Joe Biden now needs to make the most difficult and honourable decision of his career
July 13th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Joe Biden has been an excellent president – decent and progressive. If he had had a majority in both chambers of Congress, he could have been a truly transformational leader. But he needs now to do what is best for the United States and the world and recognise that, while he is still an able politician, his weakening physical and mental abilities cannot enable him to beat Trump in November 2024 or, if he should somehow win, be an effective president until January 2029.
An article in today’s Guardian” newspaper explains how the Democrats could choose a new candidate and win another presidential term:
“Over the past few days, however, energy has been building around a third, more optimistic solution. Advocates of this alternative model believe it could reinvigorate Democrats by putting the spotlight on young fresh talent, inspire the country with a powerful articulation of the party’s values and, critically, prevent Trump from returning to the White House bent on unleashing a full-blown attack on American democracy.
The idea is being floated by a loose affiliation of Democratic party stalwarts, including former senior government officials and elected representatives, major donors, and current party officeholders. They are calling their plan the “blitz primary”– a quickfire, tightly controlled selection process that would culminate with a younger successor to Biden being nominated at next month’s Democratic national convention.”
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (1)
Why we need proportional representation – even if we don’t like voter choices
July 6th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
A third five-star review for my new book “Rennie & River: Tales From Two Courts”
July 1st, 2024 by Roger Darlington
“This book is written expertly with great skill about every day people who like all of us have a history and a story.
With great talent and altruism this master communicator makes us reflect, smile and wince at the vicissitudes of life.
I highly recommend this thoughtful book to all and sundry and look forward to Darlington’s next effort.”
Andrew Kyprianou
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the new animated movie “Inside Out 2”
June 29th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
The original “Inside Out” was so good and so successful and it concluded with the discovery of a button labelled puberty, so I was sure that a sequel would soon follow. In fact, surprisingly it’s taken nine years for Pixar – with a new director Kelsey Mann – to provide us with the sequel, although in the narrative Riley has only aged from 11 to 13.
When I took my granddaughter to see the original film, she was only four and a half; now she’s 13 and didn’t want to see it with me but instead with her pubescent girlfriends. However, I now have two granddaughters and the second one (almost eight) was very happy to see the movie with me.
All the original five emotions are back, but now they are joined by four more, starting with Anxiety and including Ennui (boredom), which makes life particularly complicated for teenage Riley and at times a bit confusing for the viewer.
But the central message is the same: we all have a range of emotions and we need to balance them, ensuring that Joy always shines through. Again we have a wonderful palette of vibrant colours and some inventive scenarios such as the Mount Crushmore.
There is bound to be an “Inside Out 3” and I’m sure that we won’t have to wait another nine years for it. I wonder if the third film will have the courage to deal with Riley’s body changes and sexual awakening.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Making sense of politics in India – the world’s largest democracy
June 27th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Elections in a country of the size and complexity of India are huge and difficult affairs. The Indian Constitution requires that voters do not have to travel more than 2 km (1.2 miles) from their homes to vote. At the recent election in April/June 2024, some 969 million citizens were eligible to vote and some 642 million did so. Electors had a choice of candidates from some 2,600 political parties.
There is no way that such a poll can be conducted on a single day and in fact the last election to the Lok Sabha took place from 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases with all votes counted on a single day: 4 June 2024. Almost 4 million staff were deployed to run the election. Administrative and security considerations meant that electoral staff and soldiers were moved around the country as the different voting phases took place.
What was the result and how does it matter? You can check out my short guide to the Indian political system
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the heavy science-fiction novel “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu
June 25th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Following “The Three-Body Problem” and “The Dark Forest”, this is the third and final novel in the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy by the noted Chinese science fiction writer. It was first published in Chinese in 2010 and then in English in 2016. It was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel and winner of the 2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
While most of the first novel is set in a few decades of the near future and concerned the threat of an invasion of Earth by a Trisolar civilisation, most of the second novel is set in the first 20 years of the so-called Crisis Era, while the last third is set some two centuries on and describes an encounter between Earth’s new, massive star fleet and an advance probe from the Trisolarians.
In this huge third novel, we return to the Crisis Era for around 100 pages, then most of the book (some 550 pages) takes us through four other eras spanning another two centuries, before finally the narrative makes some incredible leaps 17 billion years and then another 10 billion years into the future.
This is a very readable novel with lots of relatively short chapters, switching between different characters, various time zones and alternate parts of the universe. Also the work is endlessly imaginative: we have space cities and anti-matter bullets; we have travel at light speed, reductions in the speed of light, and even the notions of ‘time vacuum’ and ‘time dilation’; and we have astronauts entering four-dimensional space, whole planets folding from three- into two-dimensional space, and a universe which originally had ten dimensions.
However, this third book in the series is too repetitive and too long – it runs to 721 pages, bringing the total length of the trilogy to just short of 1700 pages. I was with Cixin Liu for the first four centuries of his fantastic tale, but then he lost me and I found the ending far too weak.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How can one obtain a revealing interview?
June 23rd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In this weekend’s “Observer” newspaper, there’s a long and revealing interview by Charlotte Edwards of the Leader of the Labour Party, soon to be Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. It reminded me of when I was interviewed as a Parliamentary candidate and of when recently I conducted a series of interviews of staff and residents in the block of flats where I live.
I sympathise with Keir Starmer. When I was a local Labour candidate being interviewed by a local newspaper reporter, it was evident that the reporter thought that I was too conventional, too boring even. She wanted some colour. I wanted to avoid any embarrassment. She wanted to maximise her readership. I wanted to maximise my votes.
I sympathise with Charlotte Edwards. Over the last year, I’ve carried out 40 interviews with staff and residents in Rennie Court and River Court in central London where I live. The book has just been published as “Rennie & River: Tales From Two Courts”. In most cases, my interviewees hardly knew me and had never done an interview exploring their life.
I obtained some fascinating stories and some amazing revelations. How? I like to think that I was probing, that I was empathetic, and that I was kind. However, I think the key factor was that I told every interviewee in advance that they would have final say over my text of their profile.
Some did not change a word. Some rewrote a few sections which became better once they had thought more about what they really wanted to say. One person pulled the entire interview.
I wonder if journalists could try this technique – or some version of it – when they interview public figures – or am I being too naive? The deal could be: as interviewee, you sign off on the whole text or simply that you have the right to suggest any changes that you want but the final decision is that of the writer.
I suspect that this type of collaboration would give the interviewer 70% of what they want instead of the 40% that they will otherwise obtain. I guess that it would build up trust between interviewee and interviewer so that the next interview between them would be even better. Just a thought …
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of my new book “Rennie & River: Tales From Two Courts”
June 13th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
“What fascinating stories emerge from 2 small 1970s blocks of flats on the South Bank! Roger Darlington has selected colourful threads from the life tapestries of 40 of those living or working in the buildings. With great technical skill, he shares these memories from the extraordinarily wide-ranging group of individuals, with life stories spanning the globe and many decades.
These people greet each other in the lifts and halls, make small talk at occasional socials; but often they know little about the extraordinary lives that the others have led or the unexpected activities they are doing now. Are all blocks of flats hiding similar treasures? This fascinating exploration of a small community leads one to question our usual lack of questions about each other.”
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A review of the fascinating new film “The Beast”
June 11th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
It is 1910, we are in Paris, and Gabrielle is a celebrated pianist and society beauty. It is 2014, we are in Los Angeles, and Gabrielle is an aspiring model and actress. It is 2044 and Gabrielle is considering a process called ‘purification’ which, in a world now dominated by AI, will enable her to eliminate all her troubled emotions. In each of these three scenarios, she comes across Louis with whom respectively she is charmed, threatened and attracted.
In this highly original film, both written and directed by French-Canadian Bertrand Bonello, we jump back and forth between the three periods and alternate regularly between French and English. There are repeated visions of certain objects: pigeons, dolls, knives.
This genre-fluid production is part romance, part melodrama, part science fiction. It is a disorientating and opaque narrative, but the whole work is a series of arresting images that, from the very first scene to the very last, constantly enthral, intrigue and disturb the viewer. Gabrielle is played by French actress Léa Seydoux (Bond movie “Spectre”), while Louis is portrayed by British actor George MacKay (war movie “1917”), and both give fine, nuanced performances.
It is quite a long film at almost two and a half hours but, on the this occasion, it does not feel too long. And what is the beast of the title? Well, nothing seen or heard. Perhaps it is a sense of anxiety that can seize you. Perhaps it is the threat of all-consuming AI that threatens to make humankind less human.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the 1945 classic film “Rome, Open City”
June 4th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Italian Neorealism ran from 1943 to 1952 and this film is one of the earliest and most memorable expressions of that movement. Key features of the movement were a focus on ordinary working people and the use of non-professional actors, vernacular dialogue and real locations.
For Italians in 1945, nothing could be more realistic than memories of the war and this film centres on the resistance activities of Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero), the communist leader of the National Liberation Committee, during the 1944 German occupation of Rome. While so many earlier films tended to have ‘a happy ending’, this work is harsh in how it treats its heroes.
The production had limited financial and technical resources and it was shot in documentary style on location in the streets of Rome and in a makeshift studio, only six months after the liberation of the city while Germany still occupied Northern Italy. The resulting powerful drama was a success both in Italy and the United States and it launched the careers of director Roberto Rossellini, co-writer Federico Fellini and actress Anna Magnani.
Rossellini followed “Rome, Open City” (1945) with “Paisan” (1946) and “Germany, Year Zero” (1948) to create what is known as his War Trilogy.
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