Chris Whiteside's Blog

“In engineering, you are peer reviewed by reality”.  From Rory Sutherland, quoting the engineer Guru Madhavan, in this week’s Spectator.

I have argued for sixteen years that Britain should stop allowing new marriages between first cousins. I firs wrote about the subject here:  Time to outlaw new first cousin marriages My reason for thinking this is nothing to do with social cohesion or religion, indeed, I would argue against using these arguments to reduce the risk that people from particular communities may fear that the policy is directed against them. My argument is entirely based on the strong and increasing body of hard scientific evidence that "consanguineous marriage" between people who are to a significant degree related is a material risk to the health of the potential children of such marriages. As I wrote in 2010, sometimes new scientific knowledge means that the case against a practice which has previously been regarded as acceptable, perhaps even normal, reaches the point where society is justified in discouraging or banning that practice. This can be hugely controversial, particularly in communit...

A priest, a minister and a rabbit walk into a blood bank to donate. Possible punchline one : The nurse asked the rabbit, " What is your blood type ?" The rabbit replied, " I think I might be a Type O ." Possible punchline two : The receptionist looked at them and said, " I think there may be a clerical error. " Possible punchline three : "The rabbit said " I'm only here because of auto-correct ." Any preference or other suggestions?

David Ford, once Bradford's first Green Party councillor, can no longer support the direction the party has taken ... 

The clocks having gone forward in the early hours of this morning, my phones and computers have automatically adjusted but I had to spend a bit of time manually adjusting all the clocks in my home. Ironically, the ones which caused the most difficulty are the ones which should not have needed any manual adjustment as they are supposedly radio controlled.  As always happens at the equinox when clocks go forward in the spring or back in the autumn, there ha been a fair amount of debate this weekend on social media about whether changing between time systems like " Greenwich Mean Time " and " British Summer Time " makes any sense. Sometimes these arguments are based on the practical issue of whether the change is actually convenient or helpful. All time zone systems being artificial intellectual constructs which inevitably contain compromises, such arguments are equally inevitable and may well make perfect sense. Some arguments, however, are based on the idea that chan...

"I won't ride my horse into the city into which my Lord rode a donkey." General Allonby , who walked into Jerusalem on foot after local Ottoman forces surrendered. (My grandfather, John Whiteside Senior,  was serving in Allonby's forces as part of the RAMC detachment at the time.)

Clocks in Britain and much of Europe go forward an hour tonight as Britain and many other countries change to Summer time. 

Whitehaven and Workington Conservatives were out campaigning this morning in St Bees and had a great session. So for something to relax to after a good morning's work ... Last night I posted the theme music for the original 1963 "Pink Panther film." So here is the other exceptional music clip from that film: " Meglio Stasera, " performed by Fran Jeffries, a wonderfully cheerful song with some great singing and dancing from Fran and some great comic acting too by the rest of the cast, especially Peter Sellers.  (David Niven performed his part as the nominal lead actor in the film to perfection, but he's usually regarded as having been completely eclipsed by Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, who became the main character in the rest of the films in the series.)  This song is also sometimes performed in English as " It had better be tonight. " If you've never heard or watched this, you're missing out. Click on the box below for a treat.  

Battista was the person who originally said this, though many of us now remember it as a memorable saying of Grand Admiral Thrawn ... 

Did you ever have one of those experiences when you mind is working so closely to someone on th TV or Radio that it's almost as if you know what they're going to sy? This evening while listening to BBC Radio 4's " Add to playlist ," one of the people on the show referred to one of the most striking examples of a masterpiece written while the person who created it was dying. I thought "Is she about to refer to Pergolesi's " Stabat Mater. " She was and she did! And then later n the same programme, I was wondering of there was a link from the pieces being discussed to the theme and incidental music for the first "Pink Panther" film. There was, and the Pink Panther theme was the next piece of music! So here is our music to start the weekend: first Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" and then Henry Mancini's theme for the Pink Panther. First, " Stabat Mater " ... And the Pink Panther theme illustrated with short cli...

"If Isaac Newton tweeted that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, someone would reply, "No it doesn't." (Posted on X by Craig Deeley on 14th March 2026  Craig Deeley 🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 on X: "If Isaac Newton tweeted that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, someone would reply, "No it doesn't"" / X  ) This is a perfect example of the very best kind of joke, the kind which works on several different levels.

Fantastic set of local government by-election results for the Conservatives. Four principal council seats being contested. Conservatives won three. We held both seats we were defending, and made one gain from the Lib/Dems. Reform UK gained the fourth seat from Labour. Congratulations to newly elected Conservative councillor Lee Evans who gained a district council seat representing Stanford ward in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire from the Lib Dems Stanford Ward By-Election 🗳️ Votes cast: 🟦 CONSERVATIVE      Evans                     666    45.9% ELECTED 🟨 LIB/DEM                       Bettridge              395    27.2% 🟪 REFORM UK             Von Simpson       261    18% 🟩 GREEN           ...

"Ed Miliband's energy policy is madness on stilts. There is no higher priority than stopping him before he ruins Britain.  ANDREW NEIL, headline on article in the Mail. ANDREW NEIL: Ed Miliband's energy policy is madness on stilts. There is no higher priority than stopping him before he ruins Britain | Daily Mail Online : 

CONFIRMED: New figures show Conservative-run authorities deliver lower council tax rises than any other Party.   Average council tax rises by party control Conservative councils - 3.3% Lib/Dem councils - 3.5% Reform UK Councils - 3.7% Labour councils - 4.2% So despite promising to cut council tax, Reform UK councils have not just put up the council tax by more on average then Conservative controlled councils - they even cost you more than the average Liberal Democrat council! Vote Conservative on 7 May!

"Russia, China and Iran vote with others to demand trillions in reparations from UK taxpayers…and the Labour government abstain! Britain led the fight to end slavery. Why didn’t Starmer’s representative vote against this? Ignorance…or cowardice? We shouldn’t be paying for a crime we helped eradicate and still fight today." Kemi Badenoch on the egregious UN motion declaring the transatlantic slave trade to be the worst crime in history - which will be news to the few remaining survivors of the Holocaust - and demanding that the colonial powers pay reparations. The Transatlantic slave trade was indeed a vile crime. But why no mention of the East African slave trade run by various arab nations, which over thirteen centuries trafficked nearly as many many African slaves as in the Transatlantic slaves - at a far higher cost in human life. Ironically, the East African slave trade attracts less attention and debate not because it was a less serious crime, but because in some ways i...

Thanks to the BBC for this fact check of what is happening to energy bills. At PMQs today Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch clashed over energy bills. Starmer said: “ Because of the action we’ve taken, bills are coming down by up to £100 next month ”. Badenoch replied: “ He says bills are coming down. They are higher than when he came into office ”. Both statements were true. Energy bills will be around £117 lower from April to the end of June  in England, Scotland and Wales, for a household using a typical amount of energy. However, the bill for a “typical household” will still be higher in April this year than in July 2024, when Labour came to power. In July 2024 it was £1,568 , external  and in  April 2026 it will be £1,641  - £73 higher. My comment: Labour promised in their election manifesto to deliver lower energy bills. In fact, even after the coming slight decrease, bills are and will remain higher for the average family g...

From Conservative backbencher Peter Fortune : "As we move towards the Easter recess, I am sure the Prime Minister's thoughts are turning to the miracle of resurrection" And here is the image of the session:

Today is the 219th anniversary of the act becoming law which abolished the slave trade. On this day, 25th March, in 1807, the Abolition of Slave Trade act gained Royal assent making the trade in slaves illegal throughout the British Empire. The Royal Navy's West African squadron was tasked with exterminating this evil trade and freeing the slaves.  In the decades that followed units of the Royal Navy, mostly from that squadron, captured over 1600 slave trader ships, freeing over 150,000 slaves. There were costs in money but more importantly there was a cost in lives, mostly from disease, as it required the navy to operate in areas such as the Bight of Benin were there was a high disease risk. The navy lost about 1,587 sailors who died on slavery suppression operations between 1830 and 1865, which is just under one sailor for every slave trader ship captured or about one for every nine slaves freed. The total financial cost of slavery suppression operations over the sixty-year perio...

From Genesis, Chapter 50 verse 20, " God turned your evil into good. "  (Expanded Bible) I have picked this line from the bible as my quote for today on hearing the latest fundraising total for the Hatzola appeal. Following the atrocious firebombing of community ambulances operated for all local residents in North London by Hatzola, people who care about protecting the sick, some of whom are Jews and some of whom are not, have given £1.7 million in two days to support Hatzola. Also pleased to learn that the Met have made two arrests in connection with the firebombing.

 

"With integrity, nothing else counts. Without integrity, nothing else counts."   Winston Churchill

 From the BBC this morning. "An arson attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish community ambulance service in north London is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, the Metropolitan Police has said. Four Hatzola ambulances were set ablaze in Golders Green in the early hours of Monday morning, causing several explosions - believed to be linked to gas cannisters onboard the vehicles. No arrests have been made but CCTV footage, which appears to show three suspects dressed in black walking towards an ambulance before setting it on fire, is being investigated. Hatzola representative Laurence Blitz said it was " shocking for any normal-minded person to attack an organisation whose sole purpose is to save lives. " The London Fire Brigade was called to Highfield Road at around 01:40 GMT and the fires were brought under control less than two hours later. No injuries have been reported. Dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes after a series of explosions which c...

"It is so easy to be wrong-and to persist in being wrong-when the costs of being wrong are paid by others." Thomas Sowell

SWIMATHON 2026 I will be taking part in the 40th Anniversary Swimathon at Hensingham pool in Whitehaven. This will be the 33rd consecutive year I have taken part. I aim to swim 5,000 metres at Hensingham pool to raise money for Cancer research UK, Marie Curie cancer care, and the swimathon foundation. The 40th anniversary Swimathon is taking place at more than 450 pools around the UK from Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd March 2026. Since 1986, Swimathon has united swimmers of all ages, abilities, shapes, and sizes in a national celebration of swimming and fundraising. In 2026, we proudly mark 40 years of this iconic event — and I'm delighted to be part of it! If you want to help, you can sponsor me, or any of the thousands of other swimmers who are completing one of the Swimathon challenges. 💛 Supporting Charities That Matter Over the last four decades, Swimathon has raised over £50 million for charities. In 2026, we’re proud to support: Cancer Research UK – advancing the fight against ...

Today is the fifth Sunday in Lent, also known as Passion Sunday, and the lectionary in the Anglican church sets out two lessons which, anticipating Easter, tell stories of resurrection. The Gospel reading is about the resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus. The Old Testament lesson, Ezekiel Chapter 37, verses one to fourteen tells of the resurrection of the people of Israel after the Babylonian captivity, and uses the metaphor of a vision in which God shows the prophet Ezekiel a field of dry bones and then brings hem back to life. This inspired perhaps the most amusing of all African-American spiritual songs, "Dem Dry Bones, performed here by the Delta Rythm Boys:    

 

"Attacks on synagogues and Jewish shops in the UK, Europe and the US don't hurt Netanyahu. They only hurt ordinary Jews." ( Jonathan Freedland , headline on article in The Guardian. Pleased to see them publishing what amounts to a sensible reply to the piece by Jonathan Liew which they published a few days ago.)

I put up a link the other day to a book review on a site which has been reviewing various Science Fiction and fantasy books. They've just put up a review of one of my favourite novels of all time, " The Mote in God's Eye " by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.  Not just my favourite. The late Robert Heinlein, himself no mean writer of Science fiction, described this story as " The best novel about human beings making first contact with intelligent but utterly nonhuman aliens  I have ever seen, and possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read. " You can find the review at: Classic Science Fiction Book review: "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournelle The book itself is available from Amazon at: The Mote in God's Eye: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Amazon.co.uk

Congratulations to newly-elected Conservative Councillor Tom Martin who gained the Valley Gardens ward of Harrogate Town Council from the Lib/Dems yesterday. Reform came a poor third, Greens a worse fourth, and Labour did not put up a candidate. 

 A Labour politician, a BBC TV reporter and a British SAS soldier were captured by DAESH They were sentenced to death by beheading. Unexpectedly, the DAESH leader said they could have one last request before their sentence was carried out. The Labour politician asked to hear a rendering of "Keep the Red Flag Flying Here". The BBC TV reporter asked that the beheading be televised so that even when she was dead, her face was still on TV. The British SAS soldier asked to be kicked three times in the backside. As the SAS soldiers' request was unusual, DAESH decided to carry out his request first. As the first kick landed, the SAS soldier pulled a hidden 9mm Glock pistol out of his smock and shot three terrorists dead. He then grabbed one of the fallen terrorists' AK-47s and shot the rest of the terrorists. The other two prisoners were amazed and asked why he asked to be kicked three times before he drew his weapon. "Because", said the soldier, " when we get...

On Wednesday's Prime Ministers' Questions (PMQs) ‘Having said nothing of remote consequence, the PM scuttled off to read a briefing paper and avoid some tough decisions.  “Point of order,” asked a gaggle of naughty Tory MPs: can the rules be tweaked to compel a prime minister to answer the question put to them? “ “There is a weakness in [that suggestion],” replied the Speaker, “in that it assumes the person knows the answer”. God bless Lindsay Hoyle’ Tim Stanley.

The "Anthem of Humanity" was the award winning introductory music to the computer strategy game, Civilisation III. It is the Lord's Prayer in Swahili, set to music by Christopher Tin.

 

 

No, Mrs Thatcher didn't lie when she said the Belgrano was a threat. In an otherwise excellent article in the Mail on Sunday this week, Dan Hodges repeated a charge against Mrs Thatcher, that she had lied about the sinking of the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano. This had been widely believed at the time but disproved three decades later by documents declassified under the thirty-year rule. I'm not quite sure what lie Dan thinks she told, as his article appears to specifically reject the main charge made against her at the time, of ordering the sinking in order to scupper not only the enemy cruiser but also the Belaunde peace plan. His article states " Her motivation was a misguided attempt to protect the armed forces and the wider national interest. " It has now been proven beyond reasonable doubt that her motive was indeed to protect the men and women of our armed forces. I believe that her accusers genuinely thought the charges they were making against her we...

An associate of mine is setting up a blog to review new and classic science fiction and fantasy books and films. At his suggestion I've just read an immensely entertaining book,  " The Demon Overlord's retirement plan " by M. H. Foster I had to share his assessment: this is one of the most amusing pieces of SF or fantasy writing I've read recently. You can find his review on the site at: Book Review: "The Demon Overlord's retirement plan" by M. H. Foster

"Since the fall of Cameron, no Prime Minister has completed a full electoral term. Each of his successors has run out of political road before then.  Most have been done in by their own party when their political capital was exhausted. Only Rishi Sunak was ousted by the public.  Perhaps even more remarkably, Edward Heath was the last Prime Minister to enter and exit Downing Street via an election. It appears that two or three years of leadership is becoming the new norm." John Oxley , extract from a Conservative Home article which you can read in full at John Oxley: Are we in a new phase for all Prime Ministers? The era of 'two year Keir' | Conservative Home

The novelist Len Deighton, author of spy novels like "The Ipcress File," the dystopian alternative history novels "SS-GB" and a couple of superlatively detailed and accurate war novels, "Fighter" and "Bomber," has died at the age of 97. Born in 1929, he was a boy in London during the blitz, and once discovered an air-raid shelter which had been hit and contained 20 bodies. Another memory from the war which influenced his writing came when Special Branch raided the house next door and arresting his neighbour, a 38-year-old Russian emigre named Anna Wolkoff. She had fled to England in 1917 after the Revolution, with her parents. Secretly, she was a Nazi spy. Among her targets was the US ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Wolkoff was sentenced to ten years for relaying secrets to Berlin. After the war, he served in the RAF before studying art at St Martin's College in London and the Royal College of Art. He spent a year as a cabin steward with the airl...

Yesterday I posted Purcell's Rondeau from Abdelazer, wich was the end credits music for "The First Churchills." Here is the Trumpet Tune from Act V of "King Arthur" which provided the introductory music for the same show.

The answer to the quiz question I posted last night. Rishi Sunak was Prime Minister for one year and 254 days and at the time I put up the post, that is also the number of days Sir Keir Starmer had also been Prime Minister. Today Starmer will reach a year and 255 days as PM.

“It is one of history’s ironies that the House of Commons voted to slash trials by jury on the same day as the House of Lords voted finally to expel the last remaining hereditary peers from Parliament.” This is the start of an excellent article by Marcus Walker on "The Critic" website. You can read the whole thing at The malignant mediocrity of managerialism | Marcus Walker | The Critic Magazine but here are some extracts. "It was the hereditary barons of England who forced King John to agree that “No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers…” The barons have gone, and so have our ancient liberties, and both on the same day. Only the bishops still sit in that ancient council, heirs of Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury who led the barons against the king in 1215....

Giles Dilnot has a great piece on Conservative Home about the need for politicians of all parties to be "more normal." You can read the whole thing at   Politics doesn't need saints, or sinners, it needs more 'honest' and 'normal' | Conservative Home Here are some extracts. "Starmer is in Downing Street, partly because he repeatedly suggested, he’d be different. Country before party, service before self-service, a new standard in public life across his government. He and a number of his ministers and aides have spent the last 20 months repeatedly trashing that claim. If on this slate alone, he was ‘the change’, he was a change for the worse." "No, Conservatives can’t remotely pretend to have been squeaky clean in the past, and Reform have been dogged by accusations since they entered Parliament. The Lib Dems have been quietly trying to handle a longstanding issue with a senior member of their party, and Zack Polanski has his – for want of a ...

Question - why is today significant in terms of comparisons between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer?  What do they have in common today, 16th March 2026, and only today? Answers in the comments.

Kemi Badenoch has described a Guardian newspaper column that suggested the presence of a Jewish-founded Gail’s bakery close to a Palestinian cafe was “heavy-handed high street aggression” as “ a cover for disgusting antisemitism. ” Speaking to Jewish News as she joined party activists to campaign in Golders Green ahead of May’s local elections, the Conservative Party leader condemned the column in the strongest terms. “I think it was an utterly ridiculous column … appalling, actually, ” Badenoch said. “ What it was insinuating, in my view, was based on antisemitism. We are a country where it hasn’t mattered where you’ve come from… we have always been open and tolerant. I think this openness and tolerance of our society is being exploited, and is targeting Jewish people. “ It’s extraordinary that Gail’s bakeries are being attacked now, supposedly because they are Israeli-owned. This is just a cover; it’s antisemitism. It is disgusting. We need to stamp out this culture. We need more enf...

I will always remember this piece as the closing credits music to "The First Churchills" which was a BBC costume drama broadcast in 1969 when I was a small boy, about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Sarah Churchill. I was far too young to fully appreciate much of the show at the time, but I do remember that I was fascinated by it and learned quite a few things (like what being "impeached" meant,) but this Purcell piece with which each episode ends was one of the most memorable. The theme for the opening titles of each episode, by the way is the "Trumpet tune" from Act V of Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur. Watch this space! It was also subsequently adapted both by Benjamin Britten (in "A young person's guide to the Orchestra") and by Andrew Lloyd Weber. But I particularly like the original, and this is an exceptionally good recording of a great performance by "Voices of Music" on original inst...