Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

Press release 28th June contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

BBC named Beard Friendly Employer of the Year

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the BBC has been named Beard Friendly Employer of the Year 2019.

The campaigners say that while the BBC has a way to go to become fully beard friendly it has taken significant steps towards promoting a positive image of the hirsute since Jeremy Paxman branded it pogonophobic in 2013.

The Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year Gary Lineker is a major figure on BBC Sport programming and while there were special circumstances George Alagaih became the first ever BBC TV newsreader of the Six O’Clock News with a beard earlier in the year.

Past winners of the accolade in recent times have ranged from the Church of England to the major craft brewer Beavertown Brewery

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, it’s positive that the BBC has won the accolade of Beard Friendly Employer of the Year. Of course pogonophobia still exists at W1A but real progress has been made.

National Beard Week 2019

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 2018 Philip Ardagh. Vote closes at midnight on June 28th

Boris Johnson, a contender for the Tory leadership has been criticised for allegedly wearing the same pair of socks on more than day. It is environmentally friendly unusually for Johnson but like his politics may whiff a bit.

I can hardly speak because during the night the resident cat, Holly, has been carrying off my socks and dumping them in a pile with her cat nip mouse as something to play with..

As ever Marx (Heroes of the Exile) has the best analysis

an officer of the revolution must carry the following articles according to regulations: 1 head-covering and cap, 1 sabre with belt, 1 black, red and yellow ^[60] camel-hair sash, 2 pairs of black leather gloves, 2 battle coats, 1 cloak, 1 pair cloth trousers, 1 tie, 2 pairs of boots or shoes, 1 black leather travelling case — 12″ wide, 10″ high, 4″ deep, 6 shirts, 3 pairs of underpants, 8 pairs of socks, 6 handkerchiefs, 2 towels, 1 washing and shaving kit, 1 writing implement, 1 writing tablet with letters patent, 1 clothes brush, 1 copy of service regulations.”

Johnson has a way to go

Beard Liberation Front

Press release 27th June contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Boris Johnson named Pogonophobe of the Year

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has named Tory leadership contender Boris Johnson as Pogonophobe of the Year as part of National Beard Week.

Along with numerous other downsides Johnson has a record of making pogonophobic remarks about Jeremy Corbyn’s beard both in his Telegraph column and at Tory Conference fringe meetings.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there has been a lot of comment about Boris Johnson’s hair in recent days, but we might also recall that he has never had a beard. In stands in a tradition of clean-shaven Toryism that actively encourages pogonophobia

Boris Johnson’s pogonophobia

For a man of such unbending Lefty principle, he seems to have a remarkable beardy ability to speak out both sides of his mouth. Boris Johnson, Telegraph, September 2017

we won’t get anywhere by metaphorically acquiring beards and string vests and allotments – but by systematically pointing out the damage they would do.​

Boris Johnson Tory Conference fringe October 2018

National Beard Week 2019

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 2018 Wildes Cheese; 2019 TBA

Saturday 29th June: Beard of Summer 2019: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2018 Philip Ardagh. Vote closes at midnight on June 28th

National Writing Day: how to write a letter to the Editor

Its National Writing Day (26^th June) and as a contribution, below is a brief guide to how write a letter to a newspaper for publication.

How you write the letter and how you send it is a matter of personal choice. However since my writing is illegible I word process my epistles and despite my ever present solidarity with CWU postal colleagues, I despatch them by e-mail.

Keeping to the letter format, of address, ‘Dear Editor’ and ‘Yours etc’ is important though, otherwise you might as well post something on twitter or Facebook, or indeed, for longer matters, write a blog.

So what are the key elements in my view of a good letter?

1] Brevity. There is more and more to read and attention spans may be shorter

2] To the point. Not quite the hook of a stand-up comedy line but the letter needs a central focus

3] On one issue. 1+2 together mean that keeping to one issue in one letter is important although your point could be that several issues are connected

4] Humour: not always appropriate but a light hearted touch can reach places more apparently gravitas laden pronouncements sometimes don’t.

and of course regular practice makes perfect (ish)

From Norman Stone to Priyamvada Gopal on Insurgent Empire. Progress in History

The right-wing historian and former speech writer for Margaret Thatcher Norman Stone died recently.

Richard J Evans has written a very fair obituary in The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/25/norman-stone-obituary

Stone belonged to an earlier generation of the right so that when Priyamvada encountered those who justified imperialism and Empire she came across not Norman Stone but the altogether more sophisticated Niall Ferguson. She mentions in the introduction to her new book an episode of Start the Week in 2006 in which she appeared and came across Ferguson ‘the media face of the case for British imperialism’.

She has now published an excellent book Insurgent Empire (Verso 2019):

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4362-insurgent-empire-anticolonial-resistance-and-british-dissent-priyamvada-gopal

It can be seen as a positive riposte to the kind of right-wing imperial history promoted by Norman Stone, proof that there can be progress in history

Beard Liberation Front

press release 26th June contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Gary Lineker shaves Michael Rosen for Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year Honour

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the presenter of Radio 4’s Word of Mouth programme Michael Rosen has been shaved by Match of the Day’s Gary Lineker for the Hirsute Broadcaster of the Year Honour

Rosen won the title in 2017 outright and shared it in 2018

The campaigners say that the world of broadcasting remains pogonophobic despite Jeremy Paxman’s high-profile comments on the matter in his final months as presenter of Newsnight in 2013

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there are more Beards at the BBC these days and Gary Lineker who has consistently sported a stylish designer beard on Match of the Day is a case in point. He is a standard bearer for hirsute broadcasting

National Beard Week 2019

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; 2018 Donald Trump

Friday 28th June: Beard Friendly Employer of the Year: the field grows wider each year 2018 Wildes Cheese; 2019

Saturday 29th June: Beard of Summer 2019: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2018 Philip Ardagh. Vote opened on 24th June

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

25th June

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard of the Cricket World Cup: Lords Beard Off between Stokes & Warner

The Beard Liberation Front has said that with the search for the Beard of the 2019 Cricket World Cup  into its fourth week a decisive Beard Off between England’s Ben Stokes and Australia’s David Warner is set for Lords on Tuesday

A 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 will play an important, perhaps vital, role in the World Cup. But who will have the winning whiskers?

Contenders could include 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, who will demonstrate the greater beard power at Lords, Stokes or Warner? The outcome could be key to the eventual winner of the Beard of the Cricket World Cup

Beard Liberation Front

Press release contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

25^th June

Marmite Peanut Butter named Beard Friendly Sandwich 2019

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that marmite peanut butter has been named the most Beard Friendly Sandwich of 2019

Each year during National Beard Week in June the campaigners search for a sandwich that does not have excessive mayo or salad which tends up in the beard rather than the mouth.

With the rise of designer sandwiches the bread around the sandwich filling, whether a traditional slice, flat bread or ciabatta, often fails to contain the contents which can then spill out into the beard even with the most careful eating.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, not everyone likes marmite or peanut butter and the decision will be controversial in some quarters. However the reality is that in a sandwich constrained by bread they can be both beard friendly and very tasty

Beard Friendly Sandwich 2019 shortlist

Fish finger, aoili

Avocado on Rye

Cheese & Red Onion

Ham & Mustard

Crab, chilli

Marmite Peanut butter

Beetroot & Feta

Cheese & Haggis

Marmite & Cheese

National Beard Week 2019

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. 2018 Michael Rosen & James O’Brien

Thursday 27th June: Pogonophobe of the Year: the most notorious beard hater of the year; 2018 Donald Trump

Friday 28th June: Beard Friendly Employer of the Year: the field grows wider each year 2018 Wildes Cheese; 2019

Saturday 29th June: Beard of Summer 2019: the third of the four quarterly seasonal Awards 2018 Philip Ardagh. Vote opened on 24th June

Booing at cricket matches. Daily Mail supports it for Aussie cricketers; what about Boris Johnson at the Oval?

The Daily Mail (25^th June) is calling on spectators to boo Australian cricketers David Warner and Steve Smith as they face England in a Cricket World Cup match at Lords on Tuesday. They note England captain Morgan supports the idea.

Both men were found guilty of ball tampering and served a ban from the game which is now over. Some England players have called on spectators not to boo the pair.

One wonders if the Mail can remember September 2018 when Boris Johnson was booed on the Saturday of the final Test at the Oval between England and India after TV cameras flashed up on the big screens available to spectators a picture of the backbench Tory MP playing with his mobile phone? Did they back that?

For many politicians it might have caused a dip in their career fortunes but of course Johnson just carried on.

Booing is part of political theatre and its worth keeping in mind that whatever their faults and qualities Smith and Warner are cricketers

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

24th June

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Search for Beard Week, Beard of Summer starts

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with National Beard Week starting on Monday 24th June the search is also on for the Beard of Summer.

The winner will be announced after an on-line poll on Saturday 29th June.

The campaigners say that Beard of Summer is the third of four seasonal Awards culminating in the coveted Beard of the Year in December.

The seasonal lists focus on those whose beards have made a positive impact in the public eye during the preceding weeks.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there are some outstanding, high profile beard wearers on the Beard of Summer list so we expect the result to be a close shave.

Beard of Summer 2019

Stephen Kinnock, politician

Michael Eavis, Glastonbury founder

Michael Rosen, author & broadcaster

Philip Wilton, Tottenham cheesemaker

Lowkey, performer

Philip Ardagh, author

Mark Wood, cricketer

Aidan Turner, actor