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>

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>

Ghibli Club update (post Porco Rosso)

UPDATE Notice

The club has been coming along quite well and we have seen 6 (plus 1) films under the umbrella now.

A few things have been tightened up and decided since we started so worth staging them for all:

• The films are being watched chronologically (including what is on Netflix only, so sadly skipping Grave of the Fireflies). This means we can essentially have a schedule (as at time pasted below^[1], live version *here*) decided in advance.
• We have a “break week” every fifth film to allow both a rest and also to allow more people to catch up if they have fallen behind a little, or have maybe started in the middle.
• Within the break week, we also choose (one person nominates) a side film - or a Ghibli Gaiden [ジブリクラブ外伝] that is considered, in some way, Ghibli adjacent^[2]. The first is Your Name. / 君の名は。 which is adjacent as it was successful enough to be the highest-grossing non-Miyazaki anime ever.
• The break week also allows us a chance to have a discussion forum about the previous five films. 6 people attended the first one which covered from Nausicaa to Only Yesterday. I think it is fairly safe to say that there was a wide gamut of opinion across the 5 films^[3]. The discussion lasted about 2 hours for the five films (and some other introductions etc) but it was a nice, informal way of learning a little more.
  The next discussion will take place at the end of March, please help us decide when by voting in the doodle poll.

Watch order	Original Title	UK title	Netflix	3WR post	Watched (by)
1	風の谷のナウシカ	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	[vid]	[blog]	18 Jan 2021
2	天空の城ラピュタ	Laputa: Castle in the Sky	[vid]	[blog]	25 Jan 2021
3	となりのトトロ	My Neighbour Totoro	[vid]	[blog]	1 Feb 2021
4	魔女の宅急便	Kiki's Delivery Service	[vid]	[blog]	8 Feb 2021
5	おもひでぽろぽろ	Only Yesterday	[vid]	[blog]	15 Feb 2021
	Discussion Forum 1-5	From Nausicaa to Yesterday			22 Feb 2021
6	紅の豚	Porco Rosso	[vid]	[blog]	22 Feb 2021
a	君の名は。	Your Name.	[vid]		1 Mar 2021
7	海がきこえる	Ocean Waves	[vid]		8 Mar 2021
8	平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ	Pom Poko	[vid]		15 Mar 2021
9	耳をすませば	Whisper of the Heart	[vid]		22 Mar 2021
10	もののけ姫	Princess Mononoke	[vid]		29 Mar 2021
	Discussion Forum 6-10	Porco Princess			w/c 29 Mar 21
b	tbd	tbd	[vid]		5 Apr 2021
11	ホーホケキョ となりの山田くん	My Neighbours the Yamadas	[vid]		12 Apr 2021
12	千と千尋の神隠し	Spirited Away	[vid]		19 Apr 2021
13	猫の恩返し	The Cat Returns	[vid]		26 Apr 2021
14	ハウルの動く城	Howl's Moving Castle	[vid]		3 May 2021
15	ゲド戦記	Tales from Earthsea	[vid]		10 May 2021
	Discussion Forum 11-15	My Neighbours from Earthsea			w/c 10 May 21
c	tbd	tbd	[vid]		17 May 2021
16	崖の上のポニョ	Ponyo	[vid]		24 May 2021
17	借りぐらしのアリエッティ	Arrietty	[vid]		31 May 2021
18	コクリコ坂から	From Up on Poppy Hill	[vid]		7 Jun 2021
19	風立ちぬ	The Wind Rises	[vid]		14 Jun 2021
20	かぐや姫の物語	The Tale of the Princess Kaguya	[vid]		21 Jun 2021
21	思い出のマーニー	When Marnie Was There	[vid]		28 Jun 2021
	Discussion Forum 16-20	Ponyo Was There			w/c 28 Jun 21
d	tbd	tbd	[vid]		5 Jul 2021

<sup>1. Sadly, my html knowledge of tables is pretty bad, so it looks a little poor. Please help me!↩
2. Adjacency does not mean that the film must be Japanese and/or animated - it is up to the person nominating. For example, another film about witches would be acceptable as linked to Kiki’s Delivery Service.↩
3. Generally positive but there was some significant negativity towards Only Yesterday in particular.↩</sup>

Quick change

How long does it take to change a tyre?

It should take you around 30 minutes to change a tyre and get back on the road

How long does it take to change four tyres?

1.82 seconds: Red Bull Racing record the fastest tire change in Formula 1 history

It is odd that not only is it not just four times as long as the time to change one, it is far quicker, in fact.

Formula 1 motor racing is seen as the pinnacle of motor racing by most people and has seen huge advances over the decades in terms of technological breakthroughs. Initially, most of these improvements came from brute force - applying more power to the problem. Over time, however, the problem hasn't been about how to apply more power but about how to apply a restricted level of power - driving efficiency out of parts. This is quite a fundamental change in approach.

Not all changes, however, have been purely technological and over the decades, there has been a massive decrease in the amount of time to change tyres.

Currently, a good tyre change (all four tyres) takes about 3 seconds (the fastest are below 2) which is just astonishing when you see it. (video)

That is a difference of about 25 seconds since 1950 although those original pit stops involved far fewer people at 2 or 3 versus 20 (have a look here). Can you just chuck more resource at the problem?

So, is the current pit stop actually so much more efficient than an old one? That surely depends on the metrics being observed.
Maybe we should consider the number of man-hours involved rather than just time. That would give us (3 x 25) 75s vs (20 x 3) 60s so the second one is more efficient on that metric too.

In a race, the time taken is absolutely key but in other situations, cost will be. That means 20 salaries instead of 3. Can you imagine a local garage offering a 60 second tyre change being able to make money off it?

In the past, I used to be an English Language teacher and we would have a limit to the number of hours we could work each day. It was six hours. That seems a pretty low amount as a limit but this was only for our contact hours. School teachers in the UK teach for about 40 weeks out of the 52 in the year but you won't find many teachers that work for only 40 weeks. There is a lot of preparation (and marking, oh god the marking) for that contact time.

So, with that in mind, how long does it take to change a tyre?

In order to get that 3 seconds of contact time, you need

• about 20 people to know what they are doing
• Tyres placed correctly
• People positioned at the right place
• A driver that comes in correctly (timing, distance, angle)
• Equipment that works for that short period of time
• Somewhere to place the replaced tyres
• A driver that leaves the spot correctly (timing, distance, angle)
• The ability to go again when the other driver comes in

All of those things are done around the contact time and preparation and training also takes time. There is little point in having more people if you are not actually using them at the same time - parallel processing rather than serial. 20 people doing the old process would be quicker, but not to the same level at all.

The point is, being quick can be incredibly time consuming and take more time than being slow but sometimes you need to be quick at the right time. It isn't just about practice but you have to get your ducks in a row too. Planning the right order, getting things into a flow and invoking muscle memory - that is what will allow things to be done quickly, correctly and effectively.

And, for fun, here is a video of changing tyres in zero gravity!

Ghibli Club

Have you heard of Hayao Miyazaki? The founder of Ghibli Studio (pronounced JIBURI), he has created a number of groundbreaking cartoons/anime^[1] that you have probably heard of but maybe not seen. Just another one of those famous directors who you will one day get around to watching the films of. Well, maybe that day is closer than you think.

After chatting with a friend/acquaintance that was in that position, we decided to watch together (in the sense of a book club, rather than actually watching at exactly the same time) a load of the Ghibli films about once a week. Although the order has not yet been decided, we have started chronologically in order of release.

Why not join the club?

There are over twenty films on Netflix UK so they are relatively easy to stream for many people.

If you would like to join the club, the only thing that you have to do is watch along at roughly the same pace and provide a three word review (3WR) after watching.

So far, we have only watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ) [Netflix link] and will be watching Laputa: Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ) [Netflix link] next. It is the perfect time to JOIN US.

My Nausicaä 3WR, for example, is The Wind Worriers.

Let me know (comment, message or email) if you are interested and I will add you to the list (which has 5 7 people on it at time of this post) with guideline dates.

Laputa next!

^{1. Anime is just the Japanese word for animated media and brings all of our prejudices into the word as cartoons do too.↩}

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 11: Shinobi Sushi

There has been a bit of a gap since the last LondonGyudon (10) post but in that gap, I have eaten some gyudon. Firstly, I have taken the opportunity to return to Shitamachi Ramen and enjoyed a little more of their gyudon. Secondly, I had a short break in Japan with visits to both Matsuya and Yoshinoya in Tokyo^[1] which have been labelled as a LondonGyudon (0) post. I'm not sure if these have recalibrated or reset my tongue to the tastes to expect but it does mean I've had some tasty food in the interim.

I noticed Shinobi Sushi as I was walking home from Archway fairly recently and told Paul about it. Actually, I have noticed a few more places offering gyudon over the last year or so but often they are not shown properly online. Anyway, this was space I had walked past many time and has changed hands (and cuisine types) many times over the last decade or so and seemed better utilised as a fast-food space than a restaurant. There were seats but it had the ambience of a delivery kitchen with some seats. As the name suggests, the menu was largely based around the sushi offering and it feels like it is well placed to be a sushi delivery service in the North London area.
Walking in on a Tuesday evening, the pale wooden flooring was utilitarian and there was a distinct lack of custom. I had eaten here before on my own and it was not particularly busy then but there were quite a few deliveries taken by scooter riders so I knew it was fairly popular. That continued to be the case on this evening too. We sat and took the menus^[2] to see what was on offer. We ordered the gyudon but also added vegetable gyoza and some uramaki (inside out rolls - rice on the outside) and waited.

We did not have to wait long for the food to arrive and it all came together too. We started with the “sides”. The gyoza was not as expected with the dumplings themselves being softer than expected. I like gyoza that are asymmetrically fried to have a soft side and a crispy side but this was soft all the way around. The sauce provided was also atypical in the sense that it was sweet chilli - something that is not really considered “Japanese”. The taste of them was alright but it wasn’t gyoza as I would think of them. The uramaki was salmon and avocado with a healthy amount of ginger and wasabi to garnish. The uramaki was pretty good as it was well constructed and stayed as a single piece. The fish was nice and went well with the avocado. As expected, the sushi was fairly decent and I can see that this was probably the focus. So, onto the gyudon. As a result of the previous food and the decor, I was not expecting a particularly Japanese gyudon and in this sense, I was not disappointed. I was, however, disappointed with the gyudon and the taste of it. The bowl already had some bright red ginger added and this did give a spike to the taste but it was a heavy bowl of beef. The oily beef glistened and was fairly chunky giving the look of beef on rice but not gyudon. As it was an atypical gyudon, it felt like it had something added to give the meal more heft (it was a more expensive dish than most on the menu) but nothing more elaborate than salt, maybe. We both finished the bowls off and although it wasn’t a lot of food, it was still just about sufficient.

Overall, the food was a little disappointing and, like a lot of the meals had in the project, felt a little like a Japanese theme restaurant and I can imagine it doing fairly well in smaller towns. I am not sure I saw any Japanese people there, in fact, so it is likely to be an element of tourism to the meal design. I guess the sushi was fairly good and does explain the name and the continuing business they do to the local area but I think I can find places that I prefer to deliver to me.

Cost of gyudon: £11.50


Shinobi Sushi
85 Junction Road, London, N19 5QU

<sup>1. A visit to the Koshigaya Matsuya was my original plan but that wasn't quite possible due to my planning. ↩
2. The menus were fairly shoddy black and white photocopies really strengthening the feeling that this was not designed as a place to visit.↩</sup>

The Decade of the Tens

Decades are quite funny things really, they represent quite a significant chunk of our lives and most will understand them - but rarely do we define our lives by them in any meaningful manner. From memory, age 10 means very little with the switch to secondary school, a year later, being a much more meaningful bookend. Age 20 doesn't mean anything either - 16 and 18 representing legal boundaries and 21 as a more social one. Even so, we do like to put things in little boxes and so it might be worth having a look back.

In the tail end of 1999, there were always a few people that told everyone that the millennium didn't start in 2000, but a year later. We don't start at year 0 after all. The only major thing about 2000 was all the zeroes and then the y2k bug^[1] rather than it being the start of a new decade/century/millennium - an argument rehashed every ten years. This is true, mathematically, but we don't speak mathematically and communication is all about a shared language - a shared understanding. We use "billion" in a non-mathematical way now and if you didn't, you'd be communicating poorly. I love communicating badly but in this instance let's stick with decades starting in 0s. It just feels weird to say the 80's include 1990.

It has been a fairly rubbish decade for me (oh, look at what we unleashed: https://walletsandswords.blogspot.com/2019/04/brexit-day-2932019.html) but what were positive standouts from the last decade?

Film: Helter Skelter

I started the year being really impressed with Black Swan and although I enjoyed it, I feel like Helter Skelter had a little bit more to hit me with. It was such a striking look that it really drilled into my mind. Watching deconstruction of humans is always kind of interesting and I think this had quite a lot to say about a society that loves to destroy.

I wrote about it here: https://walletsandswords.blogspot.com/2013/09/helter-skelter-2012.html

Game: Rez Infinite

How appropriate to have talked about the y2k bug earlier with this game about clearing viruses coming up later. This was a game that hit me so hard and is just unforgettable. It was hyperbolic to say that I was “not honestly sure that anything will be the same again” but it has turned out to be true.

I didn't spend the most time in Rez, that would probably be the wonderful world of Persona 5^[2] - that was the game that "helped" me most but the impact was all about Rez. It redefined what I felt was possible and it then redefined it again within minutes. It redefined my past and my future and everything in between.

I wrote about it here: https://walletsandswords.blogspot.com/2016/10/rez-infinite.html

Music: The Epic

I probably listened to less music than in the last few decades and much of it was also old. I'm not sure I can be much of a useful opinion here, in all honesty, but I'll cheat and go for the triple album The Epic by Kamasi Washington.

I probably listened to music by Squarepusher most of all in the decade but I cannot say that an album would work here although the individual Sad Robot Goes Funny was exceptional music-making. I also listened to quite a lot of game soundtracks too but harder to recommend that!

Listen to The Epic on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtvA_FQq5GM1okyeZ9lOS80BY16IY_osh

Watch Sad Robot Goes Funny on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkUq4sO4LQM

Moment: Madrid 2019

Over the years, some people have been very surprised at me liking football - most obvious of all as some explained to me that Manchester United was a football team. But I do quite like football and supporting Liverpool has been quite the journey this decade. 10 years ago, we were on our way to the darkest days (of my time, anyway) with an ownership problem, about to boot out an excellent (but outspoken) manager to be replaced by an actual idiot. We find ourselves, ten years later, as the Champions of the World - but more importantly and pertinently as the champions of Europe. There is quite a story to get there but I did not have a ticket for the match in Madrid. I did not even stay in Madrid - but a football trip with close friends and family was fun and the night watching in a casino in Madrid was special. The atmosphere was sensational and the last five minutes after Divock Origi scored a second was such a release for us all. We had dreams and songs to sing and sing we did into the night.

We didn’t even get to see the trophy lift - the casino chucked us all out by turning the screen off!

I would love to know what you all thought of the last decade...

<sup>1. This has recently, with Brexit, been reawakened slightly by morons saying that Brexit is a scare story like the y2k bug (which was planned for and fixed by armies of trained people). ↩
2. I wanted to write about this and have a number of drafts about how this was woven into the fabric of games, Japan and aesthetics but I could never quite get the thread to be woven neatly. It is a vast experience.↩</sup>