Jimmy Carr

First of all, not much an update on the children since earlier I the week.  I have been torturing them with this puzzle, but both have solved it now.  Leia is recovering well from her operation but is not yet back to normal.  I have been watching Killing Eve with my daughter. Not sure that it is appropriate for her to watch it, but if she does kill me in the future we can look back to this post to show that it was my own fault.

Onto Jimmy Carr.  He has been facing a lot of comments about his holocaust joke about Roma Gypsies.  I initially stated  that those who are outraged by it appeared okay with his jokes about rape, incest, cancer, race and abortion, but I remembered that those groups affected by his jokes have every right to be offended by him.  I also forgot that my wife does not find him funny, just as she does not find Frankie Boyle or Little Britain to be acceptable, stating that they are too cruel.  She has a point and we accept our differences with this, just as I accept that my children are unlikely to every like them as well. But, Jimmy Carr is an equal opportunity offender and no one is spared.  I do understand the outrage this week, but does that mean that those who are not affected by prejudice towards the Roma community or other travellers, were okay with his other jokes? 

Holding politicians to account

It has been an interesting time in UK politics.  Speaking to someone on Twitter, they stated that it us up to us to hold our politicians to a higher standard.

The problem is that the higher standard varies depending on the group.

We noted that in the UK, when it came to Brexit, that standard was to follow through on concerns about immigration, an issue that one of the pro-Brexit groups pushed in a manner based on that of the Nazi's.  While some issues on both sides were opinions, some issues were outright lies, notably the suggestion about NHS funding.  

However, in the UK, we are lucky in that QAnon is not as much of a factor here as it has been in the USA.  Politicians there are being held the the standard set by Q.  Personally, I think that Q is a Russian mole who has succeeded in hamstringing the USA and we saw how close Q came to the overthrow of Democracy in January 2021.  Now Republican politicians who try to meet the standards of decency that existed before Trump are considered to be traitors.  Instead, we have a situation where QAnon, which claims to be acting against a paedophilic ring are backing a politician who had allegedly trafficked a child themselves (though he stopped this once he was aware of her age, until she became legal according to his friend).

Just one thing though, I think that it is unfair to hold Boris Johnson to that higher standard.  He does not have the experience of having to cope with the consequences of this actions.  Throughout his life, he has managed to avoid true consequences for his actions. Although he has been fired twice for lying in the past, the process was not as drawn out as he is going through now.  While others would feel shame about lying to the nation, I honestly think that he is of the view that he has done nothing wrong, because, in his mind, he has done nothing wrong before.  

Valentine's Day, the 2010 film

Last night, after watching Runaway Bride, my daughter and I watched Valentines Day with Leia.  We wanted to ensure that she felt as if we were looking after her.  My daughter also had wanted to watch this film for a while anyway, I suspect because Taylor Swift is in it.  

I had watched this in the past and it was a film that I loved.  However, I forgot enough that lots of it surprised me.  My daughter did not like one part of the end, but I have to say that I loved it.  I am a soppy romantic and the simple message of this is that Love is Love.  And for the record, my favourite couple was on the plane.

I was concerned that Leia would be up all night as she slept a lot after her operation yesterday, but she had a peaceful night.  My only concern last night was that she had not done a wee or poo, but this morning on her very short walk, she opened her bowels.  Hopefully she will be fine.  Fingers crossed.

Runaway Bride

Before I review the film, an update on the family, and then a chat about PMQs.

As a family today has been a bit stressful. Leia had an operation. One of the conditions when we got her was that we would not breed from her. So today, she was sterilised.  We all live her and consider her to be such a good dog that we think that it is a shame that she cannot pass her genes on. She is calm, most of the time, listens (though could be better trained) and is so loving.  We know how Cockapoo’s can be from meeting others.  But after dropping my son off at school (he has not cycled in since he had COVID), I took her to the vet. She was growling at another dog while waiting in the car park, a huge one, but calmed down when I moved her forwards to sit next to me.  She was fine in the waiting room and only got nervous once in the treatment room. I was tearful telling her that I was sorry I stroked a cat yesterday and how much she has made me appreciate dogs.  

I worked from home afterwards and was more productive with no dog hassling me to get into the garden, but the house was empty without her. 

I did get to listen to PMQs where the Prime Minister dodged questions about this parties, refused to apologise about spreading fake news on Monday and when asked about people struggling to pay heating bills now to keep warm talked about Brexit!  Overall a poor performance from him, but he appeared to be buoyed by this ability to avoid consequences for his parties, and his lying being unchecked.

My son changed into his pyjamas after I collected him from school and would not change out of them.  Which meant that it was just my daughter and I who collected her. She appeared fine at first but started to whimper in the car. We had been told that she is not to run or jump and while we thought that this was impossible, she has been adorable as she has sat on us this evening. 

He completed his option choices and then we agreed to watch a film together, and my son stayed for the beginning. We thought it would be nice for Leia if we all stayed together but he left after dinner to do some homework. Instead my wife, daughter and I watched Runaway Bride.

I have to say, it was one of the better RomComs and I did enjoy it. Overall the message was that everyone can screw up, and the writing, directing and acting was brilliant. The chemistry between the two stars appears to have been the same as in another famous film starring the two.  I am glad that I watched it and I think that I may have not ever watched it before (I try to avoid RomComs normally).  One day, I may even be happy to watch it again and that would not be just because of the soundtrack.

Politicians and the truth

It is a sad state of affairs that a politician can repeatedly lie in parliament but if a politician calls them out on it, they are censured.  

Boris Johnson has rightly pointed out when this opponent Keir Starmer said something in parliament that was not true, this relating to the UK being part of the European Medicines Agency, something for which he has since apologised.  However, when he made an error about inflation in PMQ's, he did not apologise.  Yesterday, when challenged on the Sue Gray Report, our Prime Minister spread fake news.  

Ian Blackford, did not challenge him on this, but did so about this changing excuses for the Parties that he stated did not happen but attended not knowing that they were parties. He is not the first to do this.  Dawn Butler had done so before, and likewise, got into trouble for doing so.

So we are in a situation with UK politics, were our Prime Minister can lie in Parliament, and refuse to apologise if errors that he has spoken are brought up, but those who bring up the issue of how he is not honest do get into trouble.

I do not like it when people say all politicians lie.  But with rules like this, politicians are allowed to get away with doing so.

Cookies

My daughter made some amazing cookies yesterday for my birthday.  I was going to bring them into work to share but she hid them and I was not able to do so!  Git... 

My final birthday day (this year)

Quick post.  Dog walk in the morning, loved it, as did Leia though this was after my son had got up earlier and taken her out first thing.  A quick trip to work after.  And for lunch my gorgeous wife and I went to see Isabel and Tony.  The kids were left behind (and did not destroy the television).  It was good to meet up with them.  He would have seen them sooner after their return from the USA, but their children contracted the plague (and both have recovered well).  Great food, great company and a great end to the second of my birthday weekends!