Political violence in the UK

I have been clear on many occasions that political violence in the UK is wrong.  Nigel Farage and Reform UK Ltd have shown appalling double standards when it comes to this.  Violence to any politician is wrong, that includes throwing a milk shake over Farage. But that also includes violence to a heckler.  I do not think that the Right to Protest should interfere with the Right to Free Speech, even when it is funny, but violence to solve it is wrong. Unless it is when John Prescott is punching someone who started it, that being because it was his right to retaliate when faced with a physical attack. 

Donations to Reform UK (Ltd) again

Reform UK Ltd are in the news again.  Over donations, again.  It was not too long ago that there was the issues about a five million pound gift.  That drowned out the other donations, including one from a donor who "earned" a pardon from Donald Trump.  

There is nothing patriotic with a political party being funded by millionaires from abroad. 

Return of the daughter

Our daughter is back from Albania. She had travelled there with a friend and was meant to return during the week, but when abroad her phone died.  We give our children hand-me-down phones and she pointed out that the phone she had was older than the dog. On occasion the phone will turn on, but will be green. I think it is communing with The Matrix. Needless to say I have been told not to tell her that! 

My wife and I drove to Heathrow with our dog in the back of the car to collect her and her friend. Having only one phone between them, the two wished to return from a nation, which while beautiful, was culturally quite different in their behaviour towards women.

Anyway, it is the twenty first birthday of our daughter next month, so I have bought her a brand new iPhone which will arrive tomorrow, which will be her early birthday present. She has promised to pay her friend back for the early flight home so will be returning to working for two days later this week. 

Welcome to Luton

We returned to Luton today. To be fair, when I have been there, it was to fly from the airport. Today it was a pickup for my daughter and her friend who had travelled to Croatia for a few days. Our dog was not keen on the trip but loved seeing Eve and my daughter.

We arrived early and went into the town to get food for them. We only skirted the outside, but it was depressing. On the plus side, we have both our children at home. She is due to travel to Albania soon, taking advantage of the money she has earned over the summer holidays. 

Practical Magic

When my wife suggested watching this last night, I did not expect to enjoy the film as much as I did. It turns out neither of us have watched it. 

Films now are different to what they were back in 1998. While new ground was being broken in the mainstream with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I expected this to be more vanilla in nature, it is described as a RomCom after all. I was wrong and this reminds me that assumptions can make an arse out of me. (Yes, I know it is meant to be ass, but I am British.) I now want to watch the sequel when it comes out, but I fear that it will be hard for it to be as good as the original. 

We were top of the table

After Saturday, I was looking forwards to work today. Arsenal won on Friday. Come Saturday, I accidentally clicked on social media and saw the football scores. For those who are unaware, I prefer not to know the scores as then I watch Match of the Day with a lot more excitement. But I did, and then spent the time laughing. 

At the end of last season, with a terrible home form but the fifth best away form, I thought that Spurs would be able to do something, especially after spending so much building up this squad. They did heir best to prove me wrong. They lost and Saturday ended with the unofficial table having Arsenal top and Spurs bottom. ManUre losing was icing on the cake. 

But then Villa lost by four goals which meant that Brighton were top of the table.  I still got to laugh at work at the Spurs fans. Saying that, this is just the first weekend. Teams have yet to gel and it is unlikely that Spurs will stay so shit. But I can dream…

The Trump Deception

Donald Trump has famously switched planes leaving most to face risks while he was taken away securely.

I am going to be controversial and say it was the right thing to do. Apparently when risks were present in the past, the media were taken to safety. When I first heard about this, I thought that the reason this did not happen was due to there being a possible leak amongst them. But, moving them AND Donald Trump would have posed a risk that the deception would be discovered. 

One issue that has been raised relates to his relationship with his aide, Natalie Harp. The Democratic senator for Georgia, Jon Ossoff, in a speech told a crowd that Trump “doesn’t want to do the job” and instead “wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.” To be honest, if the insinuation is true, I do not really care who he has sex with. We know that he is a serial adulterer and what he does in private, be that with an aide or not is up to him. My issue comes from those who claim he is backed by God for being so virtuous. Or like Bill Clinton, lies.