Series 2 of “Homeland” – we’ve finished it
January 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I recently did a posting explaining that, in the dark nights of winter, Vee and I had started watching the box set of series 2 of “Homeland”. In fact, we completed it in just three sittings of four episodes at a time, but this had to be over a period of 8 days because we had visitors and then a few days away.
As the series went on, the plotting became increasingly unbelievable, but it was very well done with excellent acting and sustained tension. In effect, series 2 was the working out of series 1 and, if we move on to series 3 down the line, I expect and hope that we will move into new territory.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
It’s never been easier to find a statistic – but so many of us are still massively confused when it comes to basic figures
January 2nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
If you want to know what proportion of the UK population is obese or immigrant, as with so many questions, you just have to Google it. You might be offered a variety of statistics, but you will certainly have a clear order of magnitude and you will be able to source each and, with a little effort, find out the basis of the calculation. Yet so many of us have a massively distorted view of figures including proportions and percentages.
As this “Guardian’ newspaper editorial puts it:
“If 50% of the population doesn’t know what 50% means, then it’s no surprise to discover that the public often goes wrong in placing numbers on social concerns. Ipsos Mori recently published a cross-country report that established that Britain thinks of itself as thinner, more diverse and older than it really is. That is to say, we underestimate the proportion of overweight or obese adults (guessing 44%, rather than a real figure of 62%), overestimate the immigrant population (25% in the imagination, 13% in reality), and also our average age, put at a decidedly senior 51, when the real middle Briton is only 40.”
In many cases, people’s distorted view of figures reflects their political and social prejudices:
“In other contexts, warped perceptions feed back to warp reality. John Hills of the LSE has collected a number of myths around social security that have shaped the debate about UK welfare reform. The share of the welfare budget going on unemployment benefits? Estimated at 40%, when the reality (depending on precise definitions) is closer to 1%. Fraud? Estimated at around 20%, when the official figures stand at 0.7%. The proportion of new jobseekers who it is presumed will be still signing on a year down the line? 50%, compared with a reality of less than 10%. All of these myths, of course, encourage hostile ideas about a lazy under-class subsidised by others.”
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Whatever happened to Corbynomics?
December 31st, 2015 by Roger Darlington
When Jeremy Corbyn ran for the leadership of the Labour Party, he argued for a radically different approach to the austerity imposed by the Conservative Government. Many of his proposals were borrowed from economist Richard Murphy who was allowed effectively to speak on behalf of the campaign as regards economic issues.
Yet, now that Corbyn has been elected and in post for three months, we hear nothing from Murphy who – as explained in this piece – has been totally ignored by the new leadership team. So what is Labour’s alternative economic strategy and when are we going to see it articulated? Too much of the news about Labour is about process and personality. What we need is policy, opposition, and above all hope.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
The wonderful song “Hello” by the singer Adele
December 30th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
As I explained in this posting, for Christmas I received the album “25” by Adele and I have been listening to it a lot. The opening track – the best known – is “Hello” and you can see Adele singing it here:
You can find the text of the lyrics here.
Thanks to my son who is currently working in Kenya, I’ve come across this version of “Hello” sung in Swahili by Dela. Enjoy.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the new movie “Joy”
December 29th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I’m a massive fan of Jennifer Lawrence but even she can’t save this film from being a disappointment. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the new comedy movie “Sisters”
December 29th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
This is not a film that everyone will enjoy – it is aimed at a middle-aged demographic with broad minds when it comes to crude dialogue. But I confess that I enjoyed it. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Listening to “25” by Adele
December 27th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I was massively impressed by Adele’s first two albums – “19” and “21” – and very pleased to receive her third, “25”, as a Christmas present. Adele has such a powerful and distinctive voice and I’m loving her latest work.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
Will the British political pollsters redeem themselves in 2016?
December 27th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
As we are reminded in detail by David Cowling – a fellow student politician from my days in the late 1960s – in this piece for the BBC, the opinion polls were spectacularly wrong in predicting the result of the General Election in May 2015. Will they start to get it right in 2016? He writes:
“Within 24 hours of the election result, the British Polling Council launched an independent inquiry into the performance of the polls. Chaired by Prof Patrick Sturgis and assisted by colleagues such as Prof Jane Green, their conclusions will be made public in mid-January.
They will be looking closely at a number of possible explanations: late swing, shy Tories, lazy Labour voters, differential turnout, sample weighting and whether we are any longer able to contact representative samples of the population.”
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
So how has Jeremy Corbyn done in his first 100 days as Labour leader?
December 27th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
In a leader in today’s “Observer” newspaper, we have the following assessment with which I could not disagree:
“No leader could make more than fledgling progress on the long road to electability in 100 days. But Corbyn’s first three months leave the impression that he does not even see winning an election as his primary task, let alone developing a gameplan that could achieve it. His most enthusiastic announcements have focused on process, not ideas: he wants to give Labour’s recently swelled ranks of members – further to the left of the country than ever before – greater control over party policy. Corbyn has taken over at the helm of a political party – and he is busy transforming it into a social movement. Usually the process works in reverse.”
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
It’s Boxing Day … so time for a box set
December 26th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
In a posting three months ago, I explained how Vee and I had picked up on the American television series “Homeland” four years after it first started to be broadcast.
Over a period of six nights, we saw all 12 episodes of series 1. This evening, we started on the box set of series 2 by watching the first four episodes. Compulsive viewing.
Has anyone seen all 60 episodes up to and including series 5? Are we in for a long haul or does it fade?
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)