Chris Whiteside's Blog

  Taxes were already far too high as a result of the pandemic even before Labour came to power. Rachel Reeves raised them even higher, to record levels for peacetime. That's why Andy Burnham should rule out tax rises to pay for his spending spree. When Rachel Reeves raised taxes we all saw the consequences which came after that. Labour never understands: money needs to be made before it can be spent. Businesses are not cash machines for politicians.

  Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Faith Matters and Tell MAMA and Muslims Against Antisemitism says of the proposals by the Greens on Hackney council to scrap the twinning arrangement with Haifa,: "Shunning even a model of Jewish-Arab cooperation as morally tainted raises an uncomfortable question: has political activism crossed into antisemitic exclusion?"  From a Jewish Chronical article which you can read at: If Hackney’s Greens cared about peace, they wouldn’t cut ties with Haifa – Israel’s city of coexistence - The Jewish Chronicle

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major (K.622)

  "Let me tell you about the law of holes: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Bill Brock, 1983. (Similar sayings attributed to many people including Denis Healey, Will Rogers, and Warren Buffet.)

 

I don't aften quote Labour MPs sympathetically, but no party has a monopoly of wisdom or virtue, and Labour MP Luke Akehurst made a good point today in response to the plans by Green councillors on Hackney council to scrap that council's twinning arrangement with Haifa. This is what he posted today: " As a former Hackney Councillor for 12 years I'm disgusted by the performative and spiteful gesture politics of the Greens proposing that Hackney ends its twinning arrangement with Haifa in Israel, which has existed since 1968.  The twinning happened because Hackney's large Jewish community had family and personal links there.  Haifa is a famously left-wing city (ironically the Israeli Greens are quite strong there) that is a model for coexistence between Jews and Arabs. The twinning arrangement includes medical exchanges between the Homerton and Rambam hospitals. If you want peace between Israel and the Palestinians you should support initiatives that bring people tog...

Thanks to Election Maps for publishing a summary of Andy Burnham's cabinet changes in an easy-to-understand table. There were one or two good appointments. The replacement of Rachel Reeves by John Healy might just mean that the new PM is serious about funding defence properly and the appointment of Wes Streeting as defence secretary may confirm that. Streeting is the Labour party's equivalent of Michael Gove - a politician who is hated by most of those on his own side and loathed by almost everyone else but is nevertheless one of the most competent people the party concerned has. (If it is true, as has been rumoured, that Rachel Reeves was offered the post of defence secretary I can only assume this was a way of inducing her to walk. The thought of Reeves having to make the case to John Healy for defence spending is almost as funny as Nigel Farage having to fight for his political life against a comedian with a bin on his head, but for that very reason I can't see that she ...

 

 Kemi Badenoch on Britain's new PM: "Today, Britain has a new Prime Minister. I wish Andy Burnham well, because Britain needs a government that fixes the country’s problems. But I am concerned because: He has got the keys to Number 10 without first setting out a clear plan for government. Keir Starmer leaves behind higher welfare spending, rising unemployment, soaring energy costs, record debt interest and taxes that are holding back growth. Britain cannot afford more of the same. We know Labour MPs only care about increasing benefits. As the Welfare Secretary himself admitted, every meeting with a Labour MP is about who they can tax to raise benefits. That's why I say that changing Prime Minister isn't a silver bullet. The problem wasn't just Keir Starmer, it was the whole Labour Party. The Conservative Party understands that we must reflect on where we went wrong in our time in office. Governments should seek a mandate for their plans before taking office, not de...

“The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward”. ( Winston Churchill ) The above gives the words that Churchill actually used and recorded as a maxim. An alternative version, often wrongly attributed to Churchill as it corresponds closely to the idea he was putting forward but not strictly an accurate quote, is given here as well because I like this form of words.

Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) is an important part of how the UK's executive is held to account. It is naive in the extreme to expect that the exchanges at PMQs will not sometimes be extremely robust, and I have no time whatsoever for the hypocrisy of those Labour members and supporters who clutch their pearly and complain how nasty Kemi Badenoch is to Labour MPs and ministers yet supported Sir Keir Starmer when he made very robust comments about her. Especially given that few of them made any protest when Angela Rayner called Conservatives "scum" or David Lammy suggested that Brexiteers were worse than Nazis. However, there are times when a less hostile tone is called for, and I thought the exchanges on Wednesday this week were a good example of tis being done extremely well. Kemi Badenoch praised Sir Keir Starmer's support for Ukraine - which I think was the right thing to do, I don't agree with very much that he has done, but support for Ukraine is one ...

“Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy. Its purpose is to discern the consequences of various ways of allocating resources which have alternative uses. It has nothing to say about philosophy or values, anymore than it has to say about music or literature.” — Thomas Sowell

Yesterday was only the fourth time ever that an England men's football team has reached the semi-finals of the World Cup. Had they progressed to the final it would have been the first time since 19666, when they won sixty years ago, that England had done so. But it was not to be. However, congratulations are in order to England for playing as well as they did and getting as fa as they did. Under ordinary circumstances I would congratulate Argentina on their win. But as some people on their side from the Vice President down seem to think they have a colonial claim to the Falkland Islands, which have overwhelmingly voted to stay British, I have this to say to them instead. Winning a football match does not give you any claim on a territory whose inhabitants voted overwhelmingly to stay British. Putting forward claims to other people's territory is dangerous: last time a fascist janta which was running your country tried to win some popularity by sucking up to that kind of pervert...

 

Best of British to the England men's football team in their world cup match against Argentina this evening. PS - I also congratulated Scotland on winning their first World Cup match for many years, and if any other teams from the British Isles were still playing I would be wishing them good luck too.  P.P.S. I gather that England fans have been singing "Rule Britannia ahead of the match with Argentina. This is one match too late. We should have been singing it before and during the match with Norway. That song was specifically written to celebrate the English king who defeated the Viking invaders of England. The song " Rule Britannia " was written as the finale to the opera, " Alfred. "

 

Hat-tip to Edwina Currie for re-posting this comment on Deputy Prime Minister from Labour MP Karl Turner, which he posted on X on 12th July. If Labour MPs say this about one another, what is anyone else to think? "Karl Turner MP @KarlTurnerMP Jul 12 "I’m not happy to have to say this but @DavidLammy has been by far the very worst Justice Secretary that I’ve witnessed in coming up to the 17 years that I’ve been elected to Parliament. That’s saying something because we had the misfortune of witnessing the antics of failing Grayling. Dave has been worse by a country mile. If we’d just not filled the post and done nothing at all in the @MoJGovUK we’d have been much better off for it.  Out of his depth.  Ego the size of Britain but sadly incapable of anything like the work ethic or intellectual ability to do the job. I will be glad to see him return to the backbenches.  He is also a very unpleasant individual. Gobbing off performatively from the security of an office staring d...

 

Sorry to see that the great actor Sam Neill has died. He had great roles in so many movies - an unforgettable villain in some, a brilliant and very real hero in others such as his role in the Jurassic Park franchise, where his reaction to the dinosaurs made them seem to much more real. He will be missed. Rest in Peace.

 

Stephen Daisley on Ann Widdecombe:   Extract from an obituary of Ann Widdecombe in The Spectator. Link to the full article:  The mass appeal of Ann Widdecombe | The Spectator

From the late Ann Widdecombe who sadly was murdered a few days ago:

Congratulations again to England who came from behind to beat Norway 2:1 to progress to the semi-finals of the men's football World Cup.