Day two in Gloucestershire

Before I get onto what we have done on holiday, I have to laugh at the expense of our rivals.  Yes, our season was not what we hoped it would be at the beginning of the year, but, it was still better than we had dreamed about at the start of the season. Anyway another generation of Arsenal fans will know the disappointment of what it is to be an Arsenal fan of old.

But, that is not the reason that I mentioned football. The reason I brought this up is because The Scum, also known as Tottenham Hotspur’s, have lost out on a manager. “People felt that Antonio Conte was on his way out anyway but let's not forget when he was dismissed they were three points off third and now they've finished eighth and out of Europe," said Phil Parry of BBC London. I am sure that they will sign a manager, but attracting decent players will be harder without one, and misfortune for our rivals will bring a smile to my face.

Now, family news, we were to travel to Cheltenham today but due to traffic issues we visited Cirencester instead. We have not been here before and it was a lovely place to visit. This evening I spent time losing to my son at Mario Kart and now, I am to take the dog out on a walk. 

Day one in Gloucestershire

It is the first day of our holiday in Gloucestershire. When younger at secondary school the house I was in was Gloucester so I have had a soft spot for the area. My wife and I have been in the area before and have been in the county when my daughter was in a pushchair. 

The place is amazing. It is a holiday village and we are here with an old friend David. He has brought his dog Whitworth. Leia has met him before when he came to visit us in Colchester and while he kept trying to hump her, she spent the time taunting her and running in the garden. Today, they appear to have decided that she is above him in the pecking order and she has been getting him to chase after her. She is a bit territorial still and does not like us giving him attention. It has been loads of fun watching them play though but both are knackered.

Tomorrow they will be walking about in Cheltenham, well, that is the plan. Hopefully the weather will be as good as it has been today.

Cycling, women's sports and having an open category

Cycling is in the news today due to a ban on TransWomen competing in Women's cycling in competitive UK events.  

I understand that Emily Bridges is feeling angry about this, especially considering how she has had to overcome barriers to cycle against women. I do have to disagree with the way she called the policy a “violent act” and accused the governing body of “furthering a genocide against us” as these acts are not acts of genocide.  I do not pretend to know everything about the differences in biology between a Woman, a TransWoman, a TransMan and a Man when it comes to sport, but I do know that there are differences.

I guess it comes down to if you consider a TransWoman to be a Woman.  I do not.  I consider a TransWoman to be a TransWoman, some of whom have kept the genitalia they were born with, others have had surgery to correct that.  If you consider a TransWoman to be a Woman, then there is no reason for a TransWomen to ever be in a Mans prison, even if found guilty of rape. 

  

   

We should make it even more likely that you are to be treated by an immigrant than be in the queue behind one

We need a sensible discussion about immigration.  Specifically, we need a discussion about immigration and the NHS.  In order to solve the retention and recruitment issues in the NHS, not only do we need to pay staff better wages, we need to improve working conditions.  And part of that means solving issues with not having enough staff.  

The government keep saying that more staff are coming, look at the promises made, and broken about the numbers of GP's in 2015 as well as the subsequent promise made in the 2019 election.  So we have to accept that the government policy is not working. 

When Labour was running the NHS, it increased numbers of staff quickly by recruiting from abroad in the way that Australia, Canada and New Zealand do so now with NHS staff.  We can say no more immigrants, or we can have a decent points based system in addition to making things better for NHS staff to solve the staffing issues faced.    

Jeremy Corbyn, antisemitism and increasing the Labour vote

In my discussions on Twitter, I often am often presented with two facts, about Jeremy Corbyn, one is that he increased the Labour vote when Labour leader, the other is that he is not an anti-Semite. 

This list about Corbyn was copied and pasted from someone I know on Facebook and has been posted by me before detailing the actions that he took to combat antisemitism. 

1990 - Signed a motion condemning the publication of anti-Semitic materials in the UK 

2003 - Signed a motion condemning attacks on two synagogues 

2009 - Signed a motion condemning the publication of anti-Semitic material on the internet. 

2010 - Signed a motion praising Jewish News for investigating anti-Semitism on Facebook 

2010 - Praises the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for his efforts to secure a two-state solution to the Israeli/Arab conflict. 

2012 - Condemns the BBC for cutting a Jewish made programme for the Jewish community. 

2013 - Signed a motion condemning anti-Semitism in sport. 

2014 - Signed a motion commemorating the holocaust and genocide of the Jewish people during WW2. 

2015 - Praises The London Jewish Forum for standing up to racists marches through their community. 

Yes, he has written a glowing foreword in a book that has raised concerns by the Jewish community and also praised an artist later accused of anti-Semitism over a mural.  But when it came to the mural, once pointed out, I could see why it caused offence, but until then, I saw nothing wrong with hit.

My concerns with Corbyn when it comes to anti-Semitism relate to his comments about the EHRC report but also his failure to act on the findings of the Chakrabarti Inquiry. His statement about the EHRC report writing that "the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media" would have carried more weight if he had carried out the findings of the Chakrabarti Report which include the following.

Abusive references to any particular person or group based on actual or perceived physical characteristics and racial or religious tropes and stereotypes, should have no place in Labour Party discourse. These epithets includes terms such as "Zio" and "Paki."

Labour members should resist the use of Hitler, Nazi and Holocaust metaphors, distortions and comparisons in debates about Israel-Palestine in particular. 

There should be procedural rule changes to improve the party's disciplinary process and the adoption and publication of a complaints procedure. 

The appointment of a general counsel to the Labour Party to give advice on issues including disciplinary matters and to take responsibility for instructing external lawyers. 

The party should increase the ethnic diversity of its staff. 

The report rejects the idea of a lifetime membership ban from the party for anyone deemed to have used racist language, and suggests no retrospective action i.e. against comments made prior to the inquiry. 

Do I think that he is anti-Semitic, no.  But too many people, including Nick Griffin, former leader of the far-right BNP do, or did at the time, and MP's were offered support about this perceived stance.  

Next, is the increase in votes that Labour got under Corbyn.  

In 2017, the votes Labour got under Corbyn increased from to 9,347,273 in 2015 to 12,817,918.  This fell in 2019 to 10,269,051 however as many Labour voters switched to the Conservatives and the SNP. 

Over the same time, the Conservatives also increased the votes they got. They polled 11,299,609 in 2015 when they won a majority and increased this to 13,636,684 in 2017 though they had to form an agreement with the DUP to avoid a hung parliament.  In 2019, this vote increased to 13,966,454 when the Conservatives won a huge landslide victory.  

Yes, Labour has lost members now Corbyn is no longer leader, and yes, it will lose many votes from those who were on the left of the party, but as shown in 2019, elections are won by getting people to switch their votes.  Labour have to appeal to voters from other parties to win in the next election.  

A A Girl

My daughter is (rightfully) very pleased with herself. She has had two of her mock A-Level papers back and has got one A & one A* so far. She has one paper left to be marked if I am correct. I guess I will find out more when I get back home. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Yesterday, after collecting Leia from the dog sitter, my wife, daughter and I went home, had breakfast and the entire family decided to watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. I had mentioned that we should have watched it on Saturday, as we were dog free at the time, but most were too tired for this. I did feel mean leaving Leia behind who watched us abandon her (again) as we all left for the cinema.   Things were made worse when we watched the film, not just because of Cosmo the space-dog, but also the eyes of Rocket.

The film itself was very enjoyable.  There were a few minor issues for me, notably a head growing back so quickly and also ALL the survivors of a badly damaged vessel being rescued with just one casualty.  It had a decent plot, a great soundtrack and as usual, I love the characters. Although Gamora was a bit irritating, she was meant to be.  I look forwards to the opportunity to watch it again.

My daughter took Leia out for a long walk and the dog herself was tired by the time my wife and I went to join Lyndsay and Nick.  My daughter joined us for the pub quiz and helped us take third place, which is a record for us. We are never going to win the quiz, but it is fun to take part in it, and it is well run as while the winning team win a prize, there is a bonus prize which all teams have a chance of winning as well.  

If you are interested in watching the film, it is best to avoid the trailer.  As with many trailers, while fun, the film is best watched without seeing the trailer first.