How long have we been here?
May 12th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
By ‘we’, I mean humankind. By ‘here’, I mean the universe.
Consider these amazing facts:
The universe is 13.8 billion years old.
The Earth is 4.5 billion years old.
Humankind has been around for about 200,000 years.
So the universe is around 70,000 times older than humans.
If the age of the universe was represented by a year of 365 days – the notion of the cosmic calendar – then humans appeared on 31 December at 11.52 pm.
So the universe has managed most of its life so far without us and the chances are that it will manage most of its future without us.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
The local elections: definitely bad news for Labour – but maybe not that bad and certainly far from unique
May 10th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
As a lifelong member of the Labour Party, naturally I am extremely disappointed by the results of the elections held on Thursday. But I’m not despondent.
The most dramatic result was the loss of a Parliamentary by-election in Hartlepool. This certainly underlines a loss of support in the north-east, but Hartlepool is a bit special. Three times it elected as mayor a guy who used to be the monkey mascot of the local football team; Labour would have lost the seat at the last General Election had it not been for a substantial vote for the Brexit Party; and friends who’ve been to Hartlepool (I never have) tell me that the deprivation and neglect are especially serious and long-term, so it is understandable that voters there wanted a change.
At times like this, I think it’s better to look at the bigger picture. This is the first time in a century that we’ve had a global pandemic and this threat to lives and livelihoods has presented an extraordinary challenge that has affected politics as well as everything else.
I think the pandemic explains why the incumbent government in the different UK nations – Conservatives in England, SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales – have all done well in these elections. It is partly because the leader of these three administrations has had exceptional exposure and power; it is partly that, with a successful vaccine roll-out and the lifting of restrictions, electors are feeling well-disposed to their leaders. In a similar way, the mayors of London and Manchester – both Labour and both easily re-elected – have been seen to handle the pandemic well.
By the time of the next General Election, the pandemic should be behind us and the special factors at play in 2021 will not be there.
Having said all this, it is clear that the Labour message is unclear and that Keir Starmer has problems being accepted in some quarters. These issues need to be addressed quickly and the reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet is a start (although the Angela Rayner situation has not been handled well). I’m not convinced that Labour’s historic position is out-of-date. After all, key features of that position have been a belief in an interventionist government and the vital role of public investment – both features being practised by the new-style Conservative administration.
I believe that there is scope and need for some big policies from Labour starting with the rebuilding and funding of the NHS and social care – as set out in the recent report of a commission of inquiry by the London School of Economics and the “Lancet” medical journal.
Taxation – the great unspoken topic of politics – has to be part of the conversation. The LSE/”Lancet” report calls for its proposals to be funded largely from increases in income tax, national insurance and VAT, which evidence suggests the public is willing to pay. And personally I think we need a carbon tax and a wealth tax in the UK plus international agreement on the taxing of the global tech giants and other multinationals.
Perhaps what the Labour Party needs more than anything is one overarching idea that can be simply summarised – something more positive, more lasting, more inclusive that “Take back control”, “Get Brexit done” and “Levelling up” which have worked so well for Boris Johnson.
I venture to suggest such a single joined up communications idea. Instead of the Great Society or the New Deal or the Big Society – each of which has been used in the past – something like the Fair Deal with every policy – environment, education, employment, housing, health, social care, transport and so – presented as a form of fairness and fair taxation presented as the cost of fair outcomes (that’s the deal). And, of course proportional representation as fair votes.
More generally, we have to appreciate that decades of globalisation and austerity have dramatically weakened social democratic parties throughout Europe.
In France, the Socialist Party stands below 10% in the polls. The Dutch Labour Party had a near-death experience at the general election of 2017. Italy’s Democrats have lost swaths of working-class support to the populist Right and were at one point eclipsed by the Five Star Movement. Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has slipped badly behind the Greens. So the British Labour Party is not alone in needing to re-invent itself.
Yet, in every crisis, there is an opportunity. Over in the United States, President Joe Biden has shown that the twin crises of the global pandemic and climate change have created an appetite among electors for real and dramatic change. If policies are seen to be relevant (jobs, jobs, jobs) and presented in a language that working people understand by a leader with whom people can relate, transformational change is possible. And it is most certainly needed.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (5)
A review of the 2018 film “The Girl In The Spider’s Web”
May 9th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Each of the three “Millennium” novels produced by the Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson before his death was made into a successful Swedish-language film with the mesmerising Noomi Rapace as the vengeful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. The first book was then made into an English-language film with Rooney Mara as Salander and here we have the fourth book – actually written by David Lagercrantz – and this time Claire Foy is in the eponymous role.
Now Foy is a fine actor but, in spite of the tattoos, piercings, haircut and leather outfits, she does not really inhabit the part. Also the movie, while visually dark and striking, has a meandering plot that is full of implausibilities and so it is not surprising that it has been the least well-received of the franchise.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A chronology of the world of “His Dark Materials” and “The Book Of Dust”
May 7th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
If – like me – you’re a fan of Philip Pullman’s world of Lyra Belacqua aka Silvertongue, you might be interested in a chronology of the eight books published so far as part of the extended narrative which covers almost half a century. So I offer you:
“Once Upon A Time In The North” – my review here
“La Belle Sauvage” – my review here
“Northern Lights” – my review here
“The Subtle Knife” – my review here
“The Amber Spyglass” – my review here
“Lyra’s Oxford” – my review here
“Serpentine” – my review here
“The Secret Commonwealth” – my review here
There is ninth novel to come which will follow on from the “The Secret Commonwealth” – but, so far, we do not have a title or publication date.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Happy 200th birthday to the “Guardian” newspaper
May 5th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
For half a century now, I’ve read the “Guardian” newspaper and, even today, I regularly spend between one and two hours a day devouring its unique curation of stories from the UK and around the world. Its coverage of the coronavirus global pandemic has been outstanding. Most of the time, it reflects – more than any other British newspaper – my social democratic views.
Today the newspaper is 200 year old.
It started in Manchester as a consequence of the Peterloo massacre of 1819. In the intervening 200 years, the “Guardian” has grown from a weekly newspaper serving a few thousand Manchester liberals to a global operation with newsrooms in the UK, US and Australia, tens of millions of regular readers all over the world, and more than 1.5 million supporters in 180 countries.
Together with the “New York Times’ and the “Washington Post”, it is one of the leading English-language newspapers on the globe.
Long may it continue ..
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
Was Napoleon a hero or a villain?
May 5th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
If you’ve ever visited Paris, you might have been to Les Invalides and see the tomb of Napoleon. I have never seen a more majestic resting place. But, if you’ve ever visited London, you might have used Waterloo Station or crossed Waterloo Bridge. Both commemorate the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
Today is the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon on the British-owned island of Saint Helena. How should we remember this controversial figure? On the one hand, he was a brilliant military campaigner who dominated most of Europe and a clever administrative reformer who has left an indelible mark on French. On the other hand, he was an imperialist abroad and a megalomaniac at home and was both a supporter of slavery and a misogynist.
This article is a brief summary of the arguments for and against his greatness, while my book review looks at how Napoleon compares to his nemesis the Duke of Wellington.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Word of the day: flâneur
May 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
A friend used this term today to describe me. I’d never heard of it and had to look it up.
Flâneur is a French term meaning ‘stroller’ used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify an observer of modern urban life.
I guess this captures the essence of my Facebook page, especially since I moved to central London two years ago, and most especially during the three lockdowns in London during the coronavirus pandemic.
Posted in Consumer matters, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the 2013 film “Lone Survivor”
May 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In the summer of 2005, Operation Red Wings was an attempt to take out a Taliban leader in Afghanistan mounted by a team of four Navy SEALs. It is not a spoiler – check out the title of the film – to explain that only one of the SEALs made it alive. He was Marcus Luttrell who in 2007 wrote an account of the operation in a work with a title borrowed by the 2013 film written and directed by Peter Berg. And it is hardly a spoiler to set out that, in the cinematic version of the story, Luttrell is played by the best-known actor in the cast Mark Wahlberg.
Luttrell has been challenged as a not entirely reliable witness and the film is not a straight adaptation of the book, but essentially this is a true story of remarkable heroism. What it lacks in characterisation or plot, it makes up for with blistering action. The only other movie that represents a firefight in such realistic terms is “Black Hawk Down’ which likewise was an American military intervention abroad that went terribly wrong.
Details of Operation Red Wings click here
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the 2014 French film “Gemma Bovery”
April 30th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In the beginning (1856), there was the classic French novel “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert of which there have been many film versions in French, English and even Hindi. Then, in 1999, there was an English-language graphic novel “Gemma Bovery” by Posy Simmons which reworked the story into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.
Finally, in 2014, we have a (largely) French-language film version of the novel by Luxembourger director Anne Fontaine. The point of view is that of Martin (Fabrice Luchini), an ex-Parisian with something of an obsession for Gustave Flaubert’s work, who has settled in a village in Normandy as a baker (lots of gorgeous countryside and delicious bread on display). He becomes overly involved in the life of a British couple who have just moved into the village, Charles Bovery (Jason Flemyng) and his bewitchingly beautiful wife Gemma (Gemma Arterton).
The success of the film is due to Arterton’s looks and acting. Originally Fontaine rejected Arterton for the role because the British actor had starred in another film adaptation of a Posy Simmonds graphic novel, “Tamara Drewe” (2010). Also Arterton didn’t speak a word of French when she was cast in the film, but she learned to speak her French lines with the help of her then boyfriend Franklin Ohannessian who also worked on the production.
The story is presented as both comedy and drama which might confuse some viewers, but I loved the movie as an under-appreciated gem (sorry for the pun).
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The joy of writing and the challenge of the short story
April 29th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I’ve always enjoyed writing.
For 59 years now, I’ve kept a daily diary. Some 36 years ago, I even wrote a book: a biography of a Second World War night fighter pilot. I write a lot on my website – especially book reviews and film reviews. But all this is non-fiction: my life, someone else’s life, and other people’s books and films.
Twelve years ago, I wondered if I could write fiction and set out to write a short story or two. In the end, I wrote 31 short stories. Since then, they’ve just been sitting on my website.
But I’ve decided that it might be fun to have these stories collected into a book so, over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy editing and curating the stories. Given the events of the last year, I particularly enjoyed rereading “The Day Of Reckoning”.
You might like to check out some of my stories, maybe starting with the one that I’ve highlighted (remember: it was written in 2010). If, as a result, you think that you’d be interested in the book, just let me know.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)