The Cruel Sea

The Cruel Sea

I watched the Cruel Sea last week. I have read the book many times and given the Brexiteer’s shite about about what we, or more accurately our parents went through in WW2 wondered how the film stood up to the test of time. The book was written in 1951 and the film made in 1953; it ought to have been contemporaneous.

Film technology has moved on immensely and somehow the actual film itself is too clean, it fails to bring home the fact that the main enemy is the Sea not the enemy submarines. It is quite short for today and fails to tell the story of the ordinary sailors, although the book itself focuses more on the Officers than the other ranks.

The accents of the officers was all so “cut glass”. Was that true or just a reflection of the acting profession? I was shocked at the scene of the bombing of Birkenhead as the crew return home to find their homes gone; the whole of the conversation between the crew and the civil defence team is held in the same cut glass accent without a hint of scouse. I can’t believe that would be true!

Another storyline which was massively under-emphasised was the story of infidelity of Morrel’s wife. I suppose that the censorship code inhibited the telling of the story but it made me think and check. I was sure that levels of adultery increased massively due to both opportunity and the economic freedom that work brought to women. I found this  From Chapter 13: The Girls They Left Behind  from “Love, Sex and War” by John Costello

The wartime divorce phenomenon afflicted British servicemen to the same increasing degree. The number of adultery petitions filed after 1942 rose by a hundred per cent each year above the 1939-42 average. The final twelve months of the war also saw a spectacular eightfold jump in the number of husbands who were suing for divorce on the grounds of adultery. By 1945, two out of every three petitions were being filed by men, whereas until 1940 female petitions had been in the majority.

ooOOOoo

The featured image is cropped from a graphic on this page, advertising the book as an audiofile. I have cropped it and justify my use as “fair use”. …

On ward boundaries in Lewisham

‘The borough of Lewisham has changed substantially since the last ward review in 1999 that was published in 2002. In those 20 years, our borough has seen significant housing development and population expansion, particularly in the central and northern wards.

The Council have made proposals and are having an open meeting to discuss this at the town hall.

See also https://davelevy.info/wiki/redistricting-lewisham/ …

Bosses & CCTV

I wrote a piece on my linkedin blog called, “Reusing CCTV in employee relations“. I rang the ICO and was told that employers can reuse CCTV, “if they come across something they cannot reasonably ignore”. The linkedin article looks at the ramifications of this and points to the ICO document, “the employment practices code“, which states that cameras may not be covert and may not be used for general monitoring. …

All change

It’s been a week in politics; the UK has a new Prime Minister, the once London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. This rather eclipses the LibDem’s announcement that they too have a new Leader, one Jo Swinson. This will make for interesting times.

So Corbyn has outlasted two Tory Premier’s, although, one tweeter, probably not a fan, said it was like saying she had outlasted two of Brad Pitt’s wives. …

Nobody move or …

Labour announced, not sure how it decided, that it would call for a confirmatory vote on any Tory deal and campaign for Remain. There are some who still argue that preparing for a no-deal is the only way to get a better one. This is wrong but reminds me of this scene from Blazing Saddles.

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