Chris Whiteside's Blog

I spent part of this weekend in Millom with Brian Crawford, the excellent Conservative candidate in the current by-election for a seat on Millom Town council. Brian is a keen and energetic campaigner who is involved in a large number of activities in the town and would be a great asset to Millom Town Council if elected. One of the main issues we discussed was the proposed closure of Holborn Hill post office, one of eight in Copeland, 35 in Cumbria, and 2,500 in the UK which are currently under threat. Post offices provide an essential service to the community and I was delighted to sign Brian's petition to keep Holborn Hill post office open.

One of the interesting things which came out of this week's visit by the French President to Britain was the possibility of greater nuclear co-operation between Britain and France. I am broadly in favour of this, as it has potential to benefit both countries, but it could be a double-edged sword for Copeland and West Cumbria. So far as the outlook for nuclear jobs in West Cumbria is concerned, greater co-operation presents both opportunities and threats. We need to be ready to exploit the former and be ready to position ourselves so as to avoid the latter. I specifically do not want to suggest that we should take a kind of Anti-Globalisation luddite line that that international co-operation should be resisted because it means exporting jobs. However, to make sure that the benefits of job creation are shared, we need a strategy which identifies the areas of work where we have a comparative advantage and make sure we get those areas of work.

I have just been watching President Sarkozy's excellent speech to the British parliament. I cannot imagine that any of the Presidents which France has had since I have been old enough to follow politics - Pompidou, Giscard, Mitterand, or Chirac - could possibly have made such a positive and friendly speech to a British audience. A President in office in our nearest neighbour country who is so positive about what Britain has to offer is a potential great help to us in promoting a forward looking vision for Europe - and by that I mean a more decentralised Europe, not a stronger Federal superstate - and we should take advantage of that opportunity.

For those who want to read the full debate on post office closures last week, you can find it either on the Hansard pages on the House of Commons website, or at the "Theyworkforyou" website at the following URL http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2008-03-19b.946.1 For residents of Copeland who have not already seen this from the News and Star, you may like to know that the following motion to stop post office closures was supported by Conservatives, Lib/Dems, Scottish Nationalists, Welsh Nationalists, and Independents, and also by 19 Labour MPs who were willing to put the interests of their constituencies before their party. "That this House regrets the proposal to close up to 2,500 post offices; * recognises the vital role post offices play in local communities; * notes the concern and unpopularity amongst the general public of closing such a large portion of the network; * has concerns that the access criteria laid down for the closures consultation do not ad...

St Augustine, when a young man, was supposed to have prayed "O Lord, give me chastity" and then added mentally "but not just yet." I was reminded of this by the Prime Minister's recent comments on a full inquiry into the Iraq war. If you accept that the government really believed the case they put for the invasion - that Saddam was breaching a UN mandate and posed a threat to his neighbours because he had weapons of mass destruction - then this was the worst intelligence failure for at least 21 years. Regardless of what Hutton himself wrote in his conclusions, the information which came out during the Hutton and Butler inquiries was certainly sufficient to give a very strong indication of some of the things which went wrong. But if there is to be another inquiry, I can see no reason to delay it other than to spare the government from embarrassment.

This is the first and last time I will comment on the Paul McCartney & Heather Mills divorce case - all divorces are sad and painful events for those concerned, usually with some right and wrong on both sides, and making comments on such cases usually amounts to kicking someone when they are down. However, I have been following the newspaper coverage and commentary on Heather Mill's action in pouring a jug of water over Sir Paul's lawyer. There have been a great many jokes about this, and then there have been rows over whether those jokes were offensive. However, with one or two honorable exceptions what strikes me as the most important aspect of this incident appears to have been almost completely ignored. That is that "celebrities" should be treated the same by the courts as everyone else. Supposing that instead of Sir Paul McCartney and the soon-to-be-ex Lady Heather McCartney, these events had taken at the divorce proceedings between Mr Paul Smith and Mrs Heat...

A very happy Easter to everyone reading this

I was going to write an article here about how disappointed I was that the MP for Copeland, Jamie Reed, failed to support local Post Offices on Wednesday, and instead voted for the closure programme. Nineteen of his Labour colleagues, including fellow Cumbrian MP Eric Martlew, did vote for our post offices (I don't often agree with Eric but credit where credit is due.) But the reasons why Jedi Jamie should have voted with us to save local post offices were already so much better put during the debate by his Labour colleague Mr Gordon Prentice (MP for Pendle) that I shall simply quote his speech in full. What a shame the MP for Copeland wasn't paying him more attention. Gordon Prentice MP (Pendle, Labour) "I shall be very brief, but I want it put on the record that I will vote for the Conservative motion this evening. I can see nothing wrong with it. I read it through two or three times in case I was missing something. I see nothing in it that my friends or colleagues on th...

The list of 35 post offices in Cumbria which have been proposed for closure is given below. There will be a campaign against these diabolical proposals - watch this space The Post Office's detailed Area Plan proposal is available from: web: www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange email: consultation@postoffice.co.uk post: Post Office Ltd, Freepost Consultation Team. The following branches are proposed for closure: West Cumbria: Beckermet, Newlands, Beckermet, CA21 2XB Bigrigg, Springfield Road, Bigrigg, Egremont, CA22 2TN Gosforth (temporarily closed), The Lakeland Habit, Gosforth, Seascale, CA20 1EJ Holborn Hill, 49 Holborn Hill, Millom, LA18 5BJ Lowca, Lowca, Whitehaven, CA28 6QH Moor Row, 1 Church Street, Moor Row, Carlisle, CA24 3JG Parton, Village Hall, Main Street, Parton, Whitehaven, CA28 6NY Tangier Street, 12 Tangier Street, Whitehaven, CA28 7UX Brigham, High Brigham, Cockermouth, CA13 0TG Broughton Moor (temp. closed), The Miners Arms, Broughton Moor, Maryport, CA15 7RY Camert...

I heard David Cameron in Gateshead today. I thought he was on excellent form. The proposal to improve on Labour's proposal to support new parents by untrained Outreach workers as part of Surestart by instead re-establishing a proper Health Visitor Network got most of the media attention. But another part of his speech was even more significant - fixing our broken politics and rebuilding trust. For too long politicians have promised the earth and delivered too little. David Cameron emphasised that we must promise only what we can deliver. One of the things we can and must deliver is clear accountability and tranaparency in the spending of taxpayers money on MPs salaries and expenses. Most MPs do not abuse the system, but some in all parties have done so, and we have to ensure that the few do not drag down the reputation not just of their own parties, not just of those MPs who are innocent, but of the whole political process.

Cumbria's NHS Primary Care Trust has approved this week the amended version of the "Closer to Home" proposals for the future of hospital services in West, North, and central Cumbria. The revised proposals include at least 220 beds at the West Cumberland hospital or its successor and that the hospital will continue to provide trauma care. This is not the end of the story: we must continue to ensure that there is public involvement in protecting a full range of hospital services in Cumbria. More comments on the "Support West Cumbria Hospitals" campaign blog - see link at right.

George Osborne has described today's budget as "A Bad News Budget" He added that "Alistair Darling is kicking Britain’s families when they are down. - Darling has added £110 a year to every family’s tax bill. The tax take will be £2.8bn a year higher by 2010 – and if benefits are excluded, it will be £4bn higher. - The new taxes announced in the budget will add up to £1.5bn extra on all alcoholic drinks, £1.6bn on drivers, and £1.7bn on businesses over the next three years. Taxes and borrowing are up because Labour failed to use the good years to prepare for the bad years. After 15 years of global growth, Britain has the worst budget deficit in the developed world. Even with the new taxes introduced in Darling’s budget, borrowing will be up £20bn over the next four years, including a £7bn rise next year alone. The Government has no room for manoeuvre, so they are kicking families when they’re down."

Attended the annual meeting with Town and Parish councils today in the Copeland centre. Items discussed included the new localities support funds, the unacceptable delays in processing minor proposed changes to parish boundaries, and whether Whitehaven should have its own Town Council. At the moment the rest of Copeland has Town or Parish councils, or a "Parish Meeting" performing similar functions, but Whitehaven does not. Local functions which elsewhere would be provided by Parishes are provided in Whitehaven, if at all, by Copeland Borough council. It has been suggested in some quarters that there should be a Town Council for Whitehaven. This would have some advantages, particularly in fairness in respect of the rest of the Borough, but would also cost money, and is only worth doing if local people want it. If you live or work in Copeland and have a view on this, please leave a comment here.

Attended the Keswick Neighbourhood Forum this evening. Main items on the agenda were 1) The current consultation on the proposals to replace six Care Homes in Cumbria, this time focussing on the Ravensfield care home in Keswick 2) Grant Applications 3) The North Cumbria Acute Hospital's trust's plan to bid for Foundation Trust status There was also a brief item from a representative of the National Parks Authority.

Quote number one comes from the Economic Research Council. Commenting on the government's handling of the nuclear building programme and quoted in The Times on 3rd March: "Sadly, after ten years, Britain is still faced with a Government that appears to believe that White Papers, rather than private setor companies, build nuclear plants." Quote number two was a Whitehaven resident commenting on the suggestion on Question Time by a Lib/Dem MP that Prince Harry went to Afghanistan to repair his reputation "Well if that were true, it would probably be the only publicity stunt in history where the people who organised it began by putting a D notice on it."

Residents of Gosforth have written to me expressing concern that their Post Office, closed due to local circumstances, will be a serious loss to the village if it does not re-open. They and residents of other towns and villages in Cumbria and elsewhere, are right to be concerned. The loss of a post office can be a hammer blow to a local community. The government needs to provide more support to keep these offices open. There will shortly be a consultation on the future of post office in Cumbria which I understand is due to start on 18th March. Get ready: we will need as many letters and petition signatures as possible to SAVE OUR POST OFFICES

Copeland Council's budget and council tax were set today. The Copeland element of Council tax will rise by 3.9% - the government settlement, made at the time when Gordon Brown appeared to be about to call an election was reasonably generous but they also put a large number of constraints on how the council can use the money. The cumulative impact on local residents and particularly pensioners of successive council tax rises over the past decade has been serious. The effect on council tax of Gordon Brown's policies as Chancellor and Prime Minister will not be remembered as one of his positive accomplishments

I was delighted to see David Gray and Jim Close made Honorary Aldermen of the Borough of Copeland today. As councillors for Gosforth and Frizington respectively, both David and Jim worked extremely hard for their communities for many years. David continues to serve Gosforth as a Parish Councillor.

Matthew Paris had a piece in The Times yesterday which ought to be compulsory reading for all MPs and all aspiring MPs. And we all should be required to say publicly whether we agree with the points he makes. As Matthew points out, far too many laws have been put on the statute book, not because they are workable leglislation but to "Send a message" or make a point. Far too often Ministers or MPs propose or pass a law and then before the ink is even dry on the document confirming Royal Assent they start trying to get round it. The article should also be compulsory reading for Matthew's fellow political journalists: be an extreme irony, the author of one of the articles on the facing page would be wise to think a little further about the points he makes (she refers to using laws to sending a message about an admittedly serious problem in almost exactly the language which, as Matthew Paris points out, has led to so many bad laws. The article can be found at http://www.times...

There have been a number of questions asked and concerns raised in comments on this blog about the sale by Copeland Council of Whitehaven Golf Course, which took place before I was elected to the council. There are also some issues about planning matters relating to the site and particularly the footpath diversion. The District Auditor is investigating a complaint about the arrangements for the sale, and it would not be appropriate for me to make a final judgement on the matter until the report into that investigation is published. However, I have had some lengthy conversations with senior officers of the council and with councillors about the sale, and I think it is right to put on record that 1) I am assured that all documents which the District Auditor asked to see, including the valuation of the site, have been made available to the Auditor. 2) The bidder for the freehold of the site already held a 125 year lease of the site which had 120 years left to run. In this circumstance the...

Attended the Millom Neighbourhood Forum this evening. There were two major presentations. The first was from the County Council's Adult Social Care department on the current proposals to replace six residential care homes in Cumbria with new and better buildings, mostly adjacent to or near local community hospitals. There was also a presentation on the local Nature reserve and how it can help with the economic regeneration of the Millom and Haverigg area, and the usual round of grants applications. The Care home proposals is the first part of a package aimed at a major improvement of the care homes in Cumbria. Two of the six care homes due to be replaced are in the new Copeland constituency: Lapstone House in Millom and Ravensfield Care Home in Keswick. In the case of both Lapstone House and Ravensfield, the plan is to replace the existing homes with a new and better building adjacent to the local community hospital. The idea of a "Health Campus" in Millom bringing togeth...

The Chief Constable of Cumbria has warned of "catastrophic" damage to policing in the county if the recommendations of a report from the former Northern Ireland Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, were implemented in full. The Flanagan Review of local police funding suggests that Cumbria is top of a list of "winners" under the current arrangement and proposes an alternative funding formula under which Cumbria constabulary would eventually receive £11 million a year less than now. It appears this is partly because of the success of Cumbria police in reducing crime. The Flanagan formula looks at crime levels now which seems reasonable at first - until you realise the Cumbria Constabulary is effectively being punished for being the most efficient police force in the country. However sensible the Flanagan formula might look at first sight to people in London or Northern Ireland, this sends out all kinds of wrong signals. One has to ask whether Sir Ronnie and his commi...

Responding to the government's announcement that the Northern Rock bank is to be nationalised, the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne said: "This is the day when Labour's reputation for economic competence died" "Now the taxpayer will bear the full risk of lending £100 billion of mortgages in an uncertain housing market." The amount of taxpayer's money which is affected just too huge for the mind to fully grasp. The risk to the taxpayer of an earlier government guarantee was described as "Thirteen Millenium Domes" - this is more like Fifty Millennium Domes.

The Whitehaven News has a story suggesting that as part of the reduction in bed numbers following on from the "Closer to Home" consultation, the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven might lose eight maternity beds, (dropping from 23 to 15). It is also suggested that there might also be losses in the SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) and paediatrics. For more details see the "Support West Cumbria Hospital Services" blog - follow link at right.

No, this post isn't mainly about Europe. It's about an word which was usually misunderstood in the past, and has been even more distorted by being completely misused in we debate the European Union, but represents an approach which the events of the past couple of days demonstrate to be needed now more than ever. If you asked me to nominate the most misused word in the English language, I would have to say "Sceptic." The original sceptics were often misrepresented in ancient Greece, where the word originates, and subsequently, as being hostile to all religion. Some of them certainly were, others just as certainly were not. But what it "sceptic" means is "seeker after knowledge" e.g. one who tries to establish the truth, rather than taking things on faith. In other words, we do more than a little violence to the English and Greek languages of we use the expression "Euro-sceptic" to mean those who most loathe everything to do with the Europ...

There is only room in any country for one system of criminal justice. And everyone, regardless of their status, sex, race or religion, must be equal before it. British law must apply to everyone in Britain. It is, of course, open to anyone who considers that current UK law does not include things which they believe to be right to campaign for an act of parliament to add to, amend, or repeal existing laws. That new law will then apply to anyone in the UK. The recent comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury about Islamic law have touched off a furore because they have been interpreted as meaning that there might be one law for some citizens and another law for others. If that was what Dr Rowan Williams meant, I would have to fundamentally disagree with him. But I am not absolutely convinced that this is what he was meant to say. I have not yet been able to find a full text of Dr Williams' remarks. He certainly does not appear to have been supporting the more extreme forms of Sharia l...

Copeland Councl's planning panel met today. They considered a number of planning applications, and were asked to comment on an application to Cumbria County Council to make permanent the diversion of a public footpath in the vicinity of Whitehaven Golf Course. Copeland's planning panel decided not to raise objections to the proposed diversion, which will go to the County council for a final decision. I have suggested that the county should consider imposing conditions to ensure that any costs of this diversion should be borne by the developer and not the taxpayer.

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, has unveiled plans to bring greater transparency to MPs’ expenses. With the introduction of a “Right To Know” form, all Front Bench members of the Conservative Party will be required to publish comprehensive details of their office expenses. The public is rightly concerned about transparency in politics, and this action will provide reassurance to taxpayers that their money is being used properly. All MPs are currently required to submit their expenses to the House of Commons, but only a selection of items are made public. Our “Right To Know” proposals will provide greater transparency by requiring a much higher level of disclosure. Details to be published will include: * A comprehensive list of staff, their positions, and in which office they work. * Details of family members employed, including their salary band. * A breakdown of the 'office running costs' to show what is spent on equipment, office rent, telephones, parliame...

Four Labour MPs, all of whom are former ministers, are facing the threat of disciplinary action from the Labour party because they want Labour to honour the manifesto commitment to hold a referendum on the European Union reform treaty. Every other government in Europe, and every remotely independent body who has compared the two treaties, says that the new reform treaty is substantially the same as the constitutional treaty which was voted down by French and Dutch voters and on which all three main parties in Britain promised at the last election to hold a referendum. The Labour government are just about the only people in Europe who consider the two documents to be different. The four MPs concerned are Frank Field, Kate Hoey, Graham Stringer and Gisela Stuart. Ms. Stuart was one of the British representatives on the body which actually drafted the original EU consitutional proposals. So if anyone is quailified to say that the new document is largely the same, she is. The four rebels h...

I am grateful to the bloggers on "political betting" for drawing my attention to a balanced and intelligent speech from Frank Field, a Labour MP who would be back in the government if Brown's "Big Tent" policy was reality rather than spin, in the parliamentary debate on Derek Conway. He makes some interesting points about what lessons should and should not be drawn from "Conwaygate" about improving the effectiveness and integrity of public life. You can see the full debate in Hansard. "Mr. Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Lab): I should like to support the Chairman of the Committee on Standards and Privileges in respect of the motion and to draw some general points from his report, as he did. I do so knowing that while we may individually be held in very high esteem by our constituents, collectively that is not so; it is difficult to think how much lower our collective reputation might sink among voters generally. There are at least four lessons to draw ...