the Jennings and Eagle (Bedford) breweries and raised concerns about the future of the historic union brewing system at Burton, currently producing Marstons Pedigree

https://www.marstons.co.uk/docs/jv/2020/Marstons_PLC_forms_JV_Partnership_with_Carlsberg_UK_220520.pdf

These kind of things are not complete these days without a slide presentation and the link to the investor presentation is here. There are a restrained 18 slides with slide 8 perhaps of particular interest.

https://www.marstons.co.uk/docs/jv/2020/Marstons_PLC_JV_Partnership_with_Carlsberg_Analyst_Investor_Presentation_220520.pdf

It represents the loss of independence of another key member of the British Beerage, after Fullers brewery sale to Asahi and Greene King’s sale to a Hong Kong property company.

The JV has some similarities to the Fullers sale in the sense that Marstons has kept its pub estate out of it, although clearly with a beer supply deal with Carlsberg, but unlike Fullers will still have a signficant although minority stake in the breweries

One might also speculate that it represents a further blow to the historic configuration of the Tory Party of which breweries were an important part. Ralph Findlay of Marstons who will be non-Executive Chair of the new company was one of a hundred business leaders who signed a letter at the 2015 Election arguing for a Tory vote.

Beyond that of course we are mainly here for the beer. Carlsberg have 60% of the joint venture which suggests they will call the shots as will the detail that Marston’s workers will TUPE to the new company.

No doubt there are complex reasons why the arrangement is being structured in the way it has been, rather than Carlsberg UK buying out Marstons.

It reflects certainly the strengthening of Big Beer on a world scale.

In terms of craft a footnote is that London Fields, bought by Carlsberg will now be part of the JV and certainly in theory on the bar in Marstons pubs. Some well known regional brewery names such as Thwaites, Ringwood, Charles Well and Youngs are also on a journey..

The 2020 Sunday Times Rich List on donations to political parties in 2019

2019 was of course a General Election year in the UK and the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List looked at political donations made by the UK’s richest people.

The results were interesting.

£40.6m was donated in 2019 with £35.5m of that from the 50 richest people. Those 50 people managed to donate £24.9m to the Tories and £5,000 to Labour. The biggest donation however was from Lord Sainsbury (a former Minister in the Blair Government) to the Liberal Democrats. He gave them £8m.

It might be argued on that basis that donations didn’t equal votes or seats but it has to be taken into account that the LibDems own assessment of their campaign (May 2020) was that it was a high speed car-crash.

The Brexit Party also got £1.276m and thankfully no seats though it may have helped Nigel Farage’s bar bills a bit.

By contrast Labour raised £5m in trade union donations. The Sunday Times found that 160 people on the Rich List of a 1,000 people donated £96.750 in total to Labour.

When Labour last won an Election in 2005 with Blair as leader donations from the Top 50 ST Rich Listers then totalled £16.5m. In case anyone is tempted to think that this was specifically a Corbyn problem the donations from the same group to Labour covering the 2015 Election when Ed Miliband was leader were just £1.1m

Its about donating money to what is seen as the likely winning party, hence buying in some undefined way possible political influence.

Given that Corbyn was not so far from winning in 2017 there is a wider story here though. Perhaps the view was the donations would not buy influence in this case and perhaps conversely that big money to the Tories could not guarantee an Election win given the travails of Theresa May. A good deal of research is required to sort all that out I suspect.

Overall though it all looks like what William Cobbett used to call Old Corruption in the pre-1832 unreformed Parliamentary system.

The Ambridge Socialist

21^st May

The New Normal beckons in Ambridge: Tracy Horrobin reveals all

Thursday 21^st May is the last of three weeks of Archers Archives editions (or as the ever to the point BBCW1A describes them ‘repeats’). Here is the BBC’s Head of Values on the question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirr5CvseNI&feature=youtu.be

From Bank Holiday Monday new normal Archers starts with key figures from Ambridge pontificating on life, the universe and everything.

The Ambridge Socialist poll on the people we want to hear from remains open here

One person we will be hearing from is proletarian heroine Tracy Horrobin. Susie Riddell explains her part in new normal Ambridge here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dr0sv

Johnson & Jennifer Arcuri report points to a wider culture of Johnsonian inaction

A report from the Independent Office of Police Conduct into whether Boris Johnson’s reported relationship with Jennifer Arcuri amounted to Misconduct in Public Office-a potential criminal offence- has concluded that it did not.

What the report does do, in some detail, is point to a potential conflict of interest between Johnson’s role as London Mayor and his friendship with Arcuri and the fact that he took no action on this.

Perhaps particularly interesting are paragraphs 70-73 of the report

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/publications/Operation-Lansdowne-final-decision-May-2020.pdf

Ms Arcuri attending a New York Trade Mission in February 2015 which she was not entitled to attend. The fact that she did actually attend it in a rather ill-defined capacity is thought to be because officials were aware of her relationship with the Mayor.

There is no suggestion that Johnson authorised Ms Arcuri’s attendance and its possible that he may not have known about it specifically. What also seems likely however is that he knew in a general way that Ms Arcuri might trade off others knowledge of a supposed relationship. On this the report criticises his ‘inaction’ in dealing with any suspicion of a conflict of interest or impropriety. In short Johnson did know that problems might arise and questions get asked (as in fact did happen) but just couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it.

It is fully in-line with what we know of what might be called Johnsonian culture. Criticisms of his laziness in addressing matters stretch back as far as his Eton and University days

https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2019/11/30/johnsons-school-reports-at-eton-reveal-the-politician-of-2019/

Criticisms of his inaction have bedevilled him even into 2020 as a newly elected PM:

In the crucial weeks before March (2020) Boris Johnson did not attend any of the five virus meetings held by Cobra, the emergency committee, in January and February and spent 12 days out of the public eye while on a ‘working’ holiday at (Chevening) in Kent.

Sunday Times 19th April

A culture of inaction, a sort of waiting for things to happen perspective, may have a place in certain contexts. If the individual concerned is someone whose job is focused on the need to actually do things it looks like a very serious problem indeed