What do the British think of America’s president Donald Trump?
January 14th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
An opinion poll conducted for the “Observer” newspaper by Opinium has found that:
- 71% believe that he is untrustworthy
- 44% believe that he is less intelligent than the average person
- 18% believe he is a friend of Britain
- 72% believe that he is a risk to international stability
The newspaper has major leader column assessing the first year of Trump’s presidency and, as regards his performance outside the United States, concludes:
“Internationally, Trump made nuclear war with North Korea more likely, dismayed the entire world by rejecting the Paris climate accord, insulted and threatened the UN over Jerusalem, did his best to wreck the landmark 2015 treaty with Iran and did next to nothing to halt the terrible conflicts in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and Afghanistan. Worse still, in a way, he has scorned US friends and allies in Europe and cosied up to authoritarian leaders in China, Russia and the Middle East. Britain has been treated with condescension and contempt, as in his abrupt (but welcome) cancellation of next month’s London visit.”
You can read the full editorial here.
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs | Comments (0)
How the Conservative Cabinet is dominated by MPs from the south of England
January 13th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
“Theresa May’s cabinet has the most members from the home counties in more than two decades, with more than two-thirds of the most senior ministers representing seats in southern England.
Only seven of the 22 full cabinet ministers represent constituencies in the Midlands or north of England. Those seven hold safe Tory shire seats that are outside major provincial cities and are in the top 20% of affluent communities.”
This is the opening to an interesting piece of analysis in today’s “Guardian” newspaper.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
What would really help consumers of essential services?
January 11th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is the title of a conference which I am putting together and which I will chair in my capacity as Chair of the Essential Services Access Network (ESAN).
At its heart and as its name implies, ESAN is a unique network bringing together regulators and ombudsmen on the one hand and consumer and voluntary groups on the other hand in four essential sectors. These sectors are water, energy, communications, and financial services.
Our conference will be held on 12 March 2018 at the BT Tower. You can see the outline programme for the event and book a place here.
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (2)
Contemporary cinema (1): “Detroit”
January 10th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This week I began another of the many courses that I’ve attended over the years at the City Literary Institute in central London. It is called “Contemporary Cinema: The Best Films Of The Year” and the lecturer is the American John Wischmeyer. It is an evening course with one session each week for 10 weeks.
It seems that the plan is that most weeks we will see and discuss clips from an acclaimed recent film and then compare it to a couple of significant older movies. This first week, we focused on last year’s film “Detroit’ [my review here] and compared it with “Medium Cool” (1969) and the French film “The Battle Of Algiers” (1966). Fortunately I have seen each of these three works.
All three films deal with actual events and deploy a documentary style and the course debated how conventional cinema and documentary cinema overlap in look and style. A conventional film using a documentary style tells a story using hand-held cameras and naturalistic dialogue making it look and sound like a documentary. On the other hand, a documentary still has to tell a story and has to be shot and edited with the same tools and choices as a straightforward film.
“Detroit”, as well as narrating a true story and using some actual dialogue, intercuts with contemporary news footage so drawing the viewer into the experience.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The wonderful work of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani
January 9th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Currently London’s Tate Modern art gallery is hosting a special exhibition of around 100 portraits by the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920). I first saw this over the Christmas period with my brother and I visited it again today with my sister. Our mother was Italian and we had a reproduction of one of Modigliani’s work on one of our walls at home, so we all love his paintings.
In this review of the exhibition, Laura Cumming of the “Observer” newspaper describes the artist as “tubercular alcoholic, addicted to women, hash and ether, unrecognised, impoverished and dead at 35 with the last painting still wet on the canvas” .
Modigliani’s style is very distinctive and recognisable. Cumming refers to “the long, oval faces and almond eyes, the palette of pink, blue and chestnut, the tubular necks and curvilinear limbs, all that grace and sorrow compounded by the artist’s own tragic existence” and writes of “the basic grammar of ovals, arcs, cupid-bow lips and circumflex nose”.
You can learn about the life and work of Modigliani here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How do you impeach a president of the United States?
January 8th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Who’s asking? Well, almost everyone after the fierce controversy stimulated by the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff.
The short answer is: it’s not easy (and I guess it shouldn’t be).
The longer answer is:
The House of Representatives has the sole power of initiating impeachment charges, while the Senate has the sole power to try all such impeachments. Two U.S. Presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted at the trials held by the Senate: Andrew Johnson (1868) and Bill Clinton (1999). Richard Nixon resigned before he would certainly have been impeached (1974).
In the case of the decisions of the House and the Senate respectively, a majority vote is sufficient. But the problem is that, when the Founding Fathers devised the U.S. Constitution, there were no established political parties and it was assumed that, in any debates on impeachment, elected representatives would vote on the evidence and not simply on party political lines.
Today the Republican and Democratic Parties are tight caucuses and, in any impeachment debate, almost certainly almost everyone would vote on party lines.
Currently the Republicans control both the House and the Senate. There are mid-term elections in November when all of the House seats and a third of the Senate seats will be up for re-election. So, what are the prospects of the Democrats winning control of the two chambers?
To regain control of the House, Democrats have to win back 24 of the 435 seats. But to do this, they have to overcome both gerrymandering which favours the Republicans and the tendency of Democratic voters to cluster in liberal cities which also favours the Republicans.
In the Senate elections, 25 of the 33 seats up for re-election are already held by Democrats or independents who caucus with them. Even if they all hold their seats and the Democrats manage to take Nevada and Arizona, that would still leave the Republicans with 50 seats, enough to maintain control, thanks to Vice-Presdient Mike Pence having the casting vote. If the Democrats could take Tennessee or Texas, that would be different …
So statistically the chances are that, post November, Republicans will still control both Houses or at least the Senate which makes impeachment any time soon an outside possibility. That leaves the option of removal through incapacity (the 25th amendment) or resignation by Trump who is famously impetuous and a notorious flip-flopper. But don’t bank on any of these options. Sorry …
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (2)
A review of the film “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle”
January 7th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is an action comedy with equal parts adventure and humour providing appeal to a wide age range of viewers.
Four American teenagers on detention are sucked into an old video game where they find themselves inhabiting avatars with special skills but very different personalities (and, in once case, gender) than their real selves with lots of opportunties for personal growth. It’s all very predictable (spoiler alert: the nerd gets the girl), but it works well, which is largely attributable to the very varied styles of each of the lead characters, both from each other and from his or her out-of-game self.
So credit to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, diminutive comic Kevin Hart, gender-bending Jack Black, and Britain’s own Karen Gillan.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
What are the prospects for Africa in 2018 – and does anyone care?
January 3rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Over the years, I’ve been to Africa 8 times and visited eight countries (Kenya four times). But the continent is home to no less than 54 nations and, in. terms of the world’s media, very under-reported.
In this short article, the Africa correspondent of the “Guardian” newspaper briefly reviews the state of the continent and the position in some major countries. He concludes:
“Washington’s interest in Africa is minimal, with scores of top official policy-making and ambassadorial posts still unfilled.
China, though its attitudes and interventions are frequently misrepresented, retains a strong focus on the continent. France is likely to try to expand outside its traditional sphere of influence – as signalled by President Emmanuel Macron in November.
The UK will look to historic ties in places like Zimbabwe or Nigeria to project influence post-Brexit, though it may find imperial nostalgia or the advantages of the anglosphere have less attraction in Bulawayo or Abuja than in Tunbridge Wells.”
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the 1928 film classic “October 1917”
January 3rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is the black & white silent movie, written and directed by Grigoriy Aleksandrov and Sergei Eisenstein, which was produced to mark the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and covers the dramatic events of February to November 1917. Famously it was created on such a grand scale – many scenes were shot on the actual sites of the events portrayed and 11,000 extras were used for the storming of the Winter Palace – that there were more injuries in the making of the film than in the actual revolution.
If one does not know the details of the period and event, the narrative is a bit confusing and the messaging is simplistic and polemical, but this is a well-regarded classic because of the stunning cinematography with unusual angles, striking compositions and innovative use of montage plus the appearance of some wonderful faces. All the scenes involving Trotsky had to be cut out and Lenin has a surprisingly low profile, while Kerensky and Kornilov are vilified.
For a more accurate and balanced account of the revolution, read “Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991” by Orlando Figes – my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
35 films to look out for in the first months of 2018
January 2nd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
As a keen movie fan, I was attracted to a list put together today by the “Guardian” critic of 35 films that will be released in the UK in the first four months of this year.
In the first weeks, I’ll be especially keen to see “Darkest Hour” and “The Post”. A little later down the line, there are some promising superhero movies such as “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War“. And, as a fan of Jennifer Lawrence and Alice Vikander, I’ll be looking out for “Red Sparrow” and “Tomb Raider” respectively.
You can see the full list here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)