So how does the British political system actually work?
July 25th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Britain has a new Prime Minister and a new Government. The media today are full of information about the new personalties and speculation about what this all means for Brexit.
But how does the British political system work? It’s very different from other systems around the world and even the British are often confused about how it operates. You can find my guide to the British system here.
The British political system is very different from the American political system and I’ve spend some time comparing and contrasting the two. You can read my comparison here.
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs | Comments (0)
The dude who is now Britain’s Prime Minister
July 24th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
“We know the mantra of the campaign – in case you have forgotten it – it is deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn and that is what we are going to do. Some wag has already pointed out that deliver, unite, defeat was not the perfect acronym for an election campaign since unfortunately it spells dud. But they forgot the final e, my friends, e for energise. And I say to all the doubters: dude, we are going to energise the country.”
Extract from speech by Boris Johnson on winning the Conservative Party leadership election which now makes him Prime Minister or First Dude or Mini Trump.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
What is the most successful film of all time?
July 24th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
There are so many ways to judge this.
Usually, because movies are essentially a business, the key criterion is money – but even here we have a choice between tickets sales in cash to tickets sales adjusted for inflation.
This week, it was announced that in cash terms “Avengers: Endgame” has just overtaken “Avatar”. You can see more on this story here.
But, if you adjust for inflation, then the top money-making film of all time is “Gone With The Wind” from 1939.
Another valid measure is number of ticket sales. On that basis, again the top movie is “Gone With The Wind”.
Still another measure is the number of Academy Awards won and, on that criterion, three movies share the record for the most Oscars. “Ben-Hur” (1959), “Titanic” (1997) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003) each nabbed 11 Academy Awards in the years in which they were nominated.
Personally I think the best film ever made was “Lawrence Of Arabia” (1963).
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
Why does Iran hate Britain?
July 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
They blame us (and the Russians) for the Persian famine of 1917-1919 when some two million (out of a population of 10M) died. Britain and Russia occupied the country at the time. More information here.
They remember that we (and the Americans) emgineered a coup in 1953. This overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the rule of the shah. More information here.
Earlier this month, British Royal Marines helped detain an Iranian tanker in waters off the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, after Gibraltar’s government said it believed the tanker was transporting oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. More information here.
Actually, many Iranians – especially in the cities where support for the regime is weakest – are well-disposed towards the British (and other Western nations) as I found when I visited the country in 2009. An account of my trip here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Here in Britain, it’s going to be quite a week …
July 22nd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
We’re going to have a new Prime Minister – almost certainly Boris Johnson. The contrast in temperament and style with Theresa May could hardly be more stark. Although it remains to be seen whether policy changes – especially on Brexit – are really that different.
We’re going to have a new Government with major changes in the Cabinet. We know that the Chancellor for the past three years, Philip Hammond, will resign if Boris Johnson wins the Conservative leadership election, so the critical role of Chancellor is going to have a new occupant as well as many more posts.
Meanwhile Britain is expected to suffer a heatwave. The forecast for London on Thursday is 37C (99F). That’s nothing compared to what many parts of the United States have been experiencing – not to mention recent heat waves in place like India and Australia. But the British are used to mild weather and 37C will have consequences.
I guess – in the words of the wartime poster – we will just have to keep calm and carry on.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Online connectivity and confidence still a work in progress
July 19th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This week, I attended an event at the British Library organised by the communications regulator Ofcom under the title “Making Sense Of Media”. At this occasion, Ofcom launched a Making Sense Of Media Network and a Making Sense Of Media Advisory Panel.
The proportion of non-users of the Internet in the UK is unchanged since 2014 and stands at 13%. Older people and those in socio-economic groups D & E remain less likely to be online. Some 33% of those aged 64-74 and 48% of those aged 75+ are still not on the Net. Some 23% of DE groups are off-line.
Discussion at the event highlighted that the problem of online media literacy is not simply a question of whether one is on the Net or not. A significant proportion of those who are online only have access via a smartphone so they are using a small screen which makes many interactions more difficult.
Also there are issues of skills and confidence. Many of those who use the Net access a limited number of web sites and struggle with the use of online services whether it is completing application forms or purchasing goods. Furthermore there is quite widespread lack of understanding of which Google search results are sponsored and how trustworthy are different sources of news.
So we still have a way to go with digital literacy.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
A review of the new documentary film “Apollo 11”
July 16th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I was 21 and a student union leader when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and I kept the student union building open all night so that we could witness this historic occasion live – even though they were hazy pictures on a small screen.
So I thoroughly enjoyed the big screen experience of the movie “First Man”, which was an impressive recreation of the mission, and – to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the historic event – I was delighted to see (again on a cinema screen) this thrilling one and a half hour documentary crafted by director Todd Douglas Miller from freshly-discovered 65 mm footage and more than 11,000 hours of audio.
There is no narrative, only voices from the time, and of course we know the outcome, but it is still a wonderfully moving experience and some of the imagery – especially long shots of the banks of men and computers involved in the launch and mission control and footage shot by Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin – was new to me.
Looking back, the whole entourage looks so white and it’s good that we have recently had the film “Hidden Figures”. Was it worth the stupendous cost? I don’t know, but it was a scientific achievement of magnificent proportions and it is right that we should celebrate it.
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
A review of the new movie “Spider-Man: Far From Home”
July 14th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This is the second film dedicated to the third representation of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and we have the same director (Jon Watts) and the same leading actor (Tom Holland) as well as a host of other returning stars including Spidey’s Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and teenage love interest MJ (Zendaya). It is actually the 23rd movie in the MCU and plot-wise comes hard on the heels of “Avengers: Endgame”, so you should see “Endgame” first and, if (like me), you’ve been at all the other works in the blockbusting franchise, you’ll enjoy some allusions to earlier films.
Whereas “Endgame” was big and bombastic, “Far From Home” is in many respects a gentler work with Peter Parker very reluctant to assume his super-hero persona, wishing only for a change of scene and a chance to romance MJ on a school trip embracing some of my favourite European cities in each of which a bridge has a role: Venice (Rialto Bridge), Prague (Charles Bridge), and London (Tower Bridge).
His plans are thwarted by the appearance of huge and destructure creatures called the Elementals and their seeming nemesis, the enigmatic Quentin Beck/Mysterio (the fine Jake Gyllenhaal who gets the opportunity to express a range of emotions).
It’s all immense fun with some new language, including the blip (explanation of how we cope with the five year disappearance of half the world’s population in “Endgame”), a set of glasses called E.D.I.T.H. (a special kind of weapon), and Illusion Tech (a very special kind of weapon). Be sure to stay for the two clips near the beginning and at the very end of the credits.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Did you know about these air crashes?
July 13th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This week, I saw a really good play titled “Napoli, Brooklyn” which featured an air crash. Only when I went on the Net did I find that the crash really happened. If you’re an American reader of this blog, did you know about the incident?
On Friday, 16 December 1960, a United AirlinesDouglas DC-8, bound for Idlewild Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City, collided with a TWALockheed L-1049 Super Constellation descending into the city’s LaGuardia Airport. One plane crashed on Staten Island, the other into Park Slope, Brooklyn, killing all 128 people on both aircraft and six people on the ground.
This theatrical experience made me think about a time when there was a similar air crash close to my home city of Manchester. If you’re a British reader of my blog, did you know about this incident?
The Stockport air disaster occurred on 4 June 1967, when a Canadair C-4 Argonaut passenger aircraft owned by British Midland Airways crashed near the centre of Stockport, Cheshire, England. Of the 84 people on board, 72 were killed. It was the fourth-worst accident in British aviation history.[
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How far are the eight planets from the Sun?
July 12th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I’ve been watching the BBC series “The Planets” presented by Professor Brian Cox. It’s a fascinating series and seems to underline that everything is more complicated that you thought with tremendous changes over time.
For instance, the orbits of the planets round the Sun have changed dramatically over billions of years, especially that of Jupiter. But, if we look at the spread of the planets now, too often books represent pictorially the distances between the planets as similar.
That is more or less the case for the four inner-most planets with mean distances from the Sun in million of kilometres being: Mercury 58, Venus 108, Earth 150, and Mars 228.
However, when you look at the four outer-most planets, the distances are so much greater: Jupiter 778, Saturn 1,427, Uranus, 2,870, and Neptune 4,497.
That means that the furthest planet from the Sun is not seven times father away than the nearest, but 78 times .
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)