48 in Day to Day

It was my birthday on Saturday and I took my wife and child to the all-you-can eat Chinese buffet in town. I sometimes wonder if we get full value for money at these places since none of us can really manage to pig-out like some of the people you see there. I’ve noticed you do see an awful lot of hugely fat people in that place. I’m a bit fatter than I’d like to be, but I’m pretty slim compared to some of the people in there. I think I’d be embarrassed to go to an all-you-can eat place if I was really fat. Anyway, we had a good lunch. I also had presents and cards of course.

We took the boy to see Inside Out at the cinema. It was quite fun. I think he probably just watched it as a silly cartoon, but I thought it was actually quite sophisticated in some ways. If you happen to have a nine-year-old I’d suggest you give it a try. The child would like it and it might make an adult think a bit too.

Lets talk about Nazi salutes. A film of the Queen as a child, shot some 80 years ago, has surfaced and been published by the Sun newspaper. It shows the Queen performing a Nazi salute with her mother and Uncle. She’s around 6 years old and the footage seems to have been shot in 1933. It has unsurprisingly caused something of a fuss, but if we stop to analyse it a little, it turns into some pretty opportunistic journalism from the gutter press.

I don’t often defend the royal family. I don’t have much time for them. However 1933 was 6 years before the war started, and no one knew at that time what the Nazi party was going to become. It’s also worth noting that there were people in the royal family, notably Edward VIII, who were well known to be pro-Nazi. That’s not a new revelation and I don’t think there is any suggestion that the philosophy exists today in the current royal family. In short, this is pretty much a non-story.

The Labour party is in all sorts of trouble trying to pick a new leader and I can’t understand the problem. There are half a dozen candidates running for the position of leader, and the unexpected front-runner is Jeremy Corbyn. I barely know of the guy, but he would seem to be a card carrying Marxist, which appears to be something of an embarrassment for the party; so much so in fact that there are moves afoot to try and prevent him from winning.

But exactly where is the problem? The Westminster element of the Labour party appear to think that Corbyn as leader would mean no one would vote for them, presumably because they think the electorate is anti-left. How can that be though if Labour party members outside Westminster are pledging their support already? Personally I think it’s hilarious that the Labour party elite don’t want the candidate everyone is voting for because they think no one will vote for him. There must be something I don’t understand here.

And finally, ex-Blair-Labour minister Lord Sewel (69) has been caught snorting cocaine from a hooker’s cleavage, again by the Sun. I should be disgusted, and I am trying to be, but I’ll be honest, it’s hard not to be slightly impressed.