Labour, the Conservatives and the General Election

I have been listening to some old episodes of The Rest Is Politics. I was struck with how well Rishi Sunak did taking the Conservative Party when it came to vote share.

When he took over from Liz Truss, the Lady Jane Grey of British politics, Labour had a massive lead over the Conservatives. At one time under Liz Truss, the lead was thirty three points, Labour polling at 54% with the Conservative Party getting 21%.

With the Conservative Leadership contest taking place, the lead Labour held when someone on the right of the party was in charge, should be remembered by them.

In fact, when you consider how bad the Conservatives were faring at one point, Rishi Sunak did well to close the gap when it came to national vote share.  

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

My wife and daughter watched this before me and recommended it to me. Based on a true story, it is best described as loosely based. While it requires some suspension of disbelief due to plot holes being present. Despite that, it is a very enjoyable film. As expected with a Guy Ritchie film, it is very violent. I would rate this about seven out of ten and would be happy to watch it again. 

Baghead

All in all, an enjoyable film. Apart from having a British pub in a Germany where no one speaks German. It was predictable in bits, but I did not work out how it was going to end. That is normally a sign of a good film and I rate his six out of ten. It would be higher if it had been set in an English speaking nation, or had some more indications that this was set in Germany. 

Everybody hates Starmer

It has been an interesting week in politics in the UK.  Our Prime Minister has had to vote to keep children in poverty.  

However, on a more positive note, he has reinstated funding to UNRWA which had been stopped by the previous government. Keir Starmer has also reversed plans of the government to challenge the ICC arrest warrant request against Netanyahu.  In addition to that, before the change in government policy, he has spoken to Netanyahu about the need for a ceasefire in Gaza.  

I, like many in Labour, want an end to the two child limit on child benefit.  I do think that there should be some limits on what the state can offer, but the current situation is not acceptable.  If the limit is to be kept, then the amount that is given in child benefit could be increased, or even the universal credit payments could rise.

Labour have promised to act to reduce child poverty.  I hope that this is one of the promises that is kept in both word and spirit.  

Dracula Untold

This is a frustrating film. It was not produced very well. In places it was good, but it did not flow that well. It may be because it tried to fit too much into the film, but there are better vampire films, notably Blade and Dracula. I guess the all star cast prevented it from being worse. I would rate this two out of five, a below average film which showed promise at times. 

Ouija: Origin of Evil

I preferred this to the original. I cannot recall a prequel that was better than the original. I am sure that there are others but this is miles better than the film it precedes. When watching this I appreciate how average Ouija itself is. 

The atmosphere is so much better, it is far scarier and overall, is a better horror film.  I would be tempted to watch this again and recommend this as a film for others to watch, even if they have not watched the previous film. 

Ouija

I thought that this film was okay. I would rate it average to above average. I would have been okay if I had paid to watch in the cinema, but there are better films to watch. If you are okay with happy endings, then this is the film to watch. I would never call this a classic, but it is worth watching. It has a decent plot with no major holes in it that I noticed.  There were no obvious concerns with how it flowed. The Guardian did not like it as much as me and rated it two out of five. I would give it three out of five myself.