Poor Things

We watched this yesterday. It was intended to be a family film, but none of us had watched a trailer. Needless to say, not all of us appreciated the film and only two of us watched the whole film. Just for the record, it is not a family film. 

Normally I am not too fond of American art-house films, I prefer European ones.  While I have not watched one in a while, I got a taste of what I have missed when I watched Drops of God. This was an interesting story, well told in its manner. Do I think that it was amazing? No. Would I watch it again? No. And I not have wanted to pay to watch this in the cinema. It was great to watch it at home though and it was nice to watch a different type of film. 

Saltburn

I finally watched the film that many have been talking about. My daughter had watched it before and my son left after a scene in the bath. If you want to watch it, do not read any more.

I enjoyed it. The beginning more than the end though. Watching it means that I doubt that my children will ever watch The Talented Mr Ripley. The beginning brought back memories of how I felt I had imposter syndrome at university and also how I was lucky not to mix too much with people I was never going to gel with. However I also have great memories of my time at Uni. 

I doubt that I would watch this again, but I do want to watch The Talented Mr Ripley again now.  

Owen Jones & Keir Starmer

Last week, Owen Jones divorced Labour.  There was a lot of comment about it at the time, but I understand where he is coming from.  Labour have not been the best at communicating their message, not just with the way that Israel are committing war crimes in Gaza, but in other ways as well.

Today, I have listened to Ed Milliband being quizzed on Labour U-turns.  And it got me thinking.  I think that a better way for Labour to appeal to the electorate is to be honest about these policy shifts.  When asked about the reversal on the Green Energy Pledge, an honest answer would be to say that Labour would want to meet the pledge, but does not think that it can so are to make a promise it knows it can keep.  He could have been clearer on the pledge on tuition fees.  

And when it comes to Gaza, I think that Labour should be honest.  I supported Israeli military action until the scale of civilian lives lost became apparent.  Labour should have the courage to say the same. 

So while I do not like everything Labour is doing, I will probably still Vote Labour. Keir Starmer was not my first choice as leader for Labour as he had promised a lot to the left wing of the party.  My choice when it came to who should be party leader was Lisa Nandy, someone who is much better at communication that Starmer.  The alternative is more years of Conservative misrule.  Labour are going to have to improve how they communicate things as otherwise, they will be quickly voted out of power.         

Bristol and back

Am knackered.  Today my daughter went to an open day at Bristol University.  We drove down at five in the morning and got here early, but in time to get some good seats for the first lecture.  My wife and a friend had driven off to a spa while my daughter and I attended this.  My son was left behind in Colchester with Leia and spent his time walking her and meeting friends.

Bristol is a lovely city and if she makes a decision to study here, despite recent concerns about student welfare, it looks a lovely place to study.  One down side was the first lecture which was a tick-box on what not to do, notably talk to the laptop, or the board, make no eye contact with the audience and mumble.  However the rest of the day was much better.  The down side was that my daughter was too tired to make the last meeting which was one where she would have got to see potential lecturers and talk to them directly.  

What was a shock though was learning that my daughter no longer is a big fan of Taylor Swift!  Not sure if my son is responsible for that one though... 

Could Farage Returning Destroy the Tories?

It is hard to tell what Nigel Farage wants in the world.  Once upon a time, despite disagreeing with his political views, I liked and respected him, but back then, he used to tell the truth.  

Since then, he has decided to bending the truth and spreading alternative facts on matters.  I am not sure if he wants to return to Reform UK, the party he is sort of in charge of, despite Richard Tice being its leader and main funder.  Or he might want to join the Conservatives and become leader after the next General Election.  

In a way, I feel sorry for the Tories, who are trying to work out if they need to woo or shun him.  Either way, I feel that he has caused enough damage with Brexit and that more power to him would harm our great nation.

Workers rights

On Twitter the other day, I mentioned the importance of unions.  It is something that I have discussed before on here.  Basically, I am of the view that unions support workers and if you are against unions, you are in essence against workers rights.

I suspect that there will be those who disagree with my interpretation of this view, but the case of P&O sacking workers to rehire labour at a lower cost, in my view, proves the need for decent workers rights. 

I am in a union, and in my job, I have seen the difference in how those in a union are treated better than those not in a union.

Keir Starmer ate my hamster

I had a chat with my mother today who expressed concerns about Keir Starmer. Many on the left see him as just being a Tory and they agree with many Conservatives that he would be bad for Britain. My Mum votes Labour. There may have been a time when she did not, but she, like many on the left, are probably going to join with Conservatives and not vote Labour in the next election.

Similar views were echoed on Twitter where someone forgot what happened earlier in Parliament this week and accused Labour of being anti-Trans. The bottom line is that one reason that there are similarities, is because the Conservatives steal Labour polices, an example being the non-Dom tax but there are others as well.

Not sure our public services can survive more years of Conservative rule, but, to be fair, I did not think that services like the NHS would last this long anyway. If you can call what it is doing surviving. 

The Nuremberg Laws

Since Twitter has been bought by Elon Musk, my feed has been filled with the Far Right as opposed to those I actually want to follow. 

A common theme which is tweeted on far too frequent as basis is the desire to deport foreign criminals. This leads to what is a foreign criminal. Not that he is a criminal, Boris Johnson was born in New York, so is he foreign born? King Charles had a father who was known as Phil The Greek due to his place of birth and a lot of his mother’s side of the family have German blood.  Mo Farah, one of the greats of British Athletics, was not born in Britain and has no ‘blood link’ to our great nation. I consider him to be British and was proud to have him representing our nation.

I am not saying that foreign nationals should not be deported, I am just expressing concern about how people not accepting that this is already taking place may want this to end. After all, we have seen what can happen when people start calling for measures to encourage racial purity. 

We are top of the league

Well that was an interesting game. Brentford are probably right in their annoyance that the winning goal was scored by a player who should not have been on the pitch, but they forget that Arsenal should also have had a penalty when Brentford fouled Arsenal, a fact which a lot of the reports of the game have overlooked. 

Anyway, at least until later today, we are top of the league. 

I’m ill again

Am in bed and burning up. At least I am better than yesterday. After a nice long dog walk in the morning I started to feel unwell. I went to work, hoping it would pass, but felt worse there and had to be driven back home by my wife. She has been taking good care of me, and is on the way to London to take my kids to see my Mum for Mothers Day.

I cannot even enjoy time alone as I will probably fall asleep after typing this! On the bright side, the nausea I had yesterday has almost gone. 

J. K. Rowling and transphobia

As those who follow my blog know, I share many views on gender identity with JK Rowling. Up until recently, I would argue that she is not transphobic. Until she made her tweet about India Willoughby. 

I do not consider TransWomen to be women. I do not consider TransMen to be men. Women are women, men are men, TransMen are TransMen and TransWomen are TransWomen.

The distinction has been made when it comes to many sports as TransWomen are seen by many to have an unfair advantage over women. Not everyone agrees with this but the provision of an open category which non-binary individuals can compete in is a step forwards and should be more available. Many consider there to be over 100 gender identities, again an issue which not all agree with, but taking this into account, it is only fair to include them in sport while protecting biological sex. 

I know many hate pronouns, but it is polite to refer to someone by their preferred pronouns. I think it is wrong to ensure all make their preferred pronouns known, but I have no issue with someone letting us know how they would like to be referred to. If someone wants to be called Ms rather than Mrs or Miss, I respect that. I do not refer to Boris Johnson as Alexander (his given name) as he prefers Boris. There are many examples of other names. So when JK Rowling refers to a TransWoman as a man, that is rude and also inflammatory. 

DNA has to be respected, but within limits, so should identity. Rachel Dolezal, identified as black despite not being so. I do not respect the way she identifies as such. Genetically, it can be argued that our King is not English due to his father being born in Greece and the large amount of German DNA from his mother, but he is British. Bukayo Saka is English and British by birth, but I doubt he forgets that he is also Nigerian. 

Working to find the least unfair answer to the non-binary issues that gender identity brings up involves trying to be the better person and not giving into hate.

Islamophobia and Racism

There is an argument that Islamophobia is a type of racism.  There has been a rise in this before the October 7th attacks by Hamas, but this has increased much further since. In addition to this, there has also been a huge rise in antisemitic abuse in UK since that evil Hamas attack, probably because of the reaction by the current Israeli government and the civilians that they appear to be killing saying that they are terrorists. 

While being Jewish is to belong to a race, Hitler and the Nazi's showed that, Islam takes in people of any creed.  Due to this, being Islamophobic is not racism.  There was an argument that it was with the comments of Lee Anderson about Sadiq Khan being under the control of Islamists, but he also said that Starmer was.  In addition to this, a recent court case, while not based on Islamophobia, has shown that the Conservatives are more than willing to accuse anyone, white or not, of being led or in favour of extremists.

I do however think that there is a big overlap with racism and Islamophobia, but it should be mentioned that Islam faces unjust prejudice in the UK from various ethnic minorities. 

  

Our trip to Londonistan

We had a trip to London this weekend.  My son got to spend time in Spitalfields Market shopping for things and got things for his birthday which he wanted.  The dog was very tired by the end of it, though enjoyed spending time with us, though my daughter stayed in Colchester.  We also went to Brick Lane.  

While there, despite London being in the hands of Islamists, I ate pork and drank alcohol.  I saw loads doing the same.  Not sure how this was allowed considering the comments made by those on the right...