Kmflett's Blog

National Poetry Day

Beard Power

Beards are good,

Barbers are bad,

Beard Power shows the way,

Twenty-Four hours a day

Clean Shaven Revisionists,

From Farage to Johnson

Will continue to get shaved,

By John Barleycorn, forever

K M Flett, aged nearly 63

Monthly Review have published an interview with John Bellamy Foster on the rise of neofascism and the strategies of neo-liberal capitalism:

The Rise of the Right

In one paragraph he paraphrases E P Thompson’s phrase that have failed to overthrow capitalism(with Chartism) the working-class(from the 1860s) began to warren it from end to end.

A classic social democratic strategy that has in some periods been able to defend working class conditions, as Foster notes, the issue now is whether it can withstand a neo-liberal onslaught

Here, capital is faced with the entrenched institutional gains made by workers in the past, which stand in the way of this intensified bleeding process. As E. P. Thompson wrote in “The Peculiarities of the English,” the working class, failing to overthrow capitalism, had in various ways constructed intricate economic, political, and cultural warrens in areas such as basic working conditions; housing, economic, and environmental regulations; welfare; pensions; public education; public transportation; health; community and cultural institutions; and political/legal/human rights—a whole labyrinthine existence at the material and cultural roots of the system, operating independently of the logic of capital. These entrenched positions and customary rights of the populace, the result of hard-won gains, constitute obstacles that capital in a period of crisis has sought to overcome, and indeed have become the primary target of its avarice. In the United States and Britain, the system is undermining the ability of workers to own their homes, to have adequate health coverage or pensions. Public schools are being marketized if not completely privatized. All of this has fed the coffers of monopoly-finance capital.

Beard Liberation Front press release
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
2nd October

George Clooney heads Beard of Autumn poll list

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that actor George Clooney, who is once again wearing a full beard, heads a diverse list of contenders for the coveted Beard of Autumn Award.

The poll is open now and will close on 17th October with the winner announced on 18th October

It is the last of four quarterly seasonal contests which lead to the Beard of the Year in December.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, interest in the Beard of Autumn is always high because of its proximity to the coveted Beard of the Year Award. We are expecting the result to be a close shave.

Beard of Autumn 2019

Ben Bellamy, Beard of Labour Party Conference 2019
Benjamin Zephaniah, poet & performer
Ben Cowles Web Editor, Morning Star
Nuno, Wolves manager
Kadeem Simmonds Morning Star International Editor
Steve Sweeney, Morning Star Sports Editor
Ben Stokes, England cricketer
Michael Rosen, author, broadcaster, Arsenal supporter
George Clooney, actor
James Anthony (UNISON) Beard of the TUC 2019

Boris Johnson: the North London Metropolitan Liberal Elite Months in 1965

During her speech to the Tory Conference the current Home Secretary Priti Patel criticised the ‘North London Metropolitan Liberal Elite’.
She did not elaborate as to who such people might be.

However we do have evidence of one such person. They lived in an area that for a period elected a Liberal Democrat MP post the Iraq War and is certainly heavily in favour of remaining in the EU

Crouch End in North London is not the kind of place where you’d expect to find a Tory in 2019. But it was a little different 50 years ago and the area elected Tory MPs until 1992.

While delving into the (unpleasant) undergrowth and background to the current Premier’s rise to No.10 I noticed a brief sojourn in Crouch End.

In July 1965 Johnson’s father Stanley and mother Charlotte left Oxford for Crouch End. They stayed only to October 1965 deciding to spend the winter with Boris, who was just over a year old at the time and newly born Rachel (September 1965) in an Exmoor cottage.

I havent (yet) been able to locate where they lived in Crouch End (a blue plaque surely beckons) but perhaps even then the Johnsons were able to detect that the area was not really the kind of place for Tories, at least on Priti Patel’s analysis.

Alternatively we might argue that Johnson’s very youthful Crouch End months have marked him out,despite his many worse instincts as a member of the Metropolitan Elite..

Priti Patel the hard right Tory MP who is currently Home Secretary has made a speech at the Tory Conference in Manchester that was typically full of right-wing rhetoric. She claimed the Tories were the Party of law and order as the Treasurer of the Tories backbench 1922 Committee was being escorted out of the Conference after a punch up with security guards.

She also claimed, despite being born in Islington, that what she referred to as the ‘North London, Metropolitan, Liberal elite’ were the people she was aiming her remarks at.

People living in Tottenham, which last time I checked was definitely in North London, may wonder (if they bothered to check her speech which is mostly unlikely, as other matters around jobs, wages and housing may have been on their minds) what she was on about. The area contains some of the more deprived, in terms of poverty, Council Wards in the UK.

Her claim to end ‘free movement’ may also explain why 76% of people in Tottenham voted to Remain. I have never detected a great affinity with the austere EU in the area, anymore than austere Westminster. What I do sense is a huge concern about a Farage and Johnson Brexit which is about more Windrushes and more Hostile Environments.

The Tottenham Parliamentary Constituency contains few if any elites, or indeed liberals in a Party sense. It does contain lots of working class people who have been on the sharp end of the policies of Ms Patel’s Government for the last 9 years and want it to end. Now.

Keith Flett is a born & bred North Londoner, long time Tottenham resident & former Secretary of Haringey Trades Union Council

Beard Liberation Front

press release 1^st October

Contact keith flett 07803 167266

Labour retains Beard Friendly Conference Award but Tory challenge growing

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with the Party Conference season concluding with the Tories in Manchester the battle the poll for the ‘Most Beard Friendly Party Conference’ has seen Labour retain the Award it is held since 2015

The BLF has had observers watching each of the main conferences, LibDems in Bournemouth, Labour in Brighton and has kept a close eye on the Tories in Manchester.

For the first time in recent history there has been a hirsute speaker other than a Minister on the platform at the Tory conference and the campaigners say that the Tories are on the foothills of presenting a public image that conforms to that to be found in workplaces and High Streets across the UK

However Labour with its first bearded leader since Keir Hardie stood down in 1908, as Jeremy Corbyn marks the 4^th anniversary of his election as leader, has easily won the Beard Friendly Party Conference poll again

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, Some Tories now grasp that they had the last hirsute, Tory Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, who stepped down in 1902, but re-bearding the Tory Party is a slow process. In the meantime Labour’s Conference Beard Power was once again impressive

Recent winners of the Beard Friendly Party Conference

2013 Liberal Democrats

2014: Liberal Democrats

2015 Labour

2016 Labour

2017 Labour

2018 Labour

2019 Labour

If you Google Margaret Thatcher and Marmite you will find countless entries underlining that the late Tory leader was a Marmite (love/hate) politician which she certainly was for many.

A new history of the period 1979-1982, Who Dares Win, by Dominic Sandbrook however goes further.

He notes that Thatcher told an interviewer: ‘she only had time to cook simple things such as ‘vegetable soup and inevitably something like poached eggs or Marmite on toast’.

However Sandbrook goes on to suggest that in reality Margaret Thatcher and husband Denis ate ready meals from Marks and Spencers so Marmite lovers may be safe from any suggestion that Thatcher really liked it

Campaign for Real Conkers

Against bans on conker playing

Press Release 1^st October Contact Keith Flett, 07803 167266

Campaigners call on Boris Johnson to make conker playing in schools compulsory

The Campaign For Real Conkers, the group that opposes bans on conker playing, has said that with the 2019 conker season now in full swing it is time for Boris Johnson to order compulsory conker playing in school playgrounds.

The Campaigners say that the Health and Safety Executive have underlined that safety issues with conkers are a myth, the most common reason for conker games being banned in schools

Campaign organiser Keith Flett said, Boris Johnson must surely act to promote this most traditional of British pastimes in our school playgrounds. Conkers has been under threat from computer games in recent years and hasn’t been helped by needless bans in some school. It is time for Mr Johnson to demonstrate he backs nuts.

• The Campaign for Real Conkers promotes free for all conker playing across the UK an alternative event to the, cancelled, World Conker Championships, on October 13th where it encourages all comers to have a go at playing conkers without the need for rules, regulations and teams.

Notes

• The CFRC says that conkers is one of the few sports that can be played for free. All that is required is a conker and some string.
• It is opposed to championships, rules, regulations, separate teams for men and women and commercial sponsorship.
• It seeks to encourage young people to play conkers. It should not be the preserve purely of those of mature years

A very British Coup takes an interesting turn

Britain is not a Parliamentary Democracy but a Constitutional Monarchy which means that ultimate political power rests with the monarch.

Recent events have acted as a reminder of the point. The general view is that while this may be the formal position it is not something that the Monarch actually does in practice. This view is repeated in the report below

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/queen-sought-advice-on-sacking-prime-minister-source-claims-1-5013774

This merely serves to remind us that too many journalists are either historically ignorant, and lack curiosity and indeed time, to understand modern history, or just aren’t interested in decent reporting anyway.

The modern precedent is the dismissal of the Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the Governor General in 1975. As the Wiki entry makes clear the Queen was well aware of what took place but officially played no role.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis

Chris Mullin’s 1981 novel A Very British Coup imagining the removal of a Benn style Prime Minister had in mind the Gough Whitlam story

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

It would be an irony indeed if it ended up that the UK Prime Minister to be removed from Office in what Jacob Rees Mogg would no doubt describe as a constitutional coup was not a left-wing one but rather a right-wing one.

The passage of the Letwin Amendment in the Commons on 19th October in effect that to comply with the ‘Benn Act’ Johnson must ask for an extension to his declared timetable of leaving the EU by the 31st October. However he has said he wont do that. A General Election is an obvious way to address this, and one wonders if Parliament doesnt do that, if, as in 1975 in Australia, it will be directed from above

The Ambridge Socialist

30th September

Justin Elliott

The Tory Party Conference is being held in Manchester until Wednesday.

Its not really a conference as socialists would understand it- motions, votes and so on. Rather it is a series of platform briefing sessions for those attending plus, most importantly, an opportunity to lobby Ministers and others with power.

Given the potential proximity of Brexit and its possible impact on the farming community who do you think is most likely to be found wandering receptions and fringe meetings at Manchester Central over the next couple of days?

After all David Archer might want to have a word about abattoirs and Justin Elliott a quiet chat about planning controls & housing developments