Chris Whiteside's Blog

This is a particularly appropriate question for today. What irrational fear is referred to by the following word, paraskevidekatriaphobia? An appropriate prize (it isn't something nasty) will be sent to the first person to post the correct answer in the quiz thread comments on either of the two blogs on which this quiz post will simultaneously appear at 06:00 UTC on Friday 13th February 2026.

“ Keir’s not driving the train. He thinks he’s driving the train, but we’ve sat him at the front of the DLR. ” Now the driverless train chugs on, with no direction. The control room is empty, and the Prime Minister is stuck unable to change the track himself. From an article by Tom Harwood in The Critic which you can read in full be clicking on the link below: Starmer’s countdown begins | Tom Harwood | The Critic Magazine The first sentence above, in italics and quotation marks, is taken from the book, " Get In " by Gabrial Pogrund and Patrick Maguire, and they were quoting a member of Starmer’s inner circle describing his political operation, citing the driverless Docklands Light Railway.  The following sentence is what Tom Harwood's wrote immediately after that quote and is his commentary on what that means for the country now that Morgan McSweeney, the brains behind the operation, has resigned. 

The ONS has released the latest figures for UK economic growth, relating to  the UK's Gross Domestic Product for the three months ending December 2025: In their words, "GDP grew 0.1% in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025.  Services showed no growth (0.0%), while production grew (+1.2%) and construction contracted (-2.1%)." Source:  GDP first quarterly estimate, UK - Office for National Statistics They also said that GDP per head has reduced slightly in each of the last two quarters. 

Tom Peck in The Times on the PM's dreadful performance at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday ... “When you’re bang to rights, it’s common in politics, though never wise, to point out that your opponent is worse than you are. It’s never wise because it’s not a denial, it’s an admission of guilt. This was like that, but worse. When you’re on the ropes over child sex offences, you can’t really return fire with an illegal cheese and wine party, but he tried it.”

From Jan Ganesh in the Financial Times on the Labour challengers to Starmer: "You have to have access to a special plane of consciousness to believe that Labour is unpopular because it is not leftwing enough."

 

Bangor University has issued a statement disavowing the views of their student Debating and Political Society and confirming the University's commitment to free speech. Here is the statement.

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.” Roy H. Williams

I try never to get too hung up on any single opinion  poll, especially three years out from a General Election, but this set of results from the pollster More in Common is quite interesting.

Hat-tip to John Rentoul for posting on X this section of Stephen K Bush's morning Newsletter:

 Thanks to Andrew Griffith MP for posting this comment from Heath Secretary Wes Streeting on X: (Source:   Andrew Griffith MP on X: "I agree with Wes on this! More self awareness than his own Chancellor and Prime Minister.⬇️ https://t.co/stdeQxM0cw" / X )

When I was a student I was a strong supporter of Free Speech (within the law) and opponent of the so called "No platform" policy. I supported a private member's bill proposed by Fred Sylvester MP to make it unlawful for student unions or the higher education establishment's authorities to stop a group of students inviting a speaker because the people implementing such a ban disagreed with the speaker's views. A measure very like the Fred Sylvester bill did eventually become law as the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023  (click on link for details of the act.) I strongly support that act. Because Education is devolved it does not apply in Wales. The current committee of the Debating and Political Society at Bangor University, who might or might not have broken that law if it applied in Wales but were certainly unwise, have walked into a Reform UK trap by turning down a request by two Reform UK members of parliament to speak to the society. That in itself...

"A smart man only believes half of what he hears, a wise man knows which half." Jeff Cooper

Stan Ford, a royal navy veteran who took part in the D-Day landings and survived the sinking of his ship not long after that, has died at the age of 100. Stan, who was born in Bristol and later lived in Bath, celebrated his 100th birthday in May 2025, at a party attended by family, friends, and local officials. Above: Stan Ford (centre) at his 100th birthday celebration Ford served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and, at the age of 19, was serving was aboard HMS Fratton when it was torpedoed off the coast of Normandy in August 1944.  HMS Fratton was an escort ship assigned to accompany ships taking men and supplies across the Channel on D-Day and afterwards. The impact of the explosion from the torpedo which sank her was so severe that the gun platform Stan Ford was operating was blown off the ship and into the sea, with him still on it. He suffered a fractured spine and injuries to both legs when the ship was sunk in 1944, leaving him with lifelong injuries. He was p...

After the Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, let it be known that he had warned the Prime Minister not to appoint Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the USA - an interesting comment since Lammy was Foreign Secretary at the time and would presumably have had to sign off on the appointment - a "Labour source" told the Guido Fawkes site, (see here ) “ If Lammy’s political instincts are telling him it’s time to make his move, it can only mean that Keir is entirely safe. ”

 “There’s a theory about the Russo-Ukrainian war that is designed to satisfy the innate desire of the contrarians to be 'against the current thing.'” “It also satisfies the desire of anti-Western westerners to blame … the West.” "Best of all, that theory allows you to appear thoughtful and nuanced while everyone else is being hysterical about Russian aggression. Letting go of it is near impossible, because ones ego and intellectualism are at stake." "The theory goes like this: Russia invaded Ukraine in preemptive self-defense against American aggression, embodied by NATO’s arrogant eastward expansion. Had America simply shown restraint and honored its alleged promises to Gorbachev, none of this would have happened. It’s a compelling narrative - one that transforms a war of conquest (born out of ideology) into a story of Western arrogance and Russian victimhood." "There’s only one problem with that theory: it’s almost entirely fiction . A very carefully ...

This is what Angela Rayner, then deputy leader of the opposition, tweeted when Rishi Sunak became Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister without calling a general election:

Wednesday 4th February 2026:  Sir Keir Starmer at this week’s PMQs ‘ Morgan McSweeney is an essential part of my team. He helped me change the Labour party and win an election. I have confidence in him. ’ Sunday 8th February 2026: Morgan McSweeney resigns. He said: "After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the Government. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself. "When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice. In public life responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside."

  And Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur Harris - known to popular history as "Bomber Harris" - was as good as his word. The point has also been made that the present Russian government seems to have attacked Ukraine with a similar naive belief that they could bomb the hell out of Ukraine's civilian population, but it would be an outrage if anyone did anything to them ...

 

Having watched the Labour government nearly come apart over the last few days, I am reminded of a Spitting Image sketch comparing Labour's current opinions to the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Ruddigore and a song beginning with the words "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation." The main characters in both the original song and the Spitting image parody admit that their opinions are irrelevant in a trio with the chorus line "It really doesn't matter." The original song includes phrases like " If I were not a little mad and generally silly I would give you my opinions on the subject willy nilly " Spitting Image portrayed the Labour G&S Society under Neil Kinnock, then Labour leader, performing their version of the Ruddigore song, with Kinnock singing, almost too fast to make out (which is part of the joke). Here is the original song "It really doesn't matter" from Gilbert & Sullivan's opera Ruddigore, whic...

Let me make clear at the start that I am not in favour of racism against anyone, whether their skin is white, back, brown, yellow, blue or any other colour, whether they are Jewish, Muslim or a member of any other faith group or none, and whoever the racism is coming from. Anyone may fall foul of the temptation to slip into racist modes of thought, anyone can be a victim of racism, and the suggestion that people of any particular colour are either uniquely guilty of or uniquely free from racism is itself racist. I am in favour of sensible attempts to educate people against racism and extremism. However, all such programmes must be constructed carefully to ensure that they do not become subject to over-reach and in particular, do not appear to target what the majority of society would regard as legitimate mainstream opinions. The danger of this is all the greater because it is usually the product either of genuine misunderstandings and miscommunication or of unconscious biases on the pa...

The CPC is to seek a retrial in the Elbit Systems case. I presume that on the charges where the jury acquitted the defendants those verdicts will stand, but there should indeed be retrials on those charges where the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

When the history of newspapers in Britain is written, Eddie Shah deserves to be remembered as the man who started a revolution in the industry by freeing the press from the print unions and introducing new computer-based technology to the nationals. His actions were hugely controversial at the time, but after his death in late December 2025, even The Guardian could write of him in their obituary published yesterday,  " Shah sparked the changes that broke the unions’ power and allowed the introduction of new printing methods, exploited first by Rupert Murdoch and subsequently by every other national newspaper group including the Guardian. From the grey and inky pages and grainy black-and-white photographs of the 1970s and early 80s, the newspapers burst into colour reproduction, more innovative designs and speedier and uninterrupted print and circulation runs. " They quoted Eddie Shah himself as saying “ It wasn’t a failure because our innovations benefited the rest of the ind...