PMQs and resignations

As predicted last week, Nadhim Zahawi has resigned but Richard Sharp has managed to keep his job. Starmer righty focused on when the PM was made aware of the allegations that Nadhim Zahawi had concerns about his tax payments considering that they had been raised in July last year.  He then moved onto the allegations of bullying but I think that he missed the opportunity to ask why Richard Sharp is in his job despite not raising the issues he had with helping the then PM get a loan.  Both needed full disclosure for their jobs. The only reason I can see is that Richard Sharp is still being investigated. If he is not sacked, it will be interesting to see the reason or reasons why. 

Hulk smash!

Today was fun.  We went to a rage room this morning and out for lunch at the Sun in Feering.  I thought that both kids would love the rage room but one decided to retire from it, while the other continued to smash and enjoy themselves.  I think that when in there, I broke one of the bats that is used.  Lunch was great and afterwards we chilled preparing for a week of work to come.

Out of the FA cup

It is not fair, we are out of the cup. It is sponsored by Emirates.  I did expect that we were to leave, but with our recent results, I thought that we had a chance, and from the highlights of the game that I have seen, we had a chance of winning this.  But we are out and we have to hope that ManUre do not win this and come to one win to equal our record.  

I am now hopeful that we do not throw away out five point lead that we have in the league the way we did back in the past. 

Anyway, family wise, I have been out for a lovely meal with my wife and two friends and my wife and I have just walked the dog together. My daughter had a friend round and my son who was looking after the dog has retired to bed.

Shotgun Wedding

That was an interesting film. We watched it as a family, my two teenagers liking parts of it and while we enjoyed it, I enjoyed it the least.

As a film, it was fun and flows well for a romcom, though the flow starts to fray a bit towards the end. If you are after surprises, it has a few, but overall, a lot of the film, notably at the end, is too predictable to be truly enjoyable. But I sound harsh as I am glad we watched it as a family and while this is not a film I would have picked out, I am glad that my wife did.

PMQs and gender (again)

Today PMQs, as expected focused on corruption, or the appearance of it in the Conservative Party. Keir Starmer started asking about the probation service and then moved on to tax issues. The answers in general were to be expected, but the one that stood out was the denial of Rishi Sunak over knowledge about the tax affairs of the former chancellor. Officials raised a ‘flag’ over Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs before he was appointed chancellor, which means that Rishi Sunak is lying about Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs or someone made a big error by not telling him about this.

Before watching PMQs, I watched Politics Live which discussed gender. My views have changed again, I feel that safe spaces such as toilets etc, should be genitalia based even if they have a gender recognition certificate. It is not just the recent case of the rapist Adam Graham (now known as Isla Bryson), who I suspect is not Transgender but is a predator pretending to be one so that they can continue to hunt prey once incarcerated. It is also that some men will want to exploit rules so that they can expose themselves. We are moving to a situation where women, who are being sent too many explicit images, will have to face up to seeing male genitalia in spaces like changing rooms. 

In my work, I sadly come across too many people who 'game' the system to act within the law but in a morally reprehensible manner, and in most cases, the person who is doing so is male, the victim being female.  

I do not consider predators like Adam Graham/Isla Bryson, Karen White/Stephen Wood or Katie Dolatowski to be TransWomen, I consider them to be men pretending to be TransWomen so that they can hunt.  I have disagreements on Twitter about this before, but I think that it is wrong to compare them to real TransWomen like Rebecca Root or Yasmin Finney. 

My views on safe spaces such as toilets have fluctuated over time and will probably change again.  I am genuinely interested in views on this, but sadly, debate on this is rarely civil. 

Corruption (again)

The UK has been hit by revelations of corruption again, twice. I doubt that Nadhim Zahawi can survive his tax row inquiry though the BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, probably will make it. The common factor with all this is Boris Johnson. 

Boris Johnson is the one who took out the loan, he is the one who appointed Richard Sharp, and he is the one who made Nadhim Zahawi chancellor. Issues had been raised before this appointment and if Rishi Sunak had not been told about them, why has be not been told about them? 

Rishi Sunak should take action though, this being to sack both. I doubt he will. 

Bullying in politics

I was watching VEEP with my daughter and asked her which character from political shows like this that she would like to be. She said Malcolm Tucker. I did express surprise at this, but was too scared to tell her that this meant she wanted to be Priti Patel. She rarely reads this so I will be safe to make this comment on the blog! 

To be fair to Priti Patel, it is not just her who has faced allegations of being a bully, the difference is that she has been found guilty of this.  When The Thick of It was filmed at the end of Labour being in office, bullying was being cracked down on outside politics.  I myself engaged in bullying behaviour when I was younger, back in the 1990's and I understand that my actions then were wrong.  But times have rightly changed and my daughters wish to be Malcolm Tucker should never be realised.