Chris Whiteside's Blog

"It feels like a self-fulfilling irony that anyone writing a book about cancel culture will themselves be cancelled before the printers start rolling." ( Jimmy Nicholls , from a piece on "The Article" site about how precisely this happened to Julie Burchill, which you can read here .)

On Thursday, the government confirmed a  £2.2 billion boost to school funding for the majority   of local authorities in England - another step towards delivering on the Conservative manifesto pledge to invest £14 billion in levelling up education in every corner of the country, over next three years. Every pupil, no matter what their background, deserves an excellent education and the chance to fulfil their potential, as we level up every part of the UK and spread equality of opportunity for all.   With this funding boost every pupil in England will see the benefit. The majority of local authorities will see increases of more than three per cent in their funding per pupil. This marks the second of a three-year £14 billion funding boost which will see schools receiving the biggest increase in funding in a decade.   With this three-year funding settlement, we will ensure all children and young people receive the excellent education they deserve, regardless of where th...

The Communities Secretary has  announced  details of council funding in England for 2021-22. Next year councils in England will receive £51.2 billion – enabling them to deliver key services and support communities, while keeping council tax as low as possible. Councils have played a critical role leading their communities during the pandemic, continuing to deliver the vital services we all rely on every day.   That’s why the government is increasing councils’ budgets by £2.2 billion next year, including £1 billion extra for social care. This will allow councils to deliver key services, support communities through the pandemic and keep council tax bills as low as possible.   The government is giving councils the resources they need to lead the recovery of their communities as we build back better after the pandemic. Cumbria County Council's "Core Spending Power" is to increase by £19.96 million from £403.63 million in 2020-21 to £423.59 million in 2021-22, which is an...

Yesterday, in the light of the continuing pandemic, the Chancellor  extended the furlough scheme until the end of April 2021  to give businesses and their employees across the UK certainty into the New Year. We all know the importance of certainty for businesses, particularly as we look to the new year, so it is only right that the government should enable businesses to plan ahead regardless of the path the virus takes – safeguarding jobs and businesses across the nation.   By extending the furlough scheme until the end of April 2021 and extending the government-guaranteed Covid-19 business loan schemes until the end of March the Chancellor has provided the certainty and clarity businesses need. So far, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has protected 9.6 million jobs across the UK with more than one million businesses accessing loans to help them through the crisis.   Britain's package of support for businesses and workers continues to be one of the most generous ...

The Prime Minister and President von der Leyen  spoke on the phone  last night and have agreed to continue trade negotiations today – with both sides stressing time is short and substantial differences still remain. The Prime Minister  stressed  that the negotiations were now in a serious situation, stressing time is short and it now looks  very likely  that an agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changes substantially.   The Prime Minister stressed that the UK could not except the situation where it was the only sovereign country in the world not to be able to control access to its waters – the EU position on this subject is simply not reasonable and if there was an agreement it needed to shift significantly in this area.   If a suitable compromise cannot be reached, Britain will leave the transition period on WTO terms on 1st January 2021.

I attended the meeting of Cumbria Pensions Committee which took place online today (Thursday, 18th December 2020.) The agenda, reports (the agenda pack ran to 344 pages and is about an inch thick) and a link to watch the part of the meeting which was in the public domain can be found on the County Council website here . Under the access to information act, councils are allowed to hold meetings in private where they might involving disclosing matters relating to the financial affairs of individual staff members (such as their pensions) or compromise the position of the authority in terms of things we might want to buy or sell (e.g. when making major investment decisions) or in relation to actual or potential legal actions. All three of those applied to various aspects of the last few items on the agenda so that part of the meeting was not streamed to the public. The reasons for restricting particular items on that part of the agenda can be found on the county council website by followin...

 “For some time, we have been working hard behind the scenes to recruit the specific clinicians required to serve the one stop breast clinic; and the safe reopening of the clinic has remained a priority to us. I’m happy to report that we are now in a position to restart the clinic, with ambitions to develop it into the New Year to ensure we can deliver safe high quality treatment to women as close to their homes as possible.” Doctor Rod Harpin, Medical Director at NCIC , quote in the press release today from the trust  announcing the excellent news that the One Stop Breast Clinic at West Cumberland Hospital will re-open on 11th January 2021. You can read the whole press release on my " Support West Cumbria Hospitals " blog here .

As I posted this morning,  the Home Secretary announced today more than £15 billion to help the police build back safer and cut crime next year. • We have asked more of the police than ever before during the pandemic , and this Conservative Government is determined to ensure they have the funding, equipment and support they need. • That’s why we will increase police funding to £15.8 billion in 2021-22 , an increase of £636 million on last year. This includes up to £914 million for counter-terrorism policing and over £400 million to continue recruiting 20,000 extra officers by 2023, of whom almost 6,000 additional officers are already in post.. • Conservatives are delivering on our promise to the British people to put more police on the streets and reduce crime as we build back safer from the pandemic. We are doing this by: Increasing police funding to more than £15 billion on 2021-22 delivering more officers and keeping our communities safe. Policing will receive up to £15.8 billio...

The Conservative government is determined to give the police the resources they need to fight crime and keep us all safe. That's why, later today, the Home Secretary will announce more than £15 billion to help the police cut crime next year, delivering more officers and keeping our communities safe. We have asked more of the police than ever before during the pandemic – and this Conservative Government is determined to ensure they have the funding, equipment and support they need.   That’s why police funding will increase to £15.8 billion in 2021-22 – an increase of £636 million on last year. This includes up to £914 million for counter-terrorism policing and over £400 million to continue recruiting 20,000 extra officers by 2023, of which we have already delivered almost 6,000 extra officers.   Conservatives are delivering on our promise to the British people to put more police on the streets and reduce crime as we build back safer from the pandemic.

The Health Secretary has also  announced  that the worst-affected tier two areas will now be added to the list of areas which benefit from community testing, to help prevent them from being moved into the toughest level of restrictions. As the vaccine is rolled out, community testing provides one of our best hopes of suppressing the virus and helping to prevent areas from being placed into the highest tier of restrictions.   That’s why local authorities which are at high risk of entering tier three will be invited to apply for support to roll out community testing, allowing them to create a unique programme that is right for their local areas to detect and control the spread of the virus, including in people without symptoms – just as areas in tier three are already doing.   The sooner we get this virus under control, the sooner these restrictions can be eased and we can all get back to doing the things we love.

The Health Secretary will today announce the outcome of the latest tiering review, with the changes to come into force on 19 December, as we continue our targeted, localised approach to suppress the virus. Since Tuesday last week, more than 137,000 people have already received the coronavirus vaccine, and more is coming as the NHS gears up for the biggest vaccination programme in its history.   It will take time, however, for the benefits of the vaccine to be felt far and wide and the virus remains just as dangerous as it has always been, with cases and hospitalisations rising. This rise is not even across the country, which is why localised tiers are the best way to suppress the virus – saving lives and livelihoods.   Britain has come so far in our fight against the virus – but we all know the winter months are the toughest for our NHS, so we must hold our nerve now. But as we get closer to spring – and community testing and vaccines are rolled out – the need for even localis...

Yesterday the Prime Minister  asked  the British people to think hard and in detail about their Christmas plans, emphasising that a smaller, shorter Christmas will be the safest course of action. We all know how important Christmas is for many families. But there is a worrying rise in COVID-19 cases in some parts of the country and the situation is now more challenging than everyone had hoped when the Christmas rules were first announced.   While it would not be right to criminalise people who have made plans and want to spend time with their loved ones at Christmas, the government is recommending that  everyone should think hard and in detail about the days ahead and whether they can do more to protect themselves and others.   The laws will stay as originally proposed – allowing three households to form a Christmas bubble for five days – but these should be viewed as a maximum, not a target. It is always going to be safer to minimise the number of people meetin...

"There's every opportunity, every hope that I have, that our friends and partners across the Channel will see sense and do a deal." (Prime Minister Boris Johnson at yesterday's PMQs on the prospect of a Brexit trade deal, Earlier in the day EU Commission President Ursula van der Leyen had told MEPs that there is a "path to a deal," although she also said that it was very narrow.)

Today the Housing Secretary has  set out  new measures that will help provide hundreds of thousands of much-needed new homes and level up cities across England, delivering on the priorities in the Conservative manifesto and creating jobs as we build back better from coronavirus. The government wants everyone to be able to buy their own home – making the first step on to the housing ladder. As we recover from the pandemic, we will use this opportunity to transform our cities by making the most of vacant buildings and underused land to build more homes, all while protecting our green spaces.    These new measures will help with the delivery of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, as we encourage more homes to be built in England’s 20 largest cities and urban centres. These measures will prioritise vacant buildings and brownfield sites and help ensure that funding that will be made available to help build these homes across England - not just in London and the South E...

Yesterday the Education Secretary  announced  that staff and students in every secondary school and college across England will have access to rapid coronavirus testing from January to help keep them as safe as possible and, crucially in education. It has taken a phenomenal effort to ensure 99 per cent of schools have been open since the start of term, and this expansion of rapid testing marks a milestone moment in our work to keep schools and colleges open for all.   From next month, as part of an initial rollout, staff and students will be eligible for daily testing if they have been a close contact of someone who has tested positive, helping end the need for those in the same school bubble to self-isolate if someone develops coronavirus symptoms.    Testing on this scale brings real benefits to education, by enabling more children, teachers and staff to stay in the classroom and further minimising disruption to our young people’s studies.

"I can not tell you whether there will be a deal or not but I can tell you there is a path to an agreement now. The path may be very narrow but it is there." “The good news is that we have found a way forward on most issues, but this is now a case of us being so close and yet being so far away from each other because two issues still remain outstanding  – you know them a level playing field, and the fisheries." ( EU Commission President Ursula van der Leyen this morning to MEPs on the issue of whether or not there may be a Brexit deal. As before, the most positive news is that the two sides are still talking.)

I must be a glutton for punishment: having spent a large chunk of today attending an online meeting of one council body of which I am myself a member - the Cumbria Health Scrutiny committee -  I then watched and listened to an online meeting of an authority of which I was in the past a member but currently am not, Copeland Borough Council. The agenda for this afternoon's Copeland Council meeting, the documents for the meeting, and a link to watch and listen to the meeting can be found on the CBC website here . I had submitted a question under the public participation system. I asked  Councillor McVeigh (the Leader of the Labour group) the following question:   “In October the Rt. Hon. Sir Keir Starmer QC, MP, said of the Equalities and Human Rights report into Anti-Semitism in the Labour party,   “If – after all the pain, all the grief, and all the evidence in this report – there are still those who think there’s no problem with antisemitism in the Labour party, that...

I attended today's online meeting of Cumbria Health Scrutiny committee. Details of the papers for the meeting and a link to watch the meeting can be found on the County Council website  here . The main agenda items were: 8. A report on the Ramsay unit at Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow 9. Healthcare for the Future update on community hospitals in West, North and East Cumbria 10a. Hospital Acquired Infections in South Cumbria (report from Morecambe Bay trust) 10b.  Hospital Acquired Infections in West, North and East Cumbria (report from NCIC trust) 11. Possible Changes to the NHS Podiatric Service in South Cumbria (Report from Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, particularly on the proposed Engagement process. I was asked on Facebook about the fact that there did not appear to be anything on the agenda about the pandemic. This was partly because the pandemic had been discussed in great detail at the previous meeting, but in fact the pandemic did come up. Peter Rooney from N...

 Over the last few days, scientists have identified a new variant of coronavirus which may be associated with the faster spread in the South East of England.  SAGE and government agencies are closely monitoring the spread of this variant in the UK, but there is currently nothing to suggest that this variant is more likely to cause serious disease.  It is considered unlikely at this stage that the vaccine will prove to be ineffective against this variant.  But it shows that we have to remain vigilant, and the essential steps to prevent the virus spreading remain the same: Hands, Face, Space.

Today the government set out a new standard for safety online which is intended to provide the most comprehensive approach yet seen in the UK to online regulation and ensure that the internet is a safer place children and vulnerable users.  The proposed Online Harms Bill – to be introduced next year – in intended to ensure that Britain enters a new age of accountability for tech companies, protecting children and vulnerable users, restoring trust in this industry, and enshrining in law safeguards for free speech.   The government is setting out standards designed to ensure that social media sites, websites, apps and other services will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content such as child sexual abuse, terrorist material and content which could encourage suicide or self-harm. Tech platforms will need to do more to protect children from being exposed to harmful content or activity such as grooming, bullying and pornography.   Ofcom is now confirmed as the re...

"As elected members of Congress, we take an oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States,’ not to preserve and protect the political interests of any individual, be it the president or anyone else, to the detriment of our cherished nation.” Representative Paul Mitchell , who until today was a Republican congressman in the United States, explains his decision to resign from the US Republican party in protest at the way his party has challenged the US presidential election results on the basis of "unfounded conspiracy theories." He added "It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote,”

Nominations closed on Friday 11th December for the Conservative party's regional officers. I have just been advised that the nominations received in the North West region were as follows: "Regional Co-ordinating Chairman –  One valid nomination in the name of Michael Winstanley , who is duly elected. Deputy Co-ordinating Regional Chairman Membership –  One valid nomination in the name of Valerie Allen , who is duly elected. Deputy Co-ordinating Regional Chairman Political –  One valid nomination in the name of Chris Whiteside , who is duly elected." Thank you to the Area teams who nominated Michael, Val, and myself.

I have been intrigued on looking at the traffic stats for this blog for the past several weeks to see that the most read post has been quite an old one: to be precise a 2013 post with the title " Anorak post: regional voting patterns ." I'm not going to take it down because it is obviously interesting to somebody, but alas it is not very up-to-date. It refers to some analysis by Peter Kellner who was and I think still is President of the pollster YouGov, on why Northern voters were at that time less inclined to vote Conservative than their southern counterparts. Interesting though it was, it should be noted that over the past ten years and particularly since the Brexit referendum, this has become significantly less true. Just to take two examples familiar to me, at the time the article came out my former home in St Albans (in the home counties) remained in the Conservative fold to which it had returned in 2005 while Copeland here in the North West was still in the Labour ...

Today the government is  announcing  extra support for rough sleepers across England with the intention of leaving no stone unturned in the mission to end rough sleeping for good by the end of this Parliament. Throughout the pandemic the government has supported thousands of rough sleepers and people at risk of homelessness through our landmark ‘Everyone In’ programme which has kept people safe and off the streets.   While these efforts have protected thousands of lives, breaking the cycle of rough sleeping for good often means tackling alcohol or drug misuse, which is why the government is providing £23 million this year and £52 million in 2021-22 for services like detox and rehabilitation support that will ensure vulnerable people can rebuild their lives and get on the road to recovery.    This year alone, the government is investing more than £700 million of taxpayers' money on rough sleeping and homelessness, underlining our determination to support some of ...