Wishing for a Liverpool win

Sunderland fans may be thinking of how Leicester won the Premier League. I knew it would be a tough game and I would have grudgingly accepted a point if you asked me about this on Friday. But we drew and we still have a six point cushion at the top of the table, but that will only be so if Liverpool are able to take points from the team that rhymes with City. Fingers crossed… 

I normally do not know the score before I watch Match of the Day, but we had guests round for food, drink and a game of Linkee. Later their son joined us, a Chelski fan, who told me the result after I sang about being to of the league.

There are good things about the UK defence industry

Like it or not, a lot of the UK economy is dependent on thing which are not as ideal as we would like. Some of that is finance, which despite Brexit, still contributes huge amounts to the finances of the nation. 

Another contributor to the finances, both in taxes and jobs is defence. I do not like how we supply arms to nations like Israel (other than F35 parts) or how British weapons have been used to murder civilians in Sudan. An ethical foreign policy is hard to enforce however.

Your Party and the Greens feel that less should be spent on defence. My concerns are our ability to defend ourselves, but more importantly, our ability to defend our NATO allies. We cannot rely on the USA to protect us anymore, which means sadly, that I feel we need a nuclear deterrent, however one that does not depend on the USA. 

An example of how our weapons have been used to protect human rights and democracy is how they have been used in Ukraine. Without it, Russia would be finding it easier to invade its neighbour.

I am interested to hear the views of others on this and feel free to comment if you wish.

Families affected by the Hillsborough disaster where helped by the UK signing up to the ECHR. Is Farage right to want to leave it?

Nigel Farage, along with other politicians, want us to have less human rights than those in Europe.  The ECHR has been used to win cases for those seeking justice. The Hillsborough families were able to get justice because of our membership of the court.  

I like having human rights.  I do not want to have more human rights when on holiday in France, Italy or Spain than I have living in the UK.  I do think it needs reform, but that is best done with other members of the court, not by leaving it.

Farage brought about Brexit, which has damaged our nation.  He should not be allowed to harm our great country again. 

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

On Wednesday last week, my son and daughter were watching Scooby Doo. My wife and I joined them offering to watch the film from the beginning, the sequel or another film. They decided on Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. I have to admit that I watched it with low expectations, but my wife and I enjoyed it. I think that it was true to the cartoons, my wife did, and the children were both surprised that we liked it.  It is not a clever film, but it is true to Scooby-Doo. If you like the cartoon, you should like the film.

As for family, our daughter returned to Bristol on Friday. The kids got on well, it was nice to have her back at home, but the house appears quieter without her in it. If my son goes to university next year, I don’t know how we will adapt. 

Last of all, Arsenal, we are top of the league still. I went to work for a few hours yesterday and found this message on my desk. Someone was using the room for the flu clinic earlier in the day and must have loved the Arsenal clock and picture in the room! I have posted this on the work group chat but no one has owned up to this. Yet…

Farage, making excuses for Russia and how he admires Putin

Anyone who follows my blog will have worked out that I am not a fan of Nigel Farage. I think that Brexit has harmed our nation, so much so, that most political parties in Europe who wanted to leave the EU, seeing the damage it has caused the UK, have dropped this idea. Sadly, it looks like the man who sold us Brexit will be our next Prime Minister.

But, it looks as if Russia will be pleased if that happens. James O’Brien on LBC has spoken really well on this issue about his former colleague and there is a great video detailing how Nigel Farage appears to have made excuses for Russia and Putin.  To be fair, many on the left have said similar things, but those on the left who did so, do not have a colleague has pleaded guilty to bribery charges relating to statements in favour of Russia in the European parliament.   

Will Your Party be able to fight Labour after it stops fighting itself?

Zarah Sultana is reported as saying that she hopes Your Party will ultimately replace Labour and that the party is a vision for bringing about change in the long term.  That is just as well considering that it has been attacking itself again.  It may be that this is the last bit of drama, and I honestly hope it will be, but I suspect that there will be more issues to come.  

It is sad that they have fallen into infighting, an issue that plagued Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.  Though this time, people cannot blame Starmer for disloyalty and they need to think if there is a common denominator. I feel mean making that point as I honestly view Jeremy Corbyn as an honourable and decent man, but he is one who is just misguided on many issues. 

Update - after making this post, this video came out which I feel should be added to this blog post.  

Getting rid of Starmer and Rachel Reeves

As predicted, Labour lost the election in Wales, coming third.  Reform UK did very well, coming in second, though some argue that tactical voting meant that many loaned their vote to Plaid Cymru.  Labour are going to keep losing elections until it has managed to show that it can make the nation better.  I understand that many want the party to be more radical, but Labour was left a flaming turd of an economy by the Tories. Things are also going to be terrible in the local elections next year. 

No Labour MP wants to cut benefits for the elderly, no Labour MP wants to bring about benefit changes that will mean even more people use foodbanks.  But hard decisions have to be made.  Labour have missed out over a year of blaming the Tories for the state of the economy and the public sector, something the Tories did really well after they were elected in 2010.  

Labour have been terrible and stating what they have done for the nation, but few will believe them now.  Few politicians would be able to get the Trump Tariff rate that Starmer has without giving up a lot more. The only way I can see Labour remaining in power in the next General Election is to stick with Starmer and Rachel Reeves and deliver on change to improve our nation.  

A change of leader would indicate a change in the economic path that the UK is following.  Doing so would scare the markets, and that would mean even larger debt repayments.  I would rather that the money I pay in taxes went to helping our nation as opposed to going to bank shareholders. Due to this, no matter how bleak things will look, Labour needs to Stay on Target and complete the mission with the team they have.