Top gun Maverick & Love Island again

My back is almost normal, just the occasional twinge.  Watched Maverick again, this time with my daughter, and later, watched Love Island with Leia, my wife and daughter after walking Leia.  My daughter preferred Maverick to the original Top Gun which she hates.  Although she has yet to finish watching it, she was watched more of it than my son who refuses to do so.  I still loved it the second time, but not as much as the original.  I do think that it is best watched after watching the original, but the way the film is done, that is not compulsory.

As for Love Island, my wife got annoyed with me when watching it, so I kept quiet while doing so.  It will be interesting watching the group dynamics play out now that two of the men have opted to change partners (Davide had to change once his partner was taken away from him by another).  I cannot believe that my family have got me to watch it! 

My first experience of Love Island (this year)

My wife made me promise to watch this with my daughter today.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Watching the group dynamics was interesting. As for who I want to win? Who cares?

At least the plastic surgery and fillers are not as obvious this year.  I constantly moaned about the work done on the women of it last year.

PMQ’s, COVID and the NHS

In Prime Ministers Questions today, the comments of Nadine Dorries about how the nations preparations for a pandemic were “found wanting and inadequate” were brought up.  As discussed earlier in the week, the government had warning shots with Exercise Cygnus and Exercise Alice that the UK was not as prepared for a pandemic as we should have been.  Most Conservatives do not wish to bring this up, but Nadine Dorries did.

Yes, Boris Johnson did ensure that we got enough vaccines, but he was wrong to say that the UK got the first vaccine approval.  In June 2020, China approved a vaccine for emergency use in high risk occupations, Russia approving one in August for emergency use, this being the case in the UAE in September 2020 and in November, Bahrain. He was right to point out that the UK does not have the highest death rate in Europe (it is the 4th highest in Western Europe), but we do have the highest numbers of dead in Europe (not counting Russia which is both in Europe and Asia).  

The issue of the NHS was brought up with problems accessing a GP.  Cancer treatment times were also discussed, but the best performance from Starmer happened when he followed the example of Jeremy Corbyn and named people when it came to waiting for surgery along with also ambulance waits.  

Sadly, I did not get to watch the rest of PMQ's, even though I watched this after the show, so I do not know if there were any other highlights worth discussing.

On a personal note, my back is starting to improve and I only have pains on occasion.

Back pain

I have been off work with backpain today.  I had got up and was fine, but my back went before I got into the shower.  I have to say it was like a spasm on certain movements and when I first had it, it literally hurt to breathe.  My wife was amazing, but my daughter came up to laugh at me in the morning before heading off to her Maths exam.  My son has not been that supportive either, calling me old man.  Needless to say, I had to take the day off work but managed to do a little bit from home.

I have just got back from taking the dog for a walk and this appears to have helped my back.  Here is hoping it gets even better after a night of rest.

Boris Johnson and his vote of confidence

Jacob Rees-Mogg, 

Dec 12, 2018: “This is a very bad result for the prime minister, 117 votes against her…… much worse than she thought” 

June 7, 2022: "It was a good victory for the Prime Minister, he won comfortably and now he is getting on with business"

PMQ's tomorrow is going to be interesting.  211 votes to back him, 148 against.  The numbers cannot be directly compared to what happened with Theresa May as she did not have a huge majority, but one in four Conservative MP's do not back Boris Johnson and that proportion is even greater of backbench MP's assuming that all those who are part of government voted to back the Prime Minister.

Latin

 

My daughters exams in Latin and Psychology were okay apparently.  She has a mathematics paper tomorrow and then four more papers after that (for this week, her exams continuing afterwards). I am not sure she has watched Life Of Brian, but if she does, I am sure she would be able to comment on the accuracy of this scene… 

The Tories and COVID

Nadine Dorries today has tweeted that Jeremy Hunt’s “pandemic preparation during six years as health secretary was found wanting and inadequate.” She is not the most reliable of people when it comes to facts, but in this she is right.  

In 2016, Exercise Cygnus was carried out along with Exercise Alice.  In the first, the need for ventilators was noted, in the second, issues about having decent stocks of PPE, having a working contact tracing system in place along with pandemic related travel restrictions were noted.  

I was lucky enough in the pandemic to have access to decent PPE, but that was not the case for too many.  Our test and trace system has been viewed as funnelling money to the Chumocracy and while COVID would have arrived even if we had travel restrictions, it would have bought the UK more time if it had been put in place sooner. 

I know that she has tweeted this because she does not want Jeremy Hunt to oust Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, but she has not realised that she has admitted that the government should have been better prepared for the pandemic.