The Princess Diaries

I cannot believe that I forgot to mention in the blog that my son and I watched this on the weekend!  My wife and daughter were with us for the start, but both left for different reasons.  It was an enjoyable film.  Predictable with no real surprises, but it was great to see Mary Poppins back on screen again.  This is not a film I would take time out to watch again, nor would I have wanted to pay to watch in the cinema, but I am still glad that I watched this feelgood film and also am glad that I watched it with my son.  Though I have to admit, I forgot to ask him what he thought of it!  

As for today, I thought that I had been banned from Twitter when I was not able to make a post.  Later on, I found out that this appeared to be a system error.  Makes no difference to PMQ's later today as I have a work meeting when it is on, so I will miss it.  I doubt that it will be very interesting as Boris Johnson is to leave office and from the way it looks, we may be getting our first non-white Prime Minister!

To iron or not to iron

Yesterday, my wife went to her mothers and took my daughter with her. It had been an eventful day with a lost set of car keys as well as the heat. While they were away, I got a message from my daughter that she was reading my blog! Apparently, she likes the way I talk about her and my son on it, though she did say I have been nicer about them on the blog than I have been in real life! I am not sure if she has read my previous one however (I may one day put the posts on here).

This meant that I got to spend time with my son and our dog.  Despite the heat, Leia was keen to play fetch in the back garden with a ball, and later in the evening was looking at me with the "When are you take me on my walk" look.  My son and I have watched things together, though he got fed up waiting for me with Friends.  He managed to convince me to watch Grey's Anatomy.  I am fussy with medical drama's and I was a bit annoyed that this one was inaccurate at times.  Overall though, it appeared to get most things correct and I even learned something through watching one of the episodes.  I think that he liked watching it with me, and I know I loved spending time with him.  I did the ironing while this was going on, ironing some of his shirts, but I was not able to find his trousers.

We found them this morning though, they were still in the washing machine.  He had washed them, but had not taken them out and this morning was trying to dry them with a hair dryer.  With this heat, if he had taken them out last night, they would have been dry, and also, ironed.  Saying that, I do expect them to be dry by now, and in fact may have been dry by the time he got to school in them.  

Leave means leave

Not my title, but that of Dawn French.  I, like many in the nation, am not happy that Boris Johnson is still Prime Minister.  Rumours are present that he is because he has no where else to move to or that it is because he wanted his wedding party (a legal one this time) to be at Chequers.  The fact is though, that the man who has made numerous incompetent decisions is to remain in power for a bit longer.  

I was concerned that as he had not approached the Queen about this, that this would mean that he had no intention of resigning, but apparently, he has communicated his decision to the head of our state.  I suspect that there will be more controversy to come out before he leaves.  While the Conservatives are promising a new era in politics, they backed the serial liar who has caused us to have the 4th highest death rate due to COVID in Western Europe. 

Hot in the city

Wow! What a day. One child went to a sleep over last night and the other had an argument which carried over to today. That had to be resolved and that was an emotionally draining conversation.  Fortunately that appeared to resolve matters which was just as well as my wife and I met up with Lyndsay and Nick for drinks in the sun and food.

Getting back, we chilled and I took the dog out. It has been a sunny day and the aroma of barbecue’s was in many places, as was singing from a silent disco (how can anyone not sing to Mr Brightside) and later on the walk, music itself from another party.

Now to try to sleep…

An interesting view on PMQ's

This is an interesting video on PMQ's.  Not sure that many Conservatives will agree with it.  To be fair to Boris Johnson, his ability to communicate won him two elections to be London Mayor, one when there was a backlash against Labour, but the impressive victory he had was the second election during the coalition years.  Also his simple messages got him to win his huge victory in the general election of 2019, and while Corbyn was a factor in the sale of the win, his ability to get his message (or lies) across cannot be understated.

Self-identification sports and changing rooms

Our local boys grammar school has a mixed 6th form and an issue with Rape Culture and Sexual Harassment. Should we make it easier for the minority of men to harass the young women in Safe Spaces by misusing self-identification because the majority will not do so?  If so, should this apply to safe spaces like changing rooms and showers in schools?  That seems to be the call by some who argue that JK Rowling is a transphobe for raising concerns about this.

More students have spoken out about the "toxic" culture at Colchester Royal Grammar School.

Scarlett Mansfield wrote a blog post about her experiences https://t.co/oMRQ6miPzI pic.twitter.com/R7wMuXOTVZ

— BBC Essex (@BBCEssex) May 20, 2021

I bring up the issue again after watching the victory of England over Austria last night. Women's football is different to that of Men's game and I did think back to a video about Tans-inclusion in sport, as to if they should include Transwomen to improve the chances of success.  For many sports, being born male gives advantages. As seen with Isazc Henig, this is not always the case. But women can end up being injured as a result of being up against someone born male. 

I know that I am considered by many to be a Transphobe as I consider TransWomen to be TransWomen, TransMen to be TransMen, Women to be Women and Men to be Men.  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 but I do think that in many cases, those who are Trans 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 have lived as women for some time 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.

PMQ's and memories or the lack of them

I have just finished watching PMQs with my daughter.  She is considering studying politics when she is a Sixth Former so I took a break from work to watch it.  She became a bit animated when doing so, mainly due to the distortion of the truth that took place.  She was not happy that clapping is not allowed in Parliament and also that Boris Johnson can lie in Parliament, but cannot be called a liar.

The issue of groping came up, but the simple fact is that Boris Johnson has a poor memory when it comes to allegations involving this.  Not just with Chris Pincher, but if people remember correctly, Boris himself was accused of groping Charlotte Edwardes but stated that he had no memory of the lunch when this was meant to have occurred.  Boris himself has said that he cannot change, and this seems to be the case considering that Charlotte Edwards was not the only woman to accuse Boris Johnson of the same. 

I believe her when it comes to Boris and his hands, not just her, but both the women.