The Shard

My wife used up our Expedia points so that she could take us to an amazing night at The Shard. It was a late anniversary present, and also my Christmas and birthday present.

We drove there and we were met with a great view when we entered. The picture does no do it justice. The view was actually better today (the picture is from yesterday) as the sun was shining this morning. I am sad to admit, that in addition to looking at the Thames and the various buildings, I also spent time watching the trains. My wife dragged me away from watching the real life train set and we went upstairs to the cocktail bar. We watched the reflection of the sunset in the buildings as we savoured our cocktails. 

After getting ready in our room, it was dinner and watching night fall across London. Dinner involved interesting flavours at the start and later a fabulous fish dish and astounding stake. Sadly my wife was not to finish hers, so I got to eat that!

Breakfast the following morning was great, the sun shining made the view even better. Our drive back home to reality did involve some traffic as well as watching the police rush into deal with the right wing protest against people marching for an armistice on Armistice Day. We did not get back for the minute’s silence, something which I hoped would have more relevance to my son who has just got back from Ypres, in Belgium, being taken through the remnants of the trenches and seeing the war graves as part of a school trip.

Marching on Armistice Day for an Armistice

A lot of debate has been taking place about if a march on November the 11th is appropriate or not.  The title of this post is the best answer so far.  I do not agree with everything that has been said by the Barnaby Raine in his interview with Rees-Mogg, but his line about this is undisputable.

Starmer and leadership

Not sure that this is the best advert for Labour when Starmer may need to back down over his stance on Gaza.  I have to admit, I am not sure what the least worst action is with Gaza and I do have sympathy for Starmer over the resignations that he has faced.

I do want to know what the proposed solution that those who want a ceasefire is when it comes to Hamas and the way they have attacked and have continued to attack Israel.   

Electoral reform and Proportional Representation in the UK

My daughter and I had a disagreement over this today.  My daughter is in favour of proportional representation.  I am not. 

Rather, in an ideal world, I would be, but considering how our nation has voted in the European Elections, the elections closest to it, I would rather keep the current system.  

In summary, other than the last European Elections, the right have won over 50% of the vote in the last few elections.  

In 2014, a combination of UKIP, the Conservatives got over 50.% of the vote, Nigel Farage getting the most votes as part of UKIP (he got most of the notes in the 2019 elections with the Brexit Party).  

In 2009, the Conservatives got the highest vote margin with 27.4% of the vote, UKIP coming second with 16.5%.  With the 6.2% of the vote that the BNP got, that meant that those on the right would have got over 50% of the total vote.  In that election, we sent two far right BNP politicians to represent us in the European Parliament.

And of course, there was the Brexit vote, with over 50% voting to impose economic sanctions on the UK.

In addition to this, if you look at polling, it can be argued that the people want the death penalty to be brought back. Also there is the support that Suella Braverman has over Asylum Seekers crossing The English Channel.

My daughter feels that we should look to Scotland which has PR and has not voted for right wing extremists, but Scotland is more left wing than England.  

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Kristallnacht. My daughter would vote for a system that I fear could bring that to the UK.  While many may think that I am being over dramatic, Italy have a far-right leader, and the same system has put similar politicians into high office in Israel.  And now we have GBeebies and TalkTV to sell us the lies that those on the right love to feed us.   

A peace dividend

When I went to Sri Lanka and travelled to Jaffna, I was amazed at the quality of the roads there.  What happened to the Tamil people at the end of the war was barbaric, just like Black July was.  Hopefully, with the economic development that has taken place in the North and the East of the Island, civil war will not return.  Just like I hope this is the case in Northern Ireland.  Basically, people have gained through peace and have too much to lose.

Sadly, this has not been the case for Palestinians.  Since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, Palestinians have lost land in the West Bank and Settlers attack them with no consequences.  Negotiations have failed them.  Put simply, the attacks of October the 7th were evil and cannot be defended. But Christians and Muslims living in the West Bank see that settlers can carry out attacks on a smaller scale, and the Settlers who carry out the attacks face no consequences for this. 

If Israel wants peace, it either has to engage in ethnic cleansing (again) or it has to make it that Palestinians do not lose out by choosing peace. 

VAR, Arsenal and Newcastle

We were robbed.  When Newcastle scored their goal, they had kept the ball in play (even though some images imply otherwise) and they were onside, but Joelinton had committed a foul while challenging Gabriel in the penalty box.  A draw would not have been enough but it would have been one point rather than none.  Tomorrow we are going to fall even further behind The Scum when they beat Chelski.  

Eddie Nketiah

I have just finished watching the Arsenal game. The commentators were singing the praises of Eddie Nketiah on Match of the Day. I have discussed him with friends and my view is that he is perfect for games such as these. We have seen that he has a lot of potential but in previous seasons he has failed to play at such a level in a more consistent manner when the pressure is on. 

With Kai Havertz around, competition for places and goals will be tough. Nketiah has the goals a striker needs under his belt, the question is if he will continue to score in bigger games against tougher opponents.