I was pleased to see that statement below from Haringey SUTR of which I’m a supporter.
There is a large and varied Jewish population in North and North-West London, and there has been for a very long time. Its an important part of what the area is.
In the period when I was President and then Secretary of Haringey Trades Union Council (I’m now just a humble delegate) there were instances of anti-Semitic attacks. Without fail we called protests but it must be said that opinion on whether to protest or keep quiet to avoid encouraging further outrages was sometimes an issue. It’s good to see an understanding in the current moment that anti-Semitic attacks must ALWAYS be called out.
It’s also a reminder about why Saturday’s central London march Together against racism is so important. Hate and division should have no place in British society but they will have unless actively opposed. See you tnere.
Haringey Stand Up to Racism stand in solidarity with the Jewish Community in Golders Green. We condemn the horrific attack on the four community ambulances which belong to Hatzola, a local Jewish ambulance service. Antisemitism has no place in our society.
We must promote peace and unity and stand together against hatred and division. Let’s build the maximum possible turnout at this Saturday’s Together demonstration.
The second round of the French local elections took place on 22nd March. I’ll post further on quite a complex set of results.
In Paris the hirsute Socialist Party candidate Emmanuel Gregoire beat the right candidate. As if the beard was not enough in itself for Starmer the SP stood in alliance with the Communist Party and the Greens.
The fascist and centre right candidates stood down in the second round, while the left candidate stayed on the ballot after the SP declined a joint ticket. Elsewhere in France the SP and the left did stand on joint tickets with mixed results. Probably the nearest UK equivalent to Melenchon’s LFI is Your Party, but the LFI is a broader left construct
One key aim of course was to stop the candidates for the fascist National Rally. Here again results appear mixed and no doubt influenced by local candidates and contexts.
Much work to before the French Presidential elections in 2027 both at the ballot box and in the wider movement to counter fascism. Lessons from the 1930s remain important here.
Historian Christopher Hill, Spurs & The Experience of Defeat
As a lifelong Spurs fan and Tottenham resident that current relegation form of the club is disheartening.
The sacking of Igor Tudor as manager after 44 days suggests a dialectic of decline leading to the Championship next season.
Spurs were last relegated in 1977 but the current debacle has been coming for a while. The White Hart Lane stadium is a great modern venue which also has a football team attached to it. That anyway is how I think the Club’s currently rather convoluted owners think of it.
I’ll remain a supporter of course if relegation does happen, which is not yet quite inevitable. The impact on all the mostly small businesses in and around Tottenham High Rd and then on local jobs will I suspect be the real experience of defeat.
Christopher Hill (1912-2003) the Marxist historian of the English Civil War and after, and Master of Balliol College Oxford aspired in his youth to be a first class cricketer. Not for England but for the County of his birth Yorkshire which he saw as a higher honour.
He wrote a book The Experience of Defeat about what happened to those who had supported Cromwell and the Commonwealth after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The defeat was considerably more significant than losing a series of football matches but there are some broad parallels..
The restoration saw numbers of those who had signed the death warrant for Charles 1st- regicides- executed. Cromwell who had died in 1858 was dug up and executed in his absence as it were. Censorship of radical ideas was reinstated and those who held such ideas were persecuted.
Hill notes:
we know something of the practical consequences of defeat. After 1660 nearly one in five of the beneficed ministers lost their livings, without even the meagre compensation which the ejected of the 1640s and 1650s had received. Lay dissenters had to endure nearly thirty years (until 1688 KF) of sporadic but often very damaging persecution
Hill was interested in the radicals that had supported the revolution and how they came to terms with events after 1660, in particular the poet and radical activist and thinker Milton.
Even so it’s a reminder that defeats, often very serious ones, happen and there are serious consequences. That applies to political movements and in a lesser register football teams too. Ideas, perspectives and radical organisation survive however.
In terms of Spurs the practical consequences of relegation will be less significant in 2026 than they were for the supporters of the Commonwealth in 1660, although I wouldn’t rule out an element of mild persecution for the current authority structure at Spurs too.
Both the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times lead with stories that Iran may have missiles that could hit European Capitals including London.
The story is based on reports of Iranian missiles which were fired (but intercepted) at the US/UK base on Diego Garcia which is around 2,000 miles from Iran.
There is no actual evidence that Iran has missiles that could hit Western Europe or that it intends to do so. The story was bigged up by the Israelis no doubt with the intention of drawing European countries into that country’s never ending wars.
Fortunately the lessons of 2003 seems to have been learnt (for the moment) and the Government has said there is no basis for the story
In 2002/3 the infamous dodgy dossier claimed that Iraq had weapons that it could use in 45 minutes (not at Europe) and the S*n made up a story that it had missiles that could hit the British base on Cyprus.
The fog of war as usual allows such stories to flourish and its unlikely to be the last that we hear of this one..
The Ambridge cricket team or variants of it has been a summer regular in the Archers for a very long time. Last season ended acrimoniously, not just with relegation, but also a bust up caused by Freddie covertly paying Rex to play.
With Sgt Knacker Burns safely out of the way the future of the team lies with two key Ambridge people, Lynda and Tracey. They do not of course agree. Perhaps the BBC could get an IPL franchiser involved to sort it out
Brian: the long goodbye
Brian is still trying to protect Ruairi from the consequences of his actions. Ruairi doesn’t feel happy about it. Perhaps he should go on a free transfer to Coronation St. Brian is sounding increasingly like Donald Trump, not politically, but in terms of erratic behaviour, the latest being an offer to invest in George’s drone business (does it still exist?)
More importantly it ties in with a current Archers theme of mental health awareness. It’s not the kind of thing to bother the Nigel Farage’s of this world, but back in reality it’s a real issue
Esme wins the farm
Esme has got the approval of Neil and a 20 year contract to run the farm as a tenant with George as an advisor. The times they are a changin’ possibly
The Treggorans
Carol and daughter Anne have reappeared after a very long absence. There will be a reason…
In other news
The Vicar. Alan is looking tired. Shades of Dr Who
Tracey has bested Justin. A Proletarian victory to celebrate
The business debacle that is Brewdog continues to cause issues.
When the US outfit Tilray bought the brewery and brand on March 2nd it might have been assumed that they had also bought the pubs. 11 stayed open and 38 were shut with workers sacked on the spot- almost certainly unfairly.
It now transpires that Tilray did not buy all the pubs. In fact 38 remain with the administrator Alix Partners.
Tilray have previously said they were not able to fully assess what they had bought due to the short timescales involved (effectively Brewdog were bankrupt). Having done so they now propose to acquire and re-open a further five or six bars.
Two of these appear to be Aberdeen and the BBC have reported that sacked Brewdog workers have been approached by Tilray to see if they want their jobs back. Terms and conditions are not revealed.
Unite the Union which represents Brewdog workers but remains unrecognised by the employer have stated that Tilray’s actions amount to fire and rehire. That is workers are sacked but then re-engaged on new contracts without consultation on terms.
The practice will become illegal under the Employment Relations Act 2025 from January 2027.
Despite Tilray claiming they want to move on from the James Watt era it appears they are stuck with the same reputational damage mindset that characterised his tenure at the brewer.
The New World’s Allister Heath (Editor, Sunday Telegraph) random headline generator sometimes produces headlines that make more sense that Heath himself…
This one captures the Tories Great Moving Right Show as Kemi Badenoch continues to defend the Islamophobic views of Tory Shadow Minister Nick Timothy, views which Farage has publicly backed
Engels lived in Regents Park Rd close to Hampstead Heath
….We are expecting Burns here today and thus, for the first time in history, three Socialist members of parliament from Germany, France and England will come together. That such a meeting should be possible, a meeting of the three deputies of the three leading parliaments of Europe—three Socialist Party leaders representing the three dominant nations of Europe—is in itself proof of what enormous advances we have made. I only wish that Marx were alive to witness it.
Well, now it is also time to remind you of your promise to visit us here in the summer and take me back with you to Germany. True, August is afraid that a possible dissolution of the Reichstag might upset everything, but that is something I cannot see, for if there is in fact a dissolution, it will happen this month, i.e. in April (which will be upon us tomorrow), while the elections will be held in June at the latest, in which case a holiday will be more necessary than ever—for August as well as for yourself—and if you were to see the fine weather we have here and all the greenness of spring which also brings with it a mass of flowers that lasts until the end of June, you would assuredly come, dissolutions and fresh elections or not. So, as always, I shall count on your keeping your word and shall also accompany you to Berlin, for since last autumn our respective trips have been indissolubly linked.
Engels to Julie Bebel March 31st 1893
John Burns, (1858-1943) was a socialist, then Liberal MP for Battersea
Paul Lafargue (1842-1911) was a French socialist MP, the first to be elected
August Bebel (1840-1913) was a German socialist MP
