Kmflett's Blog

Social media does lead to some interesting byways.

Mark Seddon in a twitter discussion that was nothing at all to do with Charles Clarke’s beard until the BLF intervened suggested that the former Labour Minister and NUS President’s beard had withered away. By contrast Seddon noted that the beard was ‘always something of a disappointment. Frankly neither one thing nor another’.

However the BLF Research Dept has indicated this is an error.

When Clarke was President of the NUS he had a Corbynesque beard. As a Minister in the New Labour period his beard was hit by revisionist withering and has now virtually disappeared.

200 years on: the politics of Peterloo

As Mike Leigh’s film of the Peterloo Massacre is screens in the US its worthwhile keeping in mind that while even critics agree Leigh has the historical detail accurate, they still cannot agree on the significance of the events of that day.

It is an important point because it underlines that what Peterloo represented is not a settled question in either British history or politics and Leigh himself deliberately leaves the film open ended rather than providing an historical link to Chartism, which campaigned for the vote for men from the 1830s.

The link below is from a piece the cultural historian Dominic Sandbrook wrote in the Daily Mail on 24th August 2018. It is quite measured when it comes to the history of Peterloo, much less so in assessing what it meant. According to Sandbrook it was ‘barely a massacre’ at all which won’t be much consolation to those who were killed and injured on the day.

It’s worth remembering in all this that the Magistrate who sent the Yeomanry in at Peterloo, Hulton, was a lifelong Tory and he never managed a public apology.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the attempts, mainly by those in authority, to downplay the numbers on popular protests, that the numbers who attended Peterloo on that August Monday in 1819 have also come in question.

The generally accepted figure has been 60,000 or upwards. More recently a claim has been made, using modern methods of calculating how many people can fit into a particular space, that it cant have been anywhere near that number.

However it seems unlikely that those attending Peterloo were aware of the work of crowd theorists who calculate how many people can in theory fit into a particular space.

A much more useful way of looking at the space of Peterloo in 1819 has been demonstrated by Katrina Navickas, who was one of the advisors on Leigh’s Peterloo:

http://protesthistory.org.uk/peterloo-massacre

Dominic Sandbrook link

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-6092853/DOMINIC-SANDBROOK-says-attempts-blame-Peterloo-Massacre-capitalism-twisted-history.html

Peterloo in Manchester 2019

There are several notable exhibitions in Manchester this year which focus on Peterloo on the 200th anniversary.

The Peoples History Museum: details are here https://phm.org.uk/exhibitions/disrupt-peterloo-and-protest/

The John Rylands Library: details are here https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/whats-on/peterloo/

A reasonably comprehensive summary of Peterloo events in Manchester is here: https://peterloo1819.co.uk/

In addition Red Saunders is producing one of his Hidden montages featuring Peterloo and is crowdfunding for the costs. https://www.gofundme.com/peterloo-massacre-hidden-project

There has also been criticism focusing on the point that the exhibitions don’t make the connection between Peterloo and modern-day protests sufficiently well or sometimes at all.

From the summer 2019 edition of the London Socialist Historians Newsletter

http://londonsocialisthistorians.blogspot.com/

The FInancial Times (28,5) reviewing the contenders for the Tory leadership has revealed its view of Boris Johnson:

He was a popular mayor of London but his ruthless obsession with becoming prime minister has turned him into a “Marmite” figure at Westminster

Which you do prefer Boris Johnson or Marmite?

Beard Liberation Front

6th June

Media Release: contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Campaigners say they hope for victory for a candidate who backs a Beard Friendly Peterborough on 6^th June

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it is hoping that a candidate that backs a Beard Friendly Peterborough will win the Peterborough By-Election on Thursday.

It comes after perpetually clean-shaven Nigel Farage backed a Brexit Party win, as the Party topped the EU poll in the area, albeit it was run on a different electoral basis and arguably different issues.

The BLF considered standing itself in the By-Election but decided it would be a distraction from electing a new MP who backed a modern, open and progressive Peterborough.

The campaigners say they are not party political but always back candidates who support tolerance of dress, appearance and opinion including of course beard wearing

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we’re hoping for a victory for a candidate on Thursday who backs a Beard Friendly Peterborough. We think its unlikely that includes the Brexit Party and their candidate Mike Green did not declare himself on the matter and is aggressively clean shaven at the moment.

The US historical sociologist Charles Tilly developed a theory of what he called the repertoire of contention, or protest. It started with petitions and lobbying and went all the way through to general strikes and armed revolts.

We can situate within that the milkshaking of far right politicians during the recent EU Elections, people like the obnoxious UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin in the South-West and the ‘independent’ fascist Stephen Yaxley Lennon in the North-West. Both ended up a very long way indeed from being elected with derisory votes.

The reason for their non-election can be put down to the good sense of electors in those areas. In defeat Lennon complained that voters kept on asking him why he was a Nazi.

Of course behind all that is a lot of hard work by anti-racist organisations like Stand Up To Racism and Hope Not Hate and unions like Unite. Many thousands of leaflets were delivered to electors, billboards paid for and erected, and when Benjamin and Lennon appeared in public they were met consistently by protesters, some of whom got attacked by fascist goons for their troubles.

Within all that the milkshake plays a minor but very media visible part. It makes the far right and fascist candidates who like to appear as a strong man and occasionally woman as someone who is rather engaged in the clown like activities of slapstick.

Of course not all kinds of attack on public figures is justified and here again we look at the repertoire of contention. As Aditya Chakrabortty noted in the Guardian, the worst being hit by a milkshake can do is to dent the pride of the figure hit and probably provoke a requirement for a change of suit.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/21/far-right-milkshake-nigel-farage-tommy-robinson

Deaths threats and actual physical attacks are another matter. They damage a lot more than pride and move from political theatre to something much more serious.

Controversial Histories

I owe an apology to the historian E P Thompson. He died in 1993 but better late than never.

In his 1980 collection Customs in Common he published research he had done on Wife Sales. Until 1858 any form of divorce in England was extremely difficult and matters were not liberalised further until 1937.

One way of getting around this was for a man to put his wife up for sale. She would be brought by someone, leaving the man to re-marry. In most cases the buyer would be the woman’s lover. While we can see why the practice took place, and Thompson found numbers of recorded instances, it is obviously abhorrent in the modern era, suggesting forms of ownership and slavery.

Along with Raphael Samuel I was one of those who criticised Thompson in History Workshop Journal suggesting that he might find more positive things to research and write about

I now think its important both not to overlook difficult and controversial issues in our history but also not to overplay them either.

This brings us to the manufactured furore over an introduction that Jeremy Corbyn wrote in 2011 to a new edition of J A Hobson’s Imperialism. As the eminent historian Donald Sassoon pointed out in The Guardian the book contains 10 lines of anti-Semitic comment in around 400 pages.

Corbyn has answered the criticism of his introduction, by a Tory Peer in the Murdoch Times, by pointing out that in a brief introduction he chose to emphasise the parts of the book that are still of interest now- and mean it is on many University syllabuses- rather than the racism, which extends well beyond comment on Jewish people.

I think that was right but it doesn’t mean we can ignore awkward history. Corbyn no doubt wrote the introduction to Hobson because, as EP Thompson noted in Peculiarities of the English, he is one of the more important figures in Twentieth Century social democratic thought. Important enough indeed for Gordon Brown to quote him uncritically in a 2008 speech which has undoubtedly been read by many more people than have looked at Corbyn on Hobson.

Sassoon in his Guardian letter pointed out that Sidney Webb who wrote the original 1918 Labour Party Constitution was on record as being pleased that there weren’t Jews in the British Labour Party unlike on the Continent, a seriously unpleasant view but not one much criticised.

As a socialist historian I sometimes quote the work of William Cobbett a radical active in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Cobbett played an important role in the development of working class thought but he was also virulently anti-Semitic. Not many commentaries on Cobbett mention this. In my view they should but without taking away from his importance historically.

It is a matter of balance. If we take the impressive protests of the gilets jaunes in France there is persistent criticism that they contain elements of both the far right and the left and these are essentially the same. This is ahistorical claptrap. The crowd, or the mob as the right have called it historically, always has had contradictory elements in it, some reactionary, some not. That must be acknowledged while noting that in the main both historically and now it tends to be the progressive elements that come to hold sway.

History isn’t all about great victories and glorious defeats. Sometimes its about dead ends, things, words and ideas that we’d prefer to forget. We shouldn’t do that but nor do we need to dwell on them either.

Beard Liberation Front

27th May

Media Release: contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Campaigners celebrate election of well-known beard wearer Magid Magid as an MEP

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it is celebrating the election of the Green Party’s Magid Magid as an MEP for Yorkshire and Humber on Sunday. Magid was formerly the Lord Mayor of Sheffield and is known for taking a stand against perpetually clean shaven Donald Trump who he calls a ‘wasteman’.

A hirsute Green candidate Scott Ainslie was also elected as an MEP in London, while Alyn Smith was elected for the SNP in Scotland.

The Beard Liberation Front regards the Brexit Party as beard unfriendly but two of its MEPs have beards. French resident Brian Montieth who was, for unknown reasons, elected for North East England and Henrik Nielsen who was elected in the North West

Elsewhere the BLF was pleased to note the derisory vote received by UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin who is banned for life from the BLF for bringing the hirsute into disrepute.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we expect Magid Magid to bring dynamic beard power to the EU Parliament a marked contrast to the many clean shaven revisionists and reactionaries that sit there.

The Ambridge Socialist

26th May

The Ambridge cricket team has mixed fortunes of late, yet after it went to a combined womens and mens team it has show potential.

Tracy Horrabin has been in trouble for sledging opponents, but what is the alternative. You can vote below:

Meanwhile here is the BBC’s latest update on the team

Tracy reckons they could have won the weekend cricket by an even bigger margin, but Roy’s not happy with her tactics. She promises not to shout any more, but has some other ‘ideas’ up her sleeve. Chris later tells Harrison he’s had a diplomatic word with Tracy about her behaviour. They’ve come to a competitive arrangement for the Single Wicket. Harrison likes his thinking, and informs him he may be on for stand-in captain for the rest of the season. He’s doing a brilliant job.

London Socialist Historians Group

Media Release

26th May

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Qualified good news for Theresa May: poll finds she isn’t the worst ever Prime Minister

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in central London, has said that following Theresa May’s decision to resign the Premiership on 7^th June it has run a final version of its poll on the worst Prime Minister ever

On two previous occasions when the poll was run David Cameron comfortably won the vote. However the last poll first posted on 11th March 2019 saw Theresa May consistently increase her lead until she reached 50%.

As recently as November 2018 Mr Cameron got 50% of the poll with Margaret Thatcher 2nd on 29%, Theresa May 3rd on 7% and Lord Liverpool, PM at the time of Peterloo in 1819 4th with 5%

The poll has provoked discussion on social media, particularly in respect of why other PMs were not listed. Every PM since the late eighteenth century could certainly have been listed as by definition being in a position of political power will mean doing things some people don’t like, as well things some do.

The poll therefore aimed at a balance: the worst Prime Minister in this case would be the one where the negative impact significantly outweighed the positive impact of their tenure at No.10.

The result:

Margaret Thatcher 32.2%

Theresa May 25.12%

David Cameron 18.64%

Lord Liverpool 11.86%

Tony Blair 10.17%

London Socialist Historians Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, obviously as historians we tend to prefer long departed Prime Ministers where it is easier to form a judgement on their worth or otherwise. On the 200^th anniversary of Peterloo, Lord Liverpool who was the PM at the time, polled well but it is recent Tory leaders that have topped the poll. Theresa May might find some solace in currently not quite being seen aa the worst Prime Minister ever and its far too early to say how the history books will regard her Premiership.

The Worst PM?

Lord Liverpool, a Tory, (1812-27) who presided over the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, introduced the repressive Six Acts that cracked down on democratic political activity and introduced the 1825 anti-union Combination Acts is a serious contender for the title.

Earl Grey who was a Liberal (1830-34) is also up there. He was PM when the Tolpuddle Martyrs stood trial and he introduced the Poor Law and the Workhouse. On the plus side he abolished slavery (as it was then).

Ramsay MacDonald (1924;1929-1935). First Labour Prime Minister; Later First National Government Prime Minister…

Margaret Thatcher, Tory, (1979-1990) Falklands War, miner’s strike, poll tax. An impressive record

Tony Blair, Labour (1997-2007) not perhaps an obvious contender compared to others but features primarily because of the Iraq War.

David Cameron (2010-2016) Lost Referendum on Europe he was supposed to win. Then resigned.

Theresa May (2016-2019) Called an Election to increase her majority and ended up with a minority Government (at best). Then embarked on a Brexit omnishambles

The Ambridge Socialist

69 Years of the class struggle in Ambridge

May 19/26th

Camilla Pargetter attacks the decline of the Borsetshire ruling class

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Patricia Hodge attends the “Surviving Christmas With The Relatives” world premiere at the Vue West End on November 21, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Nigel’s sister Camilla has made a brief appearance in Ambridge. Officially the idea was that she would collect Freddie who would then leave Ambridge and stay with her. However Freddie did not leave but decided instead to stay with Saint Shula at the Stables.

Meanwhile Camilla criticised, Elizabeth, Freddie and Lower Loxley. Standards in ruling class Borsetshire are not what they were, echoing the decline in the Tory Party

Which will go first, the Bull or Lower Loxley?

Borsetshire institutions, The Bull and Lower Loxley appear to be in crisis, at least partly financial. Apparently master financier Kenton Archer is planning a ‘re-boot’ of Lower Loxley. Whether this will include booting Call Me Russ and his art shows remains to be seen. Meanwhile thanks to Jill, Kenton has repaid the money he owes David which he had to borrow 4 years ago after the Great Flood of Ambridge damaged the pub. Has the crisis been averted? Very probably not.

PC Burns still pursuing the bunting thief

PC Knacker Burns has underlined that the criminal who stole the bunting, and who has been taunting him by leaving bits of around the village, will be caught. We shall see

The Ambridge cricket team

Tracy’s sledging has got results for the team but it is frowned on by the team leadership. What is the alternative? Might it be possible to sandpaper the ball from time to time? It seemed to work for the Australians, until they were found out…

In Other News

The Professor is getting a tribute night for his birthday

Now that Freddie has moved to the Stables, Call Me Russ should be safe unfortunately (but see above)

After extracting severance pay from Tom, Jazzer has quit the tea-room and is doing some sheep shearing.

Ed has not yet been arrested by PC Burns.