Kmflett's Blog

The Ambridge Socialist

Reporting on the class struggle in Borsetshire

8^th September

Brexit and Ambridge: Archers split

While there has been criticism on social media that the Archers is avoiding Brexit, this is far from the reality. We know of course that both Brian and Adam voted Leave but detailed discussion of the impact of leaving the EU on Ambridge has been absent.

What has not been absent is the sense of ruling class crisis and splits in the Tory Party that it has caused. Of course this is done by proxy. So Pip Archer, likely future matriarch of Brookfield (the male side of the family being somewhat flakey) has with Phoebe and others won the Ambridge Conservation Trust money for their rewilding Ambridge project. Pip was also part of the Brookfield bid which the BBC has reported was a close second. Could that money have made an important difference to the future solvency of Brookfield. Whatever the answer the Archer dynasty is split just as the Tories are on Brexit.

The Ambridge Socialist poll

Abattoir crisis in Ambridge

The abattoir which David uses to dispatch his lambs has gone into receivership. Brian Aldridge who has more lambs has done a deal with a West Midlands operator. The same operator has told David that the scale of his farming operation is too small to be bothered with and he should simply take the lambs to Borchester market…

The Ghost of Grey Gables

Oliver has spoken to Tracey about the Ghost of Grey Gables and explained to her that it does not exist. He expressed general satisfaction with the way that Tracy has brought proletarian values to the hotel and hopes that he might attract some normal guests at some stage

In Other News

The Bull quiz has passed without bloodshed

Tory split now the worst since 1846/7

The media spend much time obsessing about splits in and from the Labour Party. Indeed a handful of Labour MPs have quit Labour this year, the latest being the unpleasant John Mann. Historically however the Party has had two significant splits. The first in 1931 when Ramsay MacDonald quit to head a (largely Tory) National Government. The second in 1981 when the SDP broke away and failed to break the mould of British politics.

The Tories ‘secret weapon’ is often reported to be their class loyalty. Divisions may be serious and argument vicious, but not in front of the voters please. That tradition is dead.

With former Home Secretary Amber Rudd (Windrush devotee, 346 majority) quitting her Ministerial job, the Tory Whip and potentially the Tory Party the crisis now looks to be the biggest ever since 1846/7

Robert Peel, who had a considerable background as a Tory Minister and became Prime Minister for second time in 1841 with the backing of landowners who did not want the Corn Laws (a tax introduced in 1815 on imported wheat that kept domestic bread prices high, likewise profits for farmers) repealed, did in fact repeal them in 1846 with the backing of the Anti-Corn Law League

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

While the ‘modern’ Liberal Party was not formed until 1858 it was largely their political predecessors who were behind the League.

The organised working class, primarily the Chartists, were only marginally concerned in terms of the organisation of the League pushing instead, in due course successfully, for a Ten Hours Act to reduce the length of the working day. A measure they correctly judged would have more impact on workers lives.

The numerous petitions for repeal of the Corn Laws organised by the League did attract considerable numbers of working-class signatures. Cheaper bread was a demand raised at Peterloo. What the League either didn’t want to do, or failed to, was to involve those working-class voices in its actual campaigning structures

Jacob Rees Mogg, who has a history degree from Oxford, argued in 2018 and again in his 2019 volume The Victorians that Peel’s actions split the Tory Party and this led to them being out of Office for several decades as a result. In this as in so many things Rees Mogg is not entirely right. The Tories did have brief spells in Office in the 1850s and 1860s but not until Disraeli in 1874 were they able to reassert themselves as a dominant Parliamentary force.

The Tory Party of the 1840s was hardly the one we know today. The present shape of the Tory Party was not fully defined until the early twentieth century. The second half of the nineteenth century saw several significant realignments in ruling class politics between Tories and Liberals.

Peel meanwhile broke from the Tories (though not Tory ideas) but died on 29th June 1850 after being thrown from his horse on Constitution Hill. Some of his Parliamentary followers did in due course sit with the Liberals.

Whether the current Johnsonian crisis leads to a reconfiguration of bourgeois parties in Parliament with the Liberal Democrats resurgent, two Tory Parties (reminiscent of splits on the left) or the end of the Tories altogether, who after all have a limited and ageing membership, may become clearer in the weeks and months ahead.

The Tory split of 1846/7 very much mirrors the issues that have obsessed the Tory Party over Europe and now Brexit for many years. Namely is free trade or protection in terms of tariffs the best way for capital to successfully go about its business and make a profit?

Capital must decide, if it can. Representatives of labour have other agendas around ending austerity, jobs, public services and freedom of movement

Beard Liberation Front press release

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

7th September

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

World Beard Day tribute to William Morris: wearer of the first socialist hipster beard

The Beard Liberation Front,the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to William Morris (1834-1896) on World Beard Day and noted that the impact of his beard on modern British society has been seriously underplayed.

The campaigners say that Morris is rightly celebrated for his influence in the worlds of art and design and for his socialist politics and writings but the legacy of his iconic beard has been largely ignored.

Morris was well known for having a fiery temper and huge appetite for work and activism. On his death in 1896 at the age of 62 his physician suggested that the main cause was ‘simply being William Morris’.

However the BLF says that William Morris’s beard was as finely crafted and sculpted as the rest of his work and that he may be seen as laying down the template for socialist hipsterism

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there is no doubt that from the 1960s on William Morris has influenced the beard styles of the political left. More recently he has also been key to the design of the hipster beard. Hipster can be a dirty word, but Morris showed that the designer beard may be a thing of power and beauty.

Check out @jeremycorbyn’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1168941871118393345?s=09

Corbyn is long term cricket fan and here in an aside he reveals his Test Match Special listening habit. Listen from 0.20 at the above link. The reference is about 20 seconds long, ‘they talk,and talk and talk’…

Jacob Rees Mogg accused those trying to block a No Deal Brexit in the Commons on Tuesday of being Parnellites. There is an excellent letter in The Guardian today underlining why such a reference was at best misplaced:

Jacob Rees-Mogg said in the Commons that the approach taken by a majority of the House to block a no-deal Brexit is “the most unconstitutional use of this house since the days of Charles Stewart Parnell when he tried to bung up parliament” (Politics live, 3 September). No doubt he was trying to imply that the Irish are always troublesome and that insistence on the backstop is in a tradition of Irish obstruction of British politics. But he should remember that if it were not for Daniel O’Connell he would be ineligible to take his seat in the House of Commons by virtue of his religion.
Felix Larkin
Dublin, Ireland

Guardian 5th September

While Rees Mogg has a History degree from Oxford his regular historical pronouncements are often questionable and sometimes just wrong. A summary is below:

Once again on Rees Mogg, History Man

Brewdog have released a beer, Hello My Name is Unelected Boris, a 5.2% ipa

https://brewdog.com/blog/when-politics-is-too-crazy-for-brewdog-protest-beers

I havent yet tried it but hopefully will in the next few days.

The issue is whether this is simply hype or in anyway a useful comment.

Brewdog of course have a history of hype and given that they remain very much in the ‘punk’ genre a line from the Clash’s White Man In Hammersmith Palais, ‘turning rebellion into money’ does seem relevant.

That said associating products with radical events and movements has a long history. Henry Hunt who spoke at Peterloo was something of a master at it (but he did served jail time for Peterloo)

Henry Hunt’s breakfast powder: more popular than his Bristol beer

The Chartist Movement was the first to fight for the vote (for men). Below is Jacob Rees Mogg’s view (The Victorians 2019) of what they were trying to do. He is describing the views of Tory Prime Minister Robert Peel but offers no note of criticism about them.

A country In flux, one in which such campaigners as the Chartists called for further and greater reforms, for universal suffrage, the ballot and for the abolition of the property qualification which. embedded in the Reform Bill, ensured that only gentlemen of property could aspire to stand for Parliament.

Movements such as the Chartists threatened, for Peel, risking a needless upending of the time hallowed system of government which had delivered ‘more practical happiness (and) true liberty than has been enjoyed in any other country that ever existed’

..The Tamworth Manifesto (1834) can therefore be seen as a very British phenomenon and it was British because it exemplified a very British lesson: the importance of taking part and playing by the rules.. an acceptance of the rules of the game was as important as the game itself. This helps explains his and his heirs’ reluctance to accept that the rules should ever be changed other than lawfully and by the means duly provided for changing them

Tories set to split but Boris Johnson is no Robert Peel

The media spend much time obsessing about splits in and from the Labour Party. Indeed a handful of Labour MPs have quit Labour this year. The Party has however had two significant splits. The first in 1931 when Ramsay MacDonald quit to head a (largely Tory) National Government. The second in 1981 when the SDP broke away and failed to break the mould of British politics.

The Tories ‘secret weapon’ is often reported to be their class loyalty. Divisions may be serious and argument vicious, but not in front of the voters please. That tradition is dead.

With former Tory Minister and 2019 Leadership contender Rory Stewart quitting as an MP and walking out of the Tory Party splits in the Tory Party raise the issue about whether it will continue in its present form.

With the Brexit crisis rumbling on and the Tory Party divided between pro-Brexit and pro-Remain MPs its possible that the Party faces its biggest split since 1847

Robert Peel was elected in 1841 with the backing of landowners who did not want the Corn Laws (a tax introduced in 1815 on imported wheat that kept domestic bread prices high, likewise profits for farmers) repealed but did in fact repeal them in 1846 with the backing of the Anti-Corn Law League

While the ‘modern’ Liberal Party was not formed until 1858 it was largely their political predecessors who were behind the League.

The organised working class, primarily the Chartists, were only marginally concerned in terms of the organisation of the League pushing instead, in due course successfully, for a Ten Hours Act to reduce the length of the working day. A measure they correctly judged would have more impact on workers lives.

The numerous petitions for repeal of the Corn Laws organised by the League did attract considerable numbers of working-class signatures. Cheaper bread was a demand raised at Peterloo. What the League either didn’t want to do, or failed to, was to involve those working-class voices in its actual campaigning structures

Jacob Rees Mogg, who has a history degree from Oxford, argued in 2018 and again in his 2019 volume The Victorians that Peel’s actions split the Tory Party and this led to them being out of Office for several decades as a result. In this as in so many things Rees Mogg is not entirely right. The Tories did have brief spells in Office in the 1850s and 1860s but not until Disraeli in 1874 were they able to reassert themselves as a dominant Parliamentary force.

The Tory Party of the 1840s was hardly the one we know today. The present shape of the Tory Party was not fully defined until the early twentieth century. The second half of the nineteenth century saw several significant realignments in ruling class politics between Tories and Liberals.

Peel meanwhile broke from the Tories (though not Tory ideas) but died on 29^th June 1850 after being thrown from his horse on Constitution Hill. Some of his Parliamentary followers did in due course sit with the Liberals

The Tory split of 1846/7 very much mirrors the issues that have obsessed the Tory Party over Europe and now Brexit for many years. Namely is free trade or protection in terms of tariffs the best way for capital to successfully go about its business and make a profit?

While Robert Peel did split the Tory Party he was able to successfully repeal the Corn Laws. Boris Johnson is hardly of the political stature of Peel. He may well succeed in both splitting the Tory Party and bodging Brexit as well.

This post originally appeared in the Morning Star

Campaign for Real Conkers

Press Release September 2nd Contact Keith Flett, 07803 167266

Campaigners call on Boris Johnson to play conker game with Cummings to popularise sport

E8CWGN Playing conkers in England, UK – close up

The Campaign for Real Conkers, the group that opposes bans on conker playing, has said that with the 2019 conker playing season getting underway a major concern continues to be a lack of interest in playing the traditional sport amongst younger people.

Some stories have suggested that in some areas young people don’t even know what a conker is let alone how to play a game with one.

The campaigners say that an excellent way to publicise and popularise the sport would be Boris Johnson to play a game with his chief advisor Dominic Cummings outside 10 Downing St.

The CFRC has warned for some years that the game of conkers is in serious decline and unless a new generation of players is found it may not exist in 20 years-time as screen based games become increasingly popular.

The campaign believes that conkers is a game that is free to all play and should also be free of rules and regulations whether imposed in contests or petty bureaucrats who argue wrongly that playing conkers is in some way dangerous.

Campaign organiser Keith Flett said, Mr Johnson has already acquired a small dog in a bid to distract from his other activities and if he is determined to pursue displacement activities a game of conkers would underline his commitment to a great British tradition. Dominic Cummings would certainly be a robust opponent and no doubt Mr Johnson could expect bruised knuckles.

Notes

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

Where We Stand

The CFRC believes 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 and commercial sponsorship.

It seeks to encourage young people to play conkers. It should not be the preserve purely of those of mature years.

‘World Conker Championships’

https://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/