What does Labour stand for?

On Twitter recently I had a recent discussion about what Labour stood for.

Now one of the things of the leadership challenge by Owen Smith last year was that it allowed the message of Jeremy Corbyn to be shared properly. In order to win the election he had to share his vision on how Great Britain can be even greater and he won it by a bigger margin than before.  So I thought it would be easy to find what Labour stands for under Corbyn. But it was not and I had to see his campaign page to see his vision. So for those who want to know what Labour stands for, continue reading.

There is of course the question of how these things will be paid for, which sounds bad, but you have to remember that debt has increased due to austerity.

You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.

My Mum has kindly come up for half term which has meant that my wife and I were able to go out to a birthday party last night.  And we danced and danced and did I mention that we danced last night?  On the way to get my mother, while I was at work, my son, when playing Pokémon, dropped the iPhone of my wife, into a puddle.  Luckily he survived, as did the iPhone.  My Mum had brought up the kids a magnetic dart board which they were eager to play on, but I did not have the time to look at it.  I have to admit, when I heard that she had brought a dart board, I thought it was one with proper darts, and the images of darts in the head of my kids came to mind, but I should have had more faith in my mother.  After all, she brought up me and my two brothers, essentially by herself and we are intact still!

So this morning, we got things ready for lunch, and before lunch my mother and the kids went for a walk to the shops.  I keep trying to get them to exercise and while normally we would ride our bikes, I felt it was important to spend time with my mother.  Later today, we got to play darts, and though there was a slight argument doing so, things improved.  And we got to watch The Voice again.

And last of all, with chess, one more tournament has been completed since my last post on this topic.  This time, I finished at what I consider to be a respectable 167th, which does not sound too good, but it was in a tournament featuring 1419 players.  However, I have not done as well in my recent matches and my rating has dropped.  But I am still learning, as are the kids (though reluctantly).



And this might make you laugh.

A blonde stormed up to the front desk of the library and said, "I have a complaint!"
"Yes, ma'am?"
"I borrowed a book last week and it was horrible!"
"What was wrong with it?" asked the librarian.
"It had way too many characters and there was no plot whatsoever!"
The librarian nodded and said, "Ahh. You must be the person who took our phone book."

History in London

It has been interesting since my last week. On Wednesday, on the way to school I had arguments with both kids but my son had the more interesting one.  This resulted in me being in a very bad mood and I  had decided to ensure he learned his lesson when he got home. But on picking him up, later in the day, he showed that he had learned so much on the way home, that I told him I would suspend his punishment until the next day depending on his behaviour. And I have to say, he was brilliant for the rest of the day until he had to go to bed, and even then he was not that bad.

Today it was a trip to London for me for teaching where I was lucky enough to see an old friend in a break and catch up. Lunch was late and in East London which meant that I was in no mood to eat much at dinner.  Anyway now the kids are in bed and I am about to retire, crying myself to sleep over the Arsenal result.  But two more chess tournaments have been completed, one with me finishing a respectable 18th out of 1078 players, the other with me in the top half, finishing 45th out of 100 players.

My worse bike ride so far

Today has been interesting. In the morning after waking up, I started to watch Divergent.  For some reason, my daughter, who I offered to get her watch it, decided that she would rather be alone!  But later her and her brother came in and we had a great morning in bed together, all four of us and it was a very memorable time.

Later, she went on a bike ride with me.  She was not too keen on this at first, but later appeared to enjoy the thrill of riding a bike again.  My son on the other hand decided that he did not want to do this.  Now, my aim of getting them on their bikes is so that they get some exercise and become fitter.  She states that this has helped her with PE at school, and he, like his sister has improved when it comes to throwing, catching and hitting balls from when we practised during the summer holidays.  He went out, then decided to cycle slowly, and then got even worse, not being able to cycle along a path.  There were tears and tantrums with him throwing down his bike at one point.  And in the end, I lost me temper.  But one of the good things about his punishment is that our toilet is cleaner!

Later on, it was lunch with friends and a few episodes of Modern Family.  But despite what is probably my worst lunch ever, it was a really good day.

Beer glorious beer

It was the real ale festival in Colchester today. Held at the Arts Centre by Camra there was beer and lots of it.  My wife took me into town, but we arrived at the wrong time as it was very full. The kids left with my wife but then loads did as well and there was more room later. Next year I will need to arrive sooner...

Would you be tortured if it could save lives?

Torture has been in the news recently, but Trump has stated that it will not go ahead in the US.  There have been loads of arguments for it.  I have to say, that a terrorist who has murdered children deserves torture, but I have several concerns. One is the effect torture has on those interrogating suspects. The next is that one mans terrorist is a freedom fighter to another.  An example of this were the French Resistance in World War Two who were considered terrorists by the Germans and Vichy France.  And if torture against terrorists is okay, then the Nazi's were okay to torture them along with the members of resistance groups across occupied Europe.  Another example of this are the volunteers who are fighting in Syria against Unislamic State.  They are considered, by both Russia and Syria, to be terrorists. 

But the last is the risk of torturing innocents.  So my first question to those who back torture is this. Would you agree to be tortured for a week along with nine other terrorists to save the lives of others? Would you agree to have your child, or another loved one tortured knowing they were innocent, along with nine terrorists, so that the lives of others would be saved? Because when it comes to suspects, they are just that. Suspects.  And we know that we have tortured the innocent before.

The next refers to the volunteers who I mentioned before, fighting against Unislamic State.  Is it right for Russia and Syria to torture them if they are captured?

A flat day

The pictures are from last week.  I like them.  Back then, cycling to work in the freezing cold I had to stop to take a picture when in Castle Park.  On that day, the kids were behaving themselves mostly, though my daughter had been in a bad mood at the beginning of the walk to school.  But we had left with time to spare and the kids appreciated arriving early as that meant that they could talk to friends in the playground before school.  Before I got to work, I cycled to a nearby bicycle repair shop as my bike was very overdue a service.  And on collecting it, I really appreciated the difference the service made.  My brake pads were worn before, a light was not working and also in addition to this, my gears were sticking.  Having the bike serviced changed all that and also it rode better, which meant that I was able to cycle up hills that I had started to give up on!

On the weekend, my daughters fish tank was cleared. but we changed a lot of water, and due to concerns about the water temperature afterwards, we went to the pet shop to get a thermometer for Nevyn, the Siamese fighting fish.  He had not been named, so I named him after a favourite character from a series of books I read from years ago.  The kids are aware that they are not allowed to read them until the are aged over 18.  In fact, I would rather they read Game of Thrones before the Daggerspell series!  But going into the pet shop we ended up leaving with a hamster in addition to the thermometer.  His name is Ron, and he was named this in the shop.  He was up for adoption and we all loved him on seeing him.  He was the maddest hamster we have ever seen and this includes the Syrian hamsters that my wife had 20 years ago when we were going out with each other.  Ron though is a Roborovski hamster and is very fast.  I have seen him run on his wheel so fast, that when he stops he spins round 360 degrees (once this was 720 degrees as he spun round twice).  He has a tendency to nip when we put our hands in, but unlike the Syrian hamsters my wife had in the past, this one does not draw blood and only seems to bite to see what we are.

And today on cycling to my other job I found that I had a flat.  I had to stop in the town centre to pump some air in, and had to repeat this twice before I got my bike to the shop it had been in last week.  I am sad in that I can not even change a tyre, but to be fair, today I did not have the time as I needed to work.  But it is great to have the bike back.  Cycling was becoming a chore before, and now is fun again.  Part of me is tempted to think what it would be like with another bike, but I think I should be faithful to this one.  I had not treated it that well, and it has been true and faithful to me.  And I love riding on it, though that enjoyment had started to go before I had it serviced.  When cycling on Sunday to do paperwork, I had fun and on cycling back, I made it home in record time, and that included slowing for a Pokéstop!

Today, the kids have been very patient with me.  Last week, my son had to attend a hospital appointment.  This week we went to our GP surgery where I got something for one of the children.  The other was very curious to find out what it was, but on getting back, they put up with me and my various demands about them doing one thing or another.  And, with my son being unwell last week, both appear much better today, and long may that continue.