Kmflett's Blog

Haringey Trades Union Council

Press release 11^th October contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Tottenham Hate Crime Week protest against thugs who ripped off a young women’s hijab

Bibi Khan, Secretary, Wightman Rd Mosque addresses the rally in Tottenham

Haringey Trades Council has said that it was part of a well-attended vigil on Tuesday evening near the site in Seven Sisters Tottenham where a young woman student had her hijab ripped off by two thugs on 28^th September.

Police are still looking for the thugs and the vigil was timed to coincide with National Hate Crime Week.

Bibi Khan Secretary of the local Wightman Rd Mosque chaired a brief rally and she made it clear that the community must come together to defeat hate crime.

The Vigil was supported by the local Haringey branch of Stand Up to Racism, and national vice chair of the organisation Steve Hart was also present. Several local Councillors and trade union branch banners were present including Tottenham College UCU and the Unite Community branch

Haringey TUC Secretary Keith Flett said, I made it clear when I spoke that there must be no room in our community for those who would attack people based on how they dress or the religious views they hold. We are determined to stand up to racism as we have done for many years in the Borough.

The Ambridge Socialist

10th October

The Titchener Calendar 2017

The Ambridge Calendar 2016 consists of a series of tastefully posed leading ladies of the village naked but prudently covered in key zones (mostly).

On social media Rob Titchener has promised a 2017 Calendar. Should be also be tastefully naked?

IndyMan beerfest: more than just beer

I probably haven’t been paying attention but I confess to knowing very little about who is behind IndyManBeerCon an annual fixture in early October at a former swimming baths in Manchester or how the organisation works.

There is no particular reason why I should of course-I just go to drink- but as a former union organiser you develop a fascination about how events work, or don’t.

Anyway suffice say that whoever does it and how, organising IndyManBeerCon must be very hard work and it works very well indeed.

Part of the knack at these kind of events of course is getting or persuading zeitgeist and up and coming zeitgeist breweries to pitch up and sorting out how all that works financially.

Suffice to say that there was a lot of beer I enjoyed at Indyman this year. I would have enjoyed the Beavertown were it not for the fact that I live round the corner from the brewery and have already enjoyed it. So Cloudwater was a focus. I thought the DIPA V8 was excellent as were a couple of BA beers I tried.

There were others, too many to mention. I’m not a ticker so I did not a keep a list.

There was a very little cask- a shame in my view and not just because Ive been a CAMRA member since 1975. I think at these kind of events which focus on keg getting a brewery or two whose strength is in excellent cask- arguably Dark Star for example- would be interesting.

The third pint measures I had no issue with. A good few of the beers were strong, you can sample more, and there was no problem in getting served quickly.

The token pricing system I was less sure about. I can see it is administratively convenient and charging the same price for a third of any beer may encourage people to try stronger beer they otherwise might not. At the same time I had conversations with people who were clearly planning to drink mostly stronger beers because that gave better value for money.

I’m hardly impecunious so that isn’t the kind of thought that resonates directly with me but I can understand the point.

Anyway these are really matters for the organisers. As a drinker I enjoyed it a lot.

I was at most of the debate on the future of craft beer btw (until I had to go to the toilet-it happens at beerfests-and was in any case getting the feeling that this was a bit too much like the day job as a union officer in the private sector looking at issues that businesses have). I’ll post separately on that.

Beard Liberation Front

Gareth Southgate beards Michael Gove in Beard of Autumn shortlist

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the shortlist for the Beard of Autumn 2016 announced today is the most diverse ever for one of the quarterly seasonal contests.

The first England football manager with a beard Gareth Southgate could be set to beard former Tory Minister Michael Gove who appeared in public with a beard during August.

The BLF says that Gove may have recently shaved his beard but the quarterly award is all about capturing those who were hirsute during a certain period of the year without being consistently bearded.

The Beard of Autumn is the last seasonal Award of the year, with the Beard of the Year voted on in December.

The BLF says that it has not included rugby players- there will be a separate Rugby World Cup poll- and Jeremy Corbyn has also been omitted from the list to allow a more open competition

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Beard of Autumn is about beards but particularly its about great beards making a significant and positive impact in the public eye.

The poll is open now and will close at midday on 20^th October with the winner announced on Friday 21st October

Shortlist

Beard of Autumn

Prince Harry- Royal personality

Michael Gove- Backbench MP

James Middleton- Royal related notable

Nick Dwyer- Beavertown Brewery designer

Colum Eastwood- SDLP leader

Nick Timothy- Advisor to Theresa May

James O’Brien- broadcaster

Gareth Southgate- England football manager

Kane Palma-Newport- Bath rugby player

David Baddiel- cultural commentator

The Ambridge Socialist

October 9th CONTACT KEITH FLETT 07803 167266

The real Borsetshire Echo: 65 years of class struggle in Ambridge

Titchener: The End. Susan Carter has ditched him

In a move that surely spells the end for Rob Titchener’s residence in Ambridge, Susan Carter has withdrawn her support from him. Susan was previously believed to be the person behind the informal Titchener support group in the village.

Carter told Helen on Friday that not only was she disgusted at the way Titchener had treated her daughter Emma the previous week (the incident in The Bull reported in the Ambridge Socialist last week) but that Helen’s trial had revealed just the kind of person Titchener is.

Ambridge Socialist Editor Keith Flett said, Titchener has no future now.

Ambridge Angst as Toby is barred from Jill’s 86^th birthday party

There was fresh angst in Ambridge this week as Jill barred Toby from her 86^th birthday party for reasons so far unknown. The most likely reason is an ancient grudge against Fairbrothers. Less surprising, also this week, was the decision of the Ambridge cricket team to bar Rob Titchener. Despite the absence of- to him anyway- star player Ambridge still beat Darrington in an end of season grudge match

In Other News

It was reported this week that Trump was to speak in Ambridge. Investigations revealed thankfully that the report referred to the US town of the same name.

Helen is filing for divorce after finding Titchener had cleared out their joint bank account

The Ambridge Socialist poll

Campaign for Real Conkers

9th October

contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Campaigners publish guide to ‘no rules’ conker playing as Peak Conker season arrives

The Campaign for Real Conkers has said that with the World Conker Championships taking place on 9th October it is Peak Conker Season

Unlike the World Championships the campaign promotes free for all anything goes conker playing and has issued the following updated guide on how to play conkers for 2016:

1 choose your conker. It’s up to you. Select several from a nearby conker tree

2 check your conker for game readiness. If it can be squeezed between finger and thumb so it indents, discard it. It will crack and split on contact with another conker

3 Look for a conker with particularly hard or sharp edges

4 Once selected you can leave your conker as organic or you may bake it or soak it in vinegar. It’s entirely up to you. There is no such thing as ‘cheating’ in conkers.

5 thread your conker with twine by making a hole in it. Use a hammer or skewer and nail to do this. If the conker cracks, discard it

6 You are ready to play

7 Swing your conker towards your opponent’s conker with the aim of hitting it. You can do this under or over arm.

8 Take alternate goes between yourself and your opponent

9 Wearing gloves to protect the hands is frowned upon

10 The winner is the person whose conker remains most intact when both players decide to conclude the game

CFRC organiser Keith Flett said, The World Conker Championships are fun and raise money for charity. But we don’t like all the rules and regulations. The reality is that anyone can play conkers, anyhow and anywhere. It’s fun and its free

Cable St: taking sides in history then & now

The Battle of Cable St took place 80 years ago on 4^th October 1936 and on Sunday 9^th October there is a rally and march to mark the occasion.

Why remember it?

After all the media in particular is full of pieces remembering anniversaries of events and occasions. Not all of what is printed or posted is that historically accurate and a good deal of it is not particularly enlightening. We might call it an anniversary culture.

Of course as an historian I contribute to it myself though I do try and look at events that are less well remembered either because they are genuinely obscure (but hopefully of interest) or because they present awkward questions for the present.

The 80^th anniversary of Cable St probably falls into the latter category. You won’t find too many today who will argue that it was wrong for people to go on the streets to stop Mosley’s fascists from trying to hold a provocative march through Jewish areas of the East End. Nor will you find that many who will agree that the police were right to have a mass mobilisation themselves to try (and fail) to force the Mosleyites through the anti-fascist crowd.

Yet while Mosley & Co are long gone these battles have to be re-fought in each generation. People had and have to go on the streets to oppose the National Front, the BNP, and the EDL. Sometimes fascists marches are banned by the authorities (often ineffectually as they still turn up anyway) and there is no shortage of people to be found claiming that those who physically oppose fascists are just as bad as the fascists themselves.

The well attended and broadly based Stand Up To Racism conference on 8^th October in central London which heard from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn amongst many others was an important reminder that while we remember the events of Cable St the work of opposing racists and fascists is never done

Cable St was a which side are you on event and what happened underlines that taking sides between those who would take us towards barbarism and those who want a better world is important.

Below is a useful piece that historian David Rosenberg wrote on the 75^th anniversary of Cable St

http://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/cable-street75/

80^th anniversary event on 9^th October

http://cablestreet80.org.uk/?p=49