With regard to the Blair v Corbyn argument, my only comment is that I really miss the days when Labour won general elections...

I would love to take credit for the title, but it is not mine, but was posted on Twitter when it came to a discussion about the leadership of Keir Starmer

This has also been raised as an issue locally in the Labour Party in Colchester where one official resigned rather than fight for the principles he values.

Many do not like the move of Labour towards (but not to) the centre, when Labour was elected.  And many consider Labour not to have been left wing, or Conservative light when in power from 1997 till 2010.  So I think it is important to remember what Labour did in power.  And it is important to remember what has not been done while it is in opposition.  Back then, Labour was not viewed as a party that was antisemitic, and while Labour never was under Jeremy Corbyn, it was seen by many to be so, and the reaction of Jeremy Corbyn to the investigation of it in Labour has not helped.

 1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s. (While it started under the Conservative, this continued under Labour)

 2. Low mortgage rates. 

 3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage. 

 4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales. As opposed to the way the Conservatives have Defunded the Police.

 5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent as opposed to the increase in violent crime under the Conservatives.

 6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools. 

 7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18. 

 8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.  Compare that to the Conservative funding crisis.

 9. Employment is at its highest level ever. 

 10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries. 

 11. 85,000 more nurses. 

 12. 32,000 more doctors. (Though the issues with training them once qualified could have been better.)

 13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards. 

 14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament. 

 15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly. 

 16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time. 

 17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice. 

 18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year. 

 19. Restored city-wide government to London. 

 20. Record number of students in higher education. 

 21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.  Compare that to how child poverty is higher under the Conservatives.

 22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.

 23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission. 

 24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s. 

 25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

 26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland. 

 27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants. 

 28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday. 

 29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty. 

 30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty. 

 31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents. 

 32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships. 

 33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard. 

 34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997. 

 35. Banned fox hunting. 

 36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution. 

 37. Free TV licences for over-75s. 

 38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals. 

 39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70. 

 40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s. 

 41. New Deal – helped over 1.8 million people into work. 

 42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started. 

 43. Free eye test for over 60s. 

 44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships. 

 45. Free entry to national museums and galleries. 

 46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled. 

 47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000. 

 48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent. 

 49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds. 

 50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.

Yes, Starmer did not do well in the local elections earlier this year, but the incumbents did well including Labour in Wales.  However, Labour have a lot to do to convince the electorate that the brand is different.  Labour did that in 1997 with the New Labour brand.   It look the Conservatives thirteen years to change things after the debacle of the Major years and Tory Corruption.  The question is if Jeremy Corbyn has made things better or worse for the brand of Labour.   If the man who lost Scotland (after winning it in 2017) again has harmed the brand, it will take a while for Labour to make progress.

13 Reasons Why; The Little Girl

Family update first.  We had Nick, Lyndsay and Hamish round yesterday. A great night but I had to go to bed before the night ended.  Just as well considering that I had to walk Leia this morning.  I had intended to go into work, but we ended up going out to The Whalebone for lunch.  Afterwards I worked from home before my wife and I went to the Brightlingsea music festival. We saw a friend of ours play and also listened to the Filthy Lounge Band. The ABBA tribute duo were great but we had to leave early to beat the traffic rush as people left.

As for 13 Reasons Why, the issues my son and I discussed were that of drug abuse.  The episode had two errors, a man who had little money in the first series was having an affair in the second.  (My son did point out that the lady may have paid, but accepted this was unlikely.)  The next issue was that Bryce encountered students listening to a recording of his confession to Clay, which should have told him where the recording came from as it was not part of the original tapes.

13 Reasons Why; The Third Polaroid

First of all, things got worse with my son, and then better.  We had a discussion about what had happened and in hindsight his anger was predictable.  Things looked quite bleak, but then when my wife and daughter were out getting our dog groomed, he came down and we had another talk.  We watched Bad Batch and then this episode of 13 Reasons Why.

We talked about how one person wanting to do the right thing can be the wrong thing, and although intentions may be pure, consequences are real.  Needless to say, my son dislikes Bryce Walker even more than before,

Have to go now, we have friends coming round soon.

AWOL

My son has decided yesterday to go absent without leave.

The kids returned on Wednesday and as my son had left his job of putting away the drying, we had left him it, along with more.  He had decided not to fully stack the dishwasher on Thursday morning despite refusing to unstack it the night before (the rule is that if the dishwasher is full because it has not been unstacked) leaving it for his mother.  I am not sure if he relented, but yesterday, despite not having permission to do so, he decided to meet up with friends.

To be honest, if he had asked, I would have let him go so long as he had done his chores.  But he had not.  Needless to say, I am not pleased.

Shadow in the Cloud

Not sure what to make of this film.  It was good in places, but not as good in others.  The best bit was the end credits, not because of signifying the end of the film, but the credits included film footage of the subject of the film.

Basically, I know that Sergeant Norman Jackson climbed onto a wing to tackle an engine fire in World War II, but I am not sure how a similar event was portrayed in this film.  It did show that women served in the war, though were forbidden from active combat roles outside espionage.

Overall, I would have to say that I would have been annoyed if I had spent time and money to watch this in the cinema.  

The pack unite

Leia is ecstatic. She has the pack back again.  From being depressed and looking in the sitting room for the rest of them she now has the pack together.  She went crazy when she saw them.

Our journey back with the children was an interesting one.  We had decided to take them to COSTCO but the traffic there was terrible.  Several hours later, we got home having got close to the store, but giving up when we encountered yet more traffic.

One child has stepped up since being home, the other has not. Maybe they, or one, needs more time away from us.

Bill & Ted Face The Music

Quite simply, this is nothing compared to the original two films.  However it is okay to watch and you have to remember that the original two films were amazing.  It has been one of the better films that I have watched recently and I probably would have been okay to watch this in the cinema as being a fan of the other two films, this was a must for me to watch.  While it fails to live up to the preceding two films, it does not fall flat on its face in the way all the sequels for Blade did.  I would not describe it as "most excellent" but it was great to see the potential for sequels/spin offs.  It is unusual, as for me, the best characters were not Bill and Ted, but I will not spoil it in case you watch it yourselves.  

If you are a fan of the franchise, this is a must watch film, and while it is not as excellent as the originals, you will not be left wanting. 

The best bit of the film was watching it with my wife, and our depressed dog.  I know that my children would not have liked this however.