Chris Whiteside's Blog

I attended three health meetings this week. Lead members of the Cumbria Health Scrutiny committee met with the Clinical Commissioning Group in Carlisle on Wednesday and with the Morecombe Bay Universities Hospital Trust at Westmorland General Hospital yesterday (Thursday 14th September). These are part of a series of regular meetings between Health Scrutiny councillors and the providers of NHS healthcare in Cumbria. These meetings are a valuable channel of communication. To permit a frank exchange of views on both sides the meetings take place under what is sometimes known as "Chatham House Rules" - e.g. the health trusts can tell us what they really think about issues like how much money the NHS needs and how things are actually going - on the understanding that we won't go rushing to the press and use it to score political points. By the same token we can raise the health issues that we are most concerned about and the health trusts know that w...

UK unemployment fell by 75,000 in the three months to July, bringing the jobless rate down to 4.3% from 4.4% in the previous quarter.   The rate remains at its lowest since 1975, according to the Office for National Statistics figures . Matt Hughes, a senior ONS statistician, said: "Another record high employment rate and a record low inactivity rate suggest the labour market continues to be strong. "In particular, the number of people aged 16 to 64 not in the labour force because they are looking after family or home is the lowest since records began, at less than 2.1 million."

Another version of  "Never weather beaten sail," this time by Campion ...

I am all in favour of a more flexible and tolerant approach to transgender people, including taking all reasonable measures to protect transgender prisoners from being abused by other prison inmates, provided that approach is applied with common sense and with consideration for the needs of other vulnerable people. The case of a prisoner who as Martin Ponting was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995 for raping two girls while he was a man, raises very troubling issues. Ponting was initially sent to serve his sentence at the maximum security prison at HMP Whitemoor. However, this prisoner then adopted the name Jessica Winfield, was given gender reassignment surgery tbrough the NHS, and transferred to the women-only prison, HMP Bronzefield. Winfield then had to be segregated from other prisoners at HMP Bronzefield, though "a source close to the situation," unquote, told the Independent newspaper that reports in other parts of the press...

One aspect of the EU Withdrawal bill which has not been given as much publicity as it deserves is that among safeguards to prevent abuse of the powers it gives the government is that the bill has a sunset clause and these powers will expire two years after Britain leaves the EU. The government has tried to provide assurance that these delegated powers will not be excessive or inappropriate with a number of measures: The bill specifies delegated powers may not be used to impose taxes, create a criminal offence, or repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 Most of the delegated legislation will be subject to the "affirmative procedure" which makes it easier for MPs who are unhappy with a proposal to challenge it - although some, including the power to modify exit fees, will not be. The "sunset clause" means powers delegated in the bill expire two years after the UK leaves the European Union - on the current schedule that means they expire in March 2021. It the bill ...

The controversial EU repeal bill cleared it's first hurdle in the House of Commons commons in the early hours of this morning, with MPs voting by 326 to 290 in favour. Conservative and DUP members of parliament backed the bill, with most Labour, Lib/Dem, and SNP MPs voting against although seven Labour rebels ignored what Labour is demanding of them this week and voted for the bill: they were   Ronnie Campbell, Frank Field, Kate Hoey, Kelvin Hopkins, John Mann, Dennis Skinner and Graham Stringer. When first mooted this proposed legislation was referred to as the Great Repeal Bill; now known as the EU Withdrawal Bill, the measure will overturn the 1972 European Communities Act which took the UK into the then European Economic Community. It will also convert all existing EU laws into UK law, to ensure there are no gaps in legislation on the day Britain leaves the EU at the end of March 2019. Summing up the Commons debate, Justice Secretary David Lidin...

 "I would quite happily never have a constitutional referendum in my lifetime on anything ever again". ( Ruth Davidson MSP, Scottish Conservative leader)

A reminder of what the "Last night of the Proms" was like before what flag you waved came to be regrettably seen by some people as a means to put yourself on the opposite side from those who take a different view about Brexit ...

Fraser Watt - who is a Young Labour activist for London - appears to have been a busy bee. See this link: https://twitter.com/i/moments/905903801470558208 It would appear that he has been pushing socialist ideas and is an officer of the youth wing of the Labour party under his real name while also posing as a founder of "Activate" which is supposedly a Tory youth organisation - though it was never an official Conservative body - and in that capacity calling for Theresa May to resign and be replaced by Jacob Rees-Mogg. If "Activate" was really founded by Tories - and the jury is still out on that - it would appear that Corbynistas have been responsible for some if not most of the material it has been putting. It is certain that some journalists and political websites have been at best too credulous in accepting "Activate" messages as being from a Conservative organisation when it was never an official part of the Conservative party and at leas...

Less that three months ago Jeremy Corbyn sacked three pro-EU shadow ministers for voting to stay in the EU single market. It is now suggested that he may  sack shadow ministers who refuse to oppose Brexit by refusing to vote against the withdrawal bill. It reminds me of a story told about just about every totalitarian regime in the 20th century. This is the version which was told in Soviet Russia under Stalin: Three new inmates arrive in a Labour camp in Siberia and ask each other why they are there. " Because yesterday I was criticising Comrade Popov " said the first. " What about you?" "Beca use today I was praising Comrade Popov ," said the second. They look at the third. " I am  Comrade Popov! " he replies.

Here is a recording of Voces8 singing "Lux Aeterna" which is a setting of "Nimrod" from Sir Edward Elgar's Enigma variations. Announcing the piece, which Voces8 performed at a concert in Kendal this evening, a member of the group who grew up in Cumbria dedicated the performance to the late Reverend Canon David Dixon from Millom, who died this week. It was a fantastic performance and a very moving tribute to a man who will be greatly missed. You can read here on the North West Evening Mail website an article about a book which Canon Dixon write about his childhood in Thwaites, near Millom, in the 1930's. Rest in Peace

England beat the West Indies by nine wickets in the third test at Lords today, and with the match also took the series. Memorable as any victory against the West Indies at cricket is, the match will also be remembered for the final session of commentary from a one-man cricket institution, "Blowers" or to give him his full name Henry Blofeld who retired today  at the age of 77 after forty seven years on air. Here are a few memorable "Blowers" lines from the commentary box at TMS:   "It's a catch he would have caught 99 times times out of 1,000." "If the tension here was a block of Cheddar cheese, you could cut it with a knife." "Flintoff starts in, his shadow beside him. Where else would it be?" "Ashley Giles trundles in to bowl rather like a wheelie bin." Taking over at the end of Henry Blofeld's his last stint, Ed Smith said " There goes a legend ." Quite.

Yougov have just released the results of a survey in which one of the questions was whether respondents had a plan to deal with a Zombie Apocalypse. A surprising fraction of the population said that they had. Stephen Bush in an article in the New Statesman, " A new poll shows that men are more frightened of saying 'Don't know' than of zombies " makes an amusing argument, but one with more than a hint of truth, that "as far as men are concerned, the hardest words to use are 'I don’t know' . There is actually a rational reason to be more frightened of having to say "I don't know" than of zombies. Zombies do not exist, but situations in which one may be asked a question to which the honest answer is "I don't know" do.

Among the democratic rights hard fought for by the people of this country are freedom of speech and freedom of association. Every political party has and should have the right to hold a conference. Those of a different political persuasion have the right, should they so desire, to held a peaceful demonstration outside to promote their own views. Prior to 2015 the presence of people holding such alternative views outside Conservative conference was almost always within the limits of lawful free speech. Conservative conference 2015 was a rather different matter and some people went over the top. Judging by the Manchester Evening News which reports that those attending this year's Conservative conference in the city " can expect a rough welcome " we may be about to see something similar again. Of course, some of those who were protesting just made themselves look silly - as when a friend of mine born and bred in Salford and who has been elected by the people of that ...

"The SNP have pinched so many Tory policies that their programme for government should be called 'Something borrowed, something blue.' " ( Ruth Davidson MSP as quoted by Stephen Daisley)

Before the Great Reform Act of the 1830s the boundaries for parliamentary elections were not revised for centuries, with the result that there were constituencies known as "rotten boroughs" which had once been populous but now had virtually no electors - one had disappeared under the sea - while huge new towns and cities had no representation. To try to ensure this was never allowed to happen again, an independent Boundary Commission was established, which still exists, and a tradition was set up which lasted for decades until Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband broke it in the 2010-2015 parliament that all parties would support that commission's recommendation. This is an issue, because the present boundaries are based on information which will be 20 years old come the next general election if the current parliament goes it's full term. If a boundary review is not passed in this parliament or in the near future British democracy will be in danger of taking the road back ...

Returned home a short while ago after the September meeting of the County Council. (Didn't come straight home - I spent some time working at county hall before making the drive back through the lakes as I had to  catch up on some issues relating to my job.) An interesting meeting which approved the Minerals plan and received important reports on the Youth Offender service and "corporate parenting" (e.g. the council's responsibilities towards children) Perhaps the most contentious part of the meeting was the half hour allocated for questions from members of the council to the Leader and Cabinet, I asked the portfolio holder for Highways about the Strategic road network in the West of the county - particularly the A595 but also other roads such as the A596, A590 and A5092. I asked if he would agree with me that the capacity of these roads is well below the demand, with serious adverse impacts on both the economy of the entire West coast and the quality of life...

Hat tip to Cathy Young on twitter for this old but very apposite Russian joke about the problem with Soviet Communism ...

A quote in the Telegraph from former Labour MP Tom Harris on Labour's Brexit contortions, " If Labour votes against the Repeal Bill it's because it's decided to foil Brexit ."