Kmflett's Blog

The media onslaught on Labour in the 2019 Election campaign has, as expected, been vitriolic.

‘As expected’ because much of the media have a very strong track record on it.

Looking back 45 years to the February 1974 Election campaign (which Labour, just about, won) there is the following entry in Tony Benn’s Diary

Monday January 7th 1974

There was a cartoon in the Daily Mail depicting me as a stormtrooper with a swastika on my shoulder, ordering Joe Gormley and Ray Buckton to torture the British public saying ‘we have ways of making you suffer’

Its rather a long time ago now, so worth noting that Joe Gormley was the right-wing (pre Scargill) miners leader and Ray Buckton was the right-wing leader of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR). You don’t need to be left-wing to attract abuse from the Mail, just not a Tory.

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

3^rd December

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front Manifesto calls for a more beard tolerant Britain in clean shaven Election

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has issued its 10 point Manifesto for the 2019 General Election.

The BLF is not standing candidates at the Election but is urging parties to pick up on its theme of a more beard friendly and tolerant country.

The campaigners say that it is deeply disappointing that the main parties, with the partial exception of Labour, have largely conformed to the clean shaven man in a suit stereotype that has dominated British politics since the 1950s.

While the Liberal Democrats and SNP have female leaders the hirsute representation amongst their MPs at the dissolution of Parliament was either non-existent or marginal.

The campaigners say that the Manifesto ranges from general statements of principle on pogonophobia, irrational prejudice against the hirsute, to specific proposals, for example on a luxury shaving tax.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there are of course more beards around these days, but prejudice remains. Pogonophobic comments and prejudices are still freely expressed and in some cases people are denied employment because they have a beard. Unfortunately in most instances it remains perfectly legal to do so. We want the next Government to be Beard Friendly and to pick up on the points in our Manifesto. In the weeks before the Election we’ll be pressing candidates on this across the UK.

The Ten Point Beard Liberation Front Manifesto

No to Beardism and pogonophobic prejudice against the hirsute

Equal rights for beard wearers through a Beard Equality Act

More hirsute MPs

A 20% quota for hirsute Cabinet Ministers

More hirsute public employees and monitoring of hirsuteness levels in the senior Civil Service

Promotion of positive public images of the hirsute

A statue of the last hirsute Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, to be erected in Parliament Square

OfCom to have a statutory duty to monitor pogonophobia in the broadcast media & issue penalties for persistent transgressors

No dress codes at work, beyond a requirement for smart appearance for public facing roles

A luxury tax on the shaving industry, the proceeds to be used to promote a diverse Britain

Jacob Rees Mogg who was previously thought to be in hiding has resurfaced with a video shot at the ancient stones at Stanton Drew:

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stanton-drew-circles-and-cove/

These are actually in his constituency so he hasnt actually be allowed out. While Rees Mogg claims to be an historian and has written a volume on The Victorians this year, he has no obvious claim to have knowledge of pre-historic Somerset.

He also cites a a 1967 Adge Cutler song When the Common Market Comes to Stanton Drew (lyrics below)

It seems unlikely that Rees Mogg has ever actually heard the song which as might be expected is humorous and even more unlikely that he is a cider drinker

Folks say nowadays we’ve got to change our ways,
The papers say so, so I s’pose ’tis true,
We’ve got to take the chance, with Germany and France,
And live like all they foreign people do.
Now, I wonder if they’ll build the Eiffel Tower on ‘arptree ‘ill,
Put gondolas down on the River Chew,
Shall us all drive on the right, and drink up all the night-
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew?

Some folks seem to think, we’ll ‘ave to change our drink,
There’s rumours flyin’, so I s’pose ’tis right,
They say they’ve seen a tank of Portuguese vin blanc,
Jammed up in t’High Street t’other night.
They say that port and brandy will sell for £1 a quart,
And the Druids Arms won’t close till ver’ nigh two,
And we’ll all drink caviar from a girt big cider jar,
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew!

Now, as for what we eat, we must export more meat,
Send ’em all our best prime beef and ham,
While we does stuff our guts with Transylvanian nuts
And garlic-flavoured processed German spam!
When George comes home from milkin’, he’ll get a big surprise,
When ‘e sits down expectin’ Irish stew,
And ‘is wife says “George, I’ll get ‘ee, a girt dollop of spaghetti,”
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew!

When the market-time comes round, down the pub we’ll all be found
Jammin’ up the public bar all day
And you won’t get through the doors, for Messieurs and Senors
Arguin’ about the price of summer hay.
With Timsbury full of Belgians, and Radstock full of Dutch,
The Paulton farmer won’t know what to do,
And you might see Acker Bilk advertisin’ Pensford milk,
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew!

In the evenin’ times I s’pose, we’ll sip of our vin rose,
Just like they do in the Argentine
And we’ll watch they foreign blokes, with their girt big ‘ats and cloaks,
Flamingo-in down on the village green.
We’ll ‘ave to watch our wenches when they dark-eyed lads gets here,
And the local boys’ll ‘ave to form a queue,
They’ll say “Ooh la la, oui oui,” instead of “How’s bist thee?”
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew.
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew!

175^th anniversary of the arrival of Chartist prisoner William Cuffay in Tasmania

It is the 175^th anniversary of the arrival of Chartist prisoner William Cuffay in Van Diemens Land (Tasmania).

He arrived after a 103 day journey on the prison ship Adelaide on 29^th November 1849.

William Cuffay was born in Gillingham in the Medway Towns in 1788, the son of a local woman and a former slave from St Kitts who had made his way to Britain by working on a Royal Navy ship. Many of those aboard Navy vessels in the late eighteenth century were black.

Little is known about Cuffay’s time in Medway- though research is being done.

We do know however that by 1819 Cuffay was in London and had learnt the trade of a tailor.

No doubt Cuffay would have been exposed to the radical working class politics of London in the 1820s and he was certainly involved in the strike called by the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union in 1834.

Cuffay went on to become, by the end of the 1830s, a leader of a group of London Chartist tailors.

In 1840 Cuffay was 52- very old for a Chartist activist at that time- and he became a central and trusted figure in London Chartism.

The best way to understand him is as the key ‘backroom’ organiser of Chartism in the Capital- raising money for jailed Chartists and being appointed to oversee the funds of the Chartist Land Bank.

By 1842 Cuffay had been elected from London to the national Chartist Executive. These positions were fiercely contested, so Cuffay will have had a considerable constituency of support.

Details of Cuffay’s work in this period can be tracked in the Chartist paper, the Northern Star, which is now available in digital format free on-line.

Martin Hoyles book on Cuffay has also revealed that during this period Cuffay was performing as a singer on the London stage.

Cuffay was the organiser of the great Chartist demonstration on Monday 10th April 1848.

Chartists gathered at various points across London and marched south to rally at Kennington Common. The idea was then to proceed back across Blackfriars Bridge to present a giant petition for the vote to Parliament.

It was a strategic mistake- it’s unclear what part Cuffay played in deciding the venue for the rally. Police and soldiers blocked the way back over the River Thames and the national leader of Chartism Feargus O’Connor agreed with the police that the Chartists would not try to march.

Cuffay was understandably very annoyed at this decision and is reported as arguing that the march should go ahead.

We now know that there was hand to hand fighting between Chartists and troops on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge but a heavy April shower caused the attempt to be abandoned.

Later in the year, in August 1848, Cuffay was arrested for his part in an alleged revolutionary conspiracy at Seven Dials, Covent Garden. Arms were found in Cuffay’s house. His precise role in the events is unclear but it is very likely that as the London Chartist leader he was at the very least aware of what was planned.

Tried at the Old Bailey, Cuffay was sentenced to 21 years transportation to Australia.

Arriving in Hobart Tasmania, now over 60, Cuffay could have been forgiven for retiring from political activity. He did not. Instead he was active in a range of radical causes in the earliest years of the Australian labour movement. He was pardoned after 3 years but remained in Australia, dying in 1870.

Modern interest in Cuffay can be traced back to a chapter in Staying Power by the late Peter Fryer which recovered much of the history of black people in Britain.

Cuffay left no diary, autobiography or papers, but research to uncover details of his life and activity is continuing. There has been considerable effort in Australia and in Britain there are plans to erect a blue plaque for Cuffay in the Strand during the course of 2013.

The Times in 1848 referred to Cuffay and the Chartists as ‘the black man and his party’ and we can now see that this was not hyperbole but a recognition that the London organisation of the world’s first working class movement was led by the son of an ex-slave from St Kitts.

Cuffay came from the imperial diaspora to challenge imperialism at its heart in London to find himself exiled to another part of the British Empire in Australia as a reward for his efforts

Cuffay website

http://cuffay.blogspot.co.uk/

Beard Liberation Front

PRESS RELEASE 2nd December

contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

BEARDS FOR A LABOUR VICTORY EMBRACES ALL FACIAL HAIR*

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, which campaigns against irrational prejudice against the hirsute, has said that Beards For a Labour Victory is growing in support.

In a major policy initiative it has been agreed that Beards for a Labour Victory will now embrace all those with facial hair including moustache and sideburns wearers.

It is hoped that despite continuing media pogonophobia that on 13^th December Britain will have, in Jeremy Corbyn, its first Prime Minister with a beard since the Tory PM Lord Salisbury in 1902.

Beards for a Labour Victory says that of the three Party Manifestos Labour’s is the only one that can be seen as Beard Friendly with its commitment to workplace equalities representatives.

It is hoped that over time with a hirsute Prime Minister in N0.10 Downing St that a Beard Equality Act to outlaw pogonophobia can be brought forward

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Tories are the party of the clean shaven suit wearer. Labour by contrast in a spirit of inclusivity and diversity welcomes all of the hirsute

Beards for a Labour Victory is supporting hirsute Labour candidates across the UK and in particular calling out instances of pogonophobic prejudice against them.

*excluding wearers of handlebar moustaches

The Gentrification of pubs & community buy-outs

The beer writers Boak and Bailey have done some interesting research into the gentrification of pubs in Bristol. You can read the post and support their writing here:

https://boakandbailey.com/2019/11/the-swan-with-two-necks-and-the-gentrification-issue/

I don’t have a huge issue with the gentrification of pubs (but then I’m in a decently paid job) particularly if it means they stay open.

But as Boak and Bailey note the matter is complex.

What is usually meant by gentrification in this case is that the price of drinks increases and familiar lager and keg bitter brands are replaced by craft beers.

There is a sort of rationing by price and beer style that goes on that dictates not the mix of customers as such but certainly a class of customers.

This of course is where Wetherspoons business model works well. Its prices are low, it offers a range of familiar brands and some ‘craft’ beers and should you enter one you will find a diverse range of customers.

As Boak and Bailey note however pubs are businesses and businesses that don’t make a profit tend not to continue. If a street corner local is selling a limited range of mainstream brands to a limited number of customers its chances of survival are small.

Here more complexity can be added.

I live in working class Tottenham but the days of the street corner local in the area are long gone. Perhaps partly this was due to it being the original base for Wetherspoons but in the main its down to property developers.

Until quite recently the area, as a result, was down to a number of pubs arguably too small to cater for the potential audience.

Now some craft bars have opened. Two are in fact in former pub premises but the reality is that the pub had been shut for so long you’d need to be rather old like myself to recall it ever was one. So no gentrification really took place.

There is another way, followed successfully by a pub near Spurs, the Antwerp Arms, which is to keep developers at bay by raising funds to secure a community buy-out and control.

That it seems to me is a potential way forward for regulars who don’t want their pub closed. They can keep it as they like but they will, as Boak and Bailey righty note, have to make sure that it turns a profit. At least as long as we live in a market capitalist society anyway.

The Ambridge Socialist

December 1st

Reporting on the Class Struggle in Borsetshire

Corbyn set to act on Borsetshire Land

In a major speech on 28^th November Jeremy Corbyn made Labour’s position on the likes of Borsetshire Land clear. He said:

‘We’ll stop paying farm subsidies to billionaires and instead create a fund to plant organic fruit orchards, producing local food.”

The Ambridge Socialist welcomes the commitment to tackle the farming fat cats but is aware that they will find ways to fight back (see Rewilding below)

Lower Loxley Christmas Ghost production in crisis: ACAS on stand by

Call Me Russ, Russell Jones has predictably been causing trouble with the Professor’s Christmas ghost production at Lower Loxley. The Professor has rejected a demand for a ‘warm up’ and has rejected any thought that Jones should be taken seriously.

Rewilding capitalism; Turning rebellion into money

Martyn Gibson is not sure but the more far sighted Justin Elliott knows which way the wind is blowing and is keen for Borsetshire Land to hook up with the Rewilders. Even Daveed & Roooth have given a small part of Brookfield to Pip for the purpose. But what is their purpose? Protecting their profits of course. Justin Elliott has now persuaded BL to offer a substantial area of land for rewilding provided they get 75% of any profits.

In Other News

Dimitris is not keen on plate smashing & nor is the owner of the restaurant where his farewell meal took place.

Harrison has been chosen to play Santa in the Grundy World of Christmas, narrowly beating Russ

Beard Liberation Front

PRESS RELEASE 1^st December

contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

BEARDS FOR A LABOUR VICTORY GROWS SUPPORT*

by George Charles Beresford, sepia-toned platinotype print, 1905

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, which campaigns against irrational prejudice against the hirsute, has said that Beards For a Labour Victory is growing in support.

It is hoped that despite continuing media pogonophobia that on 13^th December Britain will have, in Jeremy Corbyn, its first Prime Minister with a beard since the Tory PM Lord Salisbury in 1902.

Beards for a Labour Victory says that of the three Party Manifestos Labour’s is the only one that can be seen as Beard Friendly with its commitment to workplace equalities representatives.

It is hoped that over time with a hirsute Prime Minister in N0.10 Downing St that a Beard Equality Act to outlaw pogonophobia can be brought forward

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said let’s face it, Boris Johnson is never going to grow a beard, he has enough trouble remembering to comb his hair, while the Liberal Democrats, if positively promoting diversity in political leadership, have completely ditched their hirsute heritage. It is time for Britain to have a Prime Minister with a beard, the first for 117 years.

Beards for a Labour Victory is supporting hirsute Labour candidates across the UK and in particular calling out instances of pogonophobic prejudice against them.

*following a review the name Beards for a Labour Victory has been preferred to Beard Wearers

In Medieval Times the marking of Christmas by Class started with Advent Sunday.

The period between the fourth before Christmas and Christmas Day was a period of a limited diet, the more so for the poor than the rich obviously.

From Advent Sunday they had been enjoined to limit their diet. For the wealthy this meant soups, stews and fish instead of roasts or pies. The poorer, however, could find the reduction a misery. In the fifteenth century James Ryman complained of eating ‘no puddings nor sauce, but stinking fish not worth a louse’

Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun

If you are following an Advent diet or if you arent putting food aside for your local Foodbank seems like a good tradition

I’m no great fan of Andrew Marr. I was never on the same page as the left-wing politics he had in his student days (& I’m still not) but as readers of my blog will know that doesnt mean that I’m not on the left or indeed inhabit broadly the same terrain as Marr then did. I may have got on better with him when he was Editor of the Independent when we had exchanges (obviously)about facial hair amongst other things. As for the BBC era, frankly the only time I get up that early on a Sunday is for Union Executive meetings.

His interview with Boris Johnson on Sunday December 1st Ive commented on, as have many others, on social media. It is symptomatic of much media coverage of the Election,which,however, it should be underlined is not really a new phenomena. The ability of social media to amplify the matter perhaps is.

All these points aside below is an extract from the Spectator website of a piece written by Marr on why December Elections are a bad idea its behind a paywall for all the non-Tories out there (!) and Ive extracted the historically interesting (and indeed accurate) piece.

The rest is about the impact of December weather on Elections,how climate change is making matters worse and how while this now preoccupies many voters (particularly those who face flooding) it does not dominate Election discussion in the way it perhaps should.

Andrew Marr’s Wiki entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Marr

Extract from Spectator blog on December Elections

I’m interested in the parallels with the December 1923 election. Back then, a Conservative prime minister, lacking his own mandate, risked going to the country. Against a depressed economic background, the great issue was tariffs, which Stanley Baldwin’s opponents claimed would raise food prices. In Ramsay MacDonald, the Tories faced a Labour opponent they dismissed as too extreme to be a real threat. MacDonald is remembered now as the turncoat who became an almost-Tory himself; but in 1923 he was seen as a pacifist, enemy of the Empire, a quasi-Bolshevik menace. Ninety-six years ago, the Tories badly miscalculated and, with this last unforced winter election, lost their majority. The Liberals were on the way down and Asquith allowed Labour in, assuming MacDonald would be a disaster. True, his minority government didn’t last long. He lost to Baldwin in 1924. Then, as now, repeated general elections were a cardiograph of a system under strain. Then, as now, we were obsessed by Russian plots — the Zinoviev letter, rather than oligarchs and St Petersburg bots. But the bigger picture was that MacDonald’s Labour showed it could govern. In many ways, that winter election of 1923 was an essential precursor to 1945. As more and more younger voters registered in the last weeks, it would be foolish of Tories to dismiss a Jeremy Corbyn premiership as impossible. The polling is against him, but he’s surprised us before.