Silver linings

Well, I knew things were going to be bad for Labour, but I did not expect things to be as bad.

First of all, due to the margin of the victory of Will Quince, tactical voting would have made no difference, so Labour and Lib Dem supporters can and should not blame the other, and instead work to getting him out, when it comes to the next election in five years time.  I had hoped that he would be voted out of office, this despite the way he had answered the letters that I have sent him.  But now, with over 50% of the electorate of Colchester voting for him, he can truly claim to represent the town.  Let me again emphasise, the silver lining here is that those who voted Green, Lib Dem, or Labour need not regret what would have happened if they had voted another way and some of the rancour that was present before the election should be forgiven and forgotten.

Second, Arsenal did not lose.  I had expected that to happen, and while going two goals down is never good, the team showed resilience to come back from that to earn a draw.  Hopefully, this will be reflected in league performances and the team will be able to pull together and produce the results that the ability that is in the squad deserves.

Labour will look at the reasons why this loss occurred, the question is if the right reasons for this loss will be identified and acted on.  Many are going to blame Brexit, and many are going to blame the leader of the party.  It was felt that Labour were going to be destroyed in the polls in 2017 but Jeremy Corbyn proved that there was an appetite for a fair Britain for all.  But, ultimately, he still lost and austerity continued (other than in Northern Ireland due to the deal with the DUP).  And to put things in perspective, despite Swine Flu and the global credit crunch, Gordon Brown came closer to being PM in 2010 that Corbyn did in 2017 or 2019, and that is when Corbyn had a failing NHS, police and education cuts giving people a reason not to vote for the Tories!

I am of the view that elections are won by getting voters who do not vote for you normally, to vote for you.  Boris Johnson has done that, getting Labour voters to either vote Conservative, or switch to the Brexit Party.  Labour can continue on a path away from appealing to voters of other parties, one which has resulted in one term stints in government, or Labour can learn from its most successful leader and bring about a government for the many which lasts longer than one parliamentary term.  But considering the calls to have a purge of Blairites (I am a Brownite), I suspect I know what is to happen.  And I fear that means more Conservative rule after the next General Election in 2024.  

Our nation is like a turkey voting for Christmas.

Today is the day that the nation is probably going to vote for another Conservative government that has ruined education for many, has run down the NHS, has cut police numbers and has increased in work poverty.

Needless to say, I am not happy with this.  The sad thing is that people are voting for a government that has done this, and is to vote for a Prime Minister who has been sacked more than once for lying and is not trusted by those who were political allies because he lied to them!  My wife cannot understand why people would vote Conservative considering what they have done to the nation, but many are.  And sadly, many have decided not to vote Labour due to Jeremy Corbyn, my wife being one, even though she ended up more left wing than me when it came to comparing the policies of different parties in this election.  I have friends who voted for him when it came to the Labour leadership election who have been driven out of Labour, being called Blairites (even though I am more of one than they are).  I also have other friends who used to vote Labour, but who feel that cannot due to the direction that the party has now taken. And I have friends who are natural Conservative voters who have voted Labour in the past who would never vote for Corbyn.

I do think that Corbyn has been great at inspiring young people to vote, I do admire his push for kinder gentler politics and at heart, I think that he is an honest man who despises racism and injustice.  But elections are won by getting people who normally vote for other parties to change.  Blair did this in 1997, 2001, and 2005 and while many in Labour despise him, they forget what he did for our nation. Sadly, Corbyn does not appear to have done this in parliament, though his performance was better than Blair in 2005.  And yes, part of this is due to the numerous smears that he has faced, by Labour overcame this in 1997, 2001 and 2005.  It is a shame that the lessons that had been learned then have been forgotten now.

All I can do is hope that Colchester, where I live, gets rid of Will Quince.  As an MP, despite blocking me on Twitter (for asking him if he voted for police cuts), he has been kind enough to respond to the letters that I have sent him.  But ultimately, he is a Tory and it would be great if Colchester could get rid of him.  My fear is that with an increased majority in the last election, this will not be possible, and conflicting messages have been sent about tactical voting.

So in the election today, I am not going to vote tactially, like I have done in the past.  I am not going to vote on personality (I have never done this in the past), but I am going to vote on policies.  And pray that the Conservatives are not returned into office, in Colchester and in Number 10.

Work is meant to pay, but not if you are poor in Conservative Britain

Tomorrow, it is time to vote.  And based on the opinion polls, it is going to be a victory for the Conservatives.

And while the Conservatives claim to make work pay, they do not.  Unemployment has fallen.  But in work poverty has increased under the Conservatives.  As has child poverty.  I am not one of those who faces such issues.  I do understand this as I grew up in a single parent household with a working mother and two younger siblings having had free school meals at times.  My mother worked hard to ensure that we could eat.  And now, other parents, are trying to do the same, but this uncaring Conservative government is making things harder for such parents to feed their children.

How anyone can justify this is beyond me.  I am of the view that a nation should be judged on how it treats those most in need.  But I suspect that those who do vote Conservative tomorrow will find an excuse.  And will ignore the despair of this group of society.

West Ham are so bad that even Arsenal can beat them!

First of all, Arsenal are top of the table.  This being the Women's Super League.  The Arsenal Men's team need to learn more about commitment, passion and how to defend as a team though.

I was sad when Unai Emery started to fail at Arsenal.  He had after all overseen an amazing unbeaten run.  But we lost Aaron Ramsey, a player that any team should be glad to have and a player who is going to be very hard to replace.  And our defence was 'strengthened' by a player who is no longer able to make it into the Chelski first team.  While we had bought Kieran Tierney, by the time he was fit enough to play for the first team, the confidence of our defence was destroyed.  I am in favour of the policy of Unai Emery to play football from the back, but there is a time and a place for this and if opposition teams know that you are always going to do this, they will not try to defend against a long ball from defence and put the Arsenal defence under pressure.

I had high hopes for Freddie Ljungberg, an Arsenal legend, but sadly he has not had that good a start.  I was dreading the game yesterday against West Ham as we started the game closer to being relegated than finishing in the top four.  But we won, West Ham being so bad that they could not even beat us!

If he is not able to make the job, that no other manager seems to want, his, then I think that we should approach Chris Wilder from Sheffield United to be manager.  He has risen through the leagues, and is able to ensure his teams can defend.  And that is something that Arsenal needs to do.

How I beat Giovanni in Pokémon GO (again)

I have managed to beat Giovanni again.  Learning from my last battle against him, I started with my Rhyperior to face his Persian, my Pokémon being able to last long enough to take down the shields of Giovanni which allowed my Kyogre to take down his Dugtrio.  However, this time I forgot that I would be facing a Zapdos as the final opponent and my Blaziken was pummelled.  But, using a Mewtwo with Icebeam, I was able to defeat him once more.  I just need to save up on the stardust to purify it as I was able to capture it afterwards.

I am after high CP Pokémon, but just these ones in any lucky trades.  I am aware that I may not be able to get some of them, such as the Alola forms of the Meowth or Vulpix, or a Burmy or Klink, but I guess my view is if you do not ask, you do not get.  I do have some high CP forms of many of the Pokémon that are on the list but the actual statistics that they have are wanting. 

Sadly, I do not have as many shiny Pokémon as I would like, and those that I have tend to be those that others have anyway!  Which means in general that I am after like for like trades.

Abra
Absol
Aipom
Burmy
Chikorita
Clefable
Drilbur
Duskull
Electabuzz
Foongus
Geodude (normal form)
Goldeen
Growlithe
Heracross
Horsea
Klink
Litwick
Magmar
Mankey
Meowth Alola form
Murkrow
Nidoran♀
Nidoran♂
Oddish
Onix
Pidove
Ponyta
Porygon
Scyther
Shieldon
Slowpoke
Squirtle 
Tanglea
Tentacool
Vulpix Alola form
Yamask
Yanma

Jumanji

Today involved a trip to the movies.  My son met up with an old school friend and watched Jumanji, the next level.  Which left my wife and I with the opportunity to leave my daughter at home and watch a film together.  And of all the films available until we had to collect my so, there was only one we both were happy to watch, that being Jumanji.  And on hearing this, my daughter decided to tag along as well.  A quick drive to Ipswich and we parked and watched it.  Ipswich has changed a bit since we were both in the town centre in daylight.  My wife used to work there before she was effectively sacked for daring to fall pregnant.  And a good friend used to live there as well.  But that is a tale for another time, possibly.

Jumanji was good.  Not as enjoyable as the remake, but close.  The development of the characters continued, not as much as in the remake, but it continued, but overall, it is an action film, and an enjoyable one.  Good special effects, a decent plot without too many plot holes and an enjoyable story with likeable characters. My wife and I disagree about how it compares with the original film, but as I found out on taking a quiz to see who we should vote for, that is not the only thing we disagree on!

How the Conservatives have made the NHS ‘better’

Yesterday morning I was listening to Radio Four and listened to Jeremy Hunt talking about the NHS.  The reason for this was the concern that the Conservatives are to sell the NHS to Donald Trump. He has denied any interest in this, despite having been interested before.  And considering the funding ‘challenges’ that the NHS faces, this is not surprising.  What is concerning is the risk of drug costs increasing, well those from the USA.  Despite the report that Jeremy Corbyn has obtained, I see no huge danger with that.  There is no doubt that the Conservatives have hidden the truth about negotiations from the public, and with an election coming up, it is a bit hard to work out why...

What angered me was how he talked about the NHS.  Jeremy Hunt oversaw the decline on the NHS which has taken place since 2010.  He has continually told those working in the NHS that while is black and that black is white.  Thanks to him, doctor vacancies have risen as have nursing vacancies.  He cut the numbers of medical students being taught and thanks to ending the nursing bursary, the numbers of nurses being trained has fallen.  Let alone how this is affecting others like physiotherapists, radiographers and the like.

Cancer waiting times have worsened.

The numbers of GP’s in the NHS have fallen. And this is despite a promise to increase numbers!

More operations have had to be cancelled.

More people are waiting in A&E than ever before

While the NHS has had more money spent on it, it has not had enough money spent on it. 

And of course, there is the issue with social care under-funding putting even more pressure on the NHS.

So, if you want these figures, and more importantly, patient care, to continue to get worse in the next few years, vote Conservative.