Beard Liberation Front

Although he admits that a beard, unlike race and gender, is a matter of choice, he has claimed that beardism is associated with more serious forms of discrimination:[5] Those employers who ban their male workers from having beards – a growing number, incidentally – are also the same employers who demand that their female workers wear skirts not trousers, and who rigorously discriminate when it comes to annual appraisal time against anyone who does not conform to the stereotype of a young, single white man in a suit.The size of the organisation is unknown; Flett refers to the organisation as "an informal network" and has claimed "a few hundred supporters" in the past.

According to Independent diarist Eagle Eye, sources from the Labour Party, then in opposition, promised that if they were elected, the cabinet would include the first bearded minister since Baron Passfield in 1929.

[7] In 1998 the BLF expressed outrage at actor Sean Connery being denied a knighthood, claiming that "normally reliable New Labour sources" had told them that the reason was his beard.

In 2000 the BLF joined the anti-capitalist May Day protests with a "mass beard waggle", decrying the waste of natural resources involved in producing shaving foam and brushes.

[11] It also claimed that Robert Burns had a beard, and that contemporary pictures of him which depict the Scottish poet as clean-shaven were a manufactured image designed to make him more popular to the English.

[6] In 2006 the BLF joined the ranks of organisations issuing health advice during the record-breaking heat wave by advising beard-wearers to trim their beards, cover them with handkerchiefs and to keep them cool by placing them "briefly in the freezer department of a fridge or dipping [them] in a pint of real ale".

In 2007 during the Labour leadership campaign, the Beard Liberation Front held group discussions and decided to endorse Charles Clarke for the position, although he eventually announced he was not standing and would be backing Gordon Brown.

Organiser Keith Flett was reported as saying:[16]He has a very recognisable public persona and it is a million miles from the clean shaven man in a suit image that characterises the Blair and Brown years and which both David Cameron and Sir Menzies Campbell copy.

[19] 2002's winner was Education Secretary Charles Clarke, who beat comedian Ricky Gervais and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams for the title, although Flett suggested that his beard was probably a "pragmatic" one to conceal multiple double chins.

[citation needed] The 2004 Beard of the Year was held jointly by cricketer Andrew Flintoff and NATFHE union leader Paul Mackney, due to the close polling between them.

[22][23] Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds and Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan shared the award for Beard of the cricket World Cup 2007, with Panesar the runner-up.

[26] In 2009 Rage Against the Machine vocalist Zach de la Rocha added Beard of the Year to the band's Christmas Number One.

He beat John Hurt, Geoff Parling, and Jeremy Paxman, who made it to the shortlist, but fell outside the top 3, despite having one of the most discussed beards of 2013.

[37] In March 2012, Keith Flett corresponded with Zorko Sirotić, Croatian visual artist, and appointed him head of the BLF's Central and Eastern Europe unit.