Chris Whiteside's Blog

What is it with Labour governments? The first thing they always do - is slam pensioners in the kidneys With Gordon Brown and Tony Blair it was a £5 billion a year raid on pension funds which, as was accurately described by the late Frank Field, one of the few Labour MPs I ever had any time for, transformed Britain from having some of the best-funded peNsions in Europe to one of the worst. With Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, it was adopting a policy on pensions which Labour themselves had argued in opposition would lead to 3,850 pensioner deaths each winter.   The second thing they always do  - is  bash the countryside With Tony Blair it was crippling policies on small farms combined with the ideological application of a rigid approach to country spots which showed a grave lack of understanding of the countryside. With Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, it's a tax and inheritance policy which appears guaranteed to result in the break-up or closure of hundreds of family-run fa

 

 

 

David Williams is political editor of the Sunday Express. Here are some extracts from his article today on the election of the new Conservative leader. "Britain’s most enthusiastic Tories this morning crowded into the elegant basement of a grand events venue around the corner from Trafalgar Square for the announcement of their new party leader. The venue – 8 Northumberland Avenue – says on its website that it strives to deliver “‘wow’ moments”. And the election of Kemi Badenoch as the new leader of the Conservative party counts as one. Her fans jumped to their feet and whooped when she was named as the winner by Bob Blackman, the chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench MPs. The Tories have their fourth woman leader. And they will take delight in pointing out that Labour has yet to have one. As someone who spent much of her childhood in Nigeria, she delights in making the argument that Britain is a unique country that should be proud of its past and excited about its future. To

I was pleased to see that Kemi Badenoch, for whom I voted, has been elected Conservative leader. On a turnout of 72.% of eligible Conservative members she won by 53,806 votes to 43,801. Here is an extract from the statement by the returning officer:

"I don't want to repeat a budget like this ever again" Chancellor Rachel Reeves , quoted in the "i" newspaper Funnily enough, ten million pensioners and millions of taxpayers,  especially farmers and those running other businesses large or small,  don't want her to ever repeat a budget like this again either.

A BMG Research survey for i shows that just a quarter of the public feel positive about the Government’s first Budget this week, with 40 per cent disapproving of the package set out by Rachel Reeves. You can read the i report by clicking on the link just below:   Tories lead in polls for first time in three years after Budget . The poll also found that "Voters are much more likely to say that the measures announced by the Chancellor will leave them worse off, than say that they will benefit from the higher spending funded by tax rises and borrowing." Other findings included: Sir Keir Starmer’s personal ratings have suffered, reaching a new low of net -26, with only 23 per cent of the public approving of his performance in office compared with 49 per cent dissatisfied. This was also the first voting intention poll for three years to show a Conservative lead, although only by 1% which is within the statistical margin of error. Robert Struthers of BMG said:  “Our post-Budget pol

 

If you are a paid-up member of the Conservative party and have not yet voted in the leadership election, please note that voting finishes at 5pm GMT today. (31st October.)  So as of the time of posting this at noon you have five hours to vote electronically. Instructions on how to do so will have come with your ballot paper. The result will be announced on Saturday.

Received on WattsApp from a contact who I don't think I'll name, who has just been on a briefing about the budget impact from a firm of accountants in Northern England. He described it as, "Very downbeat, you can tell it wasn't going to be upbeat when the head accountant called the Chancellor  'Rachel Thieves.' "

 Happy Diwali to all those celebrating the Festival of Light today

One of the most common things said to people like who are involved in politics is variations on "You're all the same." You cannot ask for more conclusive evidence that Britain's political parties are not all the same than yesterday's budget. To deal with the financial consequences of the pandemic, the last government had already had to reluctantly raise taxes to historically high levels, much higher than we would have liked. Despite promises from Labour during the election that they would not raise taxes on "working people," they hit everyone in Britain yesterday with even higher taxes, including both the biggest tax  rise in British history and the highest tax burden in British history (including wartime.) This at the same time that, despite Labour promises to cut energy prices, those energy prices are actually going up, and bashing pensioners with a measure that Lsboiur themselves in opposition said woiuld result in nearly 4,000 pensioners a year liter

It anyone happens to be reading this who lives in the Kirkby Stephen & Tebay ward of Westmorland & Furness council, can I remind you that there is a by-election tomorrow. Can I also recommend the experienced and hard-working Conservative candidate Pat Bell, 

Today we had a budget which kicked pensioners in the teeth and business somewhere even less pleasant. One or two of the measures, such as the increase in the minimum wage and the increase in NHS spending, may well be popular. Taken out of context they may even be beneficial. The problem with this budget is a catastrophic lack of balance. And what it proves about the present leadership of the Labour party is that you cannot believe a word they say. Here are a few of more than 50 times Labour said during the election they had no plans to raise taxes They’ve just broken that promise in their Budget of Broken Promises. If the increase in the minimum wage had been implemented on its' own as a standalone policy most businesses could probably have afforded it and it might well have done more good by rewarding those who are working hard than harm by pricing jobs out of existence. Similarly the big increase in worker's rights could probably have been afforded on it's own. But here&#

It was wrong for comedian Tony Hinchcliffe to refer to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage" at a Trump rally over the weekend. The remark was rightly condemned by a number of people on both sides of US politics including at least two elected Republicans. US congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar said she was "disgusted " by the "racist comment" . She said on X that it did not "reflect the GOP values" , referring to the Republican Party, and noted thousands of Puerto Ricans served in the military. US Senator Rick Scott said: "The joke bombed for a reason. It's not funny and it's not true."   He added that "Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans ". Nor was it clever for the current US President Joe Biden to criticise Hinchcliffe in terms which when spoken aloud could very easily sound as if he was calling Trump supporters garbage. What the Democrats are saying he said was, "The only garbage I se

 

Remember that British Summer Time in the UK comes to an end tonight and the country goes back to Greenwich Mean Time. Tonight in the UK and indeed in most of Europe, the clocks go back an hour. So in the UK at 3am, it jumps back to a second 2am. Here is a handy guide to putting your clocks back tonight:

"Only three brief months since the 2024 general election and already we can safely consign pretty much everything Labour had to say abut tax during the campaign to the dustbin of history." ( Andrew Neil begins an newspaper article which you can read in full below)

The third and final phase of the redevelopment of the West Cumberland hospital, all built and equipped with funding agreed and provided during the 2010 to 2024 Conservative led governments, has been opened by the Princess Royal. The new facilities include a therapy gym, a courtyard with access to a 'challenge path' and a kitchen to prepare patients for returning home after a stay in hospital. Princess Anne unveiled the plaque and was invited to sign the visitor book which had previously been signed by her grandmother Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother when she first opened West Cumberland Hospital in 1964 and King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, when he visited the hospital in 2010. Steven Morgan, Chair of North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) NHS Foundation Trust said,  “We are delighted that the Princess Royal, as Patron of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, has officially opened this fantastic new facility in Whitehaven today. "It’s a great step forward and w