A celebratory meal

 

We went out for a meal today as my son had got a distinction in his English oral exam. The Whalebone, where we ate was quiet, but the staff said that this was not because of the start of the Easter Holidays for many schools.

One of the staff has a brother who managed to get to Belgium for a school trip over this time, though like many, he had his trip delayed due to the queues at the border. When people have called for the government to stop the boats, I am sure that this was not what was envisioned! 

Yesterday we had been for drinks and food with Nick and Lyndsay which was a change from our normal routine. We might return tomorrow for the quiz they have. Though if we do go more regularly, I might need to conclude the discussion with one patron about politics. He had his views on refugees which I disagreed with. 

Finally, Arsenal. We needed to win after Liverpool had been soundly beaten in the earlier kick off. The victory against Leeds will help our goal difference as it is not too bad compared our closest rival. It was great to see Jesus playing well and his return maybe what is needed to help us if we are to win the title. Though it will be a tough game when we play Liverpool who will not want to lose two in a row. 

The Massacre of the Innocents (again)

 Let me start by saying that I respect the decision of Americans to value the right to bear arms over the lives of children, the deaths of whom are an acceptable price for guns being available.  I just do not understand it. 

Another school shooting has taken place in the USA.  I am sure that there will be people who will blame this on issues of mental health, or transgenderism, rather than the issue of having decent gun controls. Living in the UK, we have legal firearms here. My job includes among other things, 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 a mass shooting killing primary school children and their teacher, a ban on handguns was imposed. Years 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.

Basically, the only honest excuse for the USA allowing people to own more guns than the population of the USA is because guns are valued more than children.  I respect people who admit that, though obviously, I disagree with that equation.

And for those who point out the issues of knife crime in the UK, it is far easier to defend yourself from a knife than a gun.

Should the right to protest stop freedom of speech

I had been thinking about blogging about this in the past, but had got distracted and did not do so. Issues about this have been brought up by what happened in New Zealand last week.

A woman, linked to the Far Right, was meant to speak on matters relating to the areas where the rights of women and TransWomen collide and was prevented from doing so.  Allegations were made that violence occurred which have been denied by the side accused of this.  

This brings up an issue of where freedom of speech can be infringed by the right to protest.  This has happened in the past with Jacob Rees-Mogg (as well as others on the right). I will admit to laughing when Nick Griffin of the Far Right BNP was egged outside Parliament, and when Farage had a milkshake thrown over him. But such attacks are wrong and I understand why some subjected to this respond.

Basically, while I disagree with the far right, they have a right to free speech. Action taken by anyone to hinder free speech through violent protest, or drowning them out is wrong.  I would consider this wrong if anyone from the left was subjected to it, and the same applies to those I disagree with. 

While I agree that the anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, should be allowed to speak I find it hard to be vocal in defending her as I would do with others, mainly because of her links to the Far Right.  While JK Rowling has spoken out against this violation of free speech, I am going to sit this one out.

There have been some calls for women in this situation to have men protecting them against those Trans-Rights activists who would engage in the same behaviour.  Sadly, I suspect that there will be members of the Far Right who would be happy to protect them.    

The bottom line is that we do have a right to protest and should be allowed to engage in this, but we also have a right to free speech and the right to protest should not infringe the right to free speech.  

Hustle

 An interesting film which my wife and I watched yesterday. To be fair, I would not have picked it, and she picked it thinking that it was a different film! 

Normally films about US sports are not that relevant to me. Fever Pitch was different, only because I wanted to see how it compared to the original.

This was actually a decent film. It is strange to see Queen Latifah and Adam Sandler in their roles. Ultimately if I had watched this after reading the reviews, I may have been disappointed, but watching it expecting the worst, it was quite good.  However, if you do wish to watch it, do not watch the trailer as it gives away too much. 

Family wise, things were relaxing, mostly. It did involve a bit of cleaning and some paperwork but we had a chance to relax at the end of the day at least. 

Dogma

 My daughter and I watched this last night/early this morning. I have seen it before and loved it, I think, that despite her ideal wishes, my daughter liked it as well.

I understand why some considered this to be blasphemy but, I love the way it portrays God and religion. It did lead to an interesting discussion about the existence of God between us. My faith is easy to have considering how lucky I am in life, unlike the lead character in the film.

If you liked Clerks and Mallrats, this is a must see. If you did not, then avoid this like the plague. 

Anyway, back to the family. My wife took my daughter to Aylesbury to shop, my son staying at home with me before he met up with friends in town.. I had intended to catch up on work but needed to rest.

Let us see what tomorrow brings…

We need another investigation into Partygate

As has been posted before, there are concerns that Sue Gray was biased in her report into Partygate.  I do not think that is the case, but I agree that we should look at things again.

I had thought that the only person to have been fired as a result of this was Allegra Stratton (though technically she resigned). She had not attended the event in question, and when it came to jokes being made in the mock news conference, she was not the only person to be involved.  It later turned out that there was a quiz held at Downing Street, though as you can see from this link, it was claimed that there were no drinks. That claim unravelled when it was seen that there was a bottle of sparking wine present. 

I have since been reminded that there was another resignation, this being Shaun Bailey who resigned after breaking the rules by being at a work party.  

So while I had previously said that the only person to resign was a woman who had not attended a party, it turned out that a black man did so as well after attending one.

Boris Johnson has stated that he had been told that there were no parties. It later turned out that there was a garden event at Downing Street where people were asked to bring their own booze in May.  There had been one before on the 15th of May, but it could be more reasonably argued that although mixing was taking place, it was a work event.  

On the 18th of June, a work event took place with alcohol and a karaoke machine. The following day, the Prime Minister was ambushed with a cake.  While a violation, again I would have to say that this was a silly but more excusable breach of the guidelines. 

The most interesting one is the party of the 13th of November.  The PM had denied that an event took place when asked over a year later, but later it came out that he had attended it (though this may have been for a very short period of time) and the photos came out.

And of course, there was the quiz in Downing Street after all this.   

Yesterday there were people defending Boris Johnson saying that he had not misled Parliament.  Today he admitted he had done so, but did so in good faith.  I doubt that the Metropolitan Police would accept that excuse from someone who is black. 

Considering the lack of people being held accountable for this, I do think that this should be investigated again, and those who advised Boris Johnson that he was not breaking the law should be sacked for incompetence.

Yesterday was a busy day

My wife had a good day yesterday.  Last year, the children had not got her a card, this year, things were better as she got flowers, presents and a card. In work today, I have talked to other mothers and some had a great day, others not so much.  After my wife got her card we went to the Red Dog for breakfast and later had an amazing lunch at The Three Horseshoes. On getting back after lunch, she got her flowers and the children gave her the present they had got.

I had to miss the football as lunch was a late lunch but after, we went to see some friends and I got to watch some of the highlights of the victory of Arsenal against Crystal Palace.  I think that Palace were insane to fire Patrick Vieira before the match as with him in charge, the result may have been different with him being a former player.  We are now 20 points ahead of The Scum and eight points clear of The Team That Rhymes With City.  And with each game, I am actually becoming more nervous.