Chris Whiteside's Blog

 

Today, Britain officially signed an  economic partnership agreement  with Japan, marking a historic moment, as the UK’s first major trade deal as an independent trading nation and offering a glimpse of Global Britain’s potential. Since leaving the EU, the government has made the securing of modern and bespoke trade deals one of its top priorities. These deals will help us build back better, levelling up opportunity and prosperity in every part of the UK.    This comprehensive deal with Japan is tailored to both our economies, going beyond existing EU deals, covering digital and data, financial services, food and drink, and creative industries. The estimated boost to trade between our two nations is over £15 billion, bringing long term economic benefits to both our nations.    This deal is a landmark moment for Britain. As an independent trading nation, we will secure new opportunities and prosperity for all parts of our United Kingdom, driving the economic ...

 "Cancer won't wait for the pandemic and neither should you." (Peter Rooney, Chief Operating Officer of the NHS's North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, speaking earlier this year at a meeting of Cumbria Health Scrutiny committee about the need for anyone invited for cancer screening or showing symptoms which could potentially be cancer to get themselves checked. One of the most malign consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is that we are building up a backlog of undiagnosed cases of other serious conditions such as cancer which have not been detected or treated either because of disruption to the non-COID work of the NHS or because people have not been coming forward for fear of catching the coronavirus if they come to a hospital or GP surgery. Although the majority of the excess deaths experienced by Britain and indeed most countries from march onwards compared with deaths at the same time in other recent years appear to have been directly caused or contributed ...

The Home Secretary has  announced  the introduction of tougher immigration rules which will restrict the ability of people who have been convicted and imprisoned for serious crime from entering the UK from the EU from the start of next year. Every country has a crime problem - but international crime is a problem for all countries. Criminals do not respect international borders - which means that we need government and law enforcement agencies to co-operate. This would be much less problematic if certain foreign governments - Russia is probably the worst culprit but China and a number of others are nearly as bad - did not regularly abuse procedures of organisations like Interpol, procedures designed to catch gangsters and fraudsters against their political opponents and domestic and international critics. We need to ensure that the UK operates safeguards against such abuses. We also need to ensure our immigration rules limit the activities of international criminal gangs such ...

The Communities Secretary has  announced  that councils across England will benefit from an additional £1 billion in support from the Government to help safeguard vital services. Since the start of the pandemic, the government has backed local councils with the funding they need to support their communities, protect vital services and recover lost income.   This extra £1 billion brings the total of additional funding to £6.4 billion since the pandemic begun – an unprecedented level of extra support. This additional funding will ensure leisure centres can remain open and that councils have the resources that they need to continue to play an essential role on the front line of our response to the virus.   As Britain enters into a crucial period in our fight against coronavirus, people should be in no doubt that working with our partners in local government the government will do everything practical to protect vital local services, the most vulnerable and support local...

After a pause, trade negotiations with the EU have resumed and are  continuing  in London this week, with both sides agreeing to intensify talks to bridge the remaining gaps and reach an agreement. The Prime Minister has made clear in recent days that a fundamental change is needed in the approach taken by the EU in recent weeks. Britain has stated clearly, that if the EU will not change its approach we are fully prepared for an Australia-style relationship.   With talks set to resume, the EU must accept it is dealing with an independent and sovereign country and that any agreement would need to be consistent with that status. This has been acknowledged by EU negotiators, and we remain clear that while we want a deal this will not be at the expense of our political and economic independence.   Alongside this the government will continue to support UK businesses, hauliers, and travellers to prepare actively for the end of the transition period, since change is coming,...

As this Government continues to take a localised and regional approach to control the spread of the virus, the Chancellor will today unveil additional support for businesses and workers in Tier 2 and 3.  The government has put in place one of the most comprehensive economic responses in the world – backed by over £200 billion – to project jobs, incomes and businesses throughout and beyond this pandemic.   As the pandemic evolves, so too does the policy – which is why the Job Support Scheme was brought in to support the wages of people in work, and the Job Retention Bonus to encourage businesses to bring employees back.   The government is also expanding the Job Support Scheme to provide temporary, localised support to businesses whose premises are legally required to close as a direct result of coronavirus restrictions set by one or more of the four governments of the United Kingdom, as well as increasing the frequency and generosity of available cash grants.   This ...

The Defence Secretary has announced that vital warships providing supplies and technical support to the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers will be made by British-led teams, creating hundreds of highly-skilled jobs across the UK. Shipbuilding has historically been a British success story, and we are determined to revitalise this amazing industry as part of our commitment to build back better.   That’s why we will launch a competition to build three Fleet Solid Support warships, revitalising British shipbuilding by requiring a significant proportion of the work to be led by British companies and carried out in the UK.   By building these next generation ships, we can support jobs and businesses across the whole country, while developing homegrown skills to revitalise this proud British industry.

This evening there was a debate in parliament on free school meals. During the debate the Labour Party forced a non-binding vote in Parliament on extending free school meals. This was not a motion which would have actually extended them. It was a piece of political theatre, designed to put the Conservative MPs into a position of being forced to vote against something which sounds good but would achieve nothing This enables Labour to then play their usual trick, which they have done time and time again, of putting out propaganda which misrepresents the people who vote against a meaningless or counterproductive motion as having sabotaged some noble cause.  As usual, Labour are more interested in playing politics than working constructively to put forward actual solutions. During the unprecedented time at the start of the pandemic, it was right that extraordinary measures on free school meals were taken, reflecting that boundaries between education and home were blurred.   But we...

Yesterday, the Prime Minister  announced  that Greater Manchester will move to the Very High Local Covid Alert Level from Friday, in order to protect the NHS and save lives. In Greater Manchester, infection rates are among the highest in the country – up more than 300 per cent between September and October – and there are now more coronavirus patients in Greater Manchester hospitals than in the whole of the south-west and south-east combined.   Over the last 10 days, the government sought to agree an approach with local leaders in Greater Manchester, and made a generous and extensive offer to support local businesses.  Sadly it was not possible to reach agreement with the Labour Mayor.  So instead the government had to act unilaterally, introducing regulations today to move Greater Manchester to the Very High Alert Level from Friday, in order to save lives.   Nobody wants businesses in Greater Manchester to be disadvantaged, so our offer of extra funding – ...

  "No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy" ( Horatio Nelson ) Picture credit: " The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 " by Thomas Luny (1759–1837) National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth. 

If is at least forty-one years since Britain had a government which could reasonably be described as representing, even in a moderate form, socialist rather than social democrat ideas. During the Blair period the word "socialist" was airbrushed out of Labour literature in favour of words like "progressive." Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, who really was a socialist, specifically rejected the policy of the Blair/Brown New Labour governments which were in office from 1997 to 2010: Labour's party political  broadcasts and other literature during the Corbyn era were scathing about the way the country had been run for decades in a way which was effectively as critical of the New Labour period as it was of Conservative-led governments. In consequence anyone younger than myself - I am in my late fifties - has no adult experience of anything remotely resembling a socialist government. And it is absolutely no accident that when pollsters looked at voting intentions by age th...

 I have received the following briefing about the Greater Manchester situation "The Communities Secretary has written to Andy Burnham setting out a deadline of midday today for talks on local measures in Greater Manchester. We know that the people of Greater Manchester have been living with very significant restrictions on their lives and livelihoods for a long time and that this is deeply frustrating and extremely challenging for them.   The situation in Greater Manchester worsens with each passing day, with more Covid-19 patients in Greater Manchester hospitals than the whole of the South East and South West combined, and hospitalisation numbers set to exceed April’s peak within three weeks. Despite previously acknowledging that a blanket lockdown ‘would cause real trouble from an economic point of view and hardship for people’, Andy Burnham has yet to implement the targeted local measures that would help stop the spread of the virus, support the NHS and protect jobs.  ...

Today the government is  extending the Energy Price Cap  until the end of 2021 – meaning that around 11 million UK households will make savings of up to £100. Switching energy supplier to find the best value deals is still the best way to save on bills, but this government is determined to make sure all customers are treated fairly and get the protection they deserve.   That’s why the Energy Price Cap is being extended for another year – continuing to protect around 11 million UK households on standard variable and default energy tariffs from being overcharged. This will help households save between £75 and £100 a year on their fuel bills.   This will provide more protection to energy customers – especially the elderly and most vulnerable – to ensure that they do not pay more than they need to on their bills. I believe that governments need to be careful about price caps or other forms of government intervention in the market, though this one is a lot less potentiall...

 "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." ( Margaret Thatcher )

As the second wave of COVID-19 causes increasing problems and concern,  there has been fierce debate about how to deal with it, and I have seen many things on both print and social media both from those who think that the government should have taken even stronger action and from those who think that the government has done too much to restrict liberties. There are no easy answers. As an oncologist, Professor Karol Sikora, wrote on the Spectator website today, " Covid-19 kills, but so does lockdown ." The figures show that, although mercifully the ratio between known infections and deaths this time round seems so far to be significantly lower than earlier in the year, we see a similar pattern of rising numbers to the one earlier in the year. Coronavirus infections have been on a rising trend since August, (in blue on the graph below with numbers on the left axis) and numbers in hospital for COVID-19 began to rise a few weeks later, and then deaths with COVID-19 on the death c...

Today, the government  announced  that National League football clubs will receive £10 million in funding as part of a unique partnership with the National Lottery, helping much-loved teams across England continue to play this season. National League football clubs are often the beating heart of their communities, acting as a source of pride to their towns, giving children opportunities to get active, and have provided significant voluntary and charitable support to their areas throughout this crisis.   Today’s announcement will see funding distributed to each of the 66 National League clubs, helping them cover their lost revenue as a result of the delay to fans being permitted to return, and builds on the support we have already given the sports sector to help them survive their immediate financial pressures as a result of the pandemic.   I am sure we are all grateful to the National Lottery for their efforts in supporting our fantastic community clubs, which will e...

 

"Labour politics only makes sense when you realise the Corbynites don’t think they lost the last election. Not fairly at any rate. The Labour left don’t think they were beaten so much as betrayed.  They truly believe they would have stormed the Winter Palace if only the damned Blairites hadn’t hidden their scaling ladders.  Stab in the back myths are never pleasant and rarely convincing. The one currently enveloping Corbynism is no different." ( James Bickerton , from an article on the challenges facing Keir Starmer which you can read in full here .)

I have been reading Norman Friedman's book " The British Battleship 1905-1946 "  (The RRP is £45 for the hardback and even used copies are selling for something close to thirty quid, but if you have a kindle you can get the electronic version for a tenner.)  The most interesting thing I've learned from it so far concerns not battleships but a closely related class of ship. It has given me a greater understanding of the mystery of how Admiral Jacky Fisher, certainly the most brilliant and transformative naval administrator Britain has had in the last two centuries and one of the greatest any nation has produced over all time, creator of the dreadnought battleship which revolutionised naval warfare, also created at the same time one of the most disastrous warship classes in history -  the battlecruiser. Battlecruisers were some of the most beautiful, romantic and prestigious warships ever built. The very name is so evocative that ships so described turn up in the work o...

As both the UK government and the re-elected New Zealand government are keen to "Build back better" (commiserations on the result, by the way, to my cousin from New Zealand, Mike Lord) I thought I would make my music spot posts for the next week a selection from the work of the legendary Johann Sebastian. So here is the first instalment of my "Build Bach better" week, the Concerto for two harpsichords in C Major.

 "It was the worst load of rubbish I'd seen in my life - and I actually read the last Labour manifesto." (Comment overheard from a University student about a set of guidance on how to write an essay which she didn't think was very helpful)