Warwick University Ltd lives on, 50 years on

Prices are rising for sports facilities at Warwick University. Below is a link to the story in the student newspaper, the Boar.

I am of course fully in favour of student protest not least because it may encourage some to continue doing it in later life.

My specific interest however was in the quote from E P Thompson below. Thompson was the first head of the Centre for Social History there in the second half of the 1960s and was one of the people behind the Penguin Special, Warwick University Ltd which exposed the Universities business links and how these compromised academic freedom.

“It is appalling to see that students must pay this much a month to workout at the gym, a reality that proves – as E. P. Thompson I am sure would agree – the extortionate and business-first nature of the University’s outlook.

The fact that, unfortunately, over time, those battles were mostly lost, is no reason not to keep on having them.

https://theboar.org/2019/06/warwick-sport-membership-august/

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

3^rd July

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard of the Cricket World Cup. Can Kane Williamson shave England at Durham

The Beard Liberation Front has said that with the search for the Beard of the 2019 Cricket World Cup  into the final week of the Group a decisive Battle of the Beards is taking place between England and New Zealand at Durham

Kane Williamson has demonstrated consistent hirsute resilience and beard power for New Zealand. While Moeen Ali still leads the poll differently bearded Liam Plunkett is making an impact

The poll of well-known hirsute cricketers who are playing in the World Cup is on-line

In the beginning was WG Grace but in the twentieth century cricket went to the barbers. So much so that by the early 1960s a major shaving company was sponsoring one day cricket and players deemed insufficiently clean shaven were sometimes sent from the field to sort it out.

In the twenty first century beards in cricket are back from Moeen to Hashim and Virat. Its now understood that a beard can have a psychological impact on opponents after Mike Brearley pioneered the point. Beards can also have an aero-dynamic impact on play itself.

Beards are playing an important, perhaps vital, role in the World Cup. But who will have the winning whiskers?

Contenders include Moeen Ali, Hashim Amla, Virat Kohli and even David Warner. Competition is bristling as the competition goes on

The Beard Liberation Front has said that to be eligible the beard must at least pass the Clint Eastwood post-stubble test & will ideally be more in the WG Grace beard zone

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, who will demonstrate the greater beard power at Durham, England or New Zealand? The outcome could be key to the eventual winner of the Beard of the Cricket World Cup

Harvey’s brewery in Lewes have tweeted that their seasonal Tom Paine is back.

It is a relatively rare example of a beer named after a radical political figure
https://www.harveys.org.uk/beer/tom-paine

In recent times there have been one or two Jeremy Corbyn inspired beer names such as One Mile End’s JC4PM also know as Juicy4PM (ironically of course the current Labour leader doesnt drink).

Stroud Brewery also produced an organic smoked porter called Chartist Ale after the Chartists, while Trade Union Pale Ale produced by Brigadista can often be seen at labour movement events.

However such radically inspired beer names were historically not popular with a brewing and pub trade largely controlled by the Beerage- brewers who supported the Tory Party

Today as most readers of this post will know you are far more likely to see a sexist pump clip than one celebrating a feminist, a socialist or a trade unionist.

Still, perhaps the times they are a changin’

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

2^nd July

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Nicholas Pooran moves into contention for Beard of the Cricket World Cup

he Beard Liberation Front has said that the search for the Beard of the 2019 Cricket World Cup is entering the final week of the group stages, with the West Indies Nicholas Pooran making an impact with a century against Sri Lanka at Durham

The poll of well-known hirsute cricketers who are playing is on-line

In the beginning was WG Grace but in the twentieth century cricket went to the barbers. So much so that by the early 1960s a major shaving company was sponsoring one day cricket and players deemed insufficiently clean shaven were sometimes sent from the field to sort it out.

In the twenty first century beards in cricket are back from Moeen to Hashim and Virat. Its now understood that a beard can have a psychological impact on opponents after Mike Brearley pioneered the point. Beards can also have an aero-dynamic impact on play itself.

Beards are playing an important, perhaps vital, role in the World Cup. But who will have the winning whiskers?

Contenders incude Moeen Ali, Hashim Amla, Virat Kohli and even David Warner. Competition is expected to bristle as the competition goes on

However the Beard Liberation Front has said that to be eligible the beard must at least pass the Clint Eastwood post-stubble test & will ideally be more in the WG Grace beard zone

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the West Indies cant progress to the knock-out stages of the World Cup but Pooran’s beard made a big impact on Monday

Stormzy at Glastonbury & the political right

Stormzy headlined Glastonbury on Friday night, the first black British music star to do so*.

I’m not the greatest fan of Stormzy’s music, but I watched on BBC and it was an impressive spectacle. Not something you’d want to turn off or turn over to another channel.

There were politics. Background of my MP David Lammy talking about racism and chants of f’ck the Tories and Johnson for example.

It may be all very middle-class and not exactly revolutionary but as indices of progress after almost 10 years of Tories (and LibDems) it was not unimpressive

One person who was not impressed was inevitably Brendan O’Neil.

It took Mr O’Neil rather longer than was perhaps hoped to denounce the whole thing but on Monday evening the Spectator did eventually post his verdict. Juke Box Jury style it was a ‘miss’

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/07/the-great-irony-of-stormzys-glastonbury-set/

Apparently Mr O’Neill likes Stormzy’s music but found Glastonbury to be like being hit over the head by a copy of the Guardian (Mr O’Neill has written for the Murdoch press). The Guardian has its faults but I’d back it any day over O’Neill.

In O’Neill’s view Johnson not Stormzy is the real counter-cultural figure of the moment.

You’d expect the Spectator to say that. But O’Neill was formerly associated with Living Marxism (the magazine of the Revolutionary Communist Party which split in the 1970s from the SWP) and is now Editor of the broad successor Spiked On-Line.

In other words he claims to be on the left.

George Monbiot in the, er, Guardian, has exposed exactly what all that is about: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/07/us-billionaires-hard-right-britain-spiked-magazine-charles-david-koch-foundation

A history of the present, albeit not an edifying one

*Second black british headliner, Skin from Skunk Anansie was first in 99) Thanks to Carsmile Steve

Aaron Bastani has produced a book (Verso) Fully Automated Luxury Communism, which looks at a future where the technological capacity of capitalism, together with State control, allows a life for the many, where machines do much of the work, and the requirement for labour is less.

There is a problem with this. Machines need to be built and maintained because they frequently go wrong. For this workers are required. The issue who has control over this process and for what end

Brecht’s poem A Worker Reads History captures the point well

A Worker Reads History

Beard Liberation Front

Press release 1^st July contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Week 2019 underlined the centrality of facial hair in British life say campaigners

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with National Beard Week concluding last Saturday, it is clear that facial hair now has a centrality in British life that it didn’t have 10 years ago.

Whether its in sport, where England cricketer Moeen Ali was voted Hirsute Personality of the Year or in wider public life, as the BBC slammed by Jeremy Paxman in 2013 as pogonophobic, was announced as Beard Friendly Employer of the Year, beards have moved centre stage

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, discrimination against the hirsute is now less than it was and the Beard Liberation Front and the annual Beard Week have played a role in that. However there Is still much to do in the wider battle of making sure that people can dress and appear as they want without unnecessary rules and regulations

National Beard Week 2019. The Awards

Monday 24th June: Hirsute Personality of the Year: the beard wearer who has made the positive public impact during the year. 2019 winner, England cricketer Moeen Ali

Tuesday 25th June: Beard Friendly Sandwich of the Year: the sandwich that goes in the mouth not the beard. 2019: marmite peanut butter

Wednesday 26th June: Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year: the broadcaster whose beard has had the most public impact. 2019 Gary Lineker

Thursday 27th June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2019 Boris Johnson

Friday 28th June: Beard Friendly Employer of the Year: the field grows wider each year 2019 The BBC

Saturday 29th June: Beard of Summer 2019: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards. 2019 Philip Wilton, Tottenham cheesemaker, Wildes Cheese

Opinion polls: from E P Thompson on Psephology to YouGov on pork pies

I’m sceptical about opinion polls, even ones that produce results I approve of.

YouGov are apparently regarded as the most reliable of pollsters, certainly by the BBC and some of the media yet I don’t see much evidence that they produce results that are much more reliable than random.

The outcome of a recent YouGov poll on British foods is here:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/yougov-survey-ranking-classic-british-food-sparks-outrage-online-as-pork-pies-among-least-popular-a4166071.html

It’s bad news for those like scotch eggs and pork pies because they are apparently unpopular which no doubt explains why they are so easily available in supermarkets and street food stalls. Or perhaps the poll is just BS.

Scepticism about opinion polls is not new.

E.P Thompson wrote about psephology in the New Reasoner, Autumn 1959, 60 years ago, in his PEssay on Ephology.

Thompson notes ‘a psephologist is a man employed by the mass media to research into what people think the mass media has told them to think. An ephologist is a man employed by the Observer or BBC to interpret the results of psephology and who makes an eephing good thing out of it’

Meanwhile 60 years on, has anything much changed? Hmmmm

Tory Party membership: Last Orders have been called

The Tory Party is electing its next leader and has reduced the contest to two clean shaven men in suits, eliminating the two, very right-wing, women candidates

Given that it is most likely to be the Tory membership who will appoint the next Prime Minister there is understandable interest in how many of them there are and who they are.

How many of these members are there actually?

We do know that in the early 1950s the Tory membership was 2.7m. These were the days before many had a TV let alone the internet and it was often a social and networking thing. That said it was also a very powerful network to spread Tory ideas informally. In some areas the ‘Conservative Club’ remains a social centre although usually only very vaguely at best connected to the Party.

As recently as March 2018 the Tory membership was reported to be 120,000 and even that was believed to be optimistic.

The thought of 120,000 people of an average age of somewhere between their mid-50s and early 70s (again the precise detail is unknown) overwhelmingly white and rural managing to appoint the next Prime Minister, does run the risk of bringing the Tory Party into even further disrepute, if that is possible.

That spurred Tory chair Brandon Lewis into action in the Sunday Telegraph. He is responsible for Tory organisation. As he makes clear he is not actually responsible for doing it, or little would have happened. Rather he has employed some people to do it.

Writing in the Telegraph on 26^th May 2019 Lewis claimed that the membership has increased from 124,000 in last year to 160,000 now. Lewis suggests the growth rate has been much higher in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland than England. In England the bigger increases have been in the East Midlands and the North East. One suspects these are mainly former UKIP members seeking to make sure the Tories pursue a No Deal Brexit. The cost of joining the Tories is only £25 a year which equates to around 8 pints of lager in Brexit friendly pub chain Wetherspoons so only a little amount of drinking has to be sacrificed to pay for it.

Brandon Lewis also says that the Tories youth membership has increased by 64% with one hundred new Young Conservative Associations. I take it that previously the numbers of Young Tories must have been very low indeed and if the average age if the membership is around 70 then perhaps anyone below 60 qualifies as a Young Tory.

These are just statistics and reality provides a more useful perspective.

I’ve been a trade union activist for 40 years and up to around 20 years ago one would run across workplace representatives and activists who certainly voted Tory and in some cases were members. They invariably went on about tax cuts allowing them more freedom to spend their own money.

Such people don’t seem to exist anymore, or if they do keep very quiet about it. Likewise the Party’s elected representation on local Councils in urban Britain, which is the bedrock of mainstream party organisation in the UK, has gone.

To slightly misquote the Sex Pistols, there is no future in the Tories dreaming. The Party is almost over.

The Daily Telegraph on Glastonbury 25 years ago (25^th June 1994)

The mainstream press were initially not keen on reporting Glastonbury (including the Guardian) but as they realised their readers were going that had to change. Below is an extract from the Telegraph’s report of the festival 25 years ago

Here are 500 market stalls offering ‘skins, bhongs and chillums, bootleg reggae tapes, Thai, Chinese and Mexican food and the ‘great British bacon sandwich,,, there is ‘’sugar free astrology, a ‘rent an argument’ tent and ‘chanting with Avril and Mike’ for anyone who honestly thinks they can take it.

There is also an abundance of new technology in the shape of wind powered telephones, a computerised message screen enabling Mad Dog to meet Rat Face under the mushroom cloud and a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer enabling members of the Avon and Somerset CID to make on the spot analysis of any suspicious substances seized on the festival site (Mick Brown)

Eavis acknowledges that the festival is no longer quite so much outside the mainstream as it once was although whether Glastonbury has changed or the rest of England is hard to say

What Telegraph readers made of this 25 years ago I’m not sure but I’m also fairly certain that in 2019 numbers of them are on site and more watching it on the BBC. Progress in history?