Our final day in East Sussex

It was quite windy today which meant that I was not able to go for my usual walk in the morning as my wife had made me promise that I would put my life at risk by doing so.  Instead my daughter decided to accompany me to a walk on the promenade at Hastings, or St Leonards (I had not made a decision then).  But as I would need to drive, my wife took us and she let us to walk while she went to the Art Gallery.  My son stayed behind playing Among Us to his heart’s content.

But I did not end up going for a long walk.  Instead we went to the end of the promenade to watch the waves come in and soak those who got too close to them.  My wife rang as the gallery was not open till later so we met up.  My daughter and she went to the lifeboat shop, but due to social distancing were not allowed in.  I went to walk a bit and took a photo of the lifeboat itself before walking to watch the sea again.

We had coffee nearby and went to the gallery before she did a bit of shopping.  After this, it was time for an amazing lunch at The Wild Mushroom.  We collected our dog bowls (I am happy for them to be used to feed a cat or rabbit instead) and then got some dinner before returning back to rest.

Time to pack tomorrow and return to Colchester.

Just accept the findings on anti-Semitism

Labour is in danger of destroying itself due to the reaction of a past leader over anti-Semitism.

Let me start this by saying that I do not think that Jeremy Corbyn is anti-Semitic. In the past, he organised a demonstration against a 1970s National Front march through Wood Green; spoke on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street and has signed numerous Early Day Motions condemning antisemitism.  In addition to this, in 1987, he campaigned to reverse Islington Council's decision to grant the planning application to destroy a Jewish cemetery, and in 2010, he called on the UK government to facilitate the settlement of Yemeni Jews in Britain.  He also took part in a ceremony in his Islington constituency to commemorate the original site of the North London Synagogue and visited the Theresienstadt Ghetto, calling it a reminder of the dangers of far-right politics, antisemitism and racism.

But, like many throughout all wings of the party, he has been linked to those who hold anti-Semitic views.  Unlike the others though, he has been held up to greater scrutiny, and example being how up to 2013, Jeremy Corbyn and Jewish Labour MP Gerald Kaufman attended "two or three" of the annual events of a group linked to holocaust denial.  A huge example of this is a novel by our current Prime Minister which included anti-Semitic characterisations, interspersed with many other parts viewed by many as racist.  It is right that Labour, under his charge, has been investigated for prejudice, but it is frustrating that the Conservatives have in essence got away with Islamophobia.

The difference is that under Corbyn, Jewish MP’s have been hounded out of the party by those using racist slurs.  Under Corbyn, those who claimed to support him have harassed those of Jewish descent.  And Labour, under Corbyn, did not bring in the findings of the Chakrabarti Inquiry, a report it commissioned itself! 

While Jeremy Corbyn was in charge, there was an exaggerated perception that Labour was anti-Semitic, this not just being amongst those of Jewish heritage, but also among anti-Semites.  Nick Griffin, the former leader of the far right BNP thought that Jeremy Corbyn was going to act against Jews and tweeted in support of his perception of him on this matter.  Emily Thornberry was approached by anti-Semites during the time Jeremy Corbyn was in charge to offer support and she would make it clear that such views were not acceptable.

I had been suspended by Twitter. I felt that this was wrong, but someone independent looked at my tweet and felt it did breach the terms and conditions of the site.  So I accepted the findings and deleted the offending tweet.  Labour has been subject to a report from the EHRC, a neutral body and it is important for Corbyn to accept to the findings. There are ways of hinting at disagreement with the findings without expressly saying so.

The facts are simple.  Jewish MP’s were hounded out from the party using anti-Semitic language and the party did not implement the findings of the inquiry into anti-Semitism which it had commissioned itself.

I do not think that Corbyn is anti-Semitic, but he has been failed by supporters who did not follow his desire for Kinder Gentler Politics.  If they had followed that mantra, this could all have been avoided. 

Relaxing in Hastings

At the moment, while typing this, I am watching The Sister with my wife.  It is the final episode and I think it is perfect for Halloween.

My walk was a much longer one than before and took me past the ponies that my daughter did not get to see and I found a cave.  A small one, but one the kids would have loved to explore.  My wife did get worried with it though as I did not get back as soon as I have with other walks.  After that though, with lots of up’s involved, I was knackered and had to rest, and fell asleep doing so.

After this we went to lunch in Hastings itself which was, to quote Borat, very nice.  After this, it was a drive to get my wife and son a book each.  For her it was the new book by Nigella.  The shop had sent some back as they had an issue with the covers but had some without any mistakes just in.

All in all, it was a very relaxing day.

Lewes

After my walk this morning we went to Lewes.  It was a longer drive than we anticipated, but considering that we did not look to see where it was, that could have been expected.

The forecast for the day was not good, but it showered and had sunny spells at times.  Most of the time on my walk, it did not rain, but did drizzle at times, and rained a bit more for a short period, the wind driving the drops into my face like little knives.

At times on our drive to Lewes, it poured down, and at other times, it was sunny.  When there we ate in a lovely shop that also served food before looking for books.  My son wanted to buy a book on magic which we found displayed in a shop for older books.  Needless to say, my wife and I said no.

Not sure what we will do tomorrow, but I do hope I get to walk around again.

Painting at Slap N Dash Ceramics

Today we did some painting. My wife saw that it would rain a lot today so booked a session painting ceramics.  We have done this on other holidays and have enjoyed it.  This time we painted dog bowls.  The kids want a dog and I think that they are hoping to break me down.  My wife appears to have her heart set on one particular breed.  I am more open to the different types of breeds, including mongrels.  

The lady in charge of the place arrived late as she was stuck behind a learner driver, but it was worth the wait.  Unlike other places, the tutorial before painting was much better and we also got to use stamps and stickers, something we never had the chance to use in the past.  I used stickers, as did my wife.  My son appeared to want to use them at first, but I am not sure what happened after that.  My daughter made use of a stamp.

Unlike before, when my creation was the worst by far, I would like to say that mine was best.  The rest of the family disagree with me, but we all agree that this was our best experience yet.  And we loved the previous ones.  In addition to the tutorial we got given helpful ideas and suggestions as well as advice how to make our creations better.  In other places, we were left to get on with it after the initial much briefer talks.

I had been for a walk in the wind and rain before we went, but despite my stomach getting bigger my wife did not want me to go for a walk when we got back.  Instead I played Among Us with the children and also Dobble.  My son was very pleased when he beat his sister and me.  Normally she wins which made his victory even sweeter.  

For those wondering about Twitter and me, I deleted the offending tweet when a neutral voice said that it was a bit suspect.  So I am back to tweeting, and reading stories behind the headlines.

Good night all!

Rye, East Sussex

 

Am still suspended from Twitter.  Which is still annoying but I expect it to continue for a long time.

Back to the holiday though.  It rained a lot last night which woke us up at different times at night.  And then the local cockerel decided to wake us up.  Which it has been doing since we arrived.  

So in the morning the kids were up when I ate the remnants of the takeaway from last night and then my daughter and I went for a walk.  I had asked my son but he was not interested.  We went to find the wild ponies that I had seen yesterday.  But they were not to be found.  We did walk down a path to find them but my daughter was concerned that the ponies would attack us and that birds would feast on our corpses.  So we turned around.  We did walk everywhere that she wanted to go, which put her in a bad mood.  

We then went on a drive to Rye.  It was lovely driving through the sun but once there, the heavens opened.  Fortunately this was only for a short period of time and we walked through part of the town before stopping for lunch.  Initially we had only wanted to stop for a snack, but the place was so nice we stayed for longer.  We drove to Battle afterwards but it was too crowded to walk about in a safe manner.  I have always wanted to visit here so we will have to return another time.

I did have a chat with my son about bonding.  After my father died, and watching Life on BBC, I wanted to act to try and bridge the increasing gap between us.  We have watched The Mandalorian together before, but he has decided to watch it without me.  I go for walks with my daughter and we watch several television shows together.  I hope that my son and I do not drift apart beyond the point of repair.

Tomorrow it is meant to rain a lot more so our day has been planned in advance.  Hopefully I will have Twitter back but I doubt it.

Day one (or two) in East Sussex

 I am not sure if this is our first day or not here.  While we arrived yesterday, it was at nighttime so while we are charged for the day, we have not spent any daytime here, until today. 

After waking up, enjoying the extra hour in bed, we relaxed and ate bits of food, this being cheese on my part, followed by a large packet of crisps.  After this, we went through the inventory and noted a few issues.  Saying that, the place is great and the few issues do not really matter, but they are issues which were present before we got here.  We also found out why we ended up in the wrong place last night, and that was because the last two letters of the postcode had been switched around in the email telling us how to get here.   I had intended to go for a long walk in the morning but did not get round to it.  My daughter and I went for a brief exploration and saw the garden attached to where we are staying, accessed from the balcony in the upstairs bedroom.  We may explore the garden more during the rest of the week.

Afterwards we went into Hastings.  We had intended to find a supermarket but needed food and ended up driving to a McDonalds which was not a drive though.  During this exploration of Hastings, my wife showed the kids where she used to visit when younger and we ended up having some substandard fish and chips on the sea front.  Two supermarkets later we headed home and I went for my walk in the end.  

The walk was awesome.  The place we are staying allows dogs to stay and I can see why dog owners would come as there is lots of places for them to walk.  The view from there was spectacular and I found wild ponies,  I am hoping to return tomorrow to walk more, with or without the rest of the family.