Science Sunday

My son has got help from my daughter today with his revision.  My wife helped a bit as well, but my daughter discussed what she had been taught about what she would get marks for.  The first part of this was biology and I have to say how impressed I am with her patience.  My son can be challenging when he puts his mind to it and while she was sharp at times, I suspect my wife would have been sharper and I would have been even worse at helping him to learn.  After this was chemistry and he responded to her more, and then physics, though my wife also helped at this point.  She did get paid by me, her earning it most on the first part, but his improvement may have been down to her, though I am aware, that he may have been the actual reason. 

I did get to go for a walk with my son this evening.  My wife and daughter watched Love Island while my son went for a walk with Leia so that he could buy himself a  milkshake.  I do hope that we get to have more of these walks. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Busy day today.  A driving trip to look at some items we are interested in is not ideal on a day with a rail strike, but my wife and I did it and only had one argument doing so.  Road works and train strikes do not make for an even temper!  We did get to have a great lunch though.  I drank the odd cosNOpolitan but did try a Movie Star Martini as I as the nominated driver for the way home.

My son is preparing for his end of year exams and my daughter has finished hers so we went for a walk at Gosbecks with Leia.  Sadly, my son does not tend to enjoy such walks but Leia loved it.  My daughter revelled in her freedom and ran about with Leia, something I rarely do myself when I take her for walks.  My method of getting her to run is by throwing balls for her to fetch in the back garden.  In addition to the great company, it was amazing weather.

After this, we watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife.  I enjoyed it.  I had wanted to watch it in the cinema, but Omicron put an end to that as we avoided public spaces for a while over that time.  I would have had no issues had I paid to watch it with the family in the cinema.  Unlike Jurassic World Dominion, which my wife wants to watch on the big screen but I think that the plot and direction will be as bad as the previous two films.  

The rights of a State vs the nation

Roe vs Wade is no more in the USA.  States will be able to make decisions about abortion rather than having this view imposed on a nation wide basis.

First, this will harm women much more than men, and this will disproportionately affect those on low incomes who will find it harder to bring up a child.  Those who are richer will find it easier to travel to a state where abortion is legal and also have the funds to defend themselves if challenged in court about being accused of having an abortion.

Second, if the nation cannot make rules on abortion, what about matters like voting rights and equal marriage?  Women in same sex relationships in general will not be affected by this not counting women who cheat on a partner or who are raped.  I do wonder if the religious right will act on this later.

I am still of the view that those in favour of banning abortion are pro-birth rather than being pro-life. Maternity pay is optional in much of America and the support for mothers when it comes to childcare is poor as well.  And don’t get me started (again) on school shooting’s.

Loyalty to the Prime Minister

I do not think that the Conservatives are good for our nation.  Under Boris Johnson things have been worse.  We have had record levels of poverty for those in work.  Our government decided to not feed children over school holidays during the pandemic, of course there was PartyGate.  But there was the waste as well when it came to COVID contracts being awarded through a Chumocracy and so many other issues. 

About 60% of MP’s backed him through these matters.  If they are to turn on him, I want to know which if the many things was the factor, or was it just because they might not get elected in the next election.

Blaming the unions

I wish that Network Rail had averted this unnecessary strike by engaging in a meaningful way the Unions like ScotRail has. 

The unions have been blamed for the rail strike today by the government. But the government forget to tell you that the workers were balloted on strike action and the workers decided to strike.  I know this because I am a member of a union.  I have been out on strike and my union has worked to protect my rights.  Many years ago, my union acted to ensure that my employer acted within the law and had to be involved as my employer did not listen until the union was involved.

In my job, I see how employers treat those in a union fairly, but often, those who are not in a union do not get treated in the same manner.   Due to this, when I see people with stress at work, one of the questions I ask is if they are in a union, and if they are, if they have involved it.  

It is easy to try and make political capital out of this, and the government have with soundbites that do not stand up to scrutiny.  With this tweet, the wages of teachers has been mentioned.  Teachers in the UK may be considering strike action over low pay, so the answer here is to pay teaches more.  Nurses in the UK have taken strike action over pay.  I presume that this MP backs a call from them for better wages.  Also, the MP ignores how unions are formed by their members.  If workers want a ‘hard left’ person to represent them, that is their right.  I know that I want someone in charge of my union who looks out for my rights and is willing to defend them.

I do not know a union member who wants to strike over everything.  I do know loads of union members who want to work but are part of a union to ensure that their rights are protected.  Strikes are a last resort, and in this case like others, can be avoided through negotiation just like has happened in Scotland.

Home again

Finally, we are back at home. The day was not as eventful as yesterday. 

I woke early this morning to find a charger and charge our car.  I found one that was being used by a mobile home, another which appeared to be residential and finally one in an industrial estate.   Had hoped it was part of the nearby shopping centre, but no such luck.  At first I could not work out which charger to use as it was confusing on the app, but by a process of deduction I sorted it,  we got enough charge to get to a supercharger closer to home, but in Belgium.  I drove in a more energy conserving manner and we had charge to spare when we got there.  This time, my wife visited the nearby truck stop so that I would have something to eat other than Cadburys eclairs!  It did not take long to get the charge needed to get to Calais and we were off.  Again we returned to the supercharger that we had used on Saturday, but this time we got a lot more charge.  One more charging stop on the M20 and we got home with 9% charge, though this time I was not as stressed as I was in France on Saturday! 

It was great to see the kids again and I soon crashed and had to rest a lot.  But it was a long drive, and one far less stressful than before,

Live is Live

Well that was a day. 

We started the day looking for somewhere to charge the car and failing, only for my wife to find the app (which I thought had not been developed) which allowed us to charge our car at the hotel.  We had tried to find a charger in town and also one in a nearby Aldi.  We found one at the Aldi, but issues with a lack of an RFID card were present.  We got back to the hotel despondent, after getting lost and my wife worked out there was an app and we got some charge in the car.  We hoped that it was enough to get us to a fast charger in Belgium, but I got spooked and we tried to find one in Dunkirk.  That did not end well as almost all of them needed an RFID card or fob.  We did find one with 4% charge remaining in the car.  Until then wife and I thinking that our weekend away was ruined were in a state of depression.  An hour at a free charger allowed to get to Belgium and use a very fast charger, again after some additional drama.  

We finally got to the hotel and what an amazing place.  It is a marked contrast to the historic and welcoming stay we had last night.  That had a small lift and very steep stairs.  This has been designed with equal access in mind and we have seen more guests in wheelchairs than we have in a hotel ever before.

We have just got back from the concert we thought we were going to miss.  Mika was amazing and my wife loved seeing Duran Duran live.  We did leave early but we were able to listen to Girls on Film as we left, but did miss the encore.  But it was cold.  From a heatwave two days ago to this,  mind you, it could have been worse.  There was wind and heavy rain last night, and today when at Dunkirk, I got soaked in the rain.  So while it was cold, it was dry.

I am hoping that tomorrow is not as dramatic. I am crossing my fingers that we can find a charger tomorrow morning..

Logis Hostellerie Saint Louis

We have arrived in France.  My wife and I are away from the children in Bollezeele.  Leia is at the dog sitters, friends are helping with the children and my wife and I are about to have our first meal in France in ages.

We drove down in my Honda E, but left home late.  We had to charge on the M20, but  it was quick and easy.  On the train my car grabbed the attention of many and another electric car driver gave us advice on where to charge and not charge in France.  Apparently Belgium will be better.  I am a bit nervous as we are low on charge now and there is only one quick charger nearby, the one next to the hotel not being able to be used without a card which has to be ordered in advance.  We did try to charge in Calais, but due to issues with my iPhone, this did not work well.  Hopefully we will be able to use it on the way home though.  I do love being in France and it is great to be abroad again.  It has been drizzling at times, and if this is the rain forecast for tomorrow, this will not be too bad.

The European Convention on Human Rights

I am to travel to France and Belgium later this month. My daughter hopefully will be travelling to France in the summer.  There are those who wish that the inhabitants of our great nation have more human rights when on holiday France (and other nations in Europe) than we do when living in the UK.  

Can someone explain the logic of how this is patriotic to me please? 

Jesus was an undocumented child refugee

I am in favour of the government plan to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda if they cross the channel illegally. I do this, knowing the hardships that those seeking persecution face. BUT, I am only in favour of this relocation where people are fleeing from nations where we have a safe and legal refugee route that is working to process applications quickly. That is if it is possible to have such a system in place in that nation. 

 

When I posted about this last year, I did mention that asylum seekers are coming to our shores from a safe nation where they can claim asylum and that no action would result in more deaths in The Channel. I was wrong to do so as I was not aware how hard it was for asylum seekers to access legal routes. In addition to this, forcing refugees to claim asylum in the first safe nation they enter creates a burden on those nations, as seen in Lebanon and Moldova. I would only be in favour of that if we had a system, as is in place with Ukrainian refugees, where they can apply for asylum from those nations 

 

It is silly really as we claim to be a Christian nation, and Jesus himself was an undocumented child refugee. There are some who disagree, but they forget how his parents fled The Massacre of the Innocents.  I do think it is important to act on the people smugglers but it is even more important to offer refugees more legal avenues to seek asylum here. 

With this in one, I am glad the plane which was to deport asylum seekers has been stopped from doing so.  I do not know how long this will be for, but I do hope those who are fleeing persecution find a safe refugee here.  I also hope we can create decent safe and legal routes for those wishing to come here as well. 

Keir Starmer and corruption

Keir Starmer is to be investigated for allegations of corruption. This is after he, unprompted, stated that he had not declared.  It is a considerable amount of money, this being a book fee for one to five hours’ work a week since March 2020 received in April (which he is apparently to pay to charity), and tickets for two football matches worth more than £2,000 received in March and April. 

This is more than the £17,800 that the Conservative Party was fined over the changing story of the £112,549 donation for the refurbishment of the flat of the Prime Minister.

The right wing media will try to equate the two, one were a party leader has apologised for a late declaration, and the other were the truth of the nature of the much larger donation changed with time.  Not the same to me…

Date night at the Church Street Tavern

 

My wife and I had a good meal here today. It was a relaxing end to a day where I was at work in the garden and she was busy inside the house.  

I had started the day with a drive with her and Leia to various shops during which time we talked and listened to Duran Duran. I later took Leia for a walk in Highwoods park.  She loves it there and whined when I did get her out of the car quick enough. 

Later, after a lunch cooked by my wife, it was garden work for me and housework for my wife.  My daughter is revising, something we are hoping that my son is doing as well.  And then it was date night l  while the food was good, most of it was not up to the very high standards that we expect there.  But it was still nice to have time together which was away from the children.  

Top gun Maverick & Love Island again

My back is almost normal, just the occasional twinge.  Watched Maverick again, this time with my daughter, and later, watched Love Island with Leia, my wife and daughter after walking Leia.  My daughter preferred Maverick to the original Top Gun which she hates.  Although she has yet to finish watching it, she was watched more of it than my son who refuses to do so.  I still loved it the second time, but not as much as the original.  I do think that it is best watched after watching the original, but the way the film is done, that is not compulsory.

As for Love Island, my wife got annoyed with me when watching it, so I kept quiet while doing so.  It will be interesting watching the group dynamics play out now that two of the men have opted to change partners (Davide had to change once his partner was taken away from him by another).  I cannot believe that my family have got me to watch it! 

My first experience of Love Island (this year)

My wife made me promise to watch this with my daughter today.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Watching the group dynamics was interesting. As for who I want to win? Who cares?

At least the plastic surgery and fillers are not as obvious this year.  I constantly moaned about the work done on the women of it last year.

PMQ’s, COVID and the NHS

In Prime Ministers Questions today, the comments of Nadine Dorries about how the nations preparations for a pandemic were “found wanting and inadequate” were brought up.  As discussed earlier in the week, the government had warning shots with Exercise Cygnus and Exercise Alice that the UK was not as prepared for a pandemic as we should have been.  Most Conservatives do not wish to bring this up, but Nadine Dorries did.

Yes, Boris Johnson did ensure that we got enough vaccines, but he was wrong to say that the UK got the first vaccine approval.  In June 2020, China approved a vaccine for emergency use in high risk occupations, Russia approving one in August for emergency use, this being the case in the UAE in September 2020 and in November, Bahrain. He was right to point out that the UK does not have the highest death rate in Europe (it is the 4th highest in Western Europe), but we do have the highest numbers of dead in Europe (not counting Russia which is both in Europe and Asia).  

The issue of the NHS was brought up with problems accessing a GP.  Cancer treatment times were also discussed, but the best performance from Starmer happened when he followed the example of Jeremy Corbyn and named people when it came to waiting for surgery along with also ambulance waits.  

Sadly, I did not get to watch the rest of PMQ's, even though I watched this after the show, so I do not know if there were any other highlights worth discussing.

On a personal note, my back is starting to improve and I only have pains on occasion.

Back pain

I have been off work with backpain today.  I had got up and was fine, but my back went before I got into the shower.  I have to say it was like a spasm on certain movements and when I first had it, it literally hurt to breathe.  My wife was amazing, but my daughter came up to laugh at me in the morning before heading off to her Maths exam.  My son has not been that supportive either, calling me old man.  Needless to say, I had to take the day off work but managed to do a little bit from home.

I have just got back from taking the dog for a walk and this appears to have helped my back.  Here is hoping it gets even better after a night of rest.

Boris Johnson and his vote of confidence

Jacob Rees-Mogg, 

Dec 12, 2018: “This is a very bad result for the prime minister, 117 votes against her…… much worse than she thought” 

June 7, 2022: "It was a good victory for the Prime Minister, he won comfortably and now he is getting on with business"

PMQ's tomorrow is going to be interesting.  211 votes to back him, 148 against.  The numbers cannot be directly compared to what happened with Theresa May as she did not have a huge majority, but one in four Conservative MP's do not back Boris Johnson and that proportion is even greater of backbench MP's assuming that all those who are part of government voted to back the Prime Minister.

Latin

 

My daughters exams in Latin and Psychology were okay apparently.  She has a mathematics paper tomorrow and then four more papers after that (for this week, her exams continuing afterwards). I am not sure she has watched Life Of Brian, but if she does, I am sure she would be able to comment on the accuracy of this scene… 

The Tories and COVID

Nadine Dorries today has tweeted that Jeremy Hunt’s “pandemic preparation during six years as health secretary was found wanting and inadequate.” She is not the most reliable of people when it comes to facts, but in this she is right.  

In 2016, Exercise Cygnus was carried out along with Exercise Alice.  In the first, the need for ventilators was noted, in the second, issues about having decent stocks of PPE, having a working contact tracing system in place along with pandemic related travel restrictions were noted.  

I was lucky enough in the pandemic to have access to decent PPE, but that was not the case for too many.  Our test and trace system has been viewed as funnelling money to the Chumocracy and while COVID would have arrived even if we had travel restrictions, it would have bought the UK more time if it had been put in place sooner. 

I know that she has tweeted this because she does not want Jeremy Hunt to oust Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, but she has not realised that she has admitted that the government should have been better prepared for the pandemic.

Top Gun: Maverick

loved the film. My wife came with me to watch it. I did not want my children to come, one has watched bits, is revising and did not like what she had watched. The other has not watched the first at all. I am biased as I may have watched Top Gun about 100 times or so, but I did like this. I was concerned that it was going to have too much testosterone in it, but it did not. Yes, a lot of the plot was predictable, but the film was well put together. I suspect that most of those who did not like the original would not like this.

Today was the street party.  I had gone to work in the morning after taking Leia out for a walk and got back too late to help my wife take food to the party.  I did get to take Leia as my daughter stayed at home to revise while my son had helped my wife take the food down.  There was an ‘interesting’ discussion about the less admirable aspects of the local Boys Grammar School where two women appeared to be defending it or making excuses.  We did leave early, my son having left earlier to returned home.  I ironed and then my wife and I went to the cinema.  

Tomorrow is going to be busy for her and me in our jobs, but I do feel refreshed after this long weekend.

We Got This and Dylan Moran

My wife and I have been looking forwards to this.  Sadly, it did not match up to previous comedy shows or even the past performances of Dylan Moran.  At best I would describe this as the ramblings of a previously articulate drunk interspersed with  great insights which would have been better for the heckling.  But some of his responses to heckling were the funnier parts of the show.  We did like bits of it, but both agreed that we were expecting a lot better.  While he says that he was boring sober, I would have loved to have seen him perform sober as I suspect the show would have been better had he done so.  While I get ready for sleep, we are watching some of this past performances on YouTube to reassure ourselves that he was funnier in the past.  Ultimately, the attitude of Dylan Moran is that I doubt he cares for the opinions of those who felt he could be better as many did love him.  I could have a go at the worse hecklers for moving seats to be closer to us, but I had taken us to the wrong seats earlier and we had to move to the correct ones before the show started.  Oops! 

Our son looked after Leia while my daughter continued to revise for her seven exams this coming week.  We had offered to take both out to lunch, but he opted to stay at home while my daughter accompanied us to The Whalebone.  We enjoyed our meal, though my wife and I felt that more seasoning would have improved our main courses.  My daughter did feel too full to finish her dessert, which was great as I got to finish it for her!  We helped her revise by testing her on questions that she asked but I ended up in a slight disagreement over Colour Constancy.  I said A and B are the same colour below, she disagreed.  To be fair, in her exercise book, they were not, but if you zoom in on this image and crop the squares, they are.

Stranger Things

My daughter and I have finished watching the first part of Series 4.  We both enjoyed it.  I was hoping to watch it from the start with my son, but he has started to watch it himself.  I then agreed to watch this from the start again with my daughter, but she has started to watch it from the start herself.  I understand what they have done so as I am not at home often enough to watch it with them.  I need to think about ways about changing this.  But that may mean a change in job.

When Vader met Kenobi

I had thought that this was a bad episode when I first watched it, but that was only because I thought it changed the film Star Wars itself.  I was wrong though.  

I am referring to the series Kenobi.  We are watching it together.  Part of me apologises for the title spoiling things, but Vader and Ben Kenobi meet again.  This battle does not go well for one.  I thought that they had not met since the battle on Malastare, and this may be my recollection of the books. But I also got the quote from Star Wars wrong.  I thought it referred to when the two last met.  Oops.

I am looking forwards to the next episode.  It looks like the series is to be a lot better that the prequel trilogy and also the sequel trilogy. 

Are the deaths of innocents an acceptable price to pay for lax gun controls in the USA?

Yes, this post is about the lack of sensible gun controls in the USA. there has been a mass shooting in a school, but also a hospital in the news. Living in the UK, we have legal firearms here. My job includes providing information on licences to the police who are responsible for the decision to issue them and I have no issues with legal firearms being used for hunting and also for sport. 

 

In the UK, in 1996, following the mass shooting killing primary school children and their teacher, a ban on handguns was imposed. Before this, following a mass shooting in 1987, semi-automatic weapons had been banned. Since then, we have had incidents where the murder of more than one person has occurred, but these have been relatively rare, one example being, how Derrick Bird killed many innocent people, followed by the murderous rampage of Raoul Moat. But this was in 2010 and while mass murder has occurred since then on several occasions our most recent high profile case being in August 2021, we have lower rates of mass shootings than the USA. Gun crime exists here, but the rates are far lower than in nations like the USA, just like how the overall murder rate in the USA is higher than in other developed nations. 

 

The call in the USA by many is for weapons like the AR-15 to be banned. Those who are against it cite the second amendment to the US constitution which allows the right to bear arms. But this was made in a time when a well trained person would take almost a minute to shoot three times. I have discussed this with my wife, and she is of the view that nothing will change in the USA. And to be fair, she may be right. Despite the murder of many young children in Sandy Hook, the AR-15 and similar weapons are still legal. This is probably due to the campaign contributions made by organisations like the NRA to protect the right of Americans to have them, though this has meant the continued murder of children in schools. Something that does not happen anywhere near as often outside the USA. 

 

There is an argument for firearms to be used to defend schools in the USA, but they forget how Scot Peterson was the "Good Guy with a Gun" at the Parkland mass shooting affecting the Stoneman Douglas High School. 

 

Others point to mental health being an issue, not guns, but we have mental health issues in the UK and other nations without mass shootings. The party in the US associated with fighting against Gun Controls, has also worked to limit access to healthcare and Trump himself made it easier for those with mental illness issues to get guns.  Violent video games, music and films have also been blamed, and while they may be a contributing factor, they also are present in developed nations other than the USA.

 

Thoughts and Prayers will not reduce the level of gun violence in the USA, action to bring in sensible gun controls will. But in the absence of such sensible gun controls, I just wish that those in the NRA just admitted that they consider the deaths of children to be an acceptable price to have weapons like the AR-15 and high capacity magazines.  They really need to consider why there are no drills for active shooters in Western European schools and universities.