Archive for April, 2019
The Conservative Party is dying – literally
April 10th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
“Younger and older generations have always been politically different, but never by this much. The generational schism exposed at the last General Election was unprecedented. The gap between the youngest and oldest voters was three times the post-war average – a fifty percentage point increase on the median gap since 1945. Age, rather than class […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
The introduction of the world’s first 24-hour seven-day-a-week Ultra Low Emission Zone
April 8th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Two weeks ago, I started to live in the centre of London, so it is a fortuitous coincidence that today sees the introduction in the capital of the world’s first all-day, all-week Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). You can find a question and answer guide to London’ ULEZ here and an examination of how it […]
Posted in Environment | Comments (0)
A review of the new bio-pic “At Eternity’s Gate”
April 7th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
There is a whole sub-genre of films about artists and Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) has been the subject of more than most with this work, focusing on the last two years of his life, being the ninth (the previous one – only two years earlier – was “Loving Vincent”). For me, seeing “At […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the film “You Were Never Really Here”
April 5th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Scottish writer and director Lynne Ramsay has created a really dark look at American society in this grim tale of the search for a missing teenage girl who is being held as a sex slave. Out to retrieve her is Joe, a Gulf War veteran suffering post-traumatic stress, whose weapon of choice is a hammer […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
So two more Government Ministers resign – making how many under May’s premiership?
April 4th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
It has been really hard to keep up with Ministerial resignations since Theresa May became Prime Minister. There were two more yesterday in protest at her decision to talk to Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn to see if they can agree a way out of the Brexit fiasco. If you thought that, under May’s ‘leadership’, there […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Two thoughts about Brexit
April 3rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I know that I should be blogging more regularly about the horror story that is Brexit, but: a) it’s hard to say anything that hasn’t already been said and b) as soon as you think you’ve caught up with developments, something else happens. As I follow the twists and turns of the debate and I […]
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Who is going to be the Democratic candidate in 2020?
April 1st, 2019 by Roger Darlington
It is far to early to predict this. After all, the first primary is not until January – nine months or so away. And, so far, many of the declared candidates have spent a lot of time apologising for comments made or policies supported in their past. For the moment, though, former Vice President Joe […]
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)