Chris Whiteside's Blog

I originally had another quote planned for today, but the passage below from Robert Peston, which is the first half of a tweet about Labour's policy on Winter Fuel Payments, was too powerful not to use.. He describes Labour's explanation of why they had to do this as "laughable" and "absurd" and adds that if Treasury officials really told her that she had to do it - which his Labour contacts all say they did but his treasury contacts deny, saying it was "all her" - then that would mean that   "Its market intelligence is rubbish and it is not the institution it once was." So this is what Robert Peston had to say. "Governments get into a mess when pragmatic decisions that go wrong become tests of authority and principle.  This is the tragi-comic fate of Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer following their decision to abolish universal pensioner entitlement to the winter fuel payment.   The chancellor announced the controversial welfare sav

A certain number of the braver Labour MPs and their more fanatical supporters have gone on the offensive to justify Labour's policy on the winter fuel payment. A few of these have made quite offensive attacks on older people, must most have sought to justify what they describe as a decision to "means-test" the benefit. One of the very few nuanced comments I have seen on either side of the debate came from Whitehaven resident David Morton, who tweeted back to me as follows: "The real issues are Labour have  ( a ) used a cliff edge not a taper.  (b) that cliff edge is far too low and will throw up millions of hard marginal cases.  But that critique doesn't fit the political spectrum." David's comments are very sensible, and if Labour had actually done what they are wrongly pretending to have done, and means-tested the benefit so rich people don't get it but those who need it do, then the criticisms being thrown at them from the press, the unions and th

My opponent at the last election, Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds North East, has just voted to remove Winter Fuel payments from 13,102 local pensioners in Leeds North East.   The MP for Selby, where I was living last year, has just voted to remove winter fuel payments from 18,438 local pensioners in Selby  The MP who is supposed to represent my current home in Moor Row, Josh McAlister, has just voted to deprive 18,000 local pensioners in Whitehaven and Workington of the winter fuel payment. I could go on for another three hundred and forty five, I will stop at one more: the MP representing the area where my kids went to school, Markus Campbel Savours, just voted to remove Winter Fuel Payments from more than 22,500 local pensioners in Penrith and Solway.

 " 'I felt so strongly I abstained'.   The ultimate definition of a politician without a backbone." Iain Dale today on X, former Twitter, in regard to the Labour MPs who abstained on the proposal to take Winter Fuel Allowance from ten million pensioners. Just one Labour MP - Jon Trickett - did have the backbone to vote against the measure. Fifty three abstained.

 A Tory move to stop the Labour government's plan to take away winter fuel payment from ten million pensioners has been defeated by 348 to 228 votes - a majority of 120. Labour has a working majority in the Commons of 167. The division list showed Labour MP Jon Trickett supported the Conservation motion while no vote was recorded for 53 other Labour MPs.

 

 

  What a good question - why is he forcing it through now?

 

Not often that I quote a Labour MP, but there is an exception to every rule. It will be interesting to see who has the guts to vote this way next week. "The mitigation put in by the government is insufficient, we have to go back to why Gordon Brown introduced this. He was emphatic that he didn’t want people to go cold over winter. We absolutely should uphold those values." Rachael Maskell MP

Cognitive dissonance is believing two or more completely incompatible things at the same time. If you type it into a search engine, they could do worse for an example than to take you to a headline in this week's Independent with a quote from Tony Blair. He is presented as saying "Brexit failed - and it triggered mass immigration." Now it's perfectly possible for a well-informed, intelligent and reasonable person to hold either of those views in isolation, although I personally think one of them is broadly right and the other is broadly wrong. But anyone who believes both those things is suffering from a textbook case of cognitive dissonance. It just makes no sense to argue that Brexit made things worse in this country and at the same time that it triggered more people to come here.

The Barron Knights were a band who specialised in musical parodies - think of them as a British 1970's to 90's version of Weird Al. Here is their version of a "Top of the pops" rundown followed by their parody version of the theme from the medical comedy "MASH" with lyrics on a subject which most people in Britain wouldn't dare take the mick about then or now - the NHS. Fascinating to see which of the jokes have, and which have not, dated since the 1980's.

Congratulations to Cllr Stephen Crane who gained the Longbeck, Redcar and Cleveland seat form Labour yesterday in a by-election.  

Pressure from senior citizen's groups, Conservatives and others has obtained a vote in Parliament next week to stop Labour’s cut to Winter Fuel Payments. It’s our first big opportunity to stop Labour from depriving millions of pensioners vital support this winter.

"The jury is still out on Prime Minister Starmer. But one thing we now know for certain. No-one can trust a word he says." Former Labour and Trade Union staffer Dan Hodges , writing in the Mail this week.

"Asked afterwards why Sir Keir had called Mr Sunak 'PM' five times, a No10 spokesman said 'old habits die hard'." (No 10 spokesman quoted by James Tappenden, writing in the Mail about Prime Minister's Questions this week.)

This is the dignified and positive statement released by Dame Priti Patel as her run to be leader of the Cosnervative party finishes.

"The numbers may be a little worse than they thought at the time, and I think there were some things that were hidden from view, but the overall picture over the next four or five years is very, very similar to what we knew before the election." (Paul Johnson , director of the Independent IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies)  dismisses the Labour government's suggestion that when the

 As I wrote a few days ago, there are two Conservative leadership elections at the moment. Six MPs are standing to succeed Rishi Sunak as Party leader, and their fellow Conservative MPs will vote shortly to select four of these candidates to go through to the next stage, which is a hustings at Party Conference. The MPs will then vote to whittle those four down to the final two who go to a vote of the whole membership. Voting has also started in another Conservative election - to elect the national officers of the voluntary party who also sit on the party board. At the moment the people who hold these offices are elected by members of the National Conservative Convention - which mostly means constituency chairmen plus some regional and area officers.  As I have written before, Some candidates for the party leadership have suggested there is a case of extending the franchise to a wider group, perhaps all party members for some Conservative elections including that of party chairman. Ther

As all residents of the village will have noticed by now, and all motorists trying to drive through the village found out the hard way, road resurfacing work started today for two weeks, and all routes through Moor Row in Cumbria are closed to vehicular traffic. The area closed to through traffic during resurfacing work includes a large chunk of the East end of Scalegill Road, all the area of Church Street which would normally be open to vehicles, and a strip of Dalziel Street at the Church Street junction near to the Pearson Close junction. The effect of this is that you cannot drive through Moor Row in any direction - not from the A595 North of Bigrigg to Keekle, or vice versa and not from Wood End to Keekle. This is one of a large number of road works affecting major and minor routes through West Cumbria at the moment. If you are trying to drive anywhere in West Cumbria at the moment, particularly in the vicinity of Cleator Moor, Frizington or Moor Row, I strongly advise you to chec

  "We are now onto the 3rd leadership election of my chairmanship, This is a record I want to keep as it should not be one ever beaten." Valedictory message from (Lord)  Peter Booth , who shortly finishes his term as Chairman of the National Conservative Convention. This position, which effectively makes him the head of the volunteer/member side of the Conservative party, is held for a single five-year term. 

Possibly the most beautiful aria ever written for the human voice.  I have never quite got over the shock of discovering from the context when I got round to actually going to see the opera "The magic flute" that the singer and the song itself represent pure evil. Still wonderful to listen to. 

  "We strongly oppose the means-testing of Winter Fuel Payment because our initial estimate is that as many as two million pensioners who badly need the money to stay warm this winter will not receive it." Age UK

"Is this Lab govt arrogant, incompetent or both?  You can’t say there’s no money left and rob pensioners of their winter fuel allowance while spraying money at train drivers and unions.  You can’t say your priority is growth but load employers with red tape and cancel road projects." ( Tim Montgomerie this week on X formerly Twitter)