Is there anything in the air? Tommy Robinson comes out of prison, sporting a beard, reminding Charles Moore in the Spectator of his own recent attempt to grow a beard (“it makes one feel permanently dirty”). On the Right, beards seem to be coming into favour: at least, on the dirty Right. But on the Left, figures like Owen Jones and Aaron Bastani suggest that the Karl Marx tradition of beards is over. The Left is clean, bleached, plucked. And a few women in the Guardian are now polemicising about ‘shoes off at the door’ with such aggression that I expect before too long that the cry on the Left will be ‘beard off at the door’ on the grounds that beards are as dirty as shoes and carpets.
Anyhow, let us reflect on this wonderful historical reversal.
To read the rest of this article, you need to donate at least £5/month or £50/year to the Daily Sceptic, then create an account on this website. The easiest way to create an account after you’ve made a donation is to click on the ‘Log In’ button on the main menu bar, click ‘Register’ underneath the sign-in box, then create an account, making sure you enter the same email address as the one you used when making a donation. Once you’re logged in, you can then read all our paywalled content, including this article. Being a donor will also entitle you to comment below the line, discuss articles with our contributors and editors in a members-only Discord forum and access the premium content in the Sceptic, our weekly podcast. A one-off donation of at least £5 will also entitle you to the same benefits for one month. You can donate here.
There are more details about how to create an account, and a number of things you can try if you’re already a donor – and have an account – but cannot access the above perks on our Premium page.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.