Labour and its policy vacuum

Labour actually has no policy vacuum.  Instead, the Conservatives keep stealing its polices, though the Tories do not follow through all the time.

First of all, is the Windfall tax.  Though to be fair, Labour have called upon the government to introduce this.  The government have improved what Labour wanted to offer, but if Labour had appeared to be too generous on this, they would have been accused of spending too much.

This has happened in the past.  May stole Labour polices on energy prices despite this being rubbished when Ed Miliband proposed it.  There was the National Living Wage, brought in after Labour had called for an increase in the minimum wage.   Miliband wanted action on Junk food, the Conservatives stole it with the Sugar Tax.  Addressing letting agent fees was another Labour policy, again stolen.  In 2015, Labour wanted companies to publish figures on the Gender Pay Gap, stolen by the Tories.

And there was the promise by Labour in 2015 for 8000 more GP's and 20,000 more nurses for the NHS.  The Conservatives promised 5,000 more GP's and failed to deliver on that! 

So when someone asks what are the policies of Labour, please remember that when they have stated what they are, the Conservatives steal them.    

The Comedy Of Errors

Watched this with my son last night. We loved it.  

This had been recommended to us by some friends on the weekend, and I had intended to watch this with my wife, but after a hard day at work yesterday, she decided not to go.  Both kids however were interested, but my son changed his mind before I bought the tickets.  However, after my daughter changed her mind, he changed his again and so we booked the tickets and after I prepared dinner, went.  (My daughter said that the food was better than she expected).  

We walked in and watched an adaptation with Shakespearean prose, but set in the 20's, sort of.  Both he and I did not understand all of what was said, but I appreciated the beauty of it, and was able to work out most of it.  He disagreed with my view that the way Shakespeare writes is poetry, but he hates poetry.  

It had music and dancing, and I love live music.  I am not sure that my daughter would have liked it as in general, she does not like cover versions.  

Spending time alone with my son was awesome, and is time to be treasured. 

Boris gets away with it, again

Boris has lied and has got away with it.

  

 

First of all, issues about the cost of living was raised by Keir Starmer in PMQ's along with bringing in a Windfall Tax to help people. 

  

 

When it came to his statement in Parliament, he did not admit to lying to Parliament, but claimed ignorance. Keir Starmer compared his stance, which is a promise to resign if he is found guilty of breaking the law, to that of Boris Johnson. While Boris Johnson brought up the call by Keir Starmer for the PM resign if investigated, but omitted the context, which is that he called for the Prime Minister to resign if he was to be investigated for parties that Boris Johnson said did not happen. Boris Johnson also lied when he said that Keir Starmer did not bring up Beergate and also lied in the statement when he said that Keir Starmer did not bring up issues with the cost of living.

Despite saying he takes responsibility for the Downing Street parties, he has not accepted that he lied.  

There were no parties

When asked on the 8th of December, our Prime Minister said that there was no party on the 13th of November. I had mentioned this in my blog at the time as I thought that this might be an issue, I just did not realise how much of an issue it would become. If the Prime Minister had been honest about attending parties when others were told not to, things would have settled down by now. But he lied. And fired a woman for not attending a party and joking about it, with men who were not fired despite doing the same as her.

 

 

Child Mental Health services in England

Let us face it, Child Mental Health Services are not anywhere as good as they need to be.  Staff are leaving due to the stress of working in a system under so much strain.  I am sure that the government will blame the pandemic for this, and yes, there is no doubt that issues with the mental health of children has worsened due to the pandemic, but these issues were getting worse before then.

Chinese support for Putin’s War

Earlier on in the invasion of, sorry, the “special military operation” involving Ukraine, there appeared be be support of the Russian cause on social media from China.  I ended up in debates with a few Chinese tweeters, most of whom ended up blocking me.  It was interesting to see the perspective they had on different issues though. 

History and my daughter

My daughter had her history exam today.  She was in a good mood afterwards, so fingers crossed, she did well.  She enjoyed a question about the end of the Vietnam War which others did not.  

I had the day off for my appraisal myself.  It went better than I thought it would, though I have not done as much as I had hoped since my last one.  I do need to improve my communication skills, something my wife was not surprised about.  

She did enjoy me being at home as this meant that we were able to test drive a car together.  Her contract on her current car ends soon and she has been looking at replacements.  I had tried to convince her to get a Tesla, but she was not too keen on it and looks like she may go for a hybrid Volvo.  Not sure how my kids will like that!

The Daily Mail (again)

I was watching this video about Putin's War and this opinion on the Daily Mail came up.  

Some may be aware that I consider it to be a very biased course of news, and it was nice to see someone else have their take on this.   

PMQ's - Will Boris listen to Keir Starmer and carry out a U-turn?

PMQ's was quite bland today I feel. The government spoke about the record low unemployment rates and ignored the rise in inflation. Keir Starmer took him to task on a windfall tax and essentially asked him to carry out his U-turn on this matter now, rather than a rushed one later. I do hope Boris will listen to him as he had done about COVID lockdowns coming up to Christmas in 2020.

 

The worst day of her life

My daughter said that yesterday was the worst day of her life.  She had three papers and due to this, for part of the day was in isolation, having exams on psychology, biology and the foreign language option that she took.

My wife would normally make her breakfast but I did today instead along with a cup of tea.  Her exam today is in English (Language I think).  Here is hoping that she does well.  I did have to leave her alone for a bit before she went in as my son needed a lift to get into school.  I have noted a habit of his that he does not need a lift on other days, but needs one on a Wednesday when I am working from home...

They were mean to me

They started to be mean to me last night. It began with a message on WhatsApp after full time yesterday. Then today one of my colleagues talked about drinking Newcastle Brown Ale while wearing a Spurs necklace honouring her dead parents. It was wrong of me to tell her to F off (I did apologise after).  Even the Chelski fan piled in! My only consolation is that our old manager has left, who also supported The Scum.  

If someone had told me that we would finish in fifth place after our beginning to the season, I would have taken it.  But we had the chance to finish in fourth and also above The Scum.  It may still happen, we have had last day escapes before.  But I doubt it.

And it starts

Today is the big day.  Three GCSE papers in one day.  I hope that my daughter does well, all my wife can do is cross our fingers and pray.  No matter what happens, we are proud of her.

Anticipation

My daughter has her first GCSE's of this year tomorrow. Three exams. My wife and I have tried to get her to eat sensibly, but she has too much nausea to do so.  My worry is that she will crash due to a lack of energy.  Fingers crossed that I am wrong as she does as well as she can.  No matter what happens, we will be proud of her,

Changing rooms, showers, schools and TransGirls

There was an interesting article in The Times on the weekend about TransGirls and using female changing rooms and showers. It suggested that they should be allowed to use them before or after girls have used them. I think that this is a great way of respecting the safety of TransGirls in secondary schools and reducing the risk posed to girls, not from TransGirls, but rather from teenage boys pretending to be Trans so that they can get to see naked girls. 

 

The issue of segregation in safe-spaces such as showers, toilets and changing rooms has been brought up by JK Rowling who has been termed TransPhobic for raising the dangers posed by men who are not Trans. 

 

When I have discussed this on Twitter, different people have said different things. One has called for unisex toilets for all, some have said that there should be no restrictions on men entering toilets for women if they decide to do so. Issues have been noted with unisex changing rooms regarding, sexual assault, harassment and voyeurism and many women are understandably concerned that this would be the case in other areas if there is no segregation. What is sad is how some consider these risks to be an acceptable price to pay, or just refuse to accept that the risk exists. Some people have said that there is no basis to stop men from using a female toilet. But this is not the case at my work where I am not allowed to do so. 

 

I define a woman as someone without a Y chromosome unless that individual identifies as something else. Likewise a man is someone with a Y chromosome, again unless they identify as something else. I do think that sex is real and while I do not consider a TransWoman to be a woman, or a TransMan to be a man, I do think that in many cases, they should be treated as such. I used to think that toilets should be based on genitalia (a view that I still feel should apply to prisons), but there are those with a penis who live as women, and so long as they are not known to be a threat, I do think that they should be allowed in many areas for women.

Sports however is a different matter. For many sports, being born male gives advantages. As seen with Isazc Henig, this is not always the case. But it does give an advantage in many other areas and women can end up being injured as a result. Not just in rugby, but with other sports as well.

In preparation

Our daughter started to crumble today.  On Tuesday she is to sit three GCSE exams and will be locked away from her peers to prevent her finding out what was in her paper that they will sit before her.  She has done one GCSE last year and did really well.  It is understandable that she is going to wobble.  I just hope that she listens to us about getting enough food in her tomorrow to get her glycogen stores up.  

We did take her for a drive this evening with the dog.  She got to pick the music, which meant Taylor Swift, which is fine, and the Mamma Mia versions of ABBA hits, some of which are acceptable.  But this weekend is about her really.

Saying that, my son and I had a nice dog walk together.  Leia loves walks, even more so when more than one of us are taking her for the walk.  He was quite hyper though later in the day, which was part of the reason we had to take my daughter out, so she could have some space away from him.

In addition to this, my wife and I had lunch with two friends, a great meal, it was great to see them and also get out of the house.  

Eurovision 2022

I am watching this alone hoping that we are going to win. We started as a family, all watching it together, but my son left first and then my daughter followed afterwards followed by my wife. It was a fun night and I tweeted along to it. The family was annoyed that I missed watching the first part of it as I was listening to it in the shower. We all had our different favourites, but mine was the entry from Moldova. Anyway, fingers crossed...

My first patient today

My first patient today came in wearing a Spurs top. He wore it knowing he was to see me. Git.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

We watched this as a family yesterday. My daughter did not like it, nor did my son who had watched it earlier with friends. He did like it before (I think) and had been asking me questions about Marvel characters who I knew from the comics which one of my brothers had bought, but I was not able to answer all the questions based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I liked it, well most of it. I do think that based on my experience from fantasy roleplaying, that there was one battle which should have gone the other way, and also that the corrupting influence of evil could have been explored more with more consequences being felt. But overall, this was a film that I was glad to watch, and I am very keen on watching it again when it is on television.

How the abortion rights debate in the USA should remind us of the importance of voting

If you have not voted already, do so (assuming you are in an area that is voting in the UK). Many people ignore voting, and we can see in the USA what happens when people do and do not vote. 

 

In 2016, Donald Trump won the US election, which was settled in a few swing states with a margin of less than 1% of the vote in those states. I can remember when George Bush the Second was elected again, thanks to one state where a small difference in turnout could have resulted in a very different result. 

 

The effects are seen now when it comes to abortion rights. Thanks to the judges appointed to the US Supreme Court in the four years of the Trump Presidency, many women will have the right to choose taken away from them. We do not have to vote, that is our right to exercise, but there are literally people dying in Ukraine to have the right to elect the leader they want, as opposed to the leader Putin wants in charge. 

 

The power of those who do not Vote Conservative will be reduced in the next general election, and that is because democracy has allowed it. YOU can make a difference by voting for the candidate or party you dislike the least.

Nuno Tavares and his potential

MASSIVE win ⚡🔴 #COYG pic.twitter.com/RJ6bigpYlI

— Nuno Tavares (@NunoTavares) May 1, 2022

Nuno Tavares looks like he may be a good addition for Arsenal, but he is going to have to improve, a lot, if he is to keep his place when Kieran Tierney returns from injury. Winning this game was very important in our drive to finish in the top four, and if Chelski keep slipping up, the possibility to finish in third place. I was dreading this game, I am glad we won (a silly comment really), and hopefully our form will continue to win until the end of the season.

The Rising

My wife and I finished watching this tonight. We had been watching it as a box set and my daughter joined us for bits of it. My son, however decided against it, which was a shame. Leia, being a dog did what she wanted, which in general was to sit near us. When it comes to the series, it does make me want to return to the Lake District, the last time my wife and I went there being when we were just friends. My wife thought that it was slow going, but still wanted to watch to see who the murderers were. 

 

My daughter is still revising, my son I suspect is messing up his room. Hopefully it will not revert to the tip it became during the last two holidays.