Chris Whiteside's Blog

I have used this as my quote of the day before. And I make no apology for repeating it.  

The Conservatives are committed to keeping the "Triple lock" to protect the value of the basic state pension for the rest of this parliament - but both the Conservatives and Labour appear to be reviewing whether to promise to continue the policy for the next one.  I believe that the state pension in Britain can and should be protected by a "triple lock" which ensures in a fair and sustainable way that the real value of the pension is protected and that it's real value must keep pace over time with that of wages and salaries as it failed to do in the nineties and the first decade of this century. The problem is there are some issues with the detail of how the existing "triple lock" operates which mean that, in it's present form, it is not going to be sustainable in the long term.   The "Triple lock" should not be scrapped - but it must be reformed. The present version of the triple lock made sense in 2010 when it was introduced after Gord...

Today,   the Prime Minister met with NHS leaders and health experts to prepare the NHS for winter pressures , making sure patients get the care they need as we cut waiting lists. We have eliminated waits of over two years for NHS treatment and we are continuing to make progress on cutting waiting lists for patients – but pressure on the NHS always increases over the winter. That is why the Prime Minister met with NHS leaders today to discuss ways to mitigate winter pressures, improve care for patients and continue to get waiting lists down so patients can access the care they need, when they need it.  The government is starting planning for winter earlier than before so we can continue to deliver the very best care for patients. 

Most of the posts on this blog concentrate on positive things the government and the Conservatives are doing or positive suggestions for things I want to see, rather than attacks on other parties. But I am going to make an exception and call out the latest egregious U-turn by the flip-flop king, also known as the leader of the opposition. This country needs more houses. Young people and first-time buyers particularly need us to provide more homes, in the right places, with the right infrastructure. So when the government found a way to unlock 100,000 more homes in places which have support from the relevant local councils, without weakening overall environmental protection (because other and more effective measures would be put in place to deal with the nutrient problem rather than unnecessary blocks on new housing) the initial impression was that Labour would support it. Just a fortnight ago Labour's Lisa Nandy was claiming that Labour would support effective measures to get Brita...

"Russia can not use its Black Sea fleet to strike civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and not expect Ukraine to target those assets committing the war crimes." Rt Hon Ben Wallace, former UK Defence secretary

 Both benefit fraud and people who fail to pay their taxes pose a significant cost to the UK treasury. In the interests of fairness to decent, honest people at all levels of society who pay the tax they owe and claim only what they are due, it is important to crack down on both. However, some people with a political agenda will try to convince everyone that one problem is much larger than the other. An example is the false claim recently circulating on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, which has been debunked by Full Fact  here , that  "For every 1p lost to benefit ‘thieves’, £2 is lost to tax avoiders." As Full Fact put it, "This isn’t correct. The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that in 2022/23 £6.5 billion was overpaid in benefits due to fraud, while HMRC estimates that, in the most recent financial year for which figures are available, approximately £1.4 billion less was collected in tax than theoretically should have been as a result of tax avoidance....

New jobs figures today show there are almost four million more people in work since 2010  - showing the progress of Conservative governments in giving more people the security of work.  The UK, like economies across the world, is facing economic pressures, but thanks to a strong workforce our economy is resilient and we are making progress on our priority to halve inflation. New figures released today show there are almost 33 million people employed across the UK, meaning there are almost four million more people in work since 2010 and 1.1 million more people in payrolled employment since before the pandemic.  Governments do not create jobs, Business does. The Conseratives have been working to help business create new jobs, and over the past twelve years this strategy has been succeeding. By comparison no Labour government since World War II has left office with unemployment lower than when they were elected, only the Conservatives can deliver the jobs we need.  The ...

Today the government   welcomes some of the nation’s best-known personalities to 10 Downing Street to bolster support for our Online Safety Bill , helping to make the UK one of the safest places to be online. The Online Safety Bill is a landmark piece of legislation that will help to protect children and those facing online abuse for decades to come.  Today some of the nation’s best-known personalities, including reality TV stars, journalists, sportspeople, and musicians, will come to Downing Street to meet the Technology Secretary and discuss trolling and online abuse they have faced, and to raise concerns about child safety online. The aim is that the Online Safety Bill will help to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to be online, ensuring our children can grow up in a safe online environment.

“Every day I am confronted with the grim consequences of war. But it seems like our nation didn’t learn the right lesson from history,” This is a quote from  Konstantin Dobrovolski , a very brave Russian who has dedicated the last thirty-three years of his live to finding the missing bodies of Soviet soldiers killed during World War II, identifying them, and burying or reburying them with proper respect. In that time he has found and reburied the remains of 20,000 people. There is a very moving article about him in The Guardian which you can find and read by clicking on the following link: My nation didn’t learn lesson of war, says Russian who finds bodies of Soviet soldiers | Russia | The Guardian I refer to Konstantin Dobrovolski as very brave because he does not hesitate to speak his mind about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. and under Putin's draconian new laws against dissent anyone bold enough to condemn the so called "Special Military Operation" can be sent to pri...

BMW are set to announce a £600 million investment in electric car manufacturing, securing 4,000 jobs as the Conservatives continue to back the UK’s world-leading car manufacturing sector and grow the economy. Conservative government plans for Britain's world-leading car manufacturing sector and the skills and history of Britain in making cars make the UK the best place in the world to build the cars of the future, sustaining tens of thousands of good, high-paying jobs. That is why BMW are set to announce a £600 million investment that will transform their Oxford MINI plant to all-electric production from 2030, securing 4,000 high-quality jobs and strengthening the UK’s domestic electric vehicle supply chain. BMW’s latest announcement will bring investment in the UK automotive sector to over £6 billion since 2020, securing thousands of jobs and growing our economy right across the country.

 

The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, met with fellow world leaders at the G20 Summit, securing a   strategic trade partnership with Singapore   and announcing a   $2 billion contribution to the Green Climate fund , helping to grow our economy and tackle climate change. We will always put the interests of the British people front and centre of our international engagement, so that diplomacy delivers for people back home. That is why at the G20, the Prime Minister met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, upgrading our trade, scientific and security relationship with Singapore by agreeing a strategic trade partnership, as well as announcing plans to contribute £2 billion to the Green Climate Fund – the biggest single funding commitment the UK has ever made on climate change. The PM also spoke to the senior member of the PRC delegation about the troubling issue of Chinese interference in UK democracy at Westminster. Conservatives will continue to stand up for British ...

Today the government announced a new National Suicide Prevention Strategy , with over 100 actions to get the number of suicides in England falling in the next two and a half years as we build on our investment in mental health services to save lives. Too many people are still affected by the tragedy of suicide, which is the biggest cause of death in men under the age of 50 and a major cause of death in women too: the Samaritans answer a call for help every 10 seconds, and tragically, around every 90 minutes someone dies from suicide in the UK alone.  Furthermore, many of these tragic deaths are preventable.   So the government is today announcing a new National Suicide Prevention Strategy, with over one hundred actions to help decrease the number of suicides in England within two and a half years, including a national alert system to combat emerging methods of suicide and refreshed guidance for first responders. This new, cross-government strategy will help build on the £...

 

 

Happy Gibraltar Day to everyone on the rock celebrating their national day.

As per today's quote of the day, John Burn-Murdoch has a superb, must-read article in the FT this weekend about The danger of building strong narratives on weak data | Financial Times (ft.com) . He makes a really important point about how compiling data about what's happening to a country's economy, or to national health, is difficult, and some of the key data does not come in until months or even years after the first estimates have been published. Furthermore, some countries' statistics are much more accurate than others, and some are more pessimistic. Based on the absolute size of subsequent revisions to economic data among 24 countries who bother to go back and check their data and publish the revised ones, correcting the initial figures if they were wrong, Britain's ONS is one of the five most accurate among equivalent agencies - behind France, Canada, Italy and Spain but ahead of the US, Germany, Australia or Belgium and way ahead of most other democracies (a...

“Two years ago, progressives critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic took to calling the UK “Plague Island”, citing Britain’s reported Covid death rates, which were among the highest in the developed world.  But with the benefit of hindsight, we know that Britain was simply better at counting its deaths than most countries.  Once the dust had settled, the UK was in the middle of the pack for pandemic mortality. It was not simply that two years ago Britain was faring badly and then things improved: Britain had always been faring better than the initial data suggested.” This is one of quite a few really important take-outs from a truly excellent must-read article called "The danger of building strong narratives on weak data" by John Burn-Murdoch in the FT. You can read the full article by clicking on the link below and I very strongly recommend it.   The danger of building strong narratives on weak data | Financial Times (ft.com)

Britain signed a new strategic partnership with Singapore at the G20 Summit The Prime Minister has signed a new strategic partnership with Singapore to grow the UK’s economy and enhance shared security.    Agreement will harness the UK and Singapore’s expertise in new technologies like cyber and AI to create jobs in both our countries.   Partnership follows agreements with countries including France, Japan and the US, as PM uses global relationships to deliver on the UK’s priorities. The UK’s economy will be bolstered and our security strengthened under a new bilateral partnership with Singapore agreed by the Prime Minister today (Saturday 9th September). The Prime Minister will meet Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the margins of the G20 Summit in India to sign a new UK-Singapore Strategic Partnership. This agreement will set the direction of UK-Singapore relations for the next decade, upgrading the UK’s trade and investment relationship with one of Sou...

 

Former World Chess Champion and Russian dissident Garry Kasparov has made this response to Elon  Musk, who disabled Starlink in Crimea last year to disrupt Ukraine's strike on the Russian fleet. “Putin backs down when confronted with force & strikes when he feels safe” , Kasparov wrote. The full quote: “Exposing how dangerous it is to have fickle, misinformed oligarchs with leverage over US national security. SpaceX & Starlink are marvelous, but if Musk's delusional "anti-war" agenda leads him to interfere with their services to Russia's advantage, it's a huge risk. Russian ships in the Black Sea and bases around it launch missiles into Ukrainian marketplaces and destroy vital shipping and food processing facilities, threatening millions with starvation. But according to Musk, the real danger is Ukrainian defending itself? The provocation fallacy has been refuted many times, recently by Prigozhin's mutiny. Putin backs down when confronted with for...

This week the government launched  a landmark survey on women’s reproductive health  to enhance care and improve wellbeing while delivering on the promise to cut waiting lists.   We cannot provide women and girls with the best possible healthcare at every stage of their lives without listening to their lived experiences and concerns.  That is why the government has launched a national online survey to gather vital data on women’s menstrual health, contraception, pregnancy planning, and menopause. The responses will inform current and future government decision-making to enhance care and improve women’s wellbeing.  These steps will help shape a new system of healthcare that gives women what they need as we get on with delivering on our promise to cut waiting lists.   

 

The Conservative government is to protect Britain's air quality and reduce carbon emissions in a positive way rather than by simply clobbering motorists - by providing a clean, green alternative. Today it was announced that the government will provide  up to £129 million of funding to introduce hundreds more zero emission buses across the country  – connecting communities, boosting UK manufacturing and helping grow the economy. Buses have a huge role to play in decarbonising transport and ensuring people across the country have access to public transport so they can get to work or college.  That is why the government has announced £129 million of funding which will help local transport authorities introduce hundreds more zero emission buses, with the first £25 million for rural communities. These new buses will connect communities and help people get to work or college while also supporting green jobs in the UK manufacturing sector, all of which will help to grow the econ...

As the Prime Minister attends the G20 summit in India,   he will announce support to alleviate the global impact of Putin’s weaponisation of Ukrainian grain , supporting vulnerable people worst hit by rising food prices. Families both in Ukraine and across the world continue to suffer as a direct result of Putin’s brutal invasion 18 months ago. His invasion has made daily life more difficult for households across the planet.      That is why the Prime Minister will announce today to G20 leaders that the UK will convene an international food security summit in November. The event will bring together government representatives from across the world, including vulnerable countries, with international organisations, NGOs, researchers and private sector companies, to tackle the causes of food insecurity and malnutrition.    The UK will continue to support vulnerable people who have been worst hit by rising food prices and we will continue to stand with our ...