Testing

Again, another meal out for my wife and I last night. She had been working hard, and I had been working as well, but had spent time trying to avoid one particular bit of work which is past its deadline. We took Leia with us, which was just as well as we were not too sure the children would look after her. 

 

They had done well themselves, both having had tests yesterday and both doing well with them. So I cannot be too mean considering how proud I am of them both. My daughter was being a counsellor for a friend and my son escaped me going through his room with a bin bag while he was at school as he had left his room in an almost acceptable state.  Well, at least the floor!  I also owed my son an apology and sent one this morning.  Yesterday I came out of the house to find that my car was covered in a dried red liquid.  My son said it was mud rain, I told him he must be mad.  Well he was right and I was wrong and I sent him a message saying so this morning. I doubt that he will read it as he appears to ignore my text messages!

 

Of course, I wish Arsenal had done as well as they did last night as they lost. I did not really get to find out until I got to work this morning. Apparently we played well. But as much as I would like Arsenal to win, I preferred the time spent with my wife.

What first attracted the Prime Minister to the billionaire Russian oligarchs?

An interesting PMQs today, or rather, a Deputy Prime Ministers Questions. Dominic Raab consistently blamed the last Labour government (elected out of office in 2010) or would mention Jeremy Corbyn when asked questions. The best question however was asked by Matt Western. It started off slow, but delivered a killer line. One for which there is no answer as the Conservatives are flush with money from those of Russian heritage. As before, the Conservatives mentioned employment, but MP's appear to have forgotten that In Work Poverty was at record levels last year, that before the rise in the cost of living. Also, ample opportunities to ask for a full version of the Russia Report to be published were missed.

The Cash-for-Honours scandal with a Soviet tint

 

During the last few years of the leadership of Tony Blair, there was an issue over Cash-for-Honours. It tainted politics and rightly raised the question over the need for an elected second house to replace the current system of the House of Lords. If membership to the house of Lords was being given for loans to the Labour Party, that was wrong and can never be excused. But, none of those lords were felt to be a security risk. Unlike the allegations with Baron Lebedev, of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation. It may be that he is innocent of the allegations made against him, which I suspect relate to his father, a former Soviet agent but also owner of the independent. What Labour did was wrong, but pales into nothing compared to these allegations!  While our Prime Minister has said he has done nothing wrong, this is a man who did not recognise that he was hosting a party or had been in one on several occasions.  

Not sure why I have posted the videos about oligarchs taking out court cases to suppress media freedom here though.

 

We beat Leicester!

What a game and what a result. It was good to see us play against a team that finished three places above us last season and play well. Yes we had home advantage, but our players appear to be better now that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has left. Do not get me wrong I am grateful for what Aubameyang did for us, but it was time for him to leave. Hopefully, this will mean that we will finish in the top four, but it is too soon to say.

I remember the beginning of the season where I would have been happy to finish in the top half of the table.  Having the chance to finish in the top four is not something I would have thought possible in December!

The Adam Project

I liked the film. Any film with Ryan Reynolds is statistially more likely to be a good one (though saying that, I have refused to watch The Green Lantern). His character had many great lines, as did the younger version of himself. As an action film, it was loads of fun, and my wife and I both enjoyed it. However, when it came to science and how some items were affected by a magnetic field and others were not, it was poo as there was no consistency with this. Would I watch it again? Yes, but probably not more than once. The best bit of the film was watching it with my wife.

Is Richard Wilkins III a GOP politician?

Before I share my view on this, an update on today. 

This morning I took Leia for a walk, this not being our usual one, but one in Highwoods park, an area she loves.  We have not been back here in a while but her love of the park is in diminished.  After about two hours, we went back home.

Once back, I washed her and my wife came downstairs to dry her. A trip for brunch then took place with my daughter and I foraging for supplies and during this, she got a bit stressed that she was not able to listen to her music due to a telephone call, and me, being the supportive father that I am just laughed.

Later, my wife, daughter and Michelle (a family friend) went to the Red Dog for dinner. My son decided that he wanted to be alone so we left him.  It was nice to be out and on getting back, my daughter who had been revising went to bed while my son and I watched Graduation, the end of this series of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  It was while watching that, that I started to wonder if the Mayor is a member of the GOP. He certainly is committed to family values! 

PMQs yesterday and making refugees welcome

Yesterday, PMQ's was another episode where the truth appeared to be a rare commodity on the Conservative benches. Keir Starmer raised the issue of rising energy bills, a very important matter considering our record levels of in work poverty. Boris Johnson decided to bring up the matter of Labour not investing in nuclear power, forgetting that Labour have been out of office since 2010 and the nation has had ample opportunity to invest in green energy more than it has so far. Keir Starmer has called upon the government to U-turn on the matter of the energy bill loan that consumers will have to pay. The issue of the record profits for companies taking fossil fuels out of the ground was brought up, but Boris Johnson refused to commit to a windfall tax.  

Later in PMQ's, the issue of refugees was discussed.  Our Prime Minister answered a question about the appalling way we have acted and stated that we have done more to resettle people since 2015.  Which does not appear to be true.

I am hoping that the UK will do more to help those fleeing Putin's War.  Hopefully action will match rhetoric.