blackandblue_mando

Public


One of the all-time great stunts, with Yakima Canutt's "drop" from the stagecoach, but a very good classic Western all round. A young John Wayne shows real star quality, the cinematography is ahead of its time, there's plenty of subtle (or not) social commentary and parts of it are surprisingly funny. The worst elements, as expected for the genre and era, are the representation of the Apache as generic baddies to be picked off and the lack of care for the horse performers. The back projection is ropey enough to be distracting at times, but pretty much everything else is excellent and the film remains genuinely very watchable. ★★★★

Public

I've done the subject line in Welsh for the last few years, so I thought I'd do it in English today given the millions of Welsh people who speak that as their everyday language. As those who have been here a while will know, I have fairly strong Welsh heritage on my mother's side – various Davises and Lloyds appear before you go back too many generations – and for this reason, I (unfortunately!) have ended up supporting Wales at rugby union.

I like Wales a lot as a nation. It's a bit of a fool's errand to date a country (what criteria do you use?) but the word "Cymry" ("compatriots", used to describe themselves) comes from the Old Welsh/Brythonic "combrogi" and has been around for maybe 1,400 years. It didn't only apply to what we now call Wales, as that as a distinct political entity was still centuries away, but Celtic Brittonic peoples in modern northern England and southern Scotland too. Indeed, the county name "Cumbria" comes from the same root.

The Senedd (Welsh Parliament) elections take place this spring, and one of the challenges will be uniting the west and the east. I'm more familiar with the border regions, which often feel like Shropshire bar the bilingual road signs and have very strong links with the English Marches, but where the people definitely consider themselves Welsh: pubs don't show England matches even in Knighton, a town right on the border. People who live in Knighton do not always appreciate being dismissed as "Anglos" (one of those theoretically neutral terms that isn't always received that way) by those from Cardiff or Caernarfon.

The Welsh language is important to Welsh identity, and I always like to see and hear it being used. I hope it continues its recent resurgence. Welsh is a very old language, not as old as Basque or Greek but recognisable as a distinct language before English really was. But in a place like Knighton, it's little more relevant to everyday life outside specifically cultural contexts and certain jobs that require it than Irish is in Dublin. Knighton feels familiar to me in a way that Caernarfon doesn't. But it's still, as those pubs prove, very much Welsh.

Now, if the rugby team could learn to beat anyone at all, I would be a happier man, but that seems to be asking too much even for this proud small nation! Happy St David's Day.

Public

In the end, a fairly comfortable win by the Greens, with Reform just pipping Labour to second and the Tories and Lib Dems nowhere near saving their deposits. Social media is full of "hot takes" from pretty much all sides, so let's see if I can put together my "lukewarm take" that isn't likely to please anybody!

1. I am glad Reform didn't win. I think they are deeply unpleasant and divisive, and too many of their politicians are more or less openly Trumpist in their views. Stopping Reform would have been my number one priority had I been a voter there.

2. I am not especially keen on the new, urban wing of the Greens. They seem to be prioritising Corbynite left-wing policies rather than their traditional environmentalism, and Corbynite policies are not always appealing to me.

3. Labour are now in a real bind. I'm pleased they've been shown that trying to ape Reform isn't necessarily a vote-winner, but can they get back to being the kind of balanced centre-left party I'd like and drop some of the incompetence and authoritarianism? Probably not with Starmer still there.

4. Of all the "main" parties, the Lib Dems are often closest to my views these days, but they got under 2% of the vote. Voting LD this time would have been like spoiling my paper. The same goes for the Conservatives, had I been predisposed to vote for them.

5. Reform's Trumpian rhetoric about "family voting" having "stolen" the election is unacceptable. This is one reason I wanted whoever won to do so by a clear majority, as has happened. It's clearly an excuse for failing to win over enough voters.

6. At the same time, I do think it's a genuine issue if even a few women are being pressured to vote a certain way by their husbands. Until recently you could say, "Well, it's a secret ballot" – but with mobile phones women can now photograph their ballot papers (illegal but very hard to stop) to show that they have voted the "right" way.

7. Turnout was quite high for a by-election, only marginally down on the general. This wasn't a huge surprise to me. I think that's just the usual case of people thinking that because it was close, there was a reason to get out and vote.

8. First Past the Post is a terrible voting system, and if we see a party win a majority in 2028/9 with 25% of the vote it will become even more obvious. Yet the parties in power are too wedded to self-interest to change it, and I doubt despite current rhetoric Reform would either.

9. Labour allowing Andy Burnham to stand might have won them the seat – might – but then they'd have had another nightmare in the form of a Manchester mayoral election, since you can't be mayor and an MP at the same time.