Assisted Dying Bill

The House of Commons is voting tomorrow on legalising assisted dying for the first time since 2015; it will be an unwhipped vote with MPs free to vote their conscience.

The details on the proposal are here.

I understand the desire of people to end their suffering and go out on their own terms, but it would be very hard to detect whether someone had been pressured or coerced to take the life-ending medication.

The restrictions are very tight; how many people would be in a position to actually go through this? Some terminal illnesses rob you of the ability to know what day it is, at which point you're not going to be able to have the presence of mind to take your own life. Others will be different.

In any event, I am personally not comfortable with suicide or helping someone to kill themselves. I am not sure I want the High Court deciding on these cases either. This is not a case where someone is brain-dead; they are still actively living human beings.

I would personally vote No on this, but I understand those who would support it. I trust if this were to pass, it would not be a slippery slope.

Sixty-One Years of 'Doctor Who'

Watched most of the Tales from the TARDIS version of "The Time Meddler" today. It's not bad, although very much of its time in terms of pacing, fight scenes etc. The Doctor/Monk stuff is fun though.

The show is in interesting place now; the Disney-funded "Season 2" is to air next year. There has been no official greenlight for a third season although scripts are being written for it. A lot will depend on the performance of Season 2 outside the UK and Ireland; a bad performance and Disney may well end up pulling the financial plug, which would put the show in serious trouble.

Also, we might end up going to a Sixteenth Doctor in 2026, depending on Ncuti Gatwa's feelings about continuing with the character; pretty much all of the leads bar one since 2005 have done three seasons then out.

Finally, it would be nice to have more than eight episodes in a run. Ten at least, please.

So, happy anniversary to the Doctor and long may it continue in some form!

Remembrance 2024

The events of the last year, particularly the last week, make it clear that the struggle against fascism and other forms of intolerance did not end in 1945. There is a distinct possibility people will be called upon to defend freedom again at some point in my lifetime - and with nuclear weapons a thing, there might end up not being anything else but freedom.

I wonder what the veterans who sleep in Flanders Fields are making of all of this.

The return of Donald Trump

Well, he's back for another four years. Unless he drops dead first, which is possible. I want to wait for all the final numbers to come in, but my initial thought is that there is a danger of overcomplicating this election.

"It's the economy, stupid" goes a long way to explaining the results, frankly.

As for Trump, we're about to see how strongly the guardrails cope with his crazy ideas.

US Presidential Election 2024 Prediction

We are nearing the end of an election campaign even nastier than the last one. Donald Trump and his Republicans have engaged in the sort of rhetoric that the Nazis used and they're increasingly not able to hide it.

Kamala Harris, thrust into the nomination after the Biden campaign collapsed, has done a remarkable job in the circumstances, although admittedly many are not entirely happy about her lack of a clear stance on Gaza. She might be clearer on that once election is secured.

The election looks very close, but one of course must remember a little thing called margin of error; a blowout in the swing states is entirely possible with a normal polling error.

The Trump campaign seems to be having some major issues with its ground game; they also seem to be setting the "information environment" (thank you Institute for the Study of War for that) to claim election fraud after any loss. The insult comic at the Madison Square Garden rally seems to have invoked real fury among Puerto Ricans.

Harris has an advantage in enthusiasm, particularly among women and older voters. The Democrats are seem to be at just the right level of confidence to avoid complacency.

So, here is how I think it is going to go:

Prediction Map

• Harris wins the popular vote by two to three points.
• Harris wins six of the seven swing states, coming close in North Carolina. 303 electoral votes will be three fewer than Joe Biden got in 2020.
• With the rise of early voting on both sides, the 'red mirage' will be less prominent than 2020, but still there nonetheless.
• The Democrats will take the House, the Republicans the Senate. This will mean more Congressional gridlock.
• Trump will "declare victory" on Wednesday morning (UK time) and scream fraud later.
• The National Guard are going to be needed at some point, sadly.

But of course, I could be wrong and it's going to be a long couple of days, I would say.

One Year of War in the Middle East

Today marks one year since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on innocent Israelis that very much set the spark for a conflict that shows no signs of a quick resolution.

Both Hamas and Israel have bitten off very much more than they can easily chew here - so has Hezbollah. It is quite likely at this stage that Israel will eventually be able to defeat both of them, but at a very high human cost. Quite how the Gazan death toll has been so low is a mystery to me - we could easily have seen a quarter of the strip's population dead by this point.

Ultimately the peaceful resolution would be a two-state one, but that would need powerful moderates on both sides to be able to deliver it. There currently aren't sadly, so it looks like this conflict might go on for a while; any ceasefire would just be temporary.

And innocents on both sides will continue to suffer.

Dame Maggie Smith 1934-2024

If she had just done Violet Crawley and Professor McGonagall, she would have worth a glowing obituary. But that was just a small section of a very long acting career.

She was one of the greatest actresses of the last century. Her list of accolades is massive, with the DBE coming even before she had done Harry Potter. Few could do a waspish put-down like her - she stole every scene she was in on Downton Abbey.

She will be greatly missed. RIP.

Wigs, Frocks and Glocks - rewatching 'Alias'

This post contains a fair amount of British self-deprecation. I'm surprised, in all the time I've had this blog, I've never done a post on this show.

James Earl Jones 1931-2024

One of the greatest voice actors of all time has died.

Darth Vader was simply an iconic role that any actor would be happy to have on his obituary, but he did so much more than that over his very long career. His legacy will last for centuries.

Rest in Peace.

It's a D from me (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.16, "The Mark of Gideon")

Star Trek can frequently be a case of "great idea, shame about the execution" and this episode is clearly a case, clearly a cheapie to pad out the episode order.

Because the execution is very bad.

A complete lech (Review: 'Beetlejuice')

So, Netflix currently has the 1988 Beetlejuice movie on there and since the sequel is coming out, I decided to give the original a go.

I will be watching the sequel, but not in the cinema. Thoughts below the cut.

In space, no-one can hear Dora scream in Spanish (Review: 'Alien: Romulus')

It's very difficult to cover this movie without spoilers, so I'm going to have to insert a jump break here.

Anyway, my screening was pretty much full, although a small screen; the last time I've had that happen was for Black Panther.

It also had the air conditioning at full blast, which very much helped matters in terms of atmosphere.

What's black and white and illogical all over? (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.15, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

I take notes when I'm watching this episode of things that stand out to me when I'm watching it. My ones for this episode extend to over 2 1/2 pages. A5 pages, that is.

In this case, the stuff standing out is not necessary good. Quite the opposite.

• The bi-coloured skin was the director's idea. It should have been rejected.
• Seriously, Starfleet needs better defences against mental ship hijacking. Also, how on earth do you hijack an electronic system using your mind anyway.
• An invisible spaceship of course saves you a lot of money. As well as reusing effects footage from a previous episode as they did for the original; the Netflix version uses the remastered CGI stuff.
• Kirk is a great poker player when he activates the self-destruct. He'll of course eventually self-destruct the Enterprise for real in The Search for Spock... with the same codes being used.
• One wonders how the crew of the Cerritos would have handled this. It may well have been a lot more enjoyable too.
• Alas, persecution did not end in the 20th century, as my own country demonstrates.
• There's a reference to the Vietnam War here, with an implicit comment about African-Americans being drafted to go and fight there - a reason why Muhammad Ali refused to serve, getting (among other things) banned from sanctioned boxing bouts for over three years. However, this is also a series that did "A Little Private War".
• Today's racists are a good deal less erudite.
• How do you spray something from orbit? Liquids don't stay liquid in a vacuum.
• "Proceeding without incident"... then there's a pretty big incident.
• Lokai is wearing some very tight trousers in this; he has a noticeable bulge.
• There's some stupidly fast repairing and travelling in this.
• For a species with little real contact with the Federation, they seem to know an awful lot about operating its technology.
• Piles of unburied corpses... yet vegetation is reclaiming the cities. That doesn't really make sense.
• By the end, it feels rather padded - by Fred Freiberger's admission, the chase scene was because they were running under-length.. There's also the use of stock footage from the Second World War of burning cities, also for padding.

Conclusion

This could have been an interesting story about racism and hate... with a page-one rewrite. Instead it's got less subtlety than the Doctor Who episode "Orphan 55", which is saying something.

It's really just awful.

2/10

London Loop Section 21

So, I reach the end of my London Loop journey. All 24 sections on the 150-mile route have been completed. More or less. I can't say I followed it 100% exactly, especially when some really heavy mud turned up to the party.

Joe Biden

It's starting to look increasingly like Joe Biden will have to pull out of his re-election bid, with reports that Barack Obama, very much the most respected man in the Democratic Party, is privately expressing his doubts over Biden's ability to defeat Donald Trump.

Biden's age is starting to catch up with him. His memory looks like it is beginning to go and he's having problems even reading stuff from an autocue now. His debate performance was by all accounts disastrous; Trump was an open goal and he kicked the ball into the stands. He's been pretty sheltered from direct public scrutiny in terms of exposure to the press.

At the moment, Trump does not have an insurmountable polling lead; he is still inside the margin of error. But the Democrats need to gain in the polls and Biden staying on the ticket will no longer help that, due to the clear questions being raised about his ability to do another four years.

Personally, I have real concerns about his ability to even live another four years if he got re-elected. He's been much better than Trump, but it's clear that he now needs to gracefully retire.

Live-Action LucasArts (Review: 'Phantom Peak: Starlit Summer')

Over the last few years, only partly interrupted by the pandemic, there has been something of a major increase in what is called immersive theatre. Theatrical productions where you are a direct participant in the events and can, in a way, influence them. The pioneers in this world are Punchdrunk, a British theatre company, while Secret Cinema have also made a name for themselves.

So, anyway, I've been to a couple of these experiences. The live-action Crystal Maze Experience that I managed to get my team at work to do as an away day went down very well, even if I ended up getting "volunteered" as Team Captain. The Stranger Things Experience in 2022 also proved to be a lot of fun, even if the ice-cream was more expensive than Karen Wheeler's perms...

On Saturday, I went to Phantom Peak, located in the Canada Water neighbourhood of SE London. I mainly know this place as somewhere I change trains when I have to go somewhere else in South London, so I'd not really seen it above the surface. It's definitely a pretty nice neighbourhood.

I feel I should probably get to the point or Jonas is not going to be impressed.

General Election: Post 3 - The landslide on 34% of the vote

We still have one seat left to declare, but that's not going to make much of a difference. Anyway, here are my thoughts in no particular order:

• My prediction for Labour's majority and vote share was too high; so was that of many others. On a uniform national swing, we would have been looking at a hung parliament.
• I suspect many Tories will be glad to have got 121 seats, but it was still a whooping for the ages. Close to half their vote and over two-thirds of their seats gone. 15 Cabinet Ministers ousted as well, but our Portillo moment has to be Liz Truss losing her seat and leaving her count without a concession speech. Which I was asleep for...
• The Lib Dems actually exceeded my prediction by at least one seat. 71 seats is their best result ever, but their vote share was well below the 22.0% they got in 2005 under Charles Kennedy. Lot of tactical voting there.
• The SNP are likely at 10 seats at best; a massive collapse which probably puts independence on the backburner for at least the rest of the decade.
• Reform got 5 seats, in range of my prediction, along with a vote share that outdid the Lib Dems. Those sort of parties generally do much better under PR as they tend to have their votes widely spread out. A lot of second places though and they helped Labour over the line in many seats by the amount they took off the Tories.
• Corbyn retained his seat against expectations. There were also four more independents who won over Gaza and another won in North Down over opposition to the NI Protocol. The former and Corbyn might want to team up to form their own group, because I believe it would get them short money.
• George Galloway lost his seat and showed even less class than Liz Truss by not even going to the count.
• Four MPs for the Greens; they concentrated their resources on winnable seats.
• Levelling Up remains a thing, sadly. Changing the signs would be expensive.
• Sir Keir is setting expectations early, but he will need to deliver in a reasonable time. The 2025 local elections, which will see protest votes, will be a big challenge.
• The overall future for the Tories really depends on their next leader. They lost a lot of votes over their immigration failures, but someone like Kemi Badenoch will have problems with people who went for Labour or the Lib Dems.

General Election 2024: Post 2 - Prediction

OK, we are now two days away from the election and here are my predictions:

• Labour will get a majority of between 200 to 225 seats, but on a vote share noticeably lower than Blair's 1997 victory. Maybe 38%.
• The Conservatives will stay above the psychologically important 100 seat level, but not by a massive amount. A bunch of Cabinet minsters will lose their seats and we may well have another Portillo Moment.
• The Lib Dems will get between 60 and 70 seats.
• The SNP will no longer be the majority party among Scottish MPs.
• Reform will get 5 to 7 MPs, one of them being Nigel Farage.
• Jeremy Corbyn will not retain his seat as an independent.
• The Greens will have at least two MPs.
• Some special arrangements are going to be needed for "pairing" in the Commons due to the sheer number of Labour MPs.
• There will no longer be a Department of Levelling Up. That brand will be consigned to history.

A typical RTD finale (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.8, "Empire of Death")

• I watched the Tales from the TARDIS for "Pyramids of Mars" this morning before watching the finale; the edited version works even better than the original story and reminds you of just how powerful Sutekh can be.
• Speaking of Tales from the TARDIS - so that's where the memory TARDIS comes from. Hopefully, we can get some more of those next year.
• Ncuti Gatwa is great at fury, rage and sadness, with wonderful facial expressions that don't become something for memes, like Jodie Whittaker's scronch or Claire Danes' ugly cry face. At least not yet.
• Great episode for Millie Gibson as Ruby's main mystery arc is concluded. A very resourceful and smart companion, who I'd be happy to see more of. It did seem that this episode was written so it would allow for Ruby to leave the show permanently at this point.
• This said, the actual reveal of Ruby's mother, while realistic and definitely different, was a bit disappointing. And the stuff with her really went on a bit too long if I'm being honest. RTD likes his family stuff, but he's overdone it this time.
• Also a great return for Mel, historically seen as very much a screamer and ill-served in her original run. Bonnie Langford gets to demonstrate that she can do a lot more than just panto acting.
• Gabriel Woolf's voice has lost none of its power despite nearly fifty years passing and the fact that the actor is now 91 years old. Sutekh is a memorable villain and his ability to take over people at will, even effectively simulate them, makes him a force to be reconned with.
• When the entirety of UNIT got dust-killed, it became clear that there was going to be some big Uno-reverse-card pulled at the end, because RTD has done this sort of stuff before, most notably in the 2007 season finale with "The Year That Never Was".
• If the story's set in 2024, where did Mel get a 75 registration motorbike from?
• The final scene with Mrs Flood in a costume that some of us would recognise is quite interesting indeed. We haven't seen the last of her, I'd imagine.

Conclusion

A very typical RTD finale, for all the good and the bad.

8/10

London Loop Sections 19 and 20

Well, I'd planned to do these two in April as per my previous post, but La Niña had other plans, what with it having been rather wet recently.

When I actually did do it, the British weather just couldn't seem to make its mind up, as it commonly does...

Section 19 (Chingford to Chigwell)

The forecast was for possibly thundery showers (at least from the BBC) and the rain started as I was travelling up to Chingford on the Overground. I decided that I would take things a bit at a time, being prepared to abandon the walk if things got too bad.

This 4.1 mile section took me two hours and five minutes to do, partly due to difficulties finding my way to the next part of the route in Buckhurst Hill. The Forclaz trekking hat I got from Decathlon did wonders at keep the rain and later the sun off my head.

This section, which takes you through the eastern part of Epping Forest, is fairly flat and generally easy walking, but there were some badly overgrown bits that I had difficulty getting through. I also ended up walking along a road as the main route was a quagmire, stepping onto the verge when traffic was approaching.

I reached Chigwell and a light lunch in one of the local gastropubs, during which the rain came down, also drenching the people at Trooping the Colour in Central London.

I gave serious consideration to going home at that point, but when I came out, the rain had stopped and the wind wasn't too bad.

Section 20 (Chigwell to Havering-atte-Bower)

Like I said, the weather was inconsistent. The wind came and went. The rain stopped, then started, then stopped...

This section was supposed to be 6.4 miles, but it ended up being somewhat longer due to the fact I managed to end up badly off in course in Hainault Forest Country Park, followed by the golf course straight after. The mud got quite bad in some sections, but generally only in the bits under tree cover. The rain got quite heavy at times, but my clothing was waterproof and the hat worked as well.

The walk also took me past two massive piles of manure and this rather interesting sign at the Chigwell Row Water Works:

As I reached my home borough of Havering, the rain still fairly heavy and dark clouds in the sky, I did consider aborting at several points, but decided to push on.

You can see all the way to Central London at various points of the Loop, which I might have mentioned before:

As I neared the end of the walk, I entered Havering Country Park, where I had been told that there were some sequoias present - examples of what can grow to be utterly huge trees. I didn't initially see and wondered if I couldn't see the trees for the wood.

I did eventually find them though along a long avenue of trees. They are pretty impressive, but having only been here since they were imported in during Victorian times, they are nowhere near as big as their American relatives:

I finally reached Havering-atte-Bower, 3 hours and twenty minutes after I started.

As you can see by the water droplets on my lens, it was raining again. With the 375 bus to Romford a long time away and the other bus stops at least 20 minutes walk away, I decided to get an Uber home.

At which point it stopped raining.

I did over 33,000 steps and my right leg did not let me forget it all evening.

Just one section left to go now.