After watching the sequel, I had to return to this film. I was sure that this was much better than the sequel, and I was right. While The Guardian only rated this three out of five, this is a far more enjoyable film than the travesty that followed, strangely rated the same three out of five. This film had chemistry, an evil twist, a decent story with unexpected turns, the plot itself descending into areas that few films explore, which is understandable considering the areas.
While I am never going to re-watch the sequel, I might return to watching this again. I would highly recommend this, which I would give a high four out of five.
Starmer has made a speech on immigration. I have not listened to it but I have read reports about it. He is right to encourage immigrants to speak English (though it can be argued they should also speak Welsh if in Wales). But the rest of the speech, not too sure about it. The UK benefits from managed migration. The NHS is reliant on it, as is care work. Our economy benefited from immigration when we were part of the EU. Immigrants came in, worked, contributed to the economy and paid the the taxes needed for public services. Immigration has enriched the culture of the UK. It is normal for many to eat Chinese food for example. Robin Cook made a speech about Chicken Tikka Masala, a dish made in the UK, thanks to immigration. Immigration has also contributed to sports, and with Rishi Sunak, politics as well. While there are many other examples of how immigration has benefited our great nation, I will remind people that the Royal Family are descended from immigrants.
What Labour should have learned from the local elections is to broadcast what they are doing with deportations. Labour, or the Conservatives, cannot beat Farage when it comes to limiting immigration, legal or otherwise.
Arsenal who had a small chance at winning the title earlier this season are now facing the possibility that they may not even finish in second place. After an exciting season where we will have an empty trophy cabinet, that would be a kick in the teeth.
One thing that Trump has taught the world is that you cannot ignore the markets in a capitalist system. Liz Truss taught the UK that when she was (briefly) in power. We have seen what happens in nations like Venezuela (though many will blame western sanctions for that).
This is important as Labour have limited room for movement when it comes to the economy. The Conservatives ruined it and as shown in the deputy leader’s debate last year, knew that Labour would have to raise their nickel or make cuts to spending.
There have been calls for Labour to increase debt and spend, but the people calling for this forget the damage this caused when Truss wanted to increase the amount the nation owes.
I enjoy a good, and ideally, polite debate. Now that I use Bluesky more than Twitter, it can be harder to find one. But there are some topics where I disagree with others, notably my views on gender and JK Rowling.
What I do find interesting are the arguments that she is racist or that she is right wing. Yes, there have been issues with the name of Cho Chang for example, others have complained about the name of Kingsley Shacklebolt a character described as highly efficient and "gets through twice the work of the rest of them" in the series. JK Rowling defended the casting of Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger and her books included British people of colour in positive roles.
As for JK Rowling being right wing, people forget the money she gave to Labour before the defeat of 2010. In the UK the issue of gender identity is debated across the political divide. Yes, more of the right are critical, but the MP Rosie Duffield is more left wing than many of her peers, and she is someone who is considered transphobic for her views.
I was to make a post about NATO expansion and the promise not to do so, and I still will, but before I get onto that, Putin has said that Romania and Bulgaria are partly to blame for his invasion of Ukraine. This is in part linked to the issue of NATO expansion. Apparently, there was a verbal agreement made that NATO would not expand after the unification of Germany. As you can see from the video's below, there is a lot of evidence to back this up.
But after that verbal agreement was made, Russia invaded Moldova to liberate Transnistria in 1992 and the following year, invaded Georgia to liberate Abkhazia. To be fair, to Russia, violence had erupted before the two invasions, that in Abkhazia being especially brutal. The invasions did bring about peace, but they also in effect have expanded Russian territory to include areas with Russian speaking people.
So yes, Russia did think it had an agreement that NATO would not expand. Russia then caused nations to want to join NATO by invading (and still occupying) parts of Georgia and Moldova.
Am sad at our loss tonight. I had watched the highlights for the other semi-final and while I had been confident that we could beat Inter if we faced them after we had beaten Real Madrid, I was not sure after watching the thrilling match against Barcelona. But it was not to be, we were beaten, but we went down fighting.
I am just hoping that the team that rhymes with City does not pip us to second place as they are only three points behind us.
