Chris Whiteside's Blog

Congratulations to Mike Starkie who was selected by Conservative party members in Cumbria tonight to be Conservative candidate for Mayor of Cumbria. The post is due to be elected in May 2027.  

Here's an extract from Stephen Pollard's Jewish Chronicle article about the Prime Minister of Israel He writes  ' Don’t make the mistake of dismissing Netanyahu as a shallow caricature. However strongly one might disagree with his policies and behaviour in government, the Israeli PM has a serious and deep understanding of history, of strategy and of tactics. ' I am absolutely no fan of Netanyahu. Before the present round of conflict in the Middle East started with the October 7th genocidal attacks by Hamas, the PM of Israel was trying to dismantle one of the best things about Israel - the fact that it is almost the only country in the Middle East with an independent judiciary. Nor would I defend everything he has done since the 7th October attacks. I believe that we should approach the terrible conflict in Gaza starting from the viewpoint that both Jews and Palestinians are human beings, that we don't wat to see innocent civilians of either race killed, and that it ...

"I’ve been working in politics a long time. I’ve seen some bonkers stuff. But having the Prime Minister blast an opponent’s policy as racist on Sunday, then getting the Home Secretary to announce the same policy on Monday is about the maddest thing I’ve seen at a party conference." ( Dan Hodges , former Labour and Trade Union staffer who is now a journalist, on X yesterday)

 

Matthew Syed has a piece in today's Sunday Times on why he joined the Conservatives last week. Most of his article is not so much about why he has joined the Conservatives, as a cogent and powerful analysis of what has gone wrong with our society in general and the UK economy in particular. He makes an incredibly strong case that the centre of gravity of British politics has moved dramatically and unsustainably to the left, away from the politics of responsibility and balance, and instead towards policies which would have been considered far left as recently as twenty years ago. Matthew stood as as Labour candidate in 2001 on a manifesto which he describes as "nothing like" what any party is currently offering. He writes " I was proud to stand on that manifesto, but it was miles to the right of anything today ."  Here is a fuller version of the quote: His analysis does not spare the high-spending policies of either Labour or Conservative governments, and he adds...

 

Matt Ridley put up a tweet on X today about what he called "the Boomerang effect." This expression, the  Boomerang effect , has often been used to mean an unsuccessful attempt to persuade people of the merits or benefits of some policy, belief or action which backfires so badly that it pushes people towards a diametrically opposed policy, belief or action. Matt uses it to mean when people criticise or dislike some trend in thought or actions without noticing that their own previous actions or statements have had the unintended consequence of boosting the very trend which they are now complaining about. I don't necessarily concur with all the examples in his tweet, which you can read in full by clicking on the link below. Matt Ridley on X: "I've noticed a common phenomenon. Let's call it the boomerang effect. Lament the rise of an opinion or policy without noticing how your preferred policies helped cause it." / X However, I think he is absolutely right t...

The Jewish Leadership Council response to the news that the prosecution of KNeecap band member Mo Chara failed because of basic mistakes: Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch commented on this story that " Labour can’t even get the basics right. "  

Kemi Badenoch'a comment on Labour's Digital ID card proposal: "Labour’s “Digital ID” gimmick won’t stop the boats. It’s a desperate distraction from their scandals. We won’t back any system that makes ID mandatory for British citizens.  Only Conservatives have a real plan to secure our borders. 👉 http://stopthedigitalid.com

 

On Sky News earlier this month, Health secretary Wes Streeting claimed that “ We’ve seen record levels of returns of people who have no legal right to be here, record levels of deportations, thanks to this home secretary. ” This is a false claim and has been debunked by the Full-Fact organisation, whose report can be read at Immigration returns aren’t at ‘record levels’ under Labour – Full Fact Their Fact Check gave the following verdict on the Health Secretary's allegations: “This is not correct, based on official returns data. Neither the overall number of immigration returns nor the number of enforced returns carried out during Labour’s first year in office is a record for a 12-month period.”   Wes Streeting's claims are not even supported by the Labour government's own figures. During Labour’s first year in office (between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025) a total of 35,052 returns of people with no legal right to be in the UK took place. Because this figure was published on...

 

At Prime Minister’s Questions on 21 May the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claimed that under the previous Conservative government “living standards were at an all-time low”. Full Fact contacted Number 10 to ask what the PM meant by this, and said they would update their assessment if they ever get one - which seems rather unlikely as they have not had any such reply in the months since Starmer made the statement. Full Fact were unable to find any data to support Mr Starmer’s claim and the Resolution Foundation told them it believes he “clearly misspoke”. During the last parliament the Covid pandemic resulted in the worst recession for 300 years. Of course this meant that growth in living standards was badly affected, though as Full Fact says "At the time this claim was made, full data covering the entire parliament wasn’t available. We now know that, measured quarterly, RHDI per person was slightly higher in Q2 2024 (the last quarter before the election) than in Q4 2019 (when th...

 

"Don’t punch us in the face on Sunday and wish us better on Monday" Headline on an article by Daniel Sugarman , in the Jewish News on Monday. You can read the full article at   OPINION: Don't punch us in the face on Sunday and wish us better on Monday - Jewish News Here are some extracts. " The government's recognition of a Palestinian state at this juncture has rightly been seen by many in the UK Jewish community as a grotesque betrayal. " “ Happy Rosh Hashanah from all of us at the Labour Party ,” the Jewish community was informed today. "I get it, I really do. Acknowledging the primary festivals of a range of the UK’s religions is a tick-box exercise for any government. Now this particular box can be ticked off. But I hope you’ll forgive me for observing that this particular Rosh Hashanah greeting was akin to being punched in the face on Sunday and receiving a ‘ get well soon ’ card on Monday." "I don’t really need to go into why yesterday’...

I support a two-state solution. That does not mean I think it is a good idea to "recognise" at this time a Palestinian state which does not, on any meaningful definition, currently exist. We should recognise a Palestinian state as part of a diplomatic solution which brings the hostages home and guarantees peace to Jews and Palestinians alike. Britain should be trying to put pressure on both Israel and Hamas to agree such a deal, not one side only. This is what Kemi had to say today about the UK government's decision to "recognise" Palestine:

 

 

Great to meet up with some of the members of Carlisle Conservatives today for a leaflet-folding session with tea, coffee and cake, and then to get some leaflets delivered. And now some music to relax to having got a couple of walks delivered.

"Shortly, Rachel Reeves is going to take more money from you. This is because she messed up. Conservatives left office with an economy badly beaten by the pandemic, but on the up.  It’s taken Labour less than a year to completely derail it." Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on X yesterday.

The interesting thing about this 2015 version of the Lord High Executioner's song from the Mikado is how many of the then topical targets, from Donald Trump to Jeremy Corbyn, though sometimes in different positions, remain prominent enough in 2025 that the jokes still land.

This is an updated version of an article first written in December 2007. The principles in the post are all still absolutely valid, but some of the detail was now out of date because but in the intervening period of nearly twenty years there has been local government reorganisation and some of the electoral boundaries referenced had changed. As the principles are still as relevant as ever, I am posting a this new version of the post with updated examples and detail. Anyone who wants to read the original version of the post can find it here . A West country MP, Gerry Neale, used to tell the story that he was once making a speech to Cornish farmers and said that "on average, I do not think you are doing too badly." "Look here, mister" replied one of the farmers, "Stand me with my left foot in a block of ice and my right foot in a bucket of boiling water and tell me on average I am all right and I'll tell you I'm not!" I was reminded of this during a ...

When I first started writing this blog a very wise local West Cumbrian statesman, Honorary Alderman David Gray, told me that it was important to get some traffic counters up so that I could see how many people were reading it and what they are looking at. When I eventually did get the traffic monitors up the results were quite fascinating and David was right, as he usually is. There have been 3.87 million pageviews since then: sometimes wor a period they will run at a few hundred a day, sometimes the number of daily pageviews is in the thousands, occasionally it is in the tens of thousands. When I look to see what people are reading, it is most often what I have posted about topical issues, but there are some posts that come up again and again in the traffic statistics many years after I put them up. For example a post put up in on November 21st 2009 about a visit that day to flood-hit areas of Cumbria by Nick Herbert MP, who was then the shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food...

" 🚨Taxes up 🚨Welfare benefits up 🚨Spending on debt interest up 🟰Highest government borrowing for FIVE years.  This is the Rachel Reeves doom loop, making our country poorer and your lives harder.  Only the Conservatives will ensure Britain lives within our means." Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the Conservative party.

Commenting on today’s public sector finances figures for August 2025, ONS Chief Economist Grant Fitzner said: 

Classic Gilbert and Sullivan - "I am the monarch of the sea" and the First Lord's song from the comic opera "HMS Pinafore."

"If one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone"  ( Timothy Zahn , words written by the character, Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo (Thrawn) in the epilogue to his novel, "Thrawn.")  

Really hammed up with a truly loud stamping of feet accompanying each rendition of the words " With cat-like tread " - but very entertaining

"Last-minute legal challenges delayed the removal of the first migrants due to be deported to France under the government’s one-in, one-out returns deal with Paris.  No surprise. Keir Starmer was part of the lawfare movement which elevated rule by lawyers and the courts above rule by elected politicians. He is reaping what he sowed." Andrew Neil on X yesterday

"If Liberty means anything it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." ( George Orwell )

The leader of the opposition, Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch, will  join @IainDale tomorrow on LBC to answer questions from members of the public. And Kemi Badenoch will be returning to take your calls every month. Tune in from 8pm.

 Andrew Neil's column in the mail:

"Nuclear uses 1,000 times less land than wind or solar. On a small, beautiful island like ours, that matters. If Labour were serious about nuclear they’d back our amendments to scrap the environmental regulations that simply add costs and do more harm than good to nature." Claire Coutinho, Conservative shadow secretary of State for Energy, on X today.

 

‘It is becoming increasingly hard to find anybody in the Labour party who will argue that things are going anything other than disastrously for the government.’ This isn't a quote from me, or anyone in the Conservative party, or anyone else on the centre or right of politics.  It comes from The Guardian!! Hat tip to Andrew Neil for pointing this out on Twitter.

Iain Dale has prepared a list of things you might overhear at the Lib/Dem conference. Or not. (If you hear all of them you shout "Bingo" and find yourself selected as a Town Council candidate in Tunbridge Wells) "Don’t you think Callum Miller’s a bit of a Tory? Isn’t it terrible all this new security? It was so much better when we had 8 MPs. Well I don’t care what anyone says, I’d happily have taken Chris Huhne’s speeding points. Don’t tell anyone you went to Nick Clegg’s fringe meeting. I did, but I don’t think anyone saw me. I know I’m probably alone in this, but don’t you think Clement Davies was an absolute dish? I can’t believe we let Zack Polanski go on a free transfer to The Greens No, Lembit, go away. I swear I just saw Victoria Wood on the stage. Oh sorry, it was Lisa Smart It’s very hush hush, so don’t tell anyone, but I’ve just heard that Ed Davey might be making a speech on carers. Do you realise Iain Dale hasn’t broadcast his LBC show from a LibDem Conferenc...

"When every opponent is called a Nazi, history is cheapened, debate is destroyed, and lives are put at risk. Abusing the word Nazi doesn’t only insult history, it poisons politics, fuels hatred, and costs lives."  Rob Rinder on GMB, referring to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The Office for National Statistics report on the figures out today included the following: "Monthly GDP is estimated to have shown no growth in July 2025, following growth of 0.4% in June 2025 and a fall of 0.1% in May 2025." If there is another round of tax rises from Rachel Reeves in the budget, it will make this disappointing growth position even worse. You can read the ONS report at GDP monthly estimate, UK - Office for National Statistics

"There’s an end of days feel that I last encountered in the final weeks of May, Boris and Truss. It’s absolutely staggering how Starmer has fallen so far and so fast." Dan Hodges , former Labour and trade union staffer and now a journalist, on X (formerly Twitter) today.

CONSERVATIVE GAIN! I went to Cheshire East yesterday to campaign for Khumi Burton, the excellent Conservative candidate in the Wilmslow Lacey Green and Styal council by election. Khumi has lived in the ward and worked hard for the local community for fifty years. And I was delighted to see that she gained the seat for the Conservatives. Labour came second and Reform came third. The "Residents of Wilmslow" group which is part of the Labour and Independents coalition which runs the council, and had previously held the seat, came fourth. I am sure Khumi will be a marvellous councillor and wish her all the best. Here are the official results   

When I first saw and heard one of Michael Crawford's performances as the title character of "The Phantom of the Opera" I could not believe it could be the same actor I remember as Frank Spencer from "Some mothers do 'ave 'em."  The mask made it easier for me to convince myself that it must be another actor with the same name. But it was indeed the same actor. Which says something about his amazing range and versatility as a performer.

Extracts from Andrew Neil's "Times at One" opening monologue today "In the run up to last year’s general election Labour wooed business hard. It worked." "Private enterprise wanted a change."  "Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, in more moderate mode than only a few years before, seemed to be saying all the right things.  The more gullible in business and finance even started to believe Rachel Reeves would know what she was doing.  They were wrong — and the honeymoon is long over, smashed in the car crash that was Chancellor Reeves’ first Budget last October. Recriminations have now set in. Former boss of Marks & Spencer told Times Radio yesterday that we were now ‘ at the edge of a crisis.’    James Dyson of the eponymous vacuum cleaners says Labour is out to punish those who create wealth and jobs. The Chairman of Asda complains Labour is taxing ‘ everything in some way, shape or form ’ adding for good measure ‘ I think there’s more gloom than we’...

"Every family knows what it means to live within your means. If you max out your credit card, the bills catch up with you. If you don’t pay your mortgage, you lose your home. These are basic facts of life that we all have to live by. But this Labour government is behaving as if the rules don’t apply to them. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has whacked up taxes while maxing out the country’s credit card. The deficit is set to double in just five years. Investors are losing confidence in Britain because the government has lost control of spending. This is the direct result of Labour’s terrible decisions. Now, facing a growing  blackhole, Reeves’ instinct is to tax more and borrow more—locking Britain into a tax doom loop. High taxes weaken our growth, prompting higher borrowing, which requires higher taxes. A vicious cycle, entirely of Labour’s own making. And where has all this money gone? Inflation-busting union pay rises. Ed Miliband’s pet energy company, that won’t generate a single wa...

Lyrics : All around my hat I will wear the green willow And all around my hat for a twelve-month and a day And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm wearing it It's all for my true love who's far, far away Fare thee well cold winter and fare thee well cold frost Nothing have I gained but my own true love I've lost I'll sing and I'll be merry when occasion I do see He's a false deluding young man, let him go farewell he The other night he brought me a fine diamond ring But he thought to have deprived me of a far better thing But I being careful like lovers ought to be He's a false deluding young man, let him go farewell he And all around my hat I will wear the green willow And all around my hat for a twelve-month and a day And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm wearing it It's all for my true love who's far, far away All around my hat I will wear the green willow And all around my hat for a twelve-month and a day And if anyone sho...

 

I saw a statistics some years ago estimating the average lifespan of a blog as six months. This one has survived for forty times as long as that - I started it on Iain Dale's advice in early 2005 so it has now been running more than twenty years. Every so often the traffic stats on this blog tell me that a lot of people have looked at a post I put up many years ago.  When this happens I often check what I wrote to see if I need to put a warning on it that this is an old post and might not be up to date. This evening I noticed that a lot of people were reading a 2009 post called "Reliable Sources." It turned out to be a response to a a Labour MP who had posted that she had heard of a "rumour from a number of reliable sources" of something which turned out to be completely wrong. The details are indeed now completely out of date. I think there are one or two things in my post, however, which are very much relevant today. I had responded to an opinion poll which tu...

Extracts from Andrew Neil 's opening comments on today's Times at One: "Last week was Keir Starmer’s worst since he moved into 10 Downing Street. To be fair, there haven’t been many good weeks for him. It’s been a grim first year for the PM.  And there’s no reason to think things can only get better. Indeed there’s every reason to think they’ll get even worse.  For a start he now faces what could be a bruising contest for the Labour deputy leadership to replace disgraced Angela Rayner.  This is likely to expose all the party’s internal divisions and simmering discontent with Starmer. He risks ending up with a deputy leader around which opposition can rally — the new leader in waiting.   The mood in the Party is ‘openly seditious’ says one Labour MP.  Starmer has ‘no authority’ within the parliamentary party, says another. Both statements are true.  There is no love for Starmer on the Labour backbenches or the wider Labour Party. Instead there is increa...

Her late majesty died three years ago today. She was a very remarkable lady. And lived her entire life dedicated to public service. I, and I am sure many other people, remember her life and work for all the people of this country with gratitude and respect.

This version has the original words - at one point the choir sings  " Endue me with Wisdom, Charity, Chastity and Patience. " There is an alternative version which has been bowdlerised by removing the word "chastity" and singing "Charity" twice instead. Apparently someone thought that even mentioning the virtue of chastity might make some people think of the opposite ...

This will be my last post referencing Angela Rayner, as it is time to move on. I was not expecting to find a Labour MP putting up a post about the downfall of the Deputy PM which I had any time for. But Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South has posted on X a thoughtful and non-partisan reflection about the temptations and pressures of office which I think deserves consideration by those of all political persuasions. I don't necessary agree with every word - though I do agree with a great deal of this - but every word he writes is worth thinking about. He posted as follows: "An Observation on Angela Rayner and the Labour Government: One cannot help but feel a measure of sympathy for Angela Rayner. I know her well enough to say that she came into politics for the best of reasons: a desire to serve, a determination to improve the lives of people whose struggles she understood from her own experience. But the further up the ladder one climbs in politics, the more insistent the temptat...

 

After the report of the government ethics advisor found that she had broken the ministerial code, the Deputy Prime Minister finally accepted that her position was untenable and resigned. The key finding of the independent adviser on ministerial standards was that " b) on the basis of the advice she received, Ms Rayner believed that the lower rate of SDLT would be applicable; indeed she was twice informed in writing that this was the case; but c) in those two instances, that advice was qualified by the acknowledgement that it did not constitute expert tax advice and was accompanied by a suggestion, or in one case a recommendation, that specific tax advice be obtained; and d) if such expert tax advice had been received, as it later was, it would likely have advised her that a higher rate of SDLT was payable. " His letter commented that " Given the conjunction of the acknowledged complexity of her family circumstances, her position in Government (most importantly as Deputy ...

 This week the Prime Minister posted a picture of himself on X, formerly Twitter, with the slogan "Phase two of my government starts today." Today James Cleverly reposted it with the somewhat ironic comment, "And what a cracking start it has been!"

"Myself and Keir have said that it's the absolute minimum that if we break the rules, we cannot continue in office." ( Angela Rayner , then deputy leader of the opposition, speaking on Radio 5 live in 2022.)

Former Conservative minister Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform UK. On hearing this, TSE tweeted  "The average IQ of the Tory Party and Reform just increased." TSE on X: "The average IQ of the Tory Party and Reform just increased." / X

"Just to save me responding to the same tweet time and time again. I don't think Angela Rayner should resign because of her tax error.  She should resign because she has hounded other politicians  for similar errors. And sent out friends and colleagues to lie about this error." Dan Hodges

"It is complete insanity for Ed Miliband to be importing more gas from Norway and Qatar when we could drill our own from the North Sea. We need to bring back energy pragmatism and use our own resources." Claire Coutinho , Shadow Energy Secretary & Shadow Minister for Equalities. 

"The Flashing Blade" was a French TV series from the 1960s set around historical events in 1630 during a war between the French and Spanish. It was also dubbed into English and broadcast on the BBC in Britain. The British version has this truly stirring theme music.

“ Starmer needed someone to do for him what Darren Jones had been doing for Rachel Reeves at the Treasury, and Jones was seen by the PM as an effective operator, the person said”. That person should be locked up for their own safety." Dan Hodges ,  former Labour and Trade Union staffer, now a journalist, commenting on the Labour government reshuffle and quoting a tweet from Alex Wickham about what a government spokesperson had told Alex about the "thinking" behind the government reshuffle. I can only agree with Dan - the  spokesperson who made that comment to Alex Wickham is delusional. Dan also tweeted yesterday, "Lost count of the number of internal No.10 reorganisations I’ve seen over various administrations. But I can remember how many of them have worked. Zero. Keir Starmer’s staff are not the problem."

A chance comment at the weekend reminded me of this old TV show and the wonderful theme music Jackie Lee sang for it. If you ned cheering up, there are few songs which will do it more effectively than this one.

"TITANIC DECK CHAIR LATEST: Labour's reshuffle is more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Darren Jones, who helped Rachel Reeves mastermind Labour’s economic masterclass of doubled inflation, soaring borrowing, and £40bn in tax hikes, is now in charge of delivery.  Now promoted to steer the ship - when it’s already halfway under.  With more taxes on the way, Labour's ship is sinking fast." Mel Stride MP , Conservative Shadow Chancellor.