Thursday morning update

The children appear to be enjoying half term.  My wife has taken time off to look after them, though she may need a holiday after this.  On Tuesday they had gone shopping with her, which meant that Leia was at the dog sitters until yesterday when my son and wife collected her.  Needless to say, the dog was very happy to be back home.  I did go to the shops with my son so that he could cook dinner.  Normally he is very good at making Katsu Curry, but his efforts yesterday were sadly not up to his normal standard.  I have bought pumpkins for them to paint, but the condition of him having it is that his room is tidy, which has meant that his pumpkin is still in the back of my car!  Hopefully that will change.

The picture is from my morning walk today with Leia.  Finally, remember that in the run up to Halloween, a witch is not just for that one day, but is meant to be scary all year long!

PMQ’s and accountability

Rishi Sunak pledged that his government will have “accountability” in his first speech as prime minister yesterday.  After that, he reappointed Suella Braverman as Home Secretary.  Bernard Jenkin had quite rightly pointed out that The Dark Lord, Peter Mandelson was brought back into the government after having to resign, twice, but while his reappointment was morally indefensible, it was not the week after he was forced to resign. 

Also he did not resign talking about accountability, was not taken back the day after talking about being accountable and I am not aware of him hiding from Yvette Cooper asking an urgent question to hold them to account.  Sunak defended her appointment before then in PMQ’s when asked about her appointment. I was not able to watch it live due to my work, but my daughter watched it and said that Starmer did well.  I did watch it later and have to agree with her.

Steve Barclay and the NHS

Earlier on this year, Steve Barclay, the man now in charge of the NHS, was heckled by a lady who said that he had done nothing about the ambulance service.  She was wrong.  Under the Conservatives our ambulance response times have got worse.  This is nothing to do with those working for the ambulance service, this is to do with paramedics having to wait at hospitals to hand over patients to hospital staff because there is no room in the hospitals for new patients to be admitted. 

What a goal!

Granit Xhaka scored an amazing goal yesterday. Watching the highlights, we should have had a penalty in the first half and should have had more goals, but Southampton appeared to have had more input in the second half and put us under pressure and while Southampton scored a great goal, better defending as a team could have stopped that. Still, we are top of the league, but we could and should have come away with three points.

Rishi Sunak, racism and the Conservative party

My wife has just told me that Boris Johnson is not to stand for Conservative leader.  That is bad news for Labour as him being in charge of the Conservatives would result in a return to the numerous lies that caused him to resign before.  

This means that the options are Penny Mordaunt or Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister.  As a Labour voter, the one I fear the most is Penny Mordaunt, she is a brilliant communicator.  While not as good as Boris Johnson in communication, she carries an air of competence.  

The one I fear the least is Rishi Sunak and the reason for this is simple, it is racism.  Not everyone who is against him will be driven by this, but a significant number will be driven by unconscious bias or outright racism.  Earlier today we watched this clip on YouTube when the reason for this voter not voting for Rishi Sunak is racism, though later, they managed to find other excuses not to back him.  No matter how good Rishi Sunak is, there is a large number of people who will not vote for him due to the colour of his skin.  

For the record, Rishi Sunak is British.  I would like to remind anyone who reads this that our King is the son of an immigrant, one who served our nation along with many others. We have members of Team GB who are not white and if Rishi Sunak is not British, those athletes such as Denise Lewis who have won medals for the United Kingdom have actually won it for other nations.

Could my blog embarrass my children?

Apparently another of my daughters friends has found my blog. Will it change what I post? No.  Friends of hers have found it before and that did not change anything. As people have noticed it is anonymous and when comments have been made that provide too much information about me or my family, they end up not published. The difference of course is the bond between her friend and me, but that is a different story for another day.

We have been out to celebrate her birthday and have been to Lucca in Manningtree which we all loved.  We have celebrated many an occasion there and there is no doubt that we will return.

Today has been a day of relaxing. Leia had diarrhoea in her crate yesterday which my fantastic wife had to clear up as I had to get to work. Today she seemed to be fine and enjoyed herself but sadly threw up later in the afternoon. She appears to be back to normal and fingers crossed this stays like this.

Kherson

The Russians are leaving. There are concerns about this when they retreat from Kherson. Is the evacuation of civilians a use of a human shield to enable Russian soldiers to flee? Is it because they are to use nuclear weapons to defend it? Is it because they are to destroy the Kakhovka dam? 

At present the Russian mobilisation appears to be using up Ukrainian ammunition as men are sent forwards to die. The human wave policy may work, I hope not.