So where is Stella Creasy in Labour’s new Shadow Cabinet?
September 15th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Labour’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn has chosen his new Shadow Cabinet. It’s very large (31 including him) and has women in half the positions, but the women members are not in the top posts and some of the positions have no equivalent in the Government’s Cabinet.
Notable by her absence is Stella Creasy. Almost five years ago, I did a blog posting suggesting that she could be a future leader of the Labour Party and this summer I voted for her to be Deputy Leader. Of all Labour MPs, she is one of the brightest thinkers and best communicators and she is passionately committed to organising. She came second in the Deputy Leadership election.
So why isn’t she on the Opposition Front Bench? Maybe she declined a post. Sooner or later, though, we have to have her back in a leadership position.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
24 things that Jeremy Corbyn believes
September 14th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
The Labour Party has a new leader – someone most of the public had never heard of until a few months ago and someone with whom most Labour MPs have never had a serious conversation. So understandably there is a lot of interest in his political beliefs and positions. The BBC has helpfully compiled a list of 24 things that Jeremy Corbyn believes.
Of course, he will not be in a position to implement many of these changes – such as a national maximum wage, the introduction of people’s quantitative easing, nationalisation of the railways and the energy companies – unless he becomes Prime Minister in 2020 and I doubt that he’ll even be leading the Labour Party by then. Also I expect him to start moderating and qualifying some of his positions – such as on Ireland and Israel and relations with Hamas and Hezbollah- quite soon.
But, in the meanwhile, it is important that we know his current positions because they will shape the important debates that are now going to take place in the Parliamentary Labour Party and the chamber of the House of Commons.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
How should real-life gangsters be portrayed in film? – my review of “Legend”
September 14th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
My weekend cinema-going was to see Tom Hardy play both the Kray twins in “Legend”. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of a new(ish) history of the Second World War
September 13th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
My summer reading has been a book that I’ve owned for four years but not read until now because the main text is 600 pages: “The Storm Of War” by British historian Andrew Robert.
Yet 600 pages is not a lot to cover something as long and involved as the Second World War and I have to say that Roberts has produced a brilliant summary of this crucial period of history. You can read my review here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Is Jeremy Corbyn really unelectable as Prime Minister?
September 12th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I fear so – which is why he only had my last vote on the ballot paper in the Labour leadership election. I would love to be proved wrong but, taken together, the 10 factors identified in this thoughtful piece make me believe that the 2020 General Election is already lost for Labour unless there is a new Corbyn or a new leader. But maybe JC can work miracles?
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (4)
The good news: your chance of a violent death has never been less in the whole course of human history
September 12th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
For all the tragedy in the world, we need to remind ourselves constantly that we live in the most peaceful period of human history in terms of the chance of facing a violent death. This was demonstrated by American psychologist Steven Pinker in his 2011 book “The Better Angels Of Our Nature” and he has continued to update the data each year.
In a short article this week, Pinker looks at the trends since the Second World War:
“From a high in the second world war of almost 300 battle deaths per 100,000 people per year, the rate rollercoasted downward, cresting at 22 during the Korean war, nine during Vietnam and five during the Iran-Iraq war before bobbing along the floor at fewer than 0.5 between 2001 and 2011.
In 2014 it crept up to 1.4; again, upsetting, but a fraction of the previous highs. Newsreaders might expect the Syrian carnage to have undone the historic progress, but they fail to notice the many recent civil wars that ended without fanfare (in Chad, Peru, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, India and Angola), and have forgotten earlier ones (Greece, Tibet, Algeria, Sudan, Indonesia, Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique) that had massive death tolls.”
You can read Steven Pinker’s article and see the relevant data here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Two new film reviews: “Trainwreck” and “Whiplash”
September 11th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
My film viewing this week could not have involved more different works – but then I have wide tastes when it come to the movies.
“Trainwreck” [my review here] is a coarse romantic comedy, while “Whiplash” is a tough depiction of a young man suffering for his art [my review here].
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
My 27th short story: “A Shot In The Dark”
September 11th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Each Friday, I highlight one of my collection of self-written short stories. If you’ve read a few of them, you’ll know that the subject matter and style vary a lot.
This week’s story, entitled “A Shot In The Dark”, is rooted in the Arab/Israeli conflict and raises some moral questions. You can read it here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Are we about to see the greatest voter disenfranchisement in British history?
September 10th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
In most democracies, voting rights were not freely given to all adults but had to be fought for over centuries. People around the world think Britain has an long-established democracy but, as Antonia Fraser set out so brilliantly in her book “Perilous Question: The Drama Of The Great Reform Bill 1832” [my review here], before the Act only around 400,000 out of a total population of 16 million – a mere 3% – had the vote (all male and all requiring a property qualification) and passing the Bill – which provided a modest extension to the franchise – took years and caused a constitutional crisis.
Once citizens have the vote, that’s not the end of the story. Often reactionary forces try to take it away or make it hard to be exercised. Currently in the UK there is a move by the Conservative Government to change the way that voters are registered that could disenfranchise almost 2 million voters. Ros Wynne-Jones states:
“With an estimated eight million people already missing from a shockingly incomplete electoral register, this would bring the total number of disenfranchised voters to almost 10 million.
In other words, in the year of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which enshrined the roots of British democracy, the Government stands to preside over the biggest disenfranchisement ever seen in our nation’s history.”
You can read more about the threat in her article.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
10 reasons to love Autumn
September 9th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I sometimes advise visitors to Britain that we have four seasons – but on occasions we have them on the same day. Certainly our weather is very variable because of our geographical location between the Atlantic Ocean and Continental Europe, but generally our seasons come and go on schedule.
So let’s enjoy the delights of Autumn – cooler days, shorter days, special colours. The BBC web site offers 10 reasons to love Autumn.
Posted in Environment | Comments (0)