Jews walking across a march

A video has been widely shared on the internet, this being of a Jewish man trying to walk across a march against the slaughter in Gaza. People who have used this to bash the police forget several things. 

The first thing to remember is that there are many Jews who want an end to the murder of civilians in Gaza and many take part in marches about this.

The second is that the police will act to keep separate groups of people apart. Anyone who has been to a football match will be aware that the police like to keep certain groups of supporters apart, an example of this being Millwall fans being kept away from everyone else when possible. Other examples would be preventing someone obviously Muslim walking across an EDL march.

I think that instead to bashing the police, or insinuating that the UK bias against Jews, we should accept that the police have a hard job to do, that on occasion, someone faced with making a decision on the spot will get it wrong, and that they work to ensure that demonstrations are peaceful. 

Fascism and the boy who cried wolf

I read recently, that a danger with calling things fascism, is that people start of become desensitised. 

I have to agree.  I do agree that there are worrying signs with what is happening to our great nation.  At the moment, Islamophobia is more acceptable on the internet, this being before the appalling attacks by Hamas on Israel.  

Yes, our rights are being taken away, and when people are conditioned to accept the removal of even more rights that would happen if our nation withdrew from the European Court of Human Rights. 

Do I see concerning arguments on social media?  Yes.  Do I think that our government is flirting with Far Right ideas?  Yes.  Do I think that our government and mainstream media support fascism? No. 

Liz Truss and how things were not her fault

It is unbelievable that the woman who was Prime Minister for 45 days has no insight of the way she crashed the economy. 

Apparently, things would have been better if civil servants had not acted as a break on how she had wanted to things. 

Yesterday, The Newsagents and The Rest is Politics covered this. Once again, parody and reality are hard to keep apart. 

Israel and Iran

I used to be in favour of Israel taking action against Hamas in Gaza, that was until the civilian death toll became so high (let alone the numbers of civilians murdered, sorry, killed accidentally, since).  If anyone doubts me, remember how the IDF shot unarmed Palestinian terrorists who were pretending to surrender, only to find out they were unarmed Israeli hostages, something I doubt we would have found out about if they had not been Israeli.

I have not been in favour of Israel in the way that it is stealing land in the West Bank either.  

When it comes to the way Israel attacked the Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria, I have concerns over this.  Quite rightly, the world has spoken out over the issues with how an embassy should be protected when it comes to Mexico and Ecuador.  Put simply, killing the targets Israel wanted eliminated outside the diplomatic compound would have been acceptable to me, in view of the way that Iran helps Hezbollah attack Israel.    

Yes, Iran retaliated, but in a way that was able to be stopped by the several nations.  I actually think that this was a paper retaliation, in a similar manner to that on US troops after Trump had an Iranian general assassinated. The question now is if Israel will let matters rest here, or continue to attack Iran. 

Last of all, for those who do not think of Iran as our enemy, look at how they have treated Kamal Foroughi, Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. I would be interested to hear any justification of this.

Dune: Part Two

First of all, I am sad that Arsenal lost. At least we are in second place, for now. But I doubt that the Team That Rhymes With City will drop more points than us, which means that the odds are, we will either stay in second or more likely, finish in third place.

The kids are continuing to revise, my daughter has two tests tomorrow, not her A Levels, but tests to get her stressed anyway.

And onto Dune: Part Two. I think that the first film was better. While I do not think that this was a masterpiece, it was a film which hit the right balance of amazing scenery, good effects, and retained decent writing, acting and directing. I guess my main issues come from the plot. Arrakis is a planet devoid of water, but can host a huge army. The suits that were worn in the film would not recycle the sweat that should have been on the faces of the characters (but also was absent). And the story had another hole in that a captured Fremen would break under torture and the bases would be found. 

But those issues relate to the original book.  If you liked the first film, the odds are you will like this, but I doubt anyone who is not interested in science fiction will like it.

Scoop

No, not the Netflix film, which I intend to watch, but rather a film from 2006. 

First of all, my kids are coming up to the end of their holidays and have been revising. I suspect one has been revising more than the other, but hopefully I am wrong. 

My daughter, is booking a holiday in Europe with one of her friends, and this is causing my wife some stress. At the moment it looks like she will be backpacking to France and Spain,

The film itself is interesting. It has loads of stars in it, but as the Twilight films show, having an all star cast means nothing. It has an unusual plot, almost that of a play rather than a film, but it improves after a dull start. I will say it is better than I thought it would be and was surprisingly enjoyable. I guess I would rate this slightly above average as a film. 

The Cass Report and drugs with children

The Cass Report has been widely reported in the media. I do agree that issues about gender identity should be explored, but I think that the report is wrong to say that puberty blockers are untested without pointing out that many drugs are untested in children. I also am concerned with the way the media are reporting that it is wrong for children who are Trans to be given these drugs. I think, that with the correct assessments, it will be found that there are some children who would benefit from treatment with these drugs. 

Sadly, waiting lists have increased across the NHS, not just when it comes to gender identity, but also with child mental health. Children, be they having issues with gender identity or not are being failed by our underfunded healthcare system.