When will we know the name of the Democratic opponent of Donald Trump (or just maybe Mike Pence)?
November 22nd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
There’s frustation in some quarters of the Democrat Party that there are still so many candidates seeking the party’s nomination to contest the presidential election in November 2020 and there is still no obvious front runner. Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are currently the strongest contenders with Pete Buttigieg coming up strongly, but there are still more than a dozen others running and we have still had no state caucuses or primaries.
So when does actual voting start? Iowa will hold its caucuses on Monday 3 February; New Hampshire will have its primary on Tuesday 11 February; Nevada will hold its caucuses on Saturday 22 February; South Carolina will have its primary on Saturday 29 February. All of these four states are small and the first two are very white.
Delegates are awarded to candidates on a proportional basis determined by the voting so, if three or four candidates poll reasonably well in these first states, there may be no clear front runner. Biden may do badly in the early voting and his assumed support among African Americans will not help him in these four states. But he has enough money to stay in the race even if initially he does poorly.
So things may not become clearer until Super Tuesday 3 March when no less than 14 states have primaries, including huge ones like California..
Just a reminder that formally the decision will be made at the Democratic National Convention which will be held from 13-16 July 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There will be 3,769 delegates and 4,535 including super delegates.
If you’d like to know more about the American political system, you can check out my guide.
Of course, since I’m British, I have no vote in the Democratic primaries, but I would be pleased to see Elizabeth Warren as the presidential candidate with Pete Buttigieg as her running mate. We will see …
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
It’s World Toilet Day – and that’s no joke
November 19th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
4.2 billion people live without safely managed sanitation – more than half the global population.
673 million people still practise open defecation worldwide.
Globally, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces.
Inadequate sanitation is estimated to cause 432,000 diarrhoeal deaths every year and is a major factor in diseases such as intestinal worms and trachoma.
Children under the age of five living in countries affected by protracted conflict are, on average, nearly 20 times more likely to die from diarrhoeal diseases caused by a lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene than by direct violence.
More information here.
Posted in Environment, World current affairs | Comments (0)
The Spanish political system, general election and constitutional crisis
November 18th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Spain has just had its second general election in seven months and its fourth in four years. Once again, no political party secured anything like an overall majority.
So, what’s going on? Read my updated guide to the Spanish political system here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the new blockbuster movie “Midway”
November 17th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
While “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970) and “Pearl Harbor” (2001) both portrayed the Japanese attack on the Americans in December 1941, “Midway” is an account of the American defeat of the Japanese in the battle of June 1942.
Like “Tora!”, this new movie includes the Japanese point of view with use of Japanese dialogue and sub-titles. Like “Pearl Harbor”, it uses CGI – in fact, much more of it – to create vivid depictions of both vessels and aircraft with some breathtaking action scenes. There is an overlap of events with both “Pearl Habor” and “Midway” featuring the Japanese attack of December 1941 and America’s Doolittle raid of April 1942, but this newest film devotes around half of its running time to the four-day Battle of Midway on 4-7 June 1942.
Since the director is Roland Emmerich (who gave us the two “Independence Day” blockbusters), there is nothing subtle about the presentation which is somewhat simplistic and bombastic, but there is a genuine effort to be historically accurate and to show the American victory as a combination of strategic leadership by the likes of Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson), the vital intelligence of codebreakers led by Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson), and the skill and bravery of pilots such as Dick Best (Ed Skrein).
The Battle of Midway was a ferocious conflict which was a turning point in the Pacific War, even though the conflict lasted for another three years. The Japanese lost all four of their particpating aircraft carriers and the US one of its three carriers, while the Japanese lost around 250 aircraft and the Americans about 150.
Among the many aircraft depicted by the brilliant special effects are the American Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber and the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter which are shown in exciting dogfights. In fact, no Dauntless/Zero dogfights occurred at Midway, not least because the Zero was much the faster aircraft.
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
How do people decide how to vote in an election?
November 15th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
The calling of a snap General Election in the UK was hardly a surprise: Boris Johnson was planning one from the day he became Prime Minister and, after failing to get his Brexit deal through Parliament, he decided to seek the majority he needs to get his deal “over the line”.
The result may not be a surprise either. All the polls are currently suggesting a clear win for the Conservatives – although they were wrong in 2017.
But, how does the individual voter make up his or her mind how to vote? I put the factors as ‘the three Ps’.
Personality: Some voters decide on the basis of their local candidate, judging the calibre or reputation of that candidate or voting tactically because they want a particular party to win the seat or not win the seat. Many voters decide on the basis of the leader of the political parties, especially making a judgement as to who would be the best Prime Minister. In the current General Election, both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are very popular with some and loathed by others.
Policies: Some voters look at what the various parties have to say on policies that matter to them. These might be general issues, most notably in this election the question of Brexit or more usually subjects like levels of taxation and public expenditure or the state of the National Health Services or schools. Or these might be specific issues such as a third runway at Heathrow or closure of a local hospital or even free superfast broadband .
Principle: More so in the past than today, voters may decide in terms of the type of society they want to see. Do they want an economy dominated by market forces and individual choice or one where the state has a more interventionist role through regulation and taxation? Do they want a state where the rich and powerful are enabled to become richer and more powerful in a ‘free’ society or do they believe that a fairer distribution of power and wealth is better for all sectors of society even if it involves an active state?
I have always made my decision on the basis of principle which essentially means that, from election to election, I have nothing to decide. In 53 years of having the vote, I have never not voted and I have never voted anything but Labour. I shall do so again, even though I have never supported Corbyn’s leadership and fear that the Party is over-bidding. If there is a Labour Government, I hope that we will have a second referendum on Brexit when I will again vote ‘remain’.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Once upon a time, Britain actually had a revolution …
November 14th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
… but it was a very British revolution.
I’m doing a six-week evening class at London’s City Literary Institute entitled: “The Making Of The United Kingdom 1603-1801: Restoration, Revolution, and Political Unions”. This week’s session – the third – was all about the 1688-90 Revolution.
It is known as the Glorious Revolution or the Bloodless Revolution and certainly, in the first instance, nobody died.
The Protestant William of Orange was actually invited – by the Immortal Seven noblemen – to take over the British monarchy from the Catholic James II. Initially delayed by storms, William was lucky enough to avoid interception by the English fleet and landed at Torbay with some 20,000 troops. James decided not to deploy his troops and eventually fled the country. A Convention Parliament was elected to work out the terms of the Revolution Settlement.
So far, so British. In fact, subsequently there was armed opposition in Scotland and Ireland and from the French. But this was not as bloody a period as the French Revolution or the American Revolution. Instead it was more like the revolutions of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe.
Some historians have contrasted the conservatism of the Glorious Revolution with the greater radicalism of the mid-17th century. but other historians have argued that the Revolution itself and subsequent reshaping of English government – especially the emphasis on the supremacy of Parliament – marked a watershed in British political development.
The peculiar British political system has evolved gradually over centuries and even our revolutions are evolutionary.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
How green is your energy tariff?
November 12th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
A recent examination of the UK energy sector by the independent consumer body Which? commented as follows:
“A third of customers believe that if an energy tariff is marked ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ then they expect to get 100% renewable electricity supplied to their home. Another 11% expect that the supplier generates some of the renewable electricity it sells, and 8% expect that it generates all of it.
But it’s not technically possible for renewable power to be directed to your home unless you have a direct line to a generator (solar panels on your roof, for example). The electricity you use at home to power your appliances is the same as your neighbour’s, regardless of the tariff you’re on, if it’s delivered from the grid.
It’s not possible to direct ‘renewable’ electrons to some homes and ‘non-renewable’ electrons to others. Electricity is generated from a variety of different sources, including 39.5% from renewables . But it’s all mixed together in the National Grid, which is the distribution system for electricity.”
So how do you choose an energy supplier if you want to be a genuinely green consumer? You can find the Which? rating of different companies here.
I am a customer of Good Energy which has the highest green rating. You might want to think of switching.
Posted in Consumer matters, Environment | Comments (0)
Five things to know about the artist Bridget Riley
November 11th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, I went to the Hayward Gallery on London’s South Bank to see an excellent exhibition of the British artist Bridget Riley. The gallery’s web site has a short article highlighting five facts about Riley:
- Her abstract paintings explore perception and the way in which we see.
- Much of her work is inspired by the natural world.
- Since the late 1960s, her work has explored colour relationships and the way that colours interact.
- Drawing is hugely important to Riley: she calls it “an exercise in looking”.
- She has been influenced by the work of other artists – among them the French painter Georges Seurat.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
November 10th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
“The Handmaid’s Tale” was published in 1985 and I eventually read it in 1994. When the sequel “The Testaments” was published in 2019, I was keen to read it, but I wanted to reread the original work first. The first book is a record made by a Handmaid called Offred who serves a senior Commander in what used to be the city of Bangor, Maine, USA before, in the near future and after a violent insurrection, the country became the closed, totalitarian state of Gilead in which the role of women is subjugated entirely to the aim of restoring a declining birthrate caused by a variety of environmental disasters. As Offred explains: “We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices”.
There is not a lot of plot, since not that much happens over the short period of the story and the ending is inconclusive, but there is a great deal of exposition as Offred constantly recalls and records the creation and organisation of Gilead in all its macabre, ritualistic detail. This is a terrible world of typecasting through colour of clothing, such as Handmaids themselves in red, Wives in blue, Marthas in green, and Commanders in black. It is a nightmare vision with places like The Red Centre, The Wall, and Soul Scrolls and horrific events called Prayvaganzas, Salvagings, and Particicutions.
At the black heart of it all is The Ceremony when the Handmaid has to have sex with her Commander while the Commander’s Wife holds the Handmaid in place. Births themselves are semi-public affairs and less than perfect babies simply disappear. Offred slowly strikes up forbidden relationships with key actors, but will this lead to her escape and freedom? Canadian author Atwood presents a compelling story that seems sadly prescient now that we have a United States in which women’s rights, especially in relation to their own bodies, are under such challenge.
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
A review of the latest Ken Loach film “Sorry We Missed You”
November 10th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Nobody produces screen work like British television and film director Ken Loach. Now in his 80s, ever since the 1960s – with “Cathy Come Home” and “Poor Cow” – through to “I, Daniel Blake”, he has created a series of trenchant pieces of social commentary that dissect the causes of the darkness faced by so much of the working class.
This time, he critiques the insecurities and unfairness of the gig economy through the story of Ricky (Kris Hitchen), who has just started working for a parcel delivery company, and his wife Abbie (Debbie Honeywood), who is a social worker, struggling to pay the bills and bring up two children in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Ricky’s fictional company is called PDF, but it is a thinly disguised metaphor for the real-life DPD, which, in February 2018, faced widespread criticism due to the treatment of Don Lane, one of its couriers who was fined by the company for attending a medical appointment to treat his diabetes and ultimately collapsed and died of the condition.
Like some earlier works from Loach – including the hard-hitting “I, Daniel Blake” – “Sorry We Missed You” was written by Paul Laverty and stars an unknown cast which, plus research with courier drivers who did not wanted to be named, gives the film powerful verisimilitude.
This is not an easy film to watch, presenting a grim tale in uncompromising fashion with an inconclusive ending, but it has an important political message and, at its heart, represents the resilience of a loving family.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)