A review of the recent film “Collateral Beauty”
September 1st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
I’m really not sure about this movie.
What is certain is that it is studded with stars: Will Smith (in an unusually sensitive leading performance), Edward Norton, Michael Peña, and no less than four British actresses, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley and Naomie Harris. It deals with a terribly serious issue – the death of a young child – and it does not minimise the profound pain or offer an easy answer.
But I was not wholly convinced by the narrative device of having Smith’s character, the father of the dead girl, writing letters to Love, Time And Death, three of his co-workers engaging actors to portray these three ideas, and each of the three friends associating with one of the concepts – just a bit too contrived.
A worthy and watchable effort though.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
Understanding the nature of the Islamic State
August 31st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Over the past four evenings, I’ve watched recordings of the four-part television series on Channel Four called simply “The State”.
Written and directed by the acclaimed Peter Kosminsky, this tells the fictional account of recruits to ISIS – one from Wembley next door to where I live – and how they are increasingly disillusioned by what they find.
“The State” is an impressive piece of work, clearly well-researched in terms of the language, motivations and actions of the jihadists, with some harrowing scenes of violence and cruelty. It was shot largely in Spain with some fine new actors.
You can access the four programmes here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How far and fast should you walk each day?
August 30th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
For two years now, I’ve had an Apple Watch which prompts me to walk at least 30 minutes each day and the ‘nudge’ has worked with me consistently hitting the target.
But recently my brother told me that 30 minutes normal walking is not enough. Apparently you have to do at least 10 minutes of brisk walking each day.
He recommended an app called Active 10 produced by Public Health England and available for download free of charge. So today I downloaded the app and – in spite of the rain – I clocked up more than 30 minutes walking and more than 10 minutes brisk walking.
I just have to do this every day now. Thanks, bro.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Does Britain need a new electoral system?
August 28th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
“On 26th June 2017, a full 17 days after the results of the general election were declared, a deal was finally agreed between the minority Conservative government and the Democratic Unionist Party to enable the government, on a case by case basis, to get its legislation through parliament.
The results of the 2017 general election, which saw the Conservatives reduced to 318 seats despite a 5.5 percent increase in their vote share, were realised under a system designed to deliver stable, single-party governments.
On 42.4 percent, the Conservatives had not only increased their vote share (up from 36.9 percent in 2015), they had achieved the same vote share as in 1983 – a year which saw a landslide 397 Conservative MPs elected.
And yet, the Prime Minister returned to parliament having lost her majority whilst the Labour opposition drafted an alternative Queen’s Speech. First Past the Post had delivered the country neither a decisive outcome nor a stable government.
The volatility of this supposedly ‘strong and stable’ electoral system has been exposed in the last three general elections. In 2010 First Past the Post delivered us a coalition government, the first since 1945, under a system designed to produce single-party majorities. In 2015, First Past the Post gave us the most disproportionate election to date with a majority government secured by under 37 percent of the vote share.
Now, in 2017, despite over 80 percent of votes going to just two parties (the highest combined vote share since 1970), First Past the Post could not deliver a majority government. The 2017 general election was the third strike for First Past the Post – it’s out.”
This is the opening of a study by the Electoral Reform Society of the 2017 General Election which offers projections for the result under three different electoral systems. It is a compelling case for change – but is anyone listening and how do we effect that change?
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
My first experience of London’s Notting Hill Carnival
August 27th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
The Notting Hill Carnival has been held in London every year since 1966 and I’ve lived in London since late 1971 but never previously attended the event. This weekend, though, at the venerable age of 69 I ticked off an item on my bucket list by attending the carnival for the first time. And I loved it.
I went with friends who have been before and know the score and I took the elementary safety precautions I adopt when I travel abroad. But I felt perfectly safe and it was a wonderfully vibrant, multi-cultural atmosphere. It helped that the weather was great too.
I only attended the first day which is focused on children and I only visited for the afternoon before it became unbearably crowded. Even on children’s day, there were acres of flesh, tons of tattoos, lots of glitter, and – in the course of the processions – some simulated sexual intercourse.
The Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street festival in Europe and the second biggest carnival in the world after Rio de Janeiro. Over the two days, it attracts around one million people – predominantly young, but all shapes, sizes and colours.
There are almost 40 static sound systems and, when you’re near one, the booming, rhythmic sound seems to go through your body. There are around 300 food stalls and I enjoyed a lunch of jerk chicken followed by a can of Red Stripe Jamaican lager (I know, but when at the Notting Hill Carnival …).
I put some photos on Facebook here.
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Do you understand how the American political system actually works?
August 27th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
On my web site, I have short guides to the political systems of 15 nations.
Given the importance of the United States to the geo-politics of the world and the erratic behaviour of the current occupant of the White House, I receive most visits to my short guide to the American political system.
I have recently made a number of additions to this guide, so you might want to check it out here.
If you’re British or particularly interested in the British political system, you might want to know that I’ve done a comparison of the American and British systems here.
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the novel “To Kill The President”
August 26th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Although I read the “Guardian” newspaper every day, I hadn’t realised that its political columnist Jonathan Freedland wrote political thrillers under the pseudonym Sam Bourne but, as I browsed in a bookshop, I read the blurb on the back of this novel and was seized by the ‘torn from the news headlines’ nature of the plot: a volatile demagogue who has just been elected to the Oval Office has ordered a nuclear strike on North Korea.
Of course, Bourne’s president is nameless but the ‘fictional’ commander-in-chief is so scarily recognisable that Donald Trump could probably sue for libel in a British court if he was not so busy up-ending every convention in the political playbook – including warning Pyongyang of American “fire and fury”.
Following this cracking opening scenario, the rest of the novel does not have quite the same sense of acute drama and the plot gradually becomes less credible, but it is a fast-paced story with some well-researched political, geographical and technological detail and the book is a genuine page-turner with teasing lines at the end of each of the short chapters.
And, instead of a male protagonist shooting his way through every obstacle, we have a female White House counsel, Irish-born Maggie Costello, who uses her intellect and insight to discover the awful truth.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the recent Portman film “Jackie”
August 25th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman has come a long way since her amazing performance as a young girl in the thriller “Leon”, winning an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in “Black Swan”.
In this film, she portrays Jacqueline Kennedy in the days between the assassination and funeral of her husband, US President John F Kennedy, in 1963. It is an exceptional representation, affecting the unusual voice of her subject and communicating the horror and pain of the First Lady’s experience and her determination to have the funeral she thought appropriate.
This is the first English-language film from Chilean director Pablo Larrain and it is a respectful if, ultimately (and perhaps inevitably), cold work with Mica Levi’s discordant score adding to the sense of alienation.
As Jackie tells the reporter whose interview is the framing device for the film: “Don’t let it be forgot, that for one brief, shining moment there was a Camelot.”
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Ever heard of the Suwalki Gap?
August 24th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
I doubt that you have – but many people in the Baltic States and in the Russian military are well aware that this is a short stretch of land which is the only connection between the Baltic States and the rest of the European Union. On one side is Lithuania and on the other side is Poland, but to the west is the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
As this article on the tensions with Russia explains:
“Such is the anxiety, that when Russian military personnel take the military train from Kaliningrad to Moscow, a Lithuanian air force helicopter hovers overhead to ensure that no one illegally hops off en route. Earlier this year NATO deployed four battalion-sized battle-groups to Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.Those with the darkest imaginations suggest Russia could one day choose to close the so-called Suwałki Gap, a 60-mile-long stretch of the Polish-Lithuanian border stretching from Kaliningrad to Russia’s close ally, Belarus, and cut off the Baltic states from the rest of Europe.”
I have been on a trip to the three Baltic States and I understand their anxieties.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the documentary “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power”
August 23rd, 2017 by Roger Darlington
When the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” was issued in 2006, it took me three years before I caught up with it at home but, this summer, I made a point of viewing the sequel straightaway at the cinema. The issue of climate change has become so much more urgent and the stakes so much higher now that we have a climate change denier in the White House.
Directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk have done a fine job in knitting together extracts from fluent presentations by former US Vice-President Al Gore, his visits to sights illustrating both the growing instances of disaster and successful initiatives to cut carbon emissions, and his role at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2016. The sequel may not have quite the shock impact of the original work, but it makes a compelling case and offers a sense of hope that was lacking 10 years ago as new technologies transform our options for effective action.
As an American politician, Gore rightly points out: “In order to address the environmental crisis, we’re going to have to spend some time fixing the democracy crisis.”
Posted in Cultural issues, Environment | Comments (0)