Chris Whiteside's Blog

An associate of mine is setting up a blog to review new and classic science fiction and fantasy books and films. At his suggestion I've just read an immensely entertaining book,  " The Demon Overlord's retirement plan " by M. H. Foster I had to share his assessment: this is one of the most amusing pieces of SF or fantasy writing I've read recently. You can find his review on the site at: Book Review: "The Demon Overlord's retirement plan" by M. H. Foster

"Since the fall of Cameron, no Prime Minister has completed a full electoral term. Each of his successors has run out of political road before then.  Most have been done in by their own party when their political capital was exhausted. Only Rishi Sunak was ousted by the public.  Perhaps even more remarkably, Edward Heath was the last Prime Minister to enter and exit Downing Street via an election. It appears that two or three years of leadership is becoming the new norm." John Oxley , extract from a Conservative Home article which you can read in full at John Oxley: Are we in a new phase for all Prime Ministers? The era of 'two year Keir' | Conservative Home

The novelist Len Deighton, author of spy novels like "The Ipcress File," the dystopian alternative history novels "SS-GB" and a couple of superlatively detailed and accurate war novels, "Fighter" and "Bomber," has died at the age of 97. Born in 1929, he was a boy in London during the blitz, and once discovered an air-raid shelter which had been hit and contained 20 bodies. Another memory from the war which influenced his writing came when Special Branch raided the house next door and arresting his neighbour, a 38-year-old Russian emigre named Anna Wolkoff. She had fled to England in 1917 after the Revolution, with her parents. Secretly, she was a Nazi spy. Among her targets was the US ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Wolkoff was sentenced to ten years for relaying secrets to Berlin. After the war, he served in the RAF before studying art at St Martin's College in London and the Royal College of Art. He spent a year as a cabin steward with the airl...

Yesterday I posted Purcell's Rondeau from Abdelazer, wich was the end credits music for "The First Churchills." Here is the Trumpet Tune from Act V of "King Arthur" which provided the introductory music for the same show.

The answer to the quiz question I posted last night. Rishi Sunak was Prime Minister for one year and 254 days and at the time I put up the post, that is also the number of days Sir Keir Starmer had also been Prime Minister. Today Starmer will reach a year and 255 days as PM.

“It is one of history’s ironies that the House of Commons voted to slash trials by jury on the same day as the House of Lords voted finally to expel the last remaining hereditary peers from Parliament.” This is the start of an excellent article by Marcus Walker on "The Critic" website. You can read the whole thing at The malignant mediocrity of managerialism | Marcus Walker | The Critic Magazine but here are some extracts. "It was the hereditary barons of England who forced King John to agree that “No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers…” The barons have gone, and so have our ancient liberties, and both on the same day. Only the bishops still sit in that ancient council, heirs of Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury who led the barons against the king in 1215....

Giles Dilnot has a great piece on Conservative Home about the need for politicians of all parties to be "more normal." You can read the whole thing at   Politics doesn't need saints, or sinners, it needs more 'honest' and 'normal' | Conservative Home Here are some extracts. "Starmer is in Downing Street, partly because he repeatedly suggested, he’d be different. Country before party, service before self-service, a new standard in public life across his government. He and a number of his ministers and aides have spent the last 20 months repeatedly trashing that claim. If on this slate alone, he was ‘the change’, he was a change for the worse." "No, Conservatives can’t remotely pretend to have been squeaky clean in the past, and Reform have been dogged by accusations since they entered Parliament. The Lib Dems have been quietly trying to handle a longstanding issue with a senior member of their party, and Zack Polanski has his – for want of a ...

Question - why is today significant in terms of comparisons between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer?  What do they have in common today, 16th March 2026, and only today? Answers in the comments.

Kemi Badenoch has described a Guardian newspaper column that suggested the presence of a Jewish-founded Gail’s bakery close to a Palestinian cafe was “heavy-handed high street aggression” as “ a cover for disgusting antisemitism. ” Speaking to Jewish News as she joined party activists to campaign in Golders Green ahead of May’s local elections, the Conservative Party leader condemned the column in the strongest terms. “I think it was an utterly ridiculous column … appalling, actually, ” Badenoch said. “ What it was insinuating, in my view, was based on antisemitism. We are a country where it hasn’t mattered where you’ve come from… we have always been open and tolerant. I think this openness and tolerance of our society is being exploited, and is targeting Jewish people. “ It’s extraordinary that Gail’s bakeries are being attacked now, supposedly because they are Israeli-owned. This is just a cover; it’s antisemitism. It is disgusting. We need to stamp out this culture. We need more enf...

I will always remember this piece as the closing credits music to "The First Churchills" which was a BBC costume drama broadcast in 1969 when I was a small boy, about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Sarah Churchill. I was far too young to fully appreciate much of the show at the time, but I do remember that I was fascinated by it and learned quite a few things (like what being "impeached" meant,) but this Purcell piece with which each episode ends was one of the most memorable. The theme for the opening titles of each episode, by the way is the "Trumpet tune" from Act V of Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur. Watch this space! It was also subsequently adapted both by Benjamin Britten (in "A young person's guide to the Orchestra") and by Andrew Lloyd Weber. But I particularly like the original, and this is an exceptionally good recording of a great performance by "Voices of Music" on original inst...

There are some institutions which you can understand going a bit woke, but I will never understand how the woke politically correct clowns captured enough influence in the Imperial War Museum (IWM) to get them to shut down the "Extraordinary Heroes" gallery housing Lord Ashcroft's collection of gallantry medals.  When it was opened in November 2010, The Lord Ashcroft Gallery was the Imperial War Museum's first major permanent gallery for ten years, It was paid for by a £5million donation from Lord Ashcroft, and housed the Extraordinary Heroes exhibition containing the world’s largest collection of Victoria Crosses (VCs). The 164 awards, which range from the Crimean to the Falklands wars, went on public display for the first time alongside 48 VCs and 31 George Crosses (GCs) already held by IWM. The VC is of course Britain and the Commonwealth’s premier award for extreme gallantry in the face of the enemy, while the GC is Britain’s most prestigious civil decoration.  Bu...

"It was Winston Churchill who understood the danger of weakness and appeasement more than anyone else. He warned, and I use his words: “Be careful above all things not to let go of the atomic weapon until you are sure, and more than sure, that other means of preserving peace are in your hands.” Mr. Chairman, a strong defence policy is the only peace policy." Margaret Thatcher,  (quoting Winston Churchill, obviously)

The Guardian employs a sports journalist called Jonathan Liew. I have no idea whether he is any good as a sports writer. However, someone in the Guardian's editorial team unwisely allowed him to publish an "Opinion" article about the protests against a restaurant in North London by Pro-Palestinian activists. It certainly contains opinion, but is a serious discredit both to the Guardian and to him. The article describes two restaurants in North London, one Palestinian owned and very upfront about it, the other describes itself as “ a British business with no specific connections to any country or government outside the UK ” but which has attracted the ire of pro-Palestinian activist because it was founded in the 1990s by a Jewish baker who no longer owns or has any connection to it. (Apparently its' parent company, Bains Capital, also has some investments which Liew describes as giving the bakery, quote, "distant links to Israeli security funding.") Both rest...

From the Brighton Argus:

The calendar picture for March on the official Royal Navy 2026 calendar shows HMS Dragon. (Not sure I am legally able to post the picture concerned, here instead is an image I believe to be royalty-free of HMS Dragon leaving port a few days ago.)

Conducted by Herbert von Karajan. If you follow the link to the YouTube page for this recording, you will find in the comments below a debate which I find hilariously funny about how fast this beautiful piece should be performed. This, of course, may say more abut my sense of humour than it does about the  quality of the arguments presented.

  "What all the wise men promised has not happened and what all the dammed fools said would happen has come to pass." ( William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne ) It is generally assumed that Lord Melbourne intended the comment above to be read with extreme irony, and it can certainly make sense as an ironic barb about people who are not as clever as they think they area. However, it is remarkable how often it describes exactly what happens.

Whitehaven and Workington Conservatives were out campaigning in beautiful sunshine today. For anyone who was out campaigning here is something to relax to: the Overture from the final part of Handel's opera "Solomon," which is often nicknamed "The arrival of the Queen of Sheba." 

 

  Another lovely performance of one of my all-time favourites.

From the Times Diary today - how the Labour whips displayed epic levels of incompetence last night and had to employ Football-League style time-wasting (for which they earned a severe telling-off from Mr Speaker.)

I quoted a tweet from Nick Cohen this morning about the proposed Labour curb on Jury Trials He's also written a great piece on Substack about the issue. He advertised it on X with the words "The radical right rages that progressive elites want to take power from voters and give it to their chums. Labour’s dismal achievement is to prove that the radical right is absolutely correct." Here are some extracts from the Substack piece "If you want to understand why “progressives” arouse such disdain, look at how Keir Starmer’s Labour party is threatening trial by jury. It’s an object lesson in how bureaucratic politicians play into the hands of the radical right while spurning the working-class voters their predecessors once represented Starmer and so many of his contemporaries are closer to HR managers than politicians. They think it is enough to mouth vaguely inclusive, vaguely leftish platitudes. And then when it really matters, when the time for decision comes, they den...

If you have five minutes to spend on thoughts about political mattes today, you could not use it beter than to listen to this speech from former attorney-general Geoffrey Cox, KC, MP, about why "Juries are precious."

"Just catching up on the Mandelson docs. The key issue for me is this. On 10 September, 2025 Starmer told the House “full due process was followed during this appointment, as it is with all ambassadors”. The Powell note shows beyond doubt that was a lie." ( Dan Hodges on X)

 

"Watching the Labour front bench's attempt to restrict trial by jury makes me wonder whether Keir Starmer and David Lammy understand England at all. They are smashing up the fundamental freedoms of this country as if they were foreign invaders." ( Nick Cohen on X referring to yesterday's parliamentary vote on Jury Trials.)