All My Friends Hate Me (2021)

I saw the title and thought “How could I not want to watch this?” I saw the title and also thought “How can I watch that?”. The last time I watched a film with that kind of logic, it was the very interesting My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday (2016) so maybe it was worth a punt.

Although I have not been posting many blogs on films over the last few years )the last one I posted was for Joker (2019), not including the 3WRs of Ghibli Club) I have still been watching films and the whole industry has changed in that time. So many films released since 2020 have been at the cinema for very short times and this particular film was part of the BFI streaming service when I first heard of it. I saw the title and added it to my list but I did not think I wanted to watch it without being ready. I could not tell what it was - it was marked as comedy.

The setup of All My Friends Hate Me (2021) is relatively slight, starting with the main character, Pete, chatting away with his girlfriend, Sonia, about a party he is going to. Rather oddly, the party is for him and held by his old friends in a big Country House for his 31st birthday. She is going to join them later but she has never met these friends and so is asking about them. Why has she never met them? In many ways, the point of the film is basically that. Passing beyond thirty^[1] is an interesting point in life - people are supposed to feel a bit grown-up but maybe they are not. Maybe people’s careers are heating up and you are becoming, potentially, further apart from the friends you made when you had no money. When you had to get by on the strength of your personality^[2]. But as you move on with your careers, different aspects of your personality and also the people you are mixing with can change quite a bit.

The location of the country house is because the party is being thrown by someone that owns a big country house - well, maybe not yet butinherit a big country house. And that is another key element of the film, this is a friend group of posh, rich people and that does include the protagonist too. From an artistic perspective, the isolated big mansion is a pretty good setup for horror and enables the director to set the scene with some nice, rural, rolling vistas.

When Pete gets to the mansion, his friends are not there and he wonders where they are and whether it was all an elaborate joke. Do all of his friends hate him?

As setups go, I thought this was pretty good and it set the scene well of the awkwardness of seeing people again for the first time in a while. The friends here, as close as they were, have not actually seen Pete for a while and that is because of Pete’s work - charity work, taking him away. This deals, somewhat deftly, with the idea of reverse culture shock which is where something that was familiar turns out to be alien. That is most commonly understood for people that go away from home and come back to find that they have changed but home has not. I don’t think this is actually quite accurate (in my experience, anyway) as what often happens is that you have changed and home has changed but you expected home, rather selfishly, to stay unchanged. Life moves on. And that is true of friendships too.

The rest of the film winds through the weekend with the feeling of paranoia consistently worming its way through Pete all weekend as they work through Posh Birthday Activities until, eventually, it comes to some form of conclusion. In many ways, the narrative (which I am not going to cover anyway in a review) is not as important as that feeling of awkwardness and isolation which is well captured.

I found this an oddly thought-provoking film and not necessarily what I was expecting. As the perspective is all from Pete, I do not think it is necessarily factual - and many of the awkward moments may just have felt awkward and so been presented as such. It also really works within the fairly common form of British friendship where you just don’t say many nice things to those you are close friends with. These types of relationships can really gnaw away at those that don’t have the confidence to carry them through or just don’t have the obliviousness needed sometimes. And I think everyone can be prone to lapses in confidence every so often. In that sense, I think the film is probably capturing a fairly common feeling (in the UK, at least) and one which a lot of people will enjoy squirming through. That is especially for anyone that has ever wondered whether their friends like them or not. And if you haven't wondered that, I have some news for you: Your friends have all got a WhatsApp group without you in it. 

You can watch this film on BFI https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-all-my-friends-hate-me-2022-online

And I am sure at many other places too.

<sup>1. Obligatory Fight Club reference: I can't get married, I'm a 30 year old boy↩
2. One of the things I found most disappointing, and dispiriting, in my own university years was the complete lack of personality. I felt (and maybe I was just out of place) that quite a lot of people had drinks in lieu of a personality. This still seems true when older and there is a trope of women having “gin” instead of a personality. Or Beer Guys.↩</sup>

The Count 2024 Episode 0

This “follows on” from the previous post about the count. But preceding the count was the canvassing. I get asked quite a bit about this and how it is to knock on the doors of strangers. And it is actually alright. People are generally not anywhere near as bad in person as they are behind a screen.Or they are but you don’t notice it as much as it is hidden behind politeness.

I am not a huge ”street” campaigner to be honest, and I prefer to be the “data guy” where I can but within the last year, leading up to the expected 2024 General Election, I did visit a few constituencies for “door knocking” sessions (see this blogpost on telling to see what some of this leads to). These were as follows and, as you can see, all but one were Conservative held seats and so were “battlegrounds” or “marginals”. It is also worth saying that in the one Labour seat, major campaigning was effectively blocked by shutting down the system^[1] that supported it as a prod to activists to go further afield. In fact, when looking for events for my postcode, the system suggested other constituencies in all cases and at all times including when there were events locally. This did definitely mean that we did not have access to the same number of activists as often “stronghold” seats would also have activists that would not want to, or be able to, go further afield.

Why did I go to these places?

I don’t particularly want to make political (policy) commentary here and my intention here is to show the difference in operational approach that may be the result of different strategic approaches.

So let us say, very simplistically, you have 100 activists. You may get 60 of them campaigning locally in a stronghold (S) and 40 of them going to marginals (M). So you get an increase in visibility and an increase in votes in both the stronghold and the marginal.

If you shut down the opportunity to stay local, you may get 0 locally and 60 in the marginal. So you have greater help where you think it is needed but a lower amount of help overall. So maybe you see an increase in the M seat and a decrease in the S seat. That may mean you win two seats.

I think that is more efficient in winning the vote but there is definitely an argument to say it is not considering all the externalities in such a simplistic model. And politics isn’t about winning to win but to win, effect change and stay in power.

The S seat has probably also got more untapped activists that might be able to grow your 100. The actual voters in an S seat may also note the lack of activity and remember that at the election and in the future reducing the strength. The M seat does have more space to grow into and the likelihood is that they don’t have as many activists to begin with so an extra 5 on 5 may be hugely noticed in a way that an extra 5 on 100 is not. In the “first past the post” system, you need to pass a threshold and any more than that is effectively unnecessary headroom. But you might lose the interest of 40 activists in a seat.

This is a little like goal difference in football and as a fan, I have seen big victories followed by narrow defeats so many times and thought “if only we could have spread the goals better”. But (topically) the Greek side in Euro 2004 did similar with efficient 1-0 victories to take you to the trophy. They were not able to effect change and stay in power… It was seen as an aberration and there have been no other (successful) countries wanting to follow that model.

I think this is a difference in the approaches of the two most recent leaders of the Labour Party and I am not making a judgement on which approach is correct or not. The “more activists and deep victory” approach is a people powered movement, Lots of people are involved and can be enthused by it all. The “fewer activists placed carefully” approach is about doing “more with less” and needs people that are enthused already as the whole movement will be less fun. In a nutshell, that is my experience of the approaches.

Locations canvassed

I went to a few constituencies but it is also worth noting that Britain is a very mixed up country and each constituency is made up of vastly different components and so the parts I visited may not be representative at all. I know that from visiting them but that may not be as clear to those reading a pithy little take and a 3 word review. Please note that the boundary changes mean that the maps are not exactly on the same boundaries but give a sense of it. Click the maps to see a better quality image of the deprivation measured in these constituencies to get a sense of the voter base.

[Con] Cities of London and Westminster

This was the first place I went of the actual campaign and we were in an area that might not be called traditionally Labour. The feedback here was not always positive but it was far more friendly than my previous visits to these kinds of areas. I would say it was neutral rather than hostile. To give an indication of the place, I was told that “no parent would vote for Labour” because of the policy around requiring private schools to pay tax like other similar businesses. One notable thing here is that many of the doors were inaccessible but you could ring at the gate and they would let you in or speak to you from the door. It was odd to hear people shouting in the street (effectively) that they were voting Labour in this neighbourhood. I also had a chat with one person that was quite irritated (and made that clear, but also clarified a few times that he was not with me personally) that people were chasing his vote now but had not spoken to him in years. This could be for a number of reasons but he was at least cognisant of the fact that I was from a neighbouring constituency and not in a position to be complained at. Speaking to people face to face is pretty disarming and the conversations are generally quite nice.

3WR: Money, Money, Money

Result: Labour MP - Rachel Blake

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001172

[Con] Finchley and Golders Green

I had not been here for a while but this was supposedly the seat with the most Jewish electorate in the country and so had been quite a target in previous elections for those wanting to make hay. This meant it was an oddly “local” election as in 2019, the Labour leader was consistently branded as anti-semitic and so it was expected to move quite differently to the underlying political movements. I also grew up locally although not in this constituency and so was familiar with the rhythm and bass of the place if not necessarily the melody. The atmosphere was good in the sessions with good humour and effort. The candidate was also known to me as she lives locally to me although she grew up in this constituency. My most notable conversation here was based on asking about whether Sarah was local (or local enough) as she lived about 4 miles away from the household I knocked at. I am hopeful that the person, who was going to complete her postal vote that evening, was able to use that conversation to make her decision - she did note that Sarah had been active in the community for many years. The conversation itself was fairly long and pleasant with the voter also commenting that it was nice to have people (meaning activists in general) showing an interest. Another notable interaction was someone telling me that I should not be campaigning for the Labour Party at all due to Gaza. It was a reminder that a constituency does not have one voice. I did go here a few times and each time, I was reminded that this was a summer election and we don’t have those often.

3WR: This feels nice

Result: Labour MP - Sarah Sackman

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001238

[Con] Hendon

This was a Barnet borough seat that I went to on a larger “action” day and even managed to persuade an acquaintance^[2] that lived locally to come along with her dad. As I did not really speak to many constituents and was running a board and helping some first-timers, I cannot say too much here. I was walking with the candidate though and it was impressive to see how many people he wanted to speak to. The level of effort and determination was pretty impressive and I really wish more of the electorate were aware of how hard some of these candidates work for these roles. And before the roles! The geography of the area around Hendon central seemed familiar although I had not been there before due to the suburbia feel to it. A place where it is simultaneously difficult and easy to lose yourself.

3WR: Keep it moving

Result: Labour MP - David Pinto-Duschinsky

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001279

[Con] Chipping Barnet

This was a seat I had spent a long time in over the years but not politically. In the miserable 2019 campaign, I remember coming out here in the rain to run a (paper) board out to very rude constituents. This was, again, the rudest constituency I found but there was also some politeness and positivity. I grew up in Chipping Barnet but there is an area between the M25 and the High Street which is almost unknown to me. It is an area to drive through and has many large houses - the kinds of places with names rather than numbers. This was a polling day visit and so traipsing around here where the housing was very low density and very rich felt inefficient to me. There were other areas which were more accessible but other people without access to cars had done those so I went to the very north of the constituency with one person that had a car. I had two notable interactions in this largely “against” area. One man decided to swear at me and told me that I should not be campaigning on polling day as it was not allowed. I was not sure if he had a different interpretation of the laws to every political party in the land but I did not find out which way he was voting. It left me a bit shaken and annoyed, to be honest but this is something that you just have to push yourself not to be too fussed by. I had seen worse. Another man, whom we had expected to be supportive, rushed over to me from across the road where he was doing something to his car to speak to me. This felt risky but when I asked him, he said he had surprisingly put the tick in the same box he had for 40 years. He was very pleasant though, and explained to me that he liked what he saw but found something against Angela Rayner. That he was impressed with her personally but could not imagine her speaking with foreign dignitaries like Macron (“but maybe Trump wasn't a good example!”). I know that there has been a Conservative campaign against her but this was the first I had heard of it. I think even he knew there was not much to it as he said she was actually very impressive. Anyway, he said good luck to me and let me carry on. Afterwards, when we got back in the car, he came over again and told me to have a glass of bubbly for him that evening! Again, the atmosphere was pretty pleasant.

3WR: Is this Barnet?

Result: Labour MP - Dan Tomlinson

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001169

[Con] Uxbridge and South Ruislip

I visited this seat in the previous year’s by-election but that was less than a year ago! That time was when the Conservatives kept banging on (inaccurately) about ULEZ and so, as it was pre-implementation, the scares were working. I knocked on a lot of doors of people that had compliant cars that did not want to vote for Labour because of the charge. And lots of people that did not seem overly concerned about poorer constituents in any other situation except where they would have to pay a charge for polluting the air. This was a long time ago now, and that particular by-election was not successful. That would come later.

3WR: Massive cars everywhere

Result: Labour MP - Danny Beales

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001558

[Lab] Holborn and St Pancras

A relatively “dull” canvass as this is a place I have been many times with little to learn - but a great way of getting into the swing and understanding the new software and approach. I absolutely love this constituency though with the varied feel across it and mini-communities hidden away in the estates. People were positive on the doorsteps but that was fairly early in the campaign. I have always told people that if they want to canvass, they should do so on safer ground first (such as this) so that they are not too stressed by it all. That will make them able to be more effective as it counts. I ended up in a chat with a person that was studying politics at university - their first political memory at all was seeing their parents seeming distraught at the Brexit result. That’s a sobering thought about the march of time.

3WR: Home Sweet Home

Result: Labour MP - Keir Starmer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001290

[Con] Corby and East Northamptonshire

This was an entirely new constituency for me and the type of constituency that I had not always been drawn to. Especially post-Brexit, I have been uncomfortable (see my thoughts on Brexit Day) about going to non-urban spaces (Corby itself has high and low-density areas) and have also suspected that having non-white London accents at the doorstep may be counter-productive. These sessions were different to those I had done before with drives required to get to the streets and lifts needed timed to train journeys.

I generally run boards and so stay less visible but I did have one longish interaction with a Labour/Reform voter that was undecided between the two parties. This started badly from his first response but it did continue into a conversation. This was a man that had been part of the London Transport workforce and even been door knocking for John McDonnell, but was now wondering whether Reform or Labour were right. Reform, I am told, were honest and not afraid of telling the truth and were not racist. He spoke of refugees and how they travelled across the continent and then mentioned Schengen. He asked me about it. I did not expect to be discussing Schengen on the doorstop a full eight years after the country decided not to join Schengen and leave the EU. But campaigns do this, they make people say things. I explained what I understood of Schengen and that we could not have been following the rules of Schengen as we were not part of it. I likened it to the Common Travel Area we have with Ireland. He was surprised. He did not know this. But he did not react badly to it, he did not act as if I was patronising him, he acted as if he did not know it and it was further information. The conversation continued, he was a nice guy that had suffered from a stroke, had suffered from “long covid” and was just happy to still be alive. I noted a “Griffin Park” sign and commented on Brentford FC and he joked about my accent for a Liverpool fan^[3] and we parted. It was a long talk and a reminder of why I usually run the board from an operational perspective but it was something that left me pleased and frustrated. I was hopeful that I had left a positive impression on him. But then I thought about what that meant. Would speaking to a non-white person who was speaking to them normally have had a positive impact on his view of all non-white people in some way? I have spoken of my feeling of “representative” status before (see fn7 of this Vietnam blog post) and how that can change people’s minds. I am always concerned about doing that the wrong way but could I also do it in the right direction? Should I have been doing this earlier?

I’ve had a recent conversation elsewhere about the pain of being a pioneer and “identity politics”. That someone so often has to take the hits so that others don’t have to and a phrase known among many second generation immigrants is that “they walked so that we could run”. But walking is hard.

3WR: Eye opening interaction

Result: Labour MP - Lee Barron

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001179

I hope that these vignettes have been somewhat enlightening for those unaware of the process. I would strongly suggest giving it a go once if you can. Although I am not always one of them, however much I “love a chat”^[4], many people do love these door knocking sessions and many of them had no idea that they would. I am not expecting there to be a General election soon but canvassing goes on around the year and around the country so maybe give it a go.

<sup>1. This closing down of the system, ostensibly to try to ensure that limited resources were applied effectively has been subject to some odd commentary about abandoning places. In the case of the Camden seat that I live in, there has been regular canvassing for years and a recent GLA election to give good data.↩
2. Her father was in the Ghibli Club that I sort of ran during part of the pandemic lockdown.↩
3. These things are somewhat related, and maybe not consciously. Football, for me, was a television thing for a long time. In the eighties, most Asian kids would not even dream of going to football because most Asian parents, correctly, would not even dare to dream it was a safe place. There was a part of me as I walked away thinking, “it is probably due to some other people that are currently voting Reform and were shouting racist abuse that I did not follow a club in London”. I used to be more bothered by the glory-hunter jibes but not so much now. ↩
4. I was told, somewhat recently, that I “love a chat” by a colleague and it has had an odd effect of making me question my self-image. I don’t think I do but other people have backed this up and, you know what? Maybe I do. I am aware that I am much more conversational on holiday than when I am not - and there is no real reason for this. If you know me, why not let me know if I do actually “love a chat” or not.↩</sup>

The Count 2024

Context

I was fortunate enough to be at the count for the elections run by Camden council - these took place in the Camden Council offices in Pancras Square and covered two different constituencies. I was also fortunate to be at the similar count in 2019 which took place at a nearby sports centre but with quite a different atmosphere.

In 2019, I had been “running a room” set up quite locally which I had done a number of times (and would do so again for future local elections). In 2024, I had gone to two other constituencies in order to assist other candidates and finished up a little early in order to be able to help with the count. In both cases, we needed to be set up for 10pm so that we could see the release of the exit poll and be ready to go for the counting of postal ballots which had been delivered to the building already. It was that exit poll that people were there for though and part of what has been both haunting and motivating for me, personally, is that moment. That particular moment in 2019 was sickening. The guttural roar and braying from the Conservatives in that sports centre in 2019 is a strong memory and one that still pops into my head every so often. In hindsight, we probably knew there was a defeat on the way but that was the point at which you realised the scale and the types of people that wanted it. A majority built on an active lack of scrutiny by the news, as we were sadly to find out quite soon after. But that was just the start of the night, we had work to do and quite quickly, we had to ready ourselves. I did the same “job” both times, which was to be a “counting agent” at the count itself.

Counting Agents

A counting agent is there on behalf of the candidates to help make sure the count is run properly and also to run a sampling exercise. This is the only time when the count is disaggregated enough to see granular ward level information. In actual fact, it is the point before it is all aggregated and, in Camden at least, the only point when you can see how particular areas voted. This is all done before the actual counting stage during what is called “verification”. Here the ballots are counted and they are verified by box - and each box is taken from particular locations. That means you can see how people have voted but you cannot count them at this stage. What we can do, however, is sample and so we take a count of a random selection of ballots as they are being verified. Agents cannot touch or interfere with the counting and so stand there watching and counting on a little tick sheet. This is a random selection and this is done by tens of people across all parties in order to have a) advance information for the result that day and b) have some sense of the geographical spread of the count. That is then all collated and used to generate a view of the spread and also let the candidate know what type of face and speech to prepare! In 2019, I did the collation but this time, I used my excellent eyesight to sample counts.

The logistics of the count

Camden Council set up, in my honest opinion, an excellent count for the unique situation it found itself in. The polls over the last few months had been highly suggestive of an overall Labour victory and pointed to a high likelihood that one of the MPs they were counting for would be the new Prime Minister and thus they needed to have appropriate facilities for that. The location used was the office at 5 Pancras Square (which also has floors for a library and a leisure centre) and multiple floors were used with one floor for speeches, one as an effective “break out area” and then one each for the counting of each constituency. The staff involved were all dressed in quite neat, grey “Camden Elects” T-shirts and placed at many rows of tables to work as teams per ballot box.

From what I could work out, the process was made up of a number of steps (this might not be correct, but is what I saw and surmised):

Ballot box delivery

Ballot boxes from across both constituencies were delivered to tables to be ready for the next steps. Postals were counted first and the other boxes were delivered to tables that had space as they arrived.

Vote verification

Here, the votes were counted to ensure that the correct number that had been registered were in the box. At this stage, the sampling can take place as the boxes are known (and so polling district) and no aggregation has taken place and no counting or separation is taking place. This means that spoiled ballots are also part of the count verification. The sampling here is based on watching the verification and making a note of which box has been ticked on the ballot as this verification takes place. We would take a random selection/run of papers and the sampling is done without any intervention in the counting process at all. The ballots were then bundled into tens and then hundreds and verified again.

Vote separation

Once votes were verified, trays were set up and the verified votes were placed into the trays depending on what the counters saw in the boxes. The team I watched were counting for 12 candidates but they did not have 12 trays - they used major parties and “Others”. In the case of this particular election, “Others” was stacking up quite quickly but these others would then be separated further in another sweep. The other trays of note were a “doubtful” pile and a “spoiled” pile. It is at this point when it might be when the counting agents may note that the votes were being separated incorrectly and there might be a challenge. I did not make any challenges but any made were then placed on the “doubtful” pile.

Vote contention

Once the initial separation was completed, “doubtful” pile would be looked at and the counting agents would then also look at these to ensure that they were able to see anything they felt was contentious. The doubtful ballots would then be added to the relevant candidates’ pile.

Vote count

With the votes separated into “piles”, these would then be counted into bundles as was the case for the verification process and there was also a full reconciliation of the count to split spoiled ballots along with each of the candidates.

Announcement of results

Although I was not fully involved in this part, the result is told to the candidates (and agents) a few moments before the Returning Officer takes to the stage and then the Returning Officer makes the announcement to the assembled crowd. I was in the assembled crowd and the winners made acceptance speeches (In Starmer’s case, along with some heckling) before the end of the night. Or do I mean before noon - it was about 4am.

My count

I got to Pancras Square while there was still light in the night sky at about 9:40 pm. This in itself was quite odd. There was a little bit of a security process and my bags were checked before being given a key card and wristband that allowed, and disallowed, us to go to particular places. Once we were onto the relevant floor, it felt like quite a hive of activity. As mentioned, this was a high-profile count and there were many TV cameras around the area with some news programme segments being presented from the count. Camden did a good job here setting them up on one floor looking back on the counting floors and the central stairwell. A number of us gathered together in front of some televisions to be able to watch the exit poll come in - me near the front so that I could at least see it. The noise came before the vision for me as the cheers from those around me came well before my brain could take the result in. I tried to make sense of it but, in all honesty, the first thing I saw was the double digit number^[1] for predicted Reform seats. On this day of victory, the first thing that entered my brain was defeat^[2]. I did then see the rest of the results and I was a bit more pleased^[3].

After a few moments of letting that sink in, much like I expected would be the case for the new MPs, we were then off to work. Everyone spread out to cover different tables and chatted while waiting. There were counting agents from across the spectrum and we had been warned that some of those other agents may try to provoke us and that we should be fully aware of that and that we may also be approached by the media. Both of these things turned out to be true.

I dutifully completed the sampling but there were a number of gaps and breaks as the stages were completed and I got to a little bit of chatting to the Camden Elects counters. As I “love a chat”^[4], I did take the opportunity to speak to the people in front of me and I was very struck by how ethnically diverse the staffing of the count was. One of the things that I have noticed in my years of local/community involvement has been how it is often not as ethnically diverse as the areas served. I have often thought that there is some work to do on this and making places more inclusive seems a key to greater community cohesion to me. Anyway, a lot of the people were local to the town hall and this pleased me greatly. They were also often fairly young (I would guess the anti-social hours may explain this to some degree). One thing that came up was how late it was but “at least we [as in us] are all getting paid for it”. I explained that “No, we are volunteers” and that seemed to be quite a shock to a lot of the table. I explained how long the volunteers had been on their feet (since the morning in most cases) and that they were not paid for any of that. I just feel a lot more people need to be aware of how many people are involved without some weird form of corruption to keep them there. They are just trying to get a different government and giving up their own time to do that. When knocking up, many people are totally aware of the fact that we are just volunteers and I think it really helps take some of the poison out of the process.

On the flipside, I did “overhear” some provocative comments from other candidate teams as predicted but I do not think anyone rose to the provocation. The team for this particular independent candidate (Andrew Feinstein) had been doing things that may not have necessarily been within Electoral Law through the campaign and so it was a known risk. I did also see one person that had recently started supporting an independent candidate that I knew. That was quite gladdening and although he was no longer a member, I am sure he could be pleased for much of what was offered or at least the change from where we were.

Once the verification was over, and all the data was collated (by someone else this year), I did have a walk around to watch the TVs and see the media operation. And get a hot drink! A BBC reporter also took this opportunity to sidle up to me and ask if I was prepared to talk about the count and the expectations for the candidate counts. I did not give much away and said that I did not really know how people were feeling - we were too busy working.

After the verification (and connected sampling), the next task was to watch the vote separation and ensure that it was being done properly. In this stage, we could see that the “Others” trays were being filled fairly quickly and that the sampling showing a strong performance by Andrew Feinstein was correct. This was also the point where we could see the doubtful and spoiled piles and I found the complaints often scrawled on the spoiled ballots quite interesting. One that I was quite impressed with was where they had put a letter in each “tick” box to state their complaint. Another was where they explained that no candidates could explain what a woman was. The “doubtful” ones were less interesting and were usually not that doubtful with ticks outside the box etc. These would be added into the right pile later without much difficulty.

It was within this stage where I noticed a woman with a parasol and a fake moustache. As I still "love a chat"^[4], I mentioned the parasol and got chatting. She was accompanying the Monster Raving Loony Party candidate and had done so for decades since she was fifteen! She went to the Leader of the Opposition’s seat and so had been to Doncaster, Islington North and now Holborn & St Pancras. I was pretty intrigued by the whole process of joining the party and what they did between elections. She said she was not involved but there was a policy unit of sorts. She was also seemingly genuinely excited at seeing real votes so I did point some out to her later. The candidate was, effectively, a joke candidate which I have some issues with overall, conceptually. They were quite fun though and did not take many votes.

Once the counting was complete, we were told that the candidates were on their way and we created a little celebratory welcome for the likely next Prime Minister and got ready for the acceptance speech. Within the crowd, Camden Elects had placed a few people to ask the crowd to not put their phones/cameras too high due to the broadcast cameras behind. This felt like a truly thankless task although it was a bit easier for the second announcements for the Highgate and Kilburn constituency.

After the announcements were over, people went their own ways with some off to the Tate Modern and Downing Street for PM celebration events with others off to a Camden based “watch party" for the results. Me? I was off on the walk home. This was actually the thing I had been most looking forward to. I have done that northbound walk too many times with disappointment and I have desperately been wanting to remove that memory. Walking north after the recent Mayorals was good but this was the real deal. Walking up Royal College Street, specifically, was what I had wanted to do. In the end, that was all I wanted for the last five years. That feeling. There must be a better way, but until I find it, I guess the struggle continues.

[Episode zero to explain what canvassing meant before the election] 

<sup>1. The eventual result put Reform on a significantly lower number of seats but that is still the gut feel.↩
2. This reminded me later of collecting my exam results at school and the first thing that jumped out at me was my worst result. The other things just merge into the background and I wonder how much this really defines me as a person.↩
3. Apparently, this particular moment was broadcast on the news which I knew from messages I received later asking if that was me. I guess I was more visible wearing red.↩
4. I was told, somewhat recently, that I “love a chat” by a colleague and it has had an odd effect of making me question my self-image. I don’t think I do but other people have backed this up and, you know what? Maybe I do. I am aware that I am much more conversational on holiday than when I am not - and there is no real reason for this. If you know me, why not let me know if I do actually “love a chat” or not.↩</sup>

[3WR] アーヤと魔女 / Earwig and the Witch (2020)

 アーヤと魔女    Earwig and the Witch[link to netflix]  

Released: 30 January 2020 (82 min)

Director: Gorō Miyazaki

Producer: Toshio Suzuki

As part of Ghibli Club, each person submits a 3-word review [3WR] for the film after watching. Why not send yours to add to the list? 

Reviews:

Oddly Sympathetic Portrayal

Idle worm threats

Why so angry

Earwig bewitches Witches

Gorō's devilry disservice 

[3WR] アキラ / AKIRA (1988)

 

 アキラ    AKIRA[link to netflix]  

Released: 16 July 1988 (124 min)

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo

Producer: Ryōhei Suzuki and Shunzō Katō

As part of Ghibli Club Gaiden [ジブリクラブ外伝], we have decided to have a "rest week" which allows people to catch up and we also have an optional side film that is Ghibli adjacent. Each person also submits a 3-word review [3WR] for the film after watching. Why not send yours to add to the list?

Reviews:

So much yelling

The Road Warrior

The Amoeba Cacophony

Espers vs Vespas

SO MUCH KITCHEN

Bike strikes psych

 

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 12: Kineya Mugimaru

For reasons that felt somewhat outside of our control, there has been a bit of a gap since our last gyudon so we have been stuck on 11^[1]. As we are not aiming to be Spinal Tap, I did not want this to be the case.

The last eighteen months or so has seen a fairly large hit to the restaurant sector in London and we have not always been allowed to go to restaurants in that time. Even so, the project was still something that I thought of “finishing” with the one that would take us to twelve. I would finish something that I had started.

As it happens, on my walks around the area, I do, of course, still keep an eye out for interesting eateries and was recently made aware of Kineya Udon - though due to the udon part rather than the gyudon part - opening relatively nearby in St Pancras Station. I used to work around here and knew that there were a few things around here but I was very much drawn to the station based noodles concept. I may have mentioned my romanticised view of “tachisoba” and this was pretty damn close. I went there for the udon^[2] and was a) very happy with the nostalgic taste and b) made aware of GYUDON. Actual gyudon^[3]. I messaged Paul and told him that it was back on^[4] and we organised a time.

St Pancras Station is beautiful from outside the front-facing on to Euston Road (or whatever it is called at that point) is wonderfully ornate with the interior being refurbished to a lovely standard. The back end of the station is modern, and designed to be a juxtaposition from the front and I think it works very well. As Eurostar comes into St Pancras, there are quite a few decent amenities and fairly good quick food options in a light and breezy environment. Kineya Udon is at the rear of the station near the domestic platforms but also fairly near the exit to Kings Cross station so it is fairly easy to get to.

The ordering method befits both an udon place and a train station as you do order and pay before sitting. There are two touchscreen menus from which you can order part of your meal - you select and are given a receipt to hand to the cashier. Rather oddly, in my opinion, you can order the bulk of your meal but you pick up options after ordering from the screen, so for example, if you want a korokke, you cannot order at the menu, you have to pick up later from the freshly fried section in the style of a canteen. As would be entirely appropriate, we ordered a gyudon each, a zaru udon to share and some tempura bits and bobs. As an exercise in nostalgia, we also got some fried chicken pieces.

As ever, we started on some of the sides and I knew what to expect with the udon. Zaru udon is pretty simple/basic and so you do have to get that right - you cannot rescue it with sauce. And they do get it right here, with a simple sauce and nice noodles. As expected, this was good and being able to add sesame is always a winner. The tempura was fine although nothing special but entirely in keeping with the concept. The chicken was very “convenience store” style which I was not a fan of but Paul was very happy with. Again, probably more as an exercise in nostalgia than taste! The pieces were fairly oily and tasted kind of unhealthy - again that would definitely hit the spot for a lot of people.

Although it had not been the whole pandemic time that I had not had gyudon, this was still pretty highly anticipated by me although there was something that made me think that it might be that good. It looked quite good with an egg included in the bowl and quite a liberal sprinkling of spring onion. The taste, however, was quite plain. I struggle to even remember the taste in all honesty and it did not taste particularly of gyudon. The beef was a little thicker than ideal and was not marinated sufficiently for my taste. The biggest indicator was how the rice stayed very white with little flavouring coming from the topping - it stayed unseeped. The portions were a decent enough size so we were quite satisfied in terms of the volume but the taste had let me down.

Kineya Mugimaru is yet another place where the food is generally good but the gyudon is not up to the standard that I want. I have been back to Kineya and will go again for the noodles but the gyudon search continues [Gyud]on and on.

It is also worth mentioning that there appears to be a branch in Cambridge so this one has spread outside London!

Cost of gyudon: £9.60

Kineya Mugimaru
Unit 27B, The Circle, St Pancras Station, London N1C 4QP

<sup>1. And when we started, I thought 12 would be the last gyudon -being a monthly idea for a year but I am not the best at this regularity stuff.↩
2. It is worth pointing out that I came across Marugame Udon not long after this which opened in 2021 near Liverpool Street Station. It takes this udon concept and pushes it further into a large restaurant. It is very good and a hearty recommend from me.↩
3. As it happens, I then found a couple more places within the next few days that had gyudon in the Holloway area - there seems to have been some gyudon growth in the last year or so.↩
4. “Like Fat Pat’s thong” ©The Thick Of It↩</sup>

Ghibli Club Awards

After six months, we reached the end of the road and felt it worth a marker of some sort to let us see what a journey it has been. So, an awards ceremony was born which was held in the greenery of Montrose Playing Fields (aka “Mattress Park”) by the beautifully named Silk Stream followed by a lunch at Bang Bang Food Hall.

Ghibli Club started as a result of some idle chat around there being lots of films that you could watch but not actually getting around to it - and thinking that maybe it could be a somewhat shared experience. I said that all the Ghibli films were on Netflix (pretty much) and that I would be happy to watch them all again (or for the first time in some cases). Then we thought, if you are doing it, then it does not take any extra effort to ask other people too.

I wanted it to have very low “barriers to entry” and so was not keen on there being discussions or something that would eat into time more than the two hours for each film. It would, however, be nice to show that you’d seen it so I stole an idea from the excellent caneandrinse podcast to request 3-word reviews (“3WRs”). We watched our first film, Nausicaa, before 18th January 2021 and decided on a weekly roll (on a Tuesday, which was due to a regular quiz some of us did). I posted this as a blog on 22nd January to ask if others wanted to join^[1] in with the club.

After a few films, we got a better idea of how to make it work a bit better or smoother. The first thing was that people did actually want to discuss. I guess that those that actually were watching along the same schedule thought that it would be worth actually discussing but I really did not want to have one per film so we went for one every 5 films. The discussion could then take place in a “rest week” every month or so which also allowed us to choose a non-Ghibli side (or “gaiden”) film too. The first discussion was very good with 6 people in there and was the first time a few of us had met too which was pretty nice - especially in a lockdown. The discussions were feisty and fun with a clear understanding that people had to be honest - there was no need to pretend to like things or say these films were 6/10^[2] when actually we thought 3/10. The spreadsheet that I used to administer the club was kept separate from other members so that reviews were kept anonymous and did not affect your view until you had already seen it - I published the relevant blog post only after I had received sufficient 3WRs. That core of 6 stayed to the end with a later, remote, addition^[3] who joined the later discussions. Those discussions became a little long and unwieldy so we started having them in groups of 3 or 4 rather than 5s so that people could get to the end without falling asleep!

As we came to the last few films, there was a tone of sadness at coming to the end but I feel like it was really good that we got to see them “together” and the order was perfect for seeing how things changed and adapted over time.

And so, on to the “awards”.

The voting was done via a Google form so, again, it was kept separate from everyone and so we did not know how others had voted^[4] in each of the categories. The categories were fairly simple but we also wanted to have a vote on all the 3WRs too.

The winners were:

Favourite	Joint: Kiki's Delivery Service & Spirited Away
Least favourite	Joint: Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves & Tales from Earthsea
Favourite Visuals	Spirited Away
Favourite Soundtrack/OST	Spirited Away
Best Side	Your Name.

For each film, the most popular 3WRs (with winning percentage) were:

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	Ohm My God (71%)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky	Pirates! Pilots! Islets! (71%)
My Neighbour Totoro	Imaginative Parenting Solutions (43%)
Grave of the Fireflies	Sibling Spirits Reunited (60%)
Kiki's Delivery Service	Supergirl does Amazon (57%)
Only Yesterday	Overcoming child abuse (43%)
Porco Rosso	Pig's gotta fly (43%)
Your Name.	Joint (29%): Sliding doors moments & Temporal Transformational Romance.
Ocean Waves	Romanticising Toxic Relationships (86%)
Pom Poko	Scrotum to totem (43%)
Whisper of the Heart	Joint (29%): Smitten kitten written & Baron concrete road
Princess Mononoke	Wolves (F)ighting (C)onsumption (57%)
The Garden Of Words	Rainy Shoe Rendezvous (67%)
My Neighbours the Yamadas	One hot mess (43%)
Spirited Away	No-face saves face. (43%)
The Cat Returns	Im-paws-ible meow-rriage tail (43%)
Howl's Moving Castle	Birdperson the Movie (57%)
Tales from Earthsea	Ghibli's expensive knock-off (29%)
For a few dollars more	Joint (43%): Chime calls time & Weaponised musical chairs
Ponyo	Joint (29%):Soup thief, ahoy! & It is Ham
Arrietty	Failed sugar heist (57%)
From Up on Poppy Hill	Who's your daddy? (43%)
The Wind Rises	Jiro to zero (43%)
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya	Joint (29%): Moonwalker thwarts suitors & Celestial Moon Presence
When Marnie Was There	Kuuki time travel (33%)
Wolfwalkers	Trances with Wolves (43%)

<sup>1. Interestingly, I know of two film clubs that started as a result of not wanting to do this one. They liked the idea but not the films (and not seen, at that point). I am not sure how they ended up but not sure they got to 25 films! I think they wanted a discussion like a book club which seems fair. ↩
2. This was a unilateral decision by me to avoid scoring films. The problem with scoring films is that the discussion almost inevitably then becomes about the score rather than the film itself. We all, also, have quite differing views on what the bounds of scoring are. For me, an OK film is 5 or 6 and a bad film is 1-4 but many people would say bad films are still at the 6 or 7 end. It makes the whole thing somewhat meaningless without normalisation. The discussions we had, I think, really allowed people to have multiple views on the same film - being both positive and negative about a film which I do not think is quite as easy if you then start from a score.↩
3. This was someone that I knew from an excellent film quiz that he used to create and host weekly (twitter: @Jamie_Reviews and website: https://justalittlebitrandom.blog/ ) which I would strongly recommend. ↩
4. Well, I did because I had the responses but I am, of course, an honest person.↩</sup>