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.

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.