We should make it even more likely that you are to be treated by an immigrant than be in the queue behind one

We need a sensible discussion about immigration.  Specifically, we need a discussion about immigration and the NHS.  In order to solve the retention and recruitment issues in the NHS, not only do we need to pay staff better wages, we need to improve working conditions.  And part of that means solving issues with not having enough staff.  

The government keep saying that more staff are coming, look at the promises made, and broken about the numbers of GP's in 2015 as well as the subsequent promise made in the 2019 election.  So we have to accept that the government policy is not working. 

When Labour was running the NHS, it increased numbers of staff quickly by recruiting from abroad in the way that Australia, Canada and New Zealand do so now with NHS staff.  We can say no more immigrants, or we can have a decent points based system in addition to making things better for NHS staff to solve the staffing issues faced.    

Jeremy Corbyn, antisemitism and increasing the Labour vote

In my discussions on Twitter, I often am often presented with two facts, about Jeremy Corbyn, one is that he increased the Labour vote when Labour leader, the other is that he is not an anti-Semite. 

This list about Corbyn was copied and pasted from someone I know on Facebook and has been posted by me before detailing the actions that he took to combat antisemitism. 

1990 - Signed a motion condemning the publication of anti-Semitic materials in the UK 

2003 - Signed a motion condemning attacks on two synagogues 

2009 - Signed a motion condemning the publication of anti-Semitic material on the internet. 

2010 - Signed a motion praising Jewish News for investigating anti-Semitism on Facebook 

2010 - Praises the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for his efforts to secure a two-state solution to the Israeli/Arab conflict. 

2012 - Condemns the BBC for cutting a Jewish made programme for the Jewish community. 

2013 - Signed a motion condemning anti-Semitism in sport. 

2014 - Signed a motion commemorating the holocaust and genocide of the Jewish people during WW2. 

2015 - Praises The London Jewish Forum for standing up to racists marches through their community. 

Yes, he has written a glowing foreword in a book that has raised concerns by the Jewish community and also praised an artist later accused of anti-Semitism over a mural.  But when it came to the mural, once pointed out, I could see why it caused offence, but until then, I saw nothing wrong with hit.

My concerns with Corbyn when it comes to anti-Semitism relate to his comments about the EHRC report but also his failure to act on the findings of the Chakrabarti Inquiry. His statement about the EHRC report writing that "the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media" would have carried more weight if he had carried out the findings of the Chakrabarti Report which include the following.

Abusive references to any particular person or group based on actual or perceived physical characteristics and racial or religious tropes and stereotypes, should have no place in Labour Party discourse. These epithets includes terms such as "Zio" and "Paki."

Labour members should resist the use of Hitler, Nazi and Holocaust metaphors, distortions and comparisons in debates about Israel-Palestine in particular. 

There should be procedural rule changes to improve the party's disciplinary process and the adoption and publication of a complaints procedure. 

The appointment of a general counsel to the Labour Party to give advice on issues including disciplinary matters and to take responsibility for instructing external lawyers. 

The party should increase the ethnic diversity of its staff. 

The report rejects the idea of a lifetime membership ban from the party for anyone deemed to have used racist language, and suggests no retrospective action i.e. against comments made prior to the inquiry. 

Do I think that he is anti-Semitic, no.  But too many people, including Nick Griffin, former leader of the far-right BNP do, or did at the time, and MP's were offered support about this perceived stance.  

Next, is the increase in votes that Labour got under Corbyn.  

In 2017, the votes Labour got under Corbyn increased from to 9,347,273 in 2015 to 12,817,918.  This fell in 2019 to 10,269,051 however as many Labour voters switched to the Conservatives and the SNP. 

Over the same time, the Conservatives also increased the votes they got. They polled 11,299,609 in 2015 when they won a majority and increased this to 13,636,684 in 2017 though they had to form an agreement with the DUP to avoid a hung parliament.  In 2019, this vote increased to 13,966,454 when the Conservatives won a huge landslide victory.  

Yes, Labour has lost members now Corbyn is no longer leader, and yes, it will lose many votes from those who were on the left of the party, but as shown in 2019, elections are won by getting people to switch their votes.  Labour have to appeal to voters from other parties to win in the next election.  

A A Girl

My daughter is (rightfully) very pleased with herself. She has had two of her mock A-Level papers back and has got one A & one A* so far. She has one paper left to be marked if I am correct. I guess I will find out more when I get back home. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Yesterday, after collecting Leia from the dog sitter, my wife, daughter and I went home, had breakfast and the entire family decided to watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. I had mentioned that we should have watched it on Saturday, as we were dog free at the time, but most were too tired for this. I did feel mean leaving Leia behind who watched us abandon her (again) as we all left for the cinema.   Things were made worse when we watched the film, not just because of Cosmo the space-dog, but also the eyes of Rocket.

The film itself was very enjoyable.  There were a few minor issues for me, notably a head growing back so quickly and also ALL the survivors of a badly damaged vessel being rescued with just one casualty.  It had a decent plot, a great soundtrack and as usual, I love the characters. Although Gamora was a bit irritating, she was meant to be.  I look forwards to the opportunity to watch it again.

My daughter took Leia out for a long walk and the dog herself was tired by the time my wife and I went to join Lyndsay and Nick.  My daughter joined us for the pub quiz and helped us take third place, which is a record for us. We are never going to win the quiz, but it is fun to take part in it, and it is well run as while the winning team win a prize, there is a bonus prize which all teams have a chance of winning as well.  

If you are interested in watching the film, it is best to avoid the trailer.  As with many trailers, while fun, the film is best watched without seeing the trailer first.  

Yesterday in London

I went to a course in London yesterday. It was good, I learned a bit and was reminded about a few issues that I had forgotten as well.

My wife took the children around central London and after my course I walked to meet them at Borough Market. It was lovely walking through London, I have not done a walk like that in our capital city in years, possibly decades. It was also strange to do such a walk without Leia, our dog, who is at the dog sitters.

As you can see from the previous post, I have played my daughter at Dobble. She is under the illusion that she beat me, and that in one game I pushed her over (she fell and I was trying to help her). Obviously all know that I beat her as she would never be able to beat me…

And on the topic of winning and losing, Arsenal lost yet another game, this time against a team facing relegation, or rather they were until they beat us, allowing Manchester City to win the title before they play their game later today.  It is annoying that we lost the title, but I cannot complain too much considering that we overcame a twelve point deficit to win the league in 1998 and we finished the 2010-11 season in 4th place having been a point behind the league leaders at one point. 

I was DESTORYED by my 17 year old daughter at dobble

 Maia de Silva is the smartest, most beautiful and lovely daughter I could ever have. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

The title and first line of this blog entry was by my daughter 

"Four legs good, two legs better" in relation to sewage and our water companies

Two days ago, I had a twitter discussion about utilities being privatised and if this is needed or not. The debate ended after I pointed out that none of us want water companies to pay out dividends while pumping sewage into our rivers. I also pointed out how I am happy for companies to pay dividends so long as they provide the service we would expect if they were nationalised.  

I did not realise that this was going to be in the news today as the same companies that have paid out huge dividends to shareholders now want to raised prices to stop dumping sewage into our rivers and on our beaches.  I had tweeted last year about how the law had been changed to allow sewage to be dumped by private companies.  Fortunately, this came to the public eye after our family had returned from Devon, but this was not the case for the manager where I work who went swimming in the sea in Devon at this time!

What I said still stands as I think that nationalisation for the sake of it will be too expensive to the tax-payer, at this time.  Nationalisation of a utility that is failing to provide the service we would expect of it if nationalised is a different matter, especially if that company is fined for not meeting its obligations and prevented from paying shareholders in that event.  I suspect that the water companies will have to be one of them at this rate.