As someone who marvels at the austere cynicism of James Ellroy’s political novels, especially his exploration of the backstage of US politics, one of his phrases, the expression, “strange bedfellows” has stuck in my mind of late. Perhaps it’s given to us as idealism fades and the practicalities of experience impose themselves upon poor humanity groping for solutions. He uses it regularly; from the Hollywood of Howard Hughes to the Camelot of the Kennedy’s to the Cuban Casinos of Giancana and Battista to Jimmy Hoffa and on to Saigon and back to J. Edgar Hoover. But, however cynical the past was, and the 1960 presidential election was certainly more corrupt than the 2024 version and you could argue the sexual misconduct of the winner, (JFK) equivalent to or worse than DJT, the world of 2024 still defies the imagination. Here and now we have a literal “Hollywood Star” winning the US election, a man known by his surname and number as either President #47 but also, by law enforcement as, for example, Convict 99.
This man whose campaign saying of “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” has convinced most voters that he’s going to Make America Great Again could not be more like an outlandish Ellroy character if he tried. The sound of the last fortnight was the uninformed, but professional commentariat grasping at straws and flailing as they fell back into their own desperation. Their caring viewers experiencing the same feelings of hopelessness, of fading possibilities of crushed future’s and betrayed hope that accompanied Brexit, Tories, and many other atrocious realities which somehow walk in plain sight as the media shouts at the losers for their failure, and people blame each other for foolish optimism.
Strange bedfellows
At some point after any defeat you look around and recalibrate. You ask who’s with you and work out what can be done and how to start again. Many just give up; go to work; come home; have their tea, tend their garden and avoid political conversation. People adjust their optimism downwards. Here, now the expectations that we have for our city, region, nation, island, continent and world are, it is fair to say, low and getting lower. But there is that stubborn spark of hope that kindness and decency can create dignity and even prosperity. But justice can’t happen without peace and that order depends on more than just law, and that it takes all sorts to make a village and we have to try and find community with everyone, not just flee twitter in a huff and cancel those who don’t conform to our own opinions. Football teaches you that; you can have a great time and a find friendship with many who might not be in a Heaton Labour Party meeting, but will always help you when it matters. So far, so normal; strange bedfellows occur everywhere from the bus stop to the boardroom.
I saw more of that on Tuesday morning last week. Gordon Brown the ex-PM and Blair’s Iron Chancellor who started with the transformational £15 pw Family Allowance, kept it going with Surestart and EMA, and made it his mission to stop child poverty was in a Middlesbrough warehouse with the bloke running Amazon UK with his and Ineos’s product displayed everywhere for the cameras. To add to the atmosphere we had a hundred or so from the local councils, the Boro Foundation, Redcar Foodbank and many others including the member of the Wobblies (“The International Workers of the World”), who described his successful trade union activities as the previous or ongoing union-busting presence of the multinational megacorps hovered. Strange bedfellows.
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown for those who haven’t met him is what Ellroy would term “a mensch”, a “tough guy and a smart guy”, until that is he’s challenged and insulted, where I have seen him quiver a bit. Despite this, when given an engaged crowd, he speaks with authority and passion and made the point in his speech that whilst we had a regional history of unity and innovation we also have communities suffering some of the worst poverty in these islands. He spoke and we, from the CEOs to the charity bucketshakers like me, listened. He has organised the cooperation of the big corporations into the promoting and support for Multibank which specialises in getting personal hygiene and sanitary products to schoolkids and helping families with baby equipment. They source their good from corporate surpluses and distribute from large warehouses to teachers, charities and social workers. Typically being Gordon Brown it’s organised from the top down but with an agenda that cares for children in poverty. Also typically, rather than an article on Facebook or the local community news it’s got national TV adverts with Peter Capaldi although the ghost of Malcolm Tucker might speak louder than the 12th Doctor that I never once sat down and watched. It is due to extend its message into Football in December which is why I was invited, with relationships with Fans Supporting Foodbanks, Club Foundations, Sky Sports and Talk Sport. That might be embargoed until this weekend though, but again….strange bedfellows.
Multibank
One of my political footballing friends involved described Multibank as a sticking plaster over a gaping wound but welcome for all that, and my colleague from Newcastle Foodbank was interested in the possibilities of combining food with hygiene distribution since a parallel organisation seems wasteful of resources but with different distribution criteria it might be unavoidable. They are Teesside based and have no ability to help Tyneside without investment, but they have a plan. There will always be caveats with progress, every organisation has imperfections and will make mistakes. The good ones change their behaviour. The presence of PR professionals, comms directors and the type of message enhancers who are unused to contradictions from mere media as they flex their algorithmically enhanced muscles meet with organisations that battle for a crumb of positive publicity like local authorities and small charities. Strange bedfellows. The potential consequences include everything from total incompatibility breakdown to a happy and enduring romance and it’s all a bit weird but football fans, especially Newcastle fans are used to this. This is shown by the sponsors that we have had, from the sublime (Newcastle Brown Ale), to the awful (Wonga) who joined the cursed list of sponsors, with now disappeared identities like Greenalls, Newcastle Breweries, NTL and Northern Rock; then there’s the owners. There we’ve had everything from the family silver preserving McKeag’s and Westwood’s to the property and manufacturing Hall’s and Shepherds to Mike Ashley’s involvement which baffled everyone, including himself probably. Now we have Saudi PIF whose CEO was sat next to Convict 99, Donald Trump last week and Jamie Reuben, the property megabod, who matches every cash donation to the Fans Foodbank. Strange bedfellows.
When we set up NUFC Fans Foodbank, we thought that the emergency of starving people in our communities would find and merit an urgent response in all layers of government once they were made aware. I was reminded of that when I met Bernadette Devlin last month, who said that she thought that the civil rights struggle only had to tell the government in London and all would be corrected! Well we all live and learn. Our own regional lesson was in 2016-7 when our national government seemed more like an occupier than a custodian and local government only had the power to choose which vulnerable community to deprive next thanks to the Lib Dems facilitating austerity for charging for carrier bags and exchanging a stupid referendum on PR for the prospects of a stupider one on the EU. Now eight years later we are slightly baffled that the people such as Gordon Brown, local government and the mega-corps are actually joining in foodbank provision rather than stopping this nonsense soon.
The budget and what’s needed
True the recent budget might help the low-paid in the medium term but the threat of benefit cuts seems unchanged or worse this winter. This winter, according to the weather forecast started on Tuesday 19 November! The approach of a poverty commission due in April 2025 might help a bit and be welcome, but the Newcastle Foodbank are feeding 60,000 people a year in Newcastle now, and it’s winter today! Foodbanks help, Multibank will help but none of them compare to governmental action. The Labour Party which validated the Right to Food programme at municipal level, which has campaigned to defeat poverty at Regional and National level must now deliver action. That needs to come from fair wages, fair benefits from those entitled and a safety net that allows dignity to those who need it. That requires trade union representation and a new deal for the precariat in self-employed insecurity. Maybe a reform of “National Insurance” tax which actually delivers proper help eg a lump sum death benefit (Life Insurance), a survivable income if ill (Income Protection Insurance) and a payout if severe illness or accident strikes (Critical Illness Insurance) could allow some dignity?. This together with a government grant on birth into a pension scheme of say £1,000 plus a means tested contribution of £25 per month for could grow to £343,924 with 7% growth after 60 years ie birth to retirement uses the growth that benefits the rich for all. (S&P average growth exceeds 7% for the last 100 years with dividends reinvested adjusted for inflation). Whilst none of that constitutes financial advice and the statistics come from the internet, it would be good to see some imagination from Whitehall that uses capitalism to deliver ordinary people from insecurity, not just enhance megacorp billionaire’s unspendable legacies.
Citizenship is a proud boast of any member of a respectable society, but those without money and its privileges like up to date ID, monthly income, assets, property, transport and health – and there are many who suffer from a lack of all of those – do not have the same ability to be an active citizens as those with them. You are unable to help your kids get on; you can’t participate in Christmas (except as Tiny Tim), or plan for holidays, presents and days out. You get through the days and struggle with the humiliation of not having money for birthday or Christmas presents, or you take loans, or struggle. Some people may abandon the society that has abandoned them, they can be tempted by crime because a shoplifter will be caught, then cautioned, then counselled, then fined, then maybe imprisoned for a few weeks then let out where an underfunded probation service will usually fail to deal with the person and their accumulated debt from unpaid or unpayable fines obstructs their progress and the cycle goes on. Any child of this system learns disrespect with their mother’s milk and “good government” is a laugh for those who see nothing positive in their neighbourhood or on the news.
The need to embrace our strange bedfellows
This is fascism’s fertile ground and all the positive messaging will fade away like Beyonce’s last note at a Karmala gig unless all of the people are invited. I don’t care who sits next to me at the match or who lives in my neighbourhood so long as they behave with decency when appropriate and are artistic and entertaining when there’s the opportunity. Sidney Jary who led his men in combat in the British Liberation Army of 1944 said that he would choose poets for his combat platoon every time rather than sportsmen because they can adapt and have a sense of the ridiculous which allows them to cope with deadly situations. We are in a strange world, so we need to adapt to strange bedfellows, but we need to keep our eyes on what a world liberated from fear and hunger can be and show the imagination necessary to get it. That can mean doing deals with people we don’t like and telling our friends to shut up for a while whilst we get to work. We need to embrace our strange bedfellows and be able to tell the difference between fascism and weakness and do something about both. Foodbanks help, Multibank will help, but only governments can lead society into better days. We set the Fans Foodbank up in 2016; let’s hope we’re not needed by 2026. Strange bedfellows are one thing but Foodbanks should not exist in a decent society.
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