The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has warned that Greggs new Vegan Steak Bake may not be beard friendly.
The campaigners say that while the Vegan Steak Bake is clearly popular with both vegans and flexitarians, beard wearers need to take care if consuming one.
There is a danger that flakes of pastry or gravy may end up in the beard rather than the mouth unless care is taken.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we recommend only eating a Vegan Steak Bake if you have protected your beard with a snood beforehand
Christmas 2019: Pigs in Blankets. Was the YouGov poll right?
If there was one item that characterised Christmas 2019 it was the rise of pigs and blankets. The pigs, usually a pork sausage, sometimes a chicken one or a vegan alternative are wrapped in bacon or a vegan equivalent. They are referred to as sausages in kilts north of the border.
Most often the pigs are in blankets but sometimes under them or just with them.
Of course they have been around while but the rise in 2019 was phenomenal.
It may have had more prominence due to a temporary (no doubt Brexit inspired) shortage of them in Wetherspoons.
I think it may have started with large packs of pigs in blankets crisps, available in Lidl and Aldi (of course) but then in M&S.
Then of course there were the supermarket sandwiches, usually termed pigs under blankets, which were universally available.
Leon did a pigs in blankets breakfast roll while EAT (a central London sandwich chain now owned by Pret) sold a lunchtime hot version with mash, and crispy onions.
Moving on M&S produced a pigs in blankets quiche and Sainsburys were selling pups in blankets(a vegan version). Not to be outdone Lidl sold a yard-long pig in blanket and Aldi triple pigs in a blanket.
As I type I have in front of me pigs in blankets tortilla chips and pigs in blankets coated peanuts.
What this says about Britain at Christmas 2019 remains unclear as a YouGov poll on festive food has found that while pigs in blankets are quite popular, roast potatoes are much more popular. YouGov polls, while beloved of the media, are of questionable accuracy often around size and balance of those they survey.
As ever reality is a better way of testing things that an opinion poll. The Guardian reported on 7th January that Aldi had sold a record 22 million pigs in blankets over Xmas.
Peterborough v Hackney in vote for Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2020
The Beard Liberation Front has said that the vote for the annual Beard Friendly Pub of the Year is open and will close at midday on Sunday 12th January.
With a high level of voting in the first 5 days of the 10-day poll Peterborough’s Bimble Inn micropub and Hackney’s Cock Tavern are splitting hairs for the lead
BLF Inspectors have been surveying pubs for beard friendliness for the past couple of months (criteria below) and have now finalised a list including several nominations from drinkers.
It is obviously not possible to visit every pub and every location and there is a write-in space on the poll. Any pub getting more than 1% of the overall vote will join the poll.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard Friendly Pub of the Year has run for some years in early January but this is the first time ever that a pub outside of London has contended for the lead. It seems beard friendly drinking is blossoming all over the country in 2020.
The criteria for the Award include:
Beard Friendly Pub: a pub that welcomes the hirsute and often has a significant number of hirsute customers, including but certainly not confined to those with modern styles of beards.
Beard Friendly Ambience: a pub that may have fewer hirsute customers but is welcoming to the hirsute through some bearded bar staff and beard friendly beers, plus has a generally relaxed atmosphere for all.
The campaign group says it welcomes diversity in both appearance and drinking. The truly beard friendly pub will have a genuine mix of customers not just a load of old blokes grumbling about life.
The list includes a range of pubs, bars and tap rooms without attempting to classify into sections
The 2019 winner was the Cock Tavern in Hackney
The Beard Friendly Pub, Bar, Tap of the Year Short List 2020
The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has said that England’s victory against South Africa in the Cape Town Test Match on Tuesday underlined why Five Day Test Matches are so important and why clean shaven cricket Administrators want to scrap them.
The BLF says that it was the Beard Power of Ben Stokes with 3-35 in the final overs of the fifth day of the Test that won the match for England.
Stokes had been growing his beard over the five days of the match precisely for this end.
The author Michael Rosen made the point on twitter:
The whole point about 5-day tests is that players or spectators can begin the match clean-shaven but end it bearded.
The BLF says that former Beard of the Year Winner Freddie Flintoff used to start Test Matches clean shaven and grow his beard over the five days to full match winning potential.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, W G Grace played in shorter games but his beard came pre-prepared. In recent times the Five Day Test has been one which has promoted the use of Beard Power as a key tool to win games. We must not allow Pogonophobic Administrators to wreck it.
The late Stuart Hall published in Marxism Today in January 1979 just before Thatcher’s Election victory an analysis headed ‘The Great Moving Right Show’.
Looking back (the subject for another post) the analysis was a decent one, at least posing questions about the appeal of right-wing politics
It was however reviled at the time by the left, myself included, and in a 2012 interview with the New Statesman, Hall touched on the reason why:
“There is a tiny kernel of truth in the assertion that [Marxism Today] created Blairism, in the sense that the ‘new times’ stuff was addressing the change of the whole terrain. But what we recommended was that you needed a project on the left of the same breadth and depth as Thatcherism. New Labour understood it as meaning that you needed the same project!”
We knew of course that Thatcherism was very right-wing. The real Great Moving Right Show for those of us on the left however meant people breaking not just from socialism but from social democracy to argue that Thatcher had a point. That in part, as Hall notes, was where New Labour came in.
The backdrop then as now was economic crisis, and the question of who pays for it and how
It was the politics of defeat and retreat. Unless the left is active, perhaps particularly now outside of Parliament in workplaces and communities, it can happen again..
Decision of Parliamentary Beard of the Year runner-up Ian Murray to stand for Labour Deputy welcomed
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has welcomed the news that Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray is to stand for the Labour Deputy leadership post.
Mr Murray was the runner-up in the Parliamentary Beard of the Year poll in 2017 only narrowly beaten by the current holder, the Tory MP for Mansfield Ben Bradley
The BLF had been concerned that there was some move to blame Jeremy Corbyn’s beard for the 2019 Election defeat and called for hirsute candidates for Leadership positions to be considered without prejudice.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, of course it will be entirely up to Labour members and affiliates as to whether Mr Murray’s face fits in terms of policies and the direction the Labour Party takes. We do however welcome the fact that there will be a hirsute candidate for a Leadership position
Press Release 7th January Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
Support for Carrick McClean, 6th Form student forced to shave so he could complete A Levels
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has confirmed its continued support for a Derry Sixth Form student Carrick McClean.
Mr McClean was told he could not sit for his A Levels at St Columbs in Derry because the school has a long-standing policy that students can not wear beards. The policy does not apply to teachers.
Mr McClean launched a Change.Org petition requesting the school to change its policy which gathered over 2,000 signatures in a few days at the weekend.
However Mr McClean prudently took the decision on Monday to temporarily shave his beard so he could finish his A Levels, while continuing to campaign for a change in the school’s policy
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Mr McClean is a man of hirsute principle and we support him. While he has temporarily shaved off his beard he will still be on the Beard of Winter shortlist when it is announced on Sunday. His efforts deserve recognition.
LABOUR LEADERSHIP ELECTION: CAMPAIGNERS SAY CORBYN ‘BEARD FEAR FACTOR’ MUST PLAY NO PART
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, which campaigns against irrational prejudice against the hirsute, has said that with a new Labour leader due to be announced on 4th April, following a membership ballot, there must be no concessions made to pogonophobia, the fear of beards, in the process.
Since the 12th December Election defeat stories have circulated on social media that the beard of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was a factor with voters on the doorstep
The BLF says that while there is no doubt that irrational attitudes to beard wearers do exist in British society it is the job of a progressive organisation like the Labour Party to challenge such prejudice not concede ground to it.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it seems very unlikely that the next Labour leader will have a beard and policies should be key not image and appearance. However it is important that a modern political party has at its centre the principal of diversity in terms of its leadership team. If that isn’t done we’ll just end up with an endless succession of rather dull clean shaven men in suits.
6th January: Wassailing, Cakes, Ale & the Lord of Misrule
The tradition of wassailing is one of having cakes and ale on Twelfth Night or Epiphany the following day. Since it is Try January, why not do that. It does underline, if nothing else, how out of touch with seasonal traditions Dry January is.
This time of year is that of few hours of daylight and scarcity of fresh produce so things like cake and ale were and are welcome.
A tradition was to bake a cake with a bean, or possibly a pea or a coin in and the person discovering it in their piece of cake became the Lord of Misrule for Twelfth Night
The traditional Wassail was to go house to house with the following cry:
we are not daily beggars that beg from door to door
But we are friendly neighbours whom you have seen before.
There is a case I think for attempting to reclaim a radical tradition of the Lord of Misrule. A giant model of a naked Nigel Farage paraded through the streets sitting backwards on a donkey would add something to the sum of human jollity at this time of year after all.
