Chris Whiteside's Blog

Nearly always worth listening to Andrew Neil, and he has a regular "The Andrew Neil Report" which you can get as a podcast or in Youtube. Here is yesterday's report on a very strange week, in which Andrew Neil is giving his view in response to questions from viewers and listeners. The question which will probably be of most interest is the very last one, which is posted 53 minutes and 34 seconds into the video, " Which prime minister disappointed you most? " Neil gives a quick masterclass covering fifty years, of all thirteen Prime Ministers from Ted Heath to Sir Keir Starmer, saying whether he had "high hopes" of any of them (he mostly didn't) and whether each in turn disappointed him or surpassed his expectations. There are three Prime Ministerial administrations which he praises as "transformational" or "serious," and met or surpassed his expectations, there is one who he doesn't criticise because the PM concerned did wha...

Here is a summary of the aggregate results of the 53 council by-elections since the May 2026 local elections, compiled by Election Maps UK. Reform UK, who were defending six seats, made five net gains to end up with 11 seats, on an aggregate vote share of 23% The Conservatives, who were defending twelve seats, made net losses of three to end up with nine on an aggregate vote share of 19%. In both cases those net figures include both gains and losses in various directions, including both Conservative gains from Reform UK and Reform UK gains from Conservatives. This should be a corrective both to anyone who goes too far overboard on the "Reform have peaked" narrative - however much I may think it's true, they are still in the lead - but also on the "The Tories are dead/The Tories are no longer a national party" narratives as we had wins in England, Scotland and Wales and are winning too many elections and votes to justify any such conclusion. Essentially the patte...

"A society that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality or freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom. On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality. Freedom means diversity but also mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today's less well off to become tomorrow's rich, and in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a richer and fuller life." Milton Friedman

  You can sign the petition at: Save the Summer Job

According to a social media tracker referenced by the website "The Daily Britain"  here , Reform UK has suffered the loss of 120 councilors. The number of council seats loss is slightly higher as those quitting Reform or resigning their council seas included at least one dual-mandate councillor. The breakdown of losses in the tracker is, quote, " 21 councillors kicked out, 38 defected, six suspended, one disqualified, 50 resigned, and five who lost their seats outright. " The headline says that 120 have gone since May but I think there may be some confusion about May of which year this applies to: the figures for the number of councillors shed by Reform since the May 2026 elections are: " 41 entries: five lost seats, 17 resignations, 13 defections and six suspensions. " I have seen various different figures floating around for exactly how many councillors Reform UK has lost, the differences may be due to factors like some lists including Town and Parish co...

 

There is a shocking allegation in the Spectator that the Treasury is more concerned about "diversity" than numeracy. If there is an atom of truth in the suggestion that HM Treasury removed a Numerical Reasoning Test from the department's graduate scheme in 2020  "due to evidence of the test having adverse impact on candidate diversity" , that is deeply concerning. Diversity is, provided it is applied in a way which is not allowed to conflict with the need to recruit the best people, a good thing. But prioritising it above skills and abilities which are clearly highly relevant to the functioning of a department is indicative of a recruitment policy which is seriously off balance. By the way, this policy was never announced to parliament and very possibly not presented to any minister: the Spectator found out about it trough an FOI request.   Here is an extract from the article by John Connolly: "Whoever enters No. 11 will find themselves dealing with a count...

A glorious piece. Unfortunately, ever since the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics I have not been able to listen to this wonderful music without a series of images coming into my head starting with Rowan Atkinson playing the same repetitive note which forms pat of this piece on a keyboard again and again, and finishes with Her late Majesty doing a parachute jump into the stadium with James Bond ... Never mind.

No apology for repeating this. If I put it up often enough to sink into one other person's head, that was worth doing.

Weird Al Yankovic's song about Ebay, a parody of The Backstreet Boy's " I Want It That Way ".

 

According to a survey by polling agency Find Out Now, for the Daily Mail, voters overwhelmingly support Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch's promise not to make a pact with Reform UK. In a survey of 1,049 nationally-representative respondents, when asked whether the Conservatives and Reform parties should agree a deal, 22% of those who answered said yes against 78% saying no. 60% of those respondents planning to vote Conservative and 52% of those planning to vote Reform were opposed to a deal. The survey also showed Kemi Badenoch leading Nigel Farage on who is more effective at holding the government to account and on who is trusted more on managing the economy.     

This is what happens when socialists who don't understand the market try to control prices:

"Sir John Major makes the essential point. Parents who send children to private school save the state money.  Labour’s tax on them has failed. Now the state has 2,000 fewer teachers than when Conservatives left office. So we will reverse this futile, vindictive policy." Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch , responding to a speech by former Prime Minister Sir John Major, of which you can see some of the relevant part at: Kemi Badenoch on X: "Sir John Major makes the essential point. Parents who send children to private school save the state money. Labour’s tax on them has failed. Now the state has 2,000 fewer teachers than when Conservatives left office. So we will reverse this futile, vindictive policy. https://t.co/TzwM1n68Vb" / X

 JUST ANNOUNCED: Local businessman and councillor Phil Eckersley selected as Conservative candidate for Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Yes, I know, I posted another version of the same piece a fortnight ago, but this is sung by a different choir and I thought it was interesting to compare the two performances.

 

Today is Armed Forces day. Thank you to all Britain's Armed Forces for everything you do to protect our country.

 

Congratulations to Councillor George Braeckman who has taken a ward, Stort Valley on Uttlesford council,  the Lib Dems had held since 1995.  George is 22 years old - it's always fantastic to see young people taking an active interest in politics - obviously I'm particularly pleased if they are Conservatives but it is a good thing for your people to get involved in any mainstream political party. Also worth pointing out that the seat George won yesterday had been Lib/Dem since before he was born! In one fell swoop George has ended 3 decades of Lib Dem control and put Reform in third place. Results were: 🌳 CONSERVATIVE: 46.4% (+18.7) 🔶 LIBERAL DEMOCRAT: 31.9% (-25.8) ➡️ REFORM UK: 21.7% (+16.0) No LAB (-9.0) as previous. Conservative GAIN from Liberal Democrat. Changes with respect to 2023. CONGRATULATIONS ALSO TO COUNCILLOR LINDA SILVER on gaining the Bushey park ward from the Lib/Dems, and this was an even more significant gain because it means hat the Lib-Dem / Labour coali...

Responding to statements that a senior figure in the Labour party, quote, " Even describes Burnham as Labour's 'first woman Prime Minister, '" Kemi Badenoch tweeted: "Labour might have changed leader, but they still don’t know what a woman is 😅"

"Starmer's government is full of incredible stories of social mobility, of which they are all extremely proud. None of them seem to have noticed that they all grew up under Margaret Thatcher." ( Tom Peck )

"Nigel Farage does not have enough serious candidates. Many of the people he has recruited would struggle to pass the standards of someone appointed to run the village fete, let alone govern a country." Kemi Badenoch.

“ This application is legally flawed, evidentially deficient, and procedurally defective. It constitutes an abuse of the process of this court, driven by an improper motive and facilitated by serious breaches of the duty of candor. The application for a summons is refused. ” With the above words Judge Goldspring rejected an attempt by Pro-Palestinian activists to bring a private prosecution against a man with joint British and Israeli citizenship who had been conscripted into the IDF and been called up as an ID reservist. As all Israeli citizens are conscripted into the IDF, and there was no evidence that the person concerned had actually committed any war crimes, this effectively amounted to an attempt to criminalise him for being a citizen of Israel. Looks like Judge Goldspring didn't think the application aligned very well with the law or was very truthful, either.