Chris Whiteside's Blog

 

James Cleverly topped the poll in the latest vote of MPs for the Conservative leadership election. Votes were cast as follows: James Cleverly:         39 Robert Jenrick           31 Kemi Badenoch         30 Tom Tugendhat          20 This means that Tom Tugendhat leaves the race and the other three candidates go forward to the final ballot of MPs later this week. The top two candidates in that vote will go forward to a ballot of Conservative party members. The winner will be announced on 2nd November. All the candidates displayed different strengths and different visions last week but I thought that James Cleverly gave far and away the strongest performance at party conference. He was the only one with the courage to apologise for the things we as a party got wrong, to talk seriously about how to address them and learn from our mistakes, and he put forward the most positive vision for our country and our party. For that reason I decided on Friday to back James Cleverly and I am supporti

Less than a hundred days after his enormous election victory, Sir Kier Starmer's approval ratings have fallen to some of the lowest ever experienced by a British Prime Minister, while Labour's poll lead over the Conservatives has been cut to 1%. An opinion poll published yesterday by More in Common found that Starmer's net approval ratings have fallen by 44 percentage points since taking office, from +11% in July to -33% in the last few days. A voting intention poll from the same company found that Labour's lead over the Conservatives has dropped to 1% with Labour on 29% and the Conservatives on 28% - a lead well within the margin of error on a poll of 2,023 voters carried out by More in Common between 5th and 7th October.   Apparently the drop in Labour support was largest among voters aged over 65 - now I wonder what might have caused that group of voters to feel betrayed by Labour?

"Zionism advocates self-determination for Jews. It does not agitate against the welfare and well-being of Palestinians.  Consequently, I can, at one and the same time hold Zionism at the core of my Jewish identity whilst simultaneously feeling deep pain in seeing the suffering of numerous innocent Palestinians." (Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis , article in the New Statesman and on X, formerly Twitter) You can read the New Statesman article at:  What is Zionism? - New Statesman

Sue Gray, who had been Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff both as Leader of the Opposition and for his first 93 days as Prime Minister, has resigned from that role and will become the PM's "Envoy for the nations and regions." It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that she has been forced out as a scapegoat for the fact that after promising and end to "Tory psychodrama" it has been replaced with Labour psychodrama and some vicious infighting within the new government. Sue Gray made her name as one of the key arbiters of government ethics in the civil service, and she continued to enjoy a great deal of respect throughout the political spectrum, even after her damning report on the former Prime Minister (except among his most partisan supporters, anyway) until the second it was announced that she was moving from a post requiring the strictest of impartiality to become chief of staff of a political party.  At the point when it was announced that Sue Gray had ac

"One year on, October 7th will remain etched in my memory forever.  That clear Saturday morning in Southern Israel, Hamas unleashed a brutal terrorist attack, raping, mutilating and kidnapping innocent Israeli civilians. Armed gunmen rampaging through a music festival. Families torn apart. Defenceless babies killed in cold blood just for being Jewish. Just days later, on the invitation of the ambassador, I was in Southern Israel against official advice, as the first Foreign Minister to visit after the attacks. With Eli Cohen, Israel’s Foreign Minister, I travelled to the southern Israeli village of Ofakim, where we were forced to shelter underground following a barrage of Hamas rockets. And later, with my own eyes, I saw the bullet holes and the blood, when I visited the site of the attacks, met survivors, and witnessed the destruction caused by Hamas. It was barbarism beyond belief. When I met with President Herzog, he said “James, everyone stands with us today. But soon, we will

A year ago today one of the worst atrocities of modern times was perpetrated by Hamas terrorists. They murdered over a thousand innocent people and took hundreds more as hostages. They also started a round of conflict in which tens of thousands more people have died, most of then from the very community on behalf of whom the Hamas terrorists claimed to be acting. Some things are bigger than party politics. Here is the statement issued today by the UK Prime Minister. I disagree with him and his government on very many things but in this statement he speaks for me and for Britain.

I happen to think that the most important factor when voting in a local election should be which candidate will make the best councillor. However, it's a free country and if people wish to use their vote to stick up two fingers at a government of whatever political colour, that is their right. Guess what people are doing at the moment. Of  26 council by-elections held since September 16th the number of winds by candidates from each of the political parties are as follows: Conservatives: Nine Lib/Dems:          Five Labour:               Four There have also been some wins for the Greens, a couple for Reform, an SNP win and some Independent councillors have been elected.

"I'm the child of migrant families, on both sides of my family ..." "My mum came here from Sierra Leone in west Africa in 1966 and my dad's family came here from northern France in 1066." James Cleverly during the leadership hustings at Conservative Party Conference.

Extracts from the letter from Rosie Duffield MP to the PM resigning the Labour whip over what she described as "sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice." “Dear Sir Keir, I can no longer stay a Labour MP under your management of the party, and this letter is my notice that I wish to resign the Labour Party whip with immediate effect." "You repeat often that you will make the “tough decisions” and that the country is “all in this together”. But those decisions do not directly affect any one of us in Parliament. They are cruel and unnecessary, and affect hundreds of thousands of our poorest, most vulnerable constituents. This is not what I was elected to do. It is not even wise politics, and it certainly is not “the politics of service”." "You also made the choice not to speak up once about the Labour Party’s problems with antisemitism during your time in the shadow cabinet, leaving that to backbenchers, including new MPs such as me." ... "You have us

Do remember who said that means testing Winter Fuel payments would be the “single biggest attack on pensioners in a generation in our country”. I can't blame you if you've forgotten, since Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves apparently have too. Well, it wasn't the Conservatives, or the "right-wing press" or any of the other people the Labour party like to blame for everything. It was the Labour party themselves in a report published in 2017 when they were in opposition. The same report also suggested that means-testing this benefit could cause an extra 3,850 deaths among pensioners in that year alone as you can read for yourself by clicking on the link below Winter fuel payment cut could kill 4,000 people, Labour research suggests | The Independent If you want to sign a petition calling on the government to reverse this cruel adn damaging decision, you can do so at: http:// keepwinterfuel.com

"Unpopular opinion.  The Prime Minister of the UK should have a salary and expense allowance to enable him and his family to present themselves to the world without having to accept freebies." Douglas Carswell I think Douglas has a point. But to be honest, what really irritates me about out new government is not the freebies but the double standards.. As I don't want to look like a world-class hypocrite, I'm not going to slag off members of the Labour government for doing things which I would have defended Conservatives for doing. But I do think it's legitimate to point out that a surprising number of the most senior ministers of the new government seem to be behaving in ways that they spent the last fourteen years vehemently denouncing members of the previous government for doing.

  When Guardian columnists are describing a Labour conference as a "Zombie Apocalypse" it's a pretty good indication that a government recently elected with a huge majority is nevertheless managing to get itself into such difficulties that even it's own activists are not all happy with it ... "Ever get the feeling you’ve woken up to the zombie apocalypse?   When you left the conference on Tuesday afternoon, the place was buzzing. Delegates talking about Keir Starmer’s speech. Trying to get on the guest list to the hottest parties. Then on Wednesday morning, you find that half the conference has disappeared. Just vanished. And those that remain appear to be wandering round in circles. Hungover, trying to work out what’s going on. In search of some existential meaning. Most striking is the lack of queues for food. Though that could be down to the fact there is no food in the food concessions. Even the conference staff have given up. It’s every man and woman for the

"Those expensive glasses that Lord Alli brought him clearly aren't very good, are they? On the autocue, clearly hostages and sausages perhaps look a bit similar." Cristo Foufas , after the prime minister accidentally called for the "return of the sausages" instead of hostages.

Congratulations to Councillor Daniel Husseini who won a council by-election yesterday. (By elections, like most other elections, are usually held on a Thursday but they can be held on another date if there is a good reason and several by elections were held on Tuesday this week.)  Votes cast in the Godalming, Binscombe and Charterhouse ward of Waverley council in Surrey were as follows: Daniel Husseini, Conservative       726 ELECTED Lib/Dem                                                   715 Green                                              195 Labour                                            151 The by-election was caused by the resignation of sitting Labour councillor (and former Labour MP) Nick Palmer who had moved out of the area. Daniel fought off a strong challenge from the Lib/Dems to gain the seat, while the Labour party who were defending it came bottom of the poll with a very poor fourth place. In other by-election  news yesterday, c ongratulations also to Cllr Harry Ric

 

 

This photograph of  the King and the Deputy Prime Minister has appeared in a number of newspapers, and I think it is worth a caption competition: Entries are invited in the comments below for a caption for what King Charles might be sating to Angela Rayner. If the entries are good enough to merit it I will have to think of a suitable prize for the best one - though sadly I'm afraid we can't run to thousands pounds worth of free clothes!