The British General Election – some personal reflections
June 9th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (13)
A review of the new super-hero movie “Wonder Woman”
June 7th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This is a refreshingly different super-hero movie: one with a female central character (Diana Prince – the name Wonder Woman is never used in the film – played by the tall and beautiful Israeli martial artist, model and actress Gal Gadot) and a female director (Patty Jenkins who previously gave us “Monster”, another work with a central female personage) with a significant number of female support roles (Amazonian heroines, a chemist villainess, and a comedic aide).
Of course, we’ve seen WW before in “Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice” and we’ll see her again soon in the forthcoming “Justice League”. What works so well with this movie is that it is an origin story that stands alone and does not require the audience to have any familiarity with other super-heroes which enables it to reach out to a new (especially female) audience.
The narrative is straightforward, starting on the well-realised Amazonian island of Themyscira and then moving, via 1918 London, onto a blood-splattered battlefield at the conclusion of the First World War. There are effective action sequences but also some nice humorous touches in a work that does not take itself too seriously and delivers handsomely on the entertainment front. Chris Pine is ideal as the good-looking American who leads Diana from one world to the other and introduces her to the best and the worst of humankind, while David Thewlis is interesting casting for a vital dual role.
The flaws in the film include the easy defeat of the main villain (after all, he is a god) and an excessive running time and some feminists will criticise the portrayal of the titular heroine, but overall the work is a major success that deservedly will do well at the box office.
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The 35 words you’re (probably) getting wrong
June 6th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
I think that English is an easy language to pick up quickly at the basic level – no declension of nouns, minimal conjugation of verbs, a fairly forgiving approach to word order. But’s it’s a tough language to speak well – a massive vocabulary with lots of words that seem similar or the same, inconsistent pronunciation of letters, and an awful lot of tenses.
In this article in today’s Guardian” newspaper. Harold Evans looks at 35 words which are commonly misused – such as continual/continuous, disinterested/ uninterested, less/fewer. Check it out and improve your word usage.
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What is the Qatar spat all about? And why have there been so many foiled and successful terrorists incidents in the UK recently?
June 6th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
In a perceptive article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper, Paul Mason examines “Britain’s game of thrones in the Gulf”.
On the clash between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, he agues:
“The issue torturing the Saudi monarchy is Iran. Obama made peace with Iran in 2015, in the face of Saudi and Israeli opposition. Qatar is diplomatically closer to Iran. It has also supported (outside Qatar) the spread of political Islam – that is, of parties prepared to operate within nominally democratic institutions. The Saudis’ strategic aim, by contrast, is to end the peace deal with Iran and to stifle the emergence of political Islam full stop.”
On the recent terrorist sure in Britain. he suggests:
“We do not know why Britain has suddenly become the target for a jihadi terror surge: five foiled attempts and three gruesomely successful ones in 70 days. One possible explanation is that, with the increased tempo of fighting in Mosul and towards Raqqa, it is becoming clear to the thousands of jihadi fantasists sitting in bedrooms across Europe, that their “caliphate” will soon be over. If so, the question arises: a) what will replace it on the ground and b) how to deal with the survivors as they fan out to do damage here?”
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Is political opposition in Parliament dead?
June 5th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This was the title of a Drive Time programme recently featured on a radio station called Voice of Islam and I was invited to contribute to the item. The programme was billed as follows:
“We spoke about the role of the opposition in Parliament and whether it was as effective as it could be. The first caller, Roger Darlington, who had worked for the Opposition in the 1970s spoke about his experiences and generally said that opposition worked both in and outside Parliament to check the Government quiet effectively.
We also spoke to Professor Finlayson who explained the different ways debate could be construed, and that in some ways Parliament did still offer room for debate of the argumentative kind. He went on to give examples of when a speech in Parliament had been particularly powerful.
In covering how opposition forces could work outside Parliament to bring about change, Professor Usherwood explained how different Eurosceptics had got on the Brexit bandwagon for a short period of time to change the direction of British politics. However, they now lacked direction.
A member of the public, Hamish Chapman, reflected on the course of the discussion with some scepticism. He suggested that politicians needed to be taught how to debate if the public were to take them seriously.”
If you want to listen to the podcast – my interview is from 12-23 minutes – you can access it here.
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A review of last year’s film “Inferno”
June 3rd, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This is the third cinematic outing for Robert Langdon, the fictional character created by the best-selling author Dan Jones. Previously we’ve had “The Da Vinci Code” (2006) and “Angels & Demons” (2009). Now (2016) he’s back played again by Tom Hanks with Ron Howard again in the director’s chair but a new female accomplice, the British actress Felicity Jones.
The stakes are absurdly high: a visionary wants to recalibrate humankind by wiping out half of it – that’s approaching 4 billion people – with a deadly virus that can only be tracked down by decoding all sorts of messages relating to Dante and the Inferno.
I found the film visually appealling because the action takes us from Florence to Venice to Istanbul and I’ve been to all three cities and visited all the buildings featured in the plot. But it’s all very silly with dialogue full of portentous declarations about cultural artefacts, lots of running around by the principal actors, and regular twists in which the good guy/girl becomes the bad guy/girl and vice versa.
Just leave your brain to one side and try to enjoy the ride.
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Could Labour really win the General Election?
June 2nd, 2017 by Roger Darlington
We started the election campaign with Theresa May being much more popular than her party and Jeremy Corbyn being much less popular than his party. As the campaign has gone on, there is no doubt that May is doing less well and Corbyn is doing rather better than expected.
Equally it is clear that the Conservative lead over Labour has narrowed significantly. But is Labour really within striking distance of becoming the largest single party in the House of Commons?
There has been real excitement in Labour quarters over the latest YouGov/Times poll that suggests that the gap between the Tories and Labour is now down to just 3%. And yet most other polls still show the Conservatives with a double-digit lead. How can this be?
As this helpful article explains, the key issue is whether younger voters will actually turn up at the polling stations and what judgement the different polling forecasters are making about young voter turnout. Alan Travis writes:
“Put simply the polls such as Survation and YouGov are doing a brilliant job in reaching more 18-to-24-year-olds than other polling companies. But in doing so they are in danger of repeating the mistake the polling companies made in the 2015 general election when they overstated the Labour vote and understated the Conservative vote.
This is because while younger voters may tell pollsters in large numbers they intend to vote Labour, they are far less likely to actually make it to the polling station. The difference is quite big. Only 44% of 18-24s in the ICM poll say they are 10/10 certain to vote next Thursday, compared with 66% of 35-64s and 80% of over-65s.
As a result of the inquiry into the 2015 UK polling debacle, companies such as ICM and Comres now weight their voting intention figures for younger and less affluent voters by their actual turnout rates at previous elections. Other companies such as Survation and YouGov are not doing this and weighting them by current turnout intentions.”
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A review of “The Course Of Love” by Alain de Botton
June 1st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
The author de Botton is known mainly for his philosophical works and this book purports to be a rare venture into fiction, but it hardly qualifies.
It has a fair degree of characterisation, being all about Rabin Khan and Kristen McLelland who marry, have children, and struggle to keep their relationship alive and respectful, but there is no real plot and minimal dialogue plus interventions from the author every few pages commenting from a psychological point of view on what is going on and what the principals are feeling.
The novel – if we can call it that – seeks to provide an antidote to romanticism. It argues that “there is no one more likely to destroy us than the person we marry” and the theme of the work is that “love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm” suggesting that therapy is in some ways “the greatest invention of the age”.
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A review of the new sci-fi movie “Alien: Covenant”
May 31st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
“Alien” (1979) and “Aliens” (1986) were absolute classics that set the bar impossibly high for any further sequels – but the sequels keep on coming. “Alien 3” (1992) was disappointing and “Alien Resurrection” (1997) rather good. Then came “Prometheus” (2012) with the return of original director Ridley Scott. This was not as scary as the original or as exciting as the first sequel but it represented a genuine development of the narrative in its almost philosophical approach.
Now Scott (approaching 80) is back with a work, set a decade after “Prometheues”, which is not classic but certainly entertaining and moderately scary.
Visually “Convenant” is trademark Scott with wonderfully atmospheric sets. There are plenty of aliens in different forms emerging from different parts of different bodies and we are introduced to the Neomorph. And there are some good action sequences especially as the transporter is leaving the planet (actually Milford Sound in New Zealand which I have visited). A weakness is the cast: there are too many – 15 (compared to seven plus a cat first time round), mostly married couples – so that we do not get to know many of the characters sufficiently to care that much about whether they live or die.
The exceptions are Daniels (Katherine Waterston) – who has the now traditional kick-ass female role – and the two synthetics, David and Walter, both played by Michael Fassbender who rather steals the show.
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Today’s publication of the reprinted edition of my biography of the RAF’s greatest night intruder
May 30th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
The Czech Karel Kuttelwascher was the Royal Air Force’s greatest night intruder ace in World War Two. In all, he shot down 18 German aircraft – 15 bombers and 3 fighters – and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross twice in 42 days.
I wrote his biography under the title “Night Hawk” which was published in 1985. The book was printed in a Czech edition in 1993. Today a reprinted British edition comes out under the imprint of Fonthill Media.
Essentially the 2017 work is the same as the 1985 one, but there are a series of improvments:
- Small typographical mistakes or factual errors have been corrected.
- There is an additional introduction which you can read below.
- There are three additional bits of material from wartime sources.
- There are more photographs – 67 instead of 49 – and the quality of photographs is better.
You can learn more about the new edition and how to order it here.
You can learn more about Karel Kuttelwascher and “Night Hawk” here.
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Introduction To British Reprinted
Edition Of “Night Hawk”
When “Night Hawk” was published in 1985, I really thought that was the end of the story. But, over the next three decades, time and again something happened to revisit and revive the story.
Here in Britain, Karel Kuttelwascher’s name was included as one of ‘The Few’ on the Battle of Britain memorials erected at Capel-le-Ferne on the Kent coast (1993) and on the Victoria Embankment in London (2005). Television producer Peter Williams made a series called “Love And War” and one of the six programmes was devoted entirely to Kut’s wartime exploits and marriage. The programme has subsequently been rebroadcast many times.
In 2005, the Royal Air Force’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, based at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, England, painted its Hawker Hurricane IIC PZ865 in the colour scheme of BE581 ‘Night Reaper’. The scheme included 11 swastika kill markings under the cockpit sill on the port side (as seen in a contemporary newspaper photograph) as BE581 might have appeared the morning after Kut’s triple kill on 5 May 1942. The BBMF aircraft wore this scheme for the next few years as it performed at air displays around the country.
Meanwhile there was a ‘velvet revolution’ in Czechoslovakia which resulted in the overthrow of communism in 1989 and then a ‘velvet separation’ when the country was divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. The arrival of democracy led to a great interest in the role of Czechoslovaks who fought with the Western allies in World War Two and “Night Hawk” was published in Czech in 1993. Whereas 3,000 copies of the English edition were published, 15,000 copies of the Czech edition were printed.
The then Czechoslovak President Václav Havel posthumously promoted Karel Kuttelwascher to Brigadier General in 2000 and the current Czech President Miloš Zeman posthumously gave him the White Lion – the country’s highest award – in 2016. In Kut’s birthplace of Svatý Kříž, a large memorial was constructed.
Kut would be amazed by the interest that continues to be shown in his story some three quarters of a century after his exploits, but it is quite a story as you will now discover.
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