Chris Whiteside's Blog

 

The first piece sung entirely in Latin to reach the UK charts. I dare say that a lot people probably don't even realise that this is a song celebrating Christmas, but it is. The words of the chorus can be translated into English as  "Rejoice, rejoice, Christ is born of Mary the virgin! Rejoice!

Eaglescliffe West, Elton, Long Newton and Aislaby ward (Stockton on Tees council) - congratulations to Councillor Steve Dodds who held the ward for the Conservatives yesterday with an increased vote share of over 60%. Armitage with Handsacre, (Lichfield District Council), congratulations to Councillor Martyn Punyer who held the seat for the Conservatives: 

"It takes a lot to change my mind, but enough is enough. "I'm ending a lifetime of support for my beloved Labour party." "This nightmarish totalitarian rabble has done more damage to our country than Margaret Thatcher and the Luftwaffe put together." "My wife is completely apolitical and this is the first government she has ever truly loathed. Was it compulsory digital ID that sent her over the edge? The end of trial by jury? The destruction of the High Street with national insurance hikes for employers? The fact that you have more chance of seeing Santa Claus than your local GP this Christmas? No, it was it's carefully planned destruction of the countryside." "Her parents were farmers as is her brother and she comes from a long line of people whose only real crime is minding their own business and supplying the country with food every night." Extracts from a "Writers Notebook" piece by Mark Millar in the Christmas 2025 is...

“Kemi Commands Commons: Starmer Clings To Tired Tactics” “ It doesn’t matter much whom you marry as it always turns out to be someone else, ” as Aristotle, I think, said. So it is with political leaders.  “Keir Starmer’s vows (country before party, end of chaos, adults in the room) turned out to be quite the opposite of his promise. And so it is with Kemi – she’s now a dazzling Commons performer. It’s taken a year but been worth the wait. She holds the floor. She says things Conservatives want to hear. She has claimed an anti-benefit position no one else has dared to and public opinion around that is coming very nicely to the boil.” That was the Guido Fawkes ' website take on yesterday's Prime Minister's questions. Kemi Commands Commons: Starmer Clings To Tired Tactics – Guido Fawkes

The amount of ad hominem abuse in British politics has increased, is increasing and ought to be diminished. For the avoidance of doubt, there are too many personal attacks coming from every part of British politics and too many aimed at every part of British politics. As Kemi Badenoch and her team have raised their game in the last few months and both Labour and Reform have started to get rattled about it, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of speeches and posts criticising her from both Labour supporters and the leadership (less so the supporters) of Reform UK. This comes with the territory: Kemi shows no signs of being bothered by it, even when the attacks get personal, and nor should she be. A great Conservative leader had this to say on the subject:    It does however amuse me the number of people on the left who manage to combine in the same speech or post and often in consecutive sentences, both complaining bitterly about how in their opinion the Leader of...

The Prime Minister claimed today in the House of Commons that there are more teachers in post now that when Labour was elected and accused the opposition of using "dodgy data" to claim the figures are down -  Until it was pointed out that those figures came from the Department for Education's own website. If they are dodgy, who's to blame for that?

"Last month, Labour hiked taxes on working people to increase benefits for those who do not work.  It's no surprise that a MILLION more people are on benefits since the election.  Only Conservatives will cut welfare by £23bn and build a Britain where those who can work, do work." Kemi Badenoch

"A 78 per cent tax rate on UK oil and gas is not a strategy. It is economic vandalism. Mark my words, when investment leaves, jobs go with it. And when production falls, we end up at the mercy of foreign suppliers who do not share our values, our standards or our interests. Labour simply do not get it. Their choices weaken Britain and the consequences are unforgivable. Conservatives will scrap this levy, back British workers and protect our energy security with competence and common sense." Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch , Leader of the Conservative party and the opposition. 

For the first sixty plus years of my life the cornerstone of the defence strategy of Britain and all other NATO members was the alliance with the United States of America, based on the belief, perfectly reasonable until this year, that the United States is a reliable ally. I didn't doubt this during the first Trump administration. Despite his sometimes scary rhetoric and often chaotic way of running things, in his first term President Trump appointed some very smart and knowledgeable people and often listened to them. Talk of "America First" it not necessarily in itself a problem. Any government of every nation has to put the safety and wellbeing of the people for whom it is responsible first, and most governments do. This is not incompatible with a policy that maintaining a strong network of alliances and treaties is immensely helpful to your national security and a conviction that this means treating your allies in particular and other countries with which you deal in g...

 

"The political stupidity of Lammy and Starmer’s attack on trial by jury is astonishing. They have handed their enemies a gift. The radical right can say – entirely truthfully – that Labour wants to take power from ordinary people and give it to its mates in the judiciary." Nick Cohen on X, formerly Twitter, today.

Today is #SmallBusinessSaturday where we celebrate and support Britain’s small businesses. The Conservative Party will always stand with small businesses We’re the only Party committed to abolishing business rates for thousands of small and high street businesses.

 

The MP for Whitehaven and Workington, Labour's Josh MacAlister, was sent out today to justify Labour's decision to delay four Mayoral elections for two years. As the Guido Fawkes website put it, at  Labour Minister: We are Cancelling Mayoral Elections as 'We've Only Recently Become the Government' – Guido Fawkes he came out with this "distinctly flimsy" line of defence to Sky News: “To be fair, we have only recently become the government, this is a new set of devolution that we are bringing forward. We are speeding this up in a major way. The people who are saying this are the same people who not that many years ago were proroguing parliament. We will take no lectures from them.” Every part of this statement is wrong. Let's fisk it, shall we? “To be fair, we have only recently become the government" * They've been in power for 17 months.  " this is a new set of devolution that we are bringing forward." * this set of devolution e...

Dan Hodges has a very powerful piece in the mail about the shambles of a budget last week Here is an extract. "Finally. After the days of obfuscation, deflection and flat-out lying surrounding Rachel Reeves's Budget deceit, Kemi Badenoch has cut through to the heart of the issue.  Tuesday saw the scandal's first resignation, with Office for Budget Responsibility head Richard Hughes falling on his calculator after the leak of his organisation's Budget report 45 minutes before the Chancellor addressed the Commons. It had been, he said, 'a technical but serious error'. Though rumour holds he was pushed by the Prime Minister and Chancellor, who were desperate to find a scapegoat for the most shambolic fiscal event in modern parliamentary history. Yet in their willingness to sacrifice Hughes, they made a fatal blunder. One that the Leader of the Opposition exploited to ruthless effect at Prime Minister's Questions today. Given Sir Keir Starmer had accepted Hughe...

 

This was posted by Michael Crick in June 2024, a month before the Starmer government was elected. Spot on - indeed it came true a lot faster than in two or three years. :

Q: "Did you lie?" A: " Look, I'm a Labour Chancellor " I didn't expect her to confess so quickly. Neil O'Brien on X formerly twitter, referring to an interview with Rachel Reeves. Neil O'Brien on X: "Q: "Did you lie?" A: "Look, I'm a Labour Chancellor" I didn't expect her to confess so quickly" / X