Waiting for Brexit playing Microsoft Solitaire

On Tuesday afternoon, October 15^th  2019 I achieved the 100 successful completion of 390 World Events played on Microsoft Solitaire Game Collection. There were only five games instead of the usual 20 or 30 and only two levels of difficulty,  Easy and Medium, none at Hard or Expert. I have only finished twice in the top ten of the allocated group of 100 other players worldwide, with an average 450000 participating and 24 occasions finishing in the top 25 because I spread play throughout the 34 hours of the event. In this instance taking 9 mins and 36 seconds compered to the present leader at 3 mins 53 and the 82^nd at over 36 minutes.

In  2016 I commenced to play the first of over 1000 Daily Challenges  which cover the four levels of difficulty and the five types of Solitaire games Classic Solitaire Klondike where I have become a Grandmaster of the second level winning 97% of the 662 games  played, as I have at Spider, winning 98% of 627; with first level Grandmaster achieved  in Pyramid 82% of 268 games and a Tri Peak with 76% of 347 games. My favourite game  is Free Cell where Grandmaster level 5 has been attained with 98% of the 926 games played won.

In 43 of the months of play all four bronze, silver, gold and diamond badges were attained, the exception the first three months until I worked out how to play the games of greater difficulty. Because of the time usually required to  complete an expert level game in only nine instances has the Perfect level been attained in a month, completing all 150 or 155 games in the month, and four of these this year to-date.

When I commenced to play Solitaire games, as a break from computer chess, the focus was on the Star Club unlocking 93 packs in five collections of  a total of 954 have been completed, 83% of the total available, earning 1749 stars and 70 crowns.

Britain's future depends on Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister

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Laura Pidcock,  Chris Peace, Chi Onwurah, Lauren Dingsdale, supported by Nick Brown, Ian Lavery and Jeremey Corbyn at  Newcastle City Hall, Saturday October 5^th, 2019

For four years, I have warned that the wealth and power of national and international, financial and other business interests, combined with the latest 1984 micro surveillance and communications control technology, would do whatever was considered necessary to further a British “American Dream” using the criminal, the personally ambitious, the racists and the misogynists to further their cause. For the past three years I also warned that divisions within the Labour party over Brexit, international and defence policy and between neo liberal and socialist economics, would prevent Jeremey Corbyn becoming Prime Minister of a socialist leaning government. 

As I told members of Jeremy’s campaign team in 2015, although I agreed with everything proposed in his prospectus to be leader, I was not going to vote for him for two reasons. The most important was that it was time for a power shift from men to women in general and for the Labour Party in particular. I also feared that that Jeremy’s Parliamentary and Public record of consistent international peace making, opposition to all forms of racism, support for anyone the subject of injustice and unwillingness to compromise political principles would divide the Party, given that the majority of those elected to House of Commons or awarded seats in the  House of Lords accepted international capitalism, the structure and approach of the British ruling institutions and had become out of touch with the response of the native white working class to the open borders of  the enlarged European Community. 

The only thing which surprised me about the result of the 2016 referendum was that the majority to leave was not greater, given the impact of the planned austerity, the extent to which Nigel Farage played the race card and Tory Party leavers promoted the kind of retrospective nationalism which combined with racism had brought Hitler to power over most of Europe.

As I have also continued to remind of what became evident when attending in the mid 1980’s, a four week international senior general management course at Henley, the hatred of those working at director level in both public companies and former nationalized utilities of public services with principles and standards; the wisdom of moving headquarters to countries with stable governments and low corporation taxation rates and moving production units to countries with stable governments and little or no trade unionism to keep wages low; the need for world wide relationships with competitors to minimise the power of individual governments; a contempt for politicians who could be bought; and the importance of strengthening the European trading mechanism in the context of the development of the other international trading blocks and the emergence of China as a world dominating economic power.  I spent six months digesting the components of the course, ending with an overview  paper, sending a copy to Michael Heseltine, the Member of Parliament for Henley on Thames and a lifelong European. To my surprise  he not only replied but said he was distributing copies throughout Whitehall just before he resigned from Office. I received one follow up response from the Human Resources Director at the Ministry of Defence in relation to the historically proven reality that political, financial, business, social projects will all fail in their stated objectives unless you are able to recruit those who share, are committed, and trained to achieve the objectives.

Teresa May, who had shown strength of character and courage during her tenure as Home Secretary, took the right  decision to call a General Election in 2017, knowing that she had little prospect of getting a balanced deal with Europe over leaving the European Community without being able to combat those who formed the European Research Group within the House of Commons and reducing the evident opposition from the Labour and Liberal democrat parties for Remain, Ending the threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn was only one factor. She evidently underestimated, as Tony Blair and others have since admitted, the personal ability of Jeremy  to communicate with people, based on his proven record  and coupled with the growing awareness among well educated, thoughtful, responsible and caring people of all ages and backgrounds, that change was needed and that the re-emergence of the kind and level of politics which brought Donald Trump to power in the United States of North America had to resisted.

It is clearly evident that Mrs May failure has brought the British people to a moment in our history where the choice is between Government by those of the dark or by those of  the light. It is as simple as that.

It would be wrong to be carried away by the fact that 2000 people in the North East accepted the invitation to listen to Jeremey Corbyn at Newcastle’s Civic Hall on Saturday, learning of the meeting on the Monday and of the venue on Friday and arrived in their hundreds over an hour before scheduled time and then queued for upwards of hour along opposite directions of Northumberland Street just to make the point we know difference between an honest man and a self-interest unscrupulous liar. 

The odds, it has to be admitted are still stacked against us, and putting off the General Election is essential until we leave the EEC with no deal at the end of October, the present most likely outcome, or achieve a delay which should see the Tory Party old order rid  themselves of Boris, and where I can  still see Mrs May, Jeremey Hunt, Phil Hammond back in temporary charge.

The two aspects of the meeting on Saturday which gives me hope, was the repeated applause when the platform speakers echoed Jo Cox, there is more that unites than divides, and we will not let the passionately held differences about Brexit derail the issues to be decided at the next General Election, and secondly the strength and quality of the next generation of Labour women ministers.

The first speaker was the Laura Pidcock, first elected as the Member of Parliament for North West Durham in 1997 and appointed Shadow Minister of State for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy in January of last year whose prepared speech was delivered in a manner which matched the mood of the audience as well as saying what we wanted to hear, following on from the electric, passionate and empathetic mood throughout the Brighton conference.

The response of those sitting immediately around me was one of WOW, this is someone who will be at the forefront of the Party in the future.  Back home I discovered that Laura comes from a political family and that as a child she attended demonstrations against Thatcher and apartheid, obtained a degree in politics at Manchester University and in 2012 completed a master’s degree in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development. 

I have spoken with Chris Peace, Labour’s candidate to win the marginal seat of North East Derbyshire before and who at present is the Cabinet Member for Health and Care on Sheffield City Council . We had  a chat at the entrance to Big Meeting as she handed  out leaflets and pressing for support for an independent inquiry into Orgreave, which Jeremey announced from the platform later that day and Diane Abbot will announce on her first day in office as Home Secretary. Chris is a qualified teacher who then qualified as a criminal lawyer.

It was also good to hear again Nick Brown, who spoke at a Momentum members meeting in Newcastle several years ago. He has been chief whip for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and  for Jeremy since 2016 and since then has organised parliamentary defeats against Cameron and May before  achieving defeats for every vote  Boris has attempted since  the Tory party chose him to destroy the One Nation party. Nick, a southerner like me, by birth, also went to Manchester University, moving to Tyneside in 1978 when appointed legal adviser to the GMB and elected a Newcastle City councillor in 1980,  before his election as Newcastle East M.P. after the sitting member defected to the SDP. His role in keeping the Parliamentary Party together should not be underestimated.

Ian Lavery, the Wansbeck Northumberland MP  who  is one of the proud sons of Ashington along with the footballing Millburns and Charltons  and cricketing Harmisons and Mark Wood among many others. He has been Chairman of the Labour Party since 2017 and is one of two National Campaign Coordinators, a role for which he is well fitted. He is very much traditional North East Labour of the kind who made my life as a chief officer for 18 years difficult although I never forgot that such individuals reflected the reality of the life of the men in their communities.

After the interval, the tone of the meeting changed, because of two of Labour’s highly intelligent future female Ministers. The Member of Parliament  for Newcastle central, Chi Onwurah, is not a natural soap box campaigner but is one of several Labour Shadow women Ministers with interesting backgrounds. Her Newcastle born mother married an educated Nigerian who successfully studied to become a dentist at the Newcastle University Medical school back in the 1950’s when racism in the North East  and other industrial northern towns was strong.  Born  in Wallsend, then in Northumberland, and now North Tyneside, she went with her parents to Nigeria in 1965, a few months after her birth, returning with her mother two years later when the Biafran War commenced, her father joining the Biafran Army. In 1987 she graduated from Imperial College London with a degree in Electrical Engineering, I believe one of the few qualified engineers in the House of Commons, working on both hardware and software development and with work experience in the United States, Demark, France and Nigeria while also studying for a master’s in business studies at the Manchester Business School.

Chi is one of Tyne and Wearside Members Parliament, also rooted in the traditional trade union and Labour movements of the North East, a firm supporter of Remain, supporting Andy Burnham and the Owen Smith in the two leadership campaigns and this was recognised by the initial response of the audience to her contribution compared to those speaking before her. My impression is that people did listen to the wisdom of what she said, underlining that despite strongly held differences in approach  and on individual  issues  we had to come together to achieve a Labour Government.  

I knew nothing of the speaker, Lauren Dingsdale, chosen to introduce Jeremey, the Labour candidate for Conservative held seat of Middlesbrough and South East Cleveland, whose diminutive youthful appearance masks a powerful intelligent political brain which saw her gain more than twice the votes at selection than a local woman councillor. Lauren also trained as a lawyer after graduating from Oxford with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and with help from throughout the region should quickly become a member of the extended government team.

Risking the commentators curse, ever since Boris was elected the Tory Party Leader and assumed the office of Prime Minister, Jeremy in both manner and what he has said, looks a man who knows he will be the next Prime Minister because of the hundreds of thousands of individual members of the Labour Party who will do what is required to ensure that he is. This explains the willingness of the Scottish Nationalist Party to work with him but not the Liberal Democrats, who  fear as much as the Tories, that once in position  as temporary Prime Minister to prevent a No Deal Brexit, the myth created as  Bogey man will be ended and the Lib Dem hopes of spearheading a new centre right party will also end. 

The message  given by the 2000 who queued around  Newcastle Civic Hall for an hour or more on Saturday is that come the General Election 2000 will become 200000 thousand and counting.

The next move of of the Prime Minister and his advisors

It is reported that the Prime Minister is visiting the British Head of State this weekend. Has he been summoned to explain himself or more liking will he ask  for the prorogation to be extended  to November 1st if General election is not  agreed for October 15th?

Brexit, an informed forecast of what will happen next

    

As BBC and Sky news channels debate this morning what will happen next, the Robert Peston, ITV programme of 4^th September 2019 contained interviews with Boris Johnson, John McDonnell and Ian Blackford and important commentaries on what they said by Dominic Grieve and Jess Phillips after the House of Commons refused to accept the General Election date of October 15th and passed the Bill seeking a further extension to avoid No deal.

A number of statements were made in the programme which coupled with what was said and observed during Prime Minister’s Question Time, what transpired to be the autumn election spending statement, consideration of the Stop No deal Bill and General Election Debate 12 a.m. to 10 p.m, which I believe makes clear the latest position and what will happen between now and Monday or even later, if the government holds off Prorogation 

All future measures presented Parliament by the Johnson government will be opposed and defeated, including the proposed Queens Speech, with the exception of an amendable legislative measure to abolish the Fixed Parliament Act which the government is likely to introduce if it is known the Commons will agree that the date of the General Election can be fixed without alteration after the October 17^th meeting of the EEC ministers and who in turn will have agreed an extension to enable this to happen, and in which instances the opposition parties (with the exception of the DUP) will campaign for any agreement, revocation, new agreement, and possibly no deal to be put to the people in a second referendum.

It is evident that all the Party leaders (and this may include the D.U.P) together with an increasing number of Conservatives in addition to the those effectively expelled, have concluded, or reinforced their view, that Mr Johnson is unfit to be Prime Minister and have agreed to do what is required to be rid of him. Part of the agreed plan is to also expose the role and behaviour of Dominic Cummings who has now been named by the opposition and several lading conservatives as the agent of Johnson’s plan.

This was brought out clearly with media interviews and speeches made in the Commons by the majority of those expelled with a number of powerful and emotional contributions by those have decided not to stand in the general election and those who will stand as independent conservatives, independents or for other parties. 

Last night Ken Clark in the General Election debate called Boris dishonest, saying one thing and doing another and all the other leaders said he was untrustworthy. The Speaker allowed one backbencher to remind the House that Johnson had been twice shown to be a liar and Jeremy Corbyn said in effect he was two faced, unscrupulous and lacking integrity. Jeremy has not once attacked back during he years of verbal assaults on his record and intentions, I thought something had fundamentally changed when Tony Blair advised Corbyn and the other Opposition parties not to agree the General Election and opened the door to campaigning for Labour in the General Election

 The Speaker told him Johnson abruptly and then politely to sit down, and also to use acceptable Parliamentary language and behaviour, and when Ken Clark drew attention that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was out of order when commencing his Party political election spending statement, the Speaker said he had accepted  the statement would take longer (45 mins) but told the Chancellor twice to stick to the terms of reference of the statement.

Secondly, the Opposition Parties and leading Tories not in the Government, understand that if Johnson is not stopped now, this will only be the start of his approach to stay in power insisting on complete obedience of all the members of his government, backbenchers and advisers and like Trump getting rid of anyone who opposes or appears disloyal.

Thirdly, he is already turning the Tory Party, not just into the Brexit Party to defeat Farage, but an ideological free market, low tax, and low welfare party despite the appearance of ending austerity in order to win his first General Election. It appears, unconfirmed, that the Chancellor’s proposed speech was rejected and one re written for him hence the marching out of No 10 but an armed policer man of one of the Chancellor’s official advisers.

All the Opposition political Parties with the exception of the DUP although there may informal communication between anti Boris Tories and individual member of the D.U.P have agreed that the only way to politically get rid of Boris is to defeat him a general election once the No deal legislation becomes law with the Royal assent. They have agreed that the general election should not take place until after the October 17^th Meeting of E.E.C leaders who they are confident will agree to extend article 50 to avoid a no deal Brexit. They accept this will involve the government seeking legislation to set aside the Fixed Term Parliament Act, but in a way which will be amendable so that the date can be determined by the House of Commons following agreement between all the Party Leaders. They appear confident the EEC will agree to the extension and which may be extended further to cover for the proposed second referendum.

I am confident that all the Opposition parties have agreed that they will campaign in the general election to hold a second referendum with a commitment to implement whatever is decided and this includes the Tory “rebels”. 

The next bit is speculation on my part but there may even be agreement between the Parties for election pacts because of the likely Remain vote split between the Lib Dems and Labour. It has been agreed that if the Labour Party is the biggest party in a situation where they do not have an overall majority (possible even if they do have a majority, they will accept a request to hold a second Scottish Referendum although the Party will campaign for the Union.

It was also evident that Jo Swinson has been on a Leader’s training course and was impressive at PMQ’s and the General Election debate.

Several of the Tory rebels made it clear they oppose and want to stop a Jeremy Corbyn and  McDonnell government, but the SNP and Lib Dems had stopped attacking Jeremy Corbyn, and Jo Swinson has clarified than in saying Ken Clark and Harriet Harman should lead an interim government this was said on the basis the Jeremy would not as things stood be able to form a minority government but this many have changed after Tony Blair endorsed the changed position and all the Labour rebels except John Mann and Kate Hoey voted for the stop no deal Bill.      

Avoid a state of emergency reaction to suspension of Parlianment over No Deal Brexit

On Tuesday August 29^th, 2019 Jeremy Corbyn leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons and of the Labour Party, together with the Opposition Leader in the House of Commons, Valery Vaz, Labour negotiators on Brexit John McDonnell and Sir Keir Starmer met with the leaders of  the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the Greens and the Independent Group for change, having previously consulted Conservative Parliamentarians and by the end of the two hour meeting agreed a two stage approach to prevent a no deal Brexit on October 30^th. 

The first agreed approach to prevent exiting the EEC without a deal is through  the second use of Standing Order 24 on Tuesday September 3^rd about 4pm after the scheduled Foreign and Commonwealth Office Questions, the introduction of a ten minute rule Bill and a plethora of Points of Order questions by backbenchers sympathetic to the government to introduced a Bill to force the Prime Minister to formally ask for another extension to Article 50 if No deal is the only other option. 

The Bill similar in wording to that previously presented by Yvette Cooper and Oliver Letwin and is expected to gain a greater margin of approval in the House of Commons because of the number of supporting members of the Tory Party. The potential obstacle is the House of Lords which previously prolonged consideration through filibustering and where the expectation is that the attempt will made to prevent the bill passing in both Houses as required before the planned three week break for the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Annual Party Conferences. There were reserve plans to continue the session through the Conference season or limit the conference absences to three or four days each week

The planned response of the Government yesterday is designed to make this difficult and create longer term and a potential election winning advantage. This led to immediate opposition on the streets, with more promised, cries of foul and two legal challenges.

The tactic is to reduce the time for the Parliamentary time for the legislation but not prorogue Parliament until Nov 1^st which would have forced ministerial resignations and made no deal definite. 

The Government plan is to thwart any attempt to take No deal off the negotiating table and force the ECC to compromise with a deal which pass Parliament on the basis that there are only 100 Tories who want no deal even if the back stop is removed and 100 hard core labour who want revocation and will not accept a comprise. There is therefore a majority likely to be in favour of a compromise, possibly Mrs May’s deal if the alternative is no deal, End the means that if necessary Mrs May’s deal can be reconsidered and also paves the way for electing a new Speaker or threatening to do so before a General Election.

The other problem is Mrs May agreed to act on the new law, Boris may find a legal way not to.  The ECC will also have to agree an extension which Macron in particular said he would not support. The EEC is only likely to agree a limited extension to get the implementation legislation through Parliament which may require losing/ replacing about 100 of the existing members of the Commons.

A general election was on the cards if there is no deal or a deal, given the latest Polls. The Brexit party has offered the Tory Party a deal not to stand against them in agreed seat if they deselect about 40 to 50 exist anti Brexit MP’s presumably given them the seats and a confidence and supply agreement if necessary.

The Opposition approach has been to put off the no confidence vote because Tory members won’t bring down the government unless it is the only last resort, and other opposition parties and many Labour back benchers know that Corbyn would gain election advantage if he becomes temporary Prime Minister and stops No Deal. He has not ruled out the idea of an all Party temporary coalition led by Clark and Harriet Harman in their capacities of the recognised Father and Mother of the House of Commons, who have both held Ministerial offices and command respect in respective Parties.

Boris knows that he could win a General Election based on a Government on behalf of the people versus the Commons. Corbyn’s team know they have to also deselect at least 50 existing members if they are to command loyalty when in Government.

Boris also knows that serious disorder on the streets will be sufficient to declare a state of emergency and this may already have been agreed with the Head of State.  Trump may have offered to use US resources including off the books resources to monitor ant Brexit Parliamentarians and others individuals of influence. Any state of emergency will enable the government to control the media, including social media.

Deputy Leader of Labour Party seeks MI5 help to expel hard left members of the PLP from the Party

The Deputy Leader was Gordon Brown  who supported the  decision of Party Leader and Leader of the Official Opposition  Hugh Gaitskell in 1961. At their instigation Patrick Walker provided MI5 with a handwritten list of 16 names on House of Commons notepaper.

I was reminded of their action when writing about the reasons why special branch and MI5 kept not only me but those who visited my home in Wallington 1959 and 1962 in the context of writing about the significance of the Challenor Police Scandal, the Portland, Vassal and Profumo spy scandals in relation to the unsolved murder of my friend Ann Haldane in 1963 who had worked at the Admiralty for five years since leaving the Hackbridge Secondary Modern School aged sixteen years. The unsolved murder should be regarded as one of the worst failures to arrest and  successful prosecute a killer in British policing history. Twenty people were close by, when the killer struck,  providing detailed descriptions and some seventy people were estimated to be surrounding her body when two street patrolling constables arrived at the murder scene minutes later. 

Possible reason why the murder has remained unsolved forms the first four sections of Coincidence, Connections and Contradictions.

One of those who visited the home of the three aunties with whom I lived at Maldon Court in Bute Road was the daughter of the Member of Parliament for Morpeth, 1954-1970,  Will Owen who was acquitted of selling low level information to a Soviet State. Christopher Andrew in the authorised history of MI5 discloses the information on page 413 of the 1000 page history. Her states "Though Owen was acquitted, he was almost certainly, guilty as charged."  Andrew explains that it was not until Josef Frolik was questioned by the United States intelligence service in 1969 during the Wilson Government, that information was provided that John Stonehouse and Will Owen had both been recruited by Czech  intelligence Pages 541-543.

Will stayed on at his London home in 1970 and became  leader of the Labour members on the London Borough of Sutton  when as Vice President of the Association of Child Care Officers, I had chaired a committee which recommended the blacklisting of the Borough because it had amalgamated its Children Department services under the control of the Health Committee and Medical Officers Health in an attempt to stop the removal of local democratic control of health services, something which I shared,  but not at the expense of diminishing the professional social work standards being reached in the provision of statutory Child Care.

Future Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan and a future leader of the Social Democrats Roy Jenkins had advised  of the need to take action if the  Wilson government was to be able to get through Parliament Social Services Legislation as had already happened in Scotland with the Social Work Scotland act. I had been introduced to the two Labour Home Secretaries when arranging a drinks party at Parliament to celebrate the passage of 1969 Children's and Young Persons Act  when it was evident they had been briefed about my  background working for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, helping to organise the  Whitsun 1961 civil disobedience demonstrations at Holy Loch, and a member of the Committee 100. It is not known if they were aware of my meeting at Scotland Yard with George Clark before the Aldermaston march where we were introduced to representatives from the Home Office and Admiralty, but not others who I assumed at the time were from the US Embassy/CIA.   In accordance with the principles of Satyagraha I had been open about our plans and intentions as I was subsequently with senior polices and local authority officials on both sides of the Clyde, agreeing to making a formal statement which merit a letter of warning from the Commander of the Flagship, Scotland. The response of the authorities was remarkably varied. Those at Dumbarton on the North bank refused to talk. The Police at Clydebank  asked how many officers we wanted to assist in our march and also said  the traffic would be stopped when I said we would follow the usual rule  keep to one side of the roadway and allowing for breaks in the march to allow traffic to cross  route roads. The politicians at Greenock and Gourock arranged for the Clerk, Treasurer and chief Education officer to meet and offer what help was needed in terms of overnight accommodation, food and safe passage.

I was  subsequently invited to a meeting of the Labour Party group of Sutton Council to talk about social services after I had been appointed Director of Social Services at South Tyneside. Sadly the Party only came close to power and with the rise of the Liberal Democrats there have been no Labour Councillors since 2006.

A coincidence is that in 1969, the Attorney General,. Sir Elwyn Jones, a future Lord Chancellor, authorised a  search warrant and  police interrogation of Will Owen who admitted receiving untaxed money but not to disclosing classified information. I had met  his daughter twice during the communist led youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament marches  between Liverpool and Hull Christmas to New Year 1959 1960 and I960 1961. We met again on a hillside  overlooking Holy Loch  on Whit Monday when I was checking to see  that those who remained  camping out overnight were able to return to their homes. I invited her attend a meeting of the Wallington Youth CND which she  did.

There would also have been interest when the group accepted the invitation of two of the sons of  Ritchie Calder, Angus wrote the People's War, to meet at their home in Cheam. Ritchie Calder was President of the National Peace Council and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.  Ian Dixon, a member of the Director  Action Committee and of the Committee 100, a former  journalist for Peace News, also came to speak at a meeting.

Screen X and New Amserdam

Yesterday, I can never type the word without hearing the opening of the Beatles tune in my head, I had the most wonderful of days which lasted until going to bed well after midnight. Such is my satisfaction at the mixture of achievement and new experience enjoyment that I need to record the experiences before continuing with the writing of a book, the first section of which is fully researched and drafted, and the opening pages settled yesterday.

On return from my first experiences of the new cinema Screen X at the Cineworld Newcastle at the Gate, the best of the four party areas of one of this most remarkable of British cities; the other areas, the Bigg Market, the Tyne riverside, with the Millennium Bridge walkway to the Baltic contemporary art centre and Sage concert halls on the Gateshead side, and Eldon Square  complex of restaurants on two floors and surrounding streets filled visiting hen and stag parties,  packs  of university students setting out for the bars and clubbing,  adolescents celebrating the end of half term,  middle age and older citizens heading the Theatre Royal and the Playhouse, some younger ones to the Live Theatres, couples of all ages on dates, families going to  the film of Aladdin and  the secret life of Pets ,and a mixture of well-dressed heading for the 24 hour casino at Gate.

I returned home by Metro and my car parked at the South Shields end of the line station, eat the prepared salad and a small carton of raspberries, watched the latest episode of the Looming Tower, which chronicles the rivalry, distrust and compartmentalism of the C.I.A and F.B.I in the years  before 9/11, having watched the previous evening the Berlin Station  series in which the U.S funds a right wing party in Germany in order to house and use its digital surveillance system on every government, corporate and domestic electronic device in Europe,  and  Deep State series which chronicles the machinations of the US government through one of its off the books units committing murder and blackmail to beat Russia and China in controlling individual African states, and then decided to watch  the last two the most moving and engaging of Television series of 22 episodes New Amsterdam on Amazon prime, about a New York Public Hospital with a creative  socialist public service Director, four principal medical consultants and the consultant psychologists who could be me in another life,  and the sex, loves, addictions and family dramas of the staff for which they have too little time.

I have never been keen on hospital set dramas, part of my fear, dread and dislike of all institutions which become places which concentrate in furthering and protecting the interests of the providing body, the management and employees before those of the residents. I also cannot stand the reality of the pain and the bloodshed. New Amsterdam changed that, as I became totally involved and in tears a during most, if not all episodes, and saying WoW at the levels of understanding and insight. The end of what appeared to be the final rather than first season episode was more shocking and unexpected than the ending of Blakes Seven. The advantage of Amazon Prime is that you can watch a full series over 24 hours, but New Amsterdam was experienced no more than one day, and where sometimes a longer break between episodes seemed right, but difficult, as you are always wanting to know want happens next. The story line and the characters go well over the top which is also me.

Having experienced 4DX 3D at the rebuilt inside of Cineworld in Newcastle I set off to see if the latest screen film experience to be added was as good or even better. Cineworld had adopted part the 2009 South Korean system which motion seating synchronised with events in the film. You are held in seats in the same as on fairground ride with addition of sensors which can appear to punch or stab you if such an event occurs on screen. The full model now in Newcastle and Middlesbrough in the North East includes carefully directed water spray at the face, wind, hot and cold, smoke and auditorium lights together with surround sound and 3D visual. Not a fan of the roller coaster and other fairground thrill rides, I decided to experience the new dimension with a film about the ability through the use of avatars to immerse yourself in an artificial dimension the outcome of which you cannot control. The television series Westworld goes one further when human beings enter an artificial world full of artificial sentient, feeling created, outwardly human bodied robots, you can kill, torture and sex with until the artificial beings start to question with inside help and learn how to fight back and decided to enter the real world.

The Screen X advance publicity mentioned a 270 degree which I did not think carefully about beforehand assuming it was similar to Cinerama of the 1950’s and which had a deeply curving screen arc and a drawback of two joins which created a triptych effect.  On 20^th September 1954, the first theatre opened in London in Old Crompton Street, Soho with “This is Cinerama” which I went to see on my own and then took the aunties within who I then lived. A decade later I saw “How the West was won” and possibly “Khartoum”. I believe I saw 2001, a Space Odyssey at a different London theatre.

The new screen is advertised as a mind boggling 270 degrees so I was greatly disappointed and nearly went out to complain to the management when first entering the screen 12, having sat overlooking the comings and goings on one of the pairs of new leather sofa to one side of the  large reception area which also serves at the entrance to the four additional small screens on two floors . To reach Screen X you have to pass the Superscreen and sound, the 4DX with 2 and 3D, the 3D and 2D screens, with leather reclining seats and legroom for people to pass while you continue to sit, plus two sets of male, female and disability toilets.

Going through the two sets of door into the theatre I looked up at the screen and thought what the…. and nearly went out to complain to the management.  In fairness I had not worked out the implications of a 270 degree screen compared to that if Cinerama and had expected something similar. Instead, it appeared there was one slight curved screen wall to wall, floor to ceiling screen of perhaps 90 degrees but not as big as the Imax screen at the Theatre by Waterloo.

The long opening programme of Pearl and Dean advertisements, invitations to join the Cineworld unlimited monthly subscription and film trailers filled the centre area of screen until the magic moment when the theatre went momentarily dark and the words screen x appears before the full screen emerged from the darkness, as did the screens on either side of the theatre, tapering all the way to the back corners. To experience the best effect, seats at the back are essential although the effect wherever you sit is overwhelming and distracting.   Several times I could not cope and closed my eyes. I had the same experience at Imax in London.

Not all the scenes in the fil were projected on the three sides which offered some relief. One problem was the film being shown.

I had made the visit to experience the new screen and had reservations about the latest in Godzilla series which were more than justified. The script is laughable, the characters did not engage with acting half hearted, the story incomprehensible, the CGI of some of the monsters third rate and action relentless and boring.

It will go again to see a screen X Screen production when hopefully the film will make the experience worthwhile. There is a premium charge of £3 over the unlimited subscription, £2.50 for the Superscreen, £4.70 for 4DX but the premium for special relays is more as I paid to see the Bruce Springsteen documentary and short concert on his early experience and attempt to revive the West side of the New Jersey coastal resort of Ashbury Park.

The Newcastle Cineworld has been transformed from the former Empire which occupied the same site on the top floor with 12 theatres and a side extension of four small theatres on two floors. The entrance foyer has been transformed include a Starbucks

The Gate has a two level basement garage which I have just discovered has an evening charge of only £ 2.50, £3.50 all day Sunday, the 24 hour Casino for those over 18 and which does not require membership, a two floor night club till 3am two Escape Room experiences, a video lounge and open play which include chess and table tennis with I have never used. Similarly, there is major International Banquet, eat as much you like which I will visit but only when I reduced my present weight of seventeen and half stones to under 16; I have eaten at the Wetherspoons, but not Nando’s, Pizza Hut, eat as much you plus Nando’s, Pizza Hut, Wetherspoons. There two bar, on serves food with huge screens to watch football, and one of these has topless dancers before, during the interval and afterwards to attract and retain customers from the other part and places in Newcastle which also both home and away games. The home games are relayed from other countries. There are in total some 300 places to eat, drink and socialize in the city.