Chris Whiteside's Blog

Not very often that I agree with former UKIP leader Henry Bolton, but his reply yesterday to Richard Tice in respect of Reform UK's utterly unworkable "Operation Fortress" plan is dead on. He wrote: " Richard (@TiceRichard) I’ve explained to you in the past, very clearly, why this is particular approach is unworkable.  My fear is not that you’d try to do this, should you ever have the opportunity, it’s that the last thing the nation wants or needs are yet more promises that will not survive contact with legal, operational or practical reality. This may be a catchy headline that you deploy to distract from other issues, but it will fail as a policy, and fail badly. " ( Henry Bolton OBE 🇬🇧 on X: "Richard @TiceRichard I’ve explained to you in the past, very clearly, why this is particular approach is unworkable. My fear is not that you’d try to do this, should you ever have the opportunity, it’s that the last thing the nation wants or needs are yet more prom...

Reform UK's latest "Ladybird guide to politics" announcement is to say they will send the navy to ensure no passengers in small boats crossing the channel make it to Britain. They call this "Operation Fortress." Exactly which ships they are going to use to do this and what orders they will be given is not spelled out. Ex para Andrew Fox has given an explanation n X of why this isn't a serious practical policy. His tweet reads as follows. "Someone has to do it, so I will. This policy is holed below the waterline before it begins. Zia Yusuf wants Britain’s warships to push migrant boats back to France. There are only three small problems: the law, the French and the Royal Navy. Operation Fortress will be “the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two”. Nigel Farage will grandiosely order “his Majesty’s Royal Navy” to intercept every unauthorised vessel crossing the Channel and return its occupants to France. No one arriving ill...

Rod Liddle, the outspoken and irrepressable newspaper columnist and former broadcaster has died aged 66 after a short illness. Liddle's children paid tribute to their father, who they described as their guide "on how to live an extraordinary life", while Rebekah Brooks, the Chief Executive CEO of News UK, called him "an inimitable journalistic force." Brooks added that "he challenged conventional thinking and left an indelible mark on British journalism." Liddle first made his mark as editor of BBC Radio 4's flagship "Today" programme, but after leaving the programme he wrote for various publications including the Sunday Times and the Sun. He also had a weekly column in the Spectator, as well as a show on Times Radio. Rod Liddle died at The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough on Sunday evening. His children, Wilder, Tyler and Emmy, said: "We're all very saddened and shocked at the sudden passing of our wonderful fathe...

"This isn’t pacifism. It's someone who wanted to be Home Secretary repeating the Kremlin's and Beijing's propaganda. She’s wrong and she’s a throwback to the 70s, siding with tyrants who murdered millions. Starmer fought the cranks in Labour. Burnham's welcoming them back." Tom Tugendhat MP (Conservative) on the so-called "Peace conference" at which Diane Abbott referred to Putin's invasion of Ukraine as 'NATO's campaign against Russia. ( Tom Tugendhat on X: "This isn’t pacifism. It's someone who wanted to be Home Secretary repeating the Kremlin's and Beijing's propaganda. She’s wrong and she’s a throwback to the 70s, siding with tyrants who murdered millions. Starmer fought the cranks in Labour. Burnham's welcoming them back." / X )

Nick Cohen has a powerful piece on substack, "Why Westerners hate the West" inspired by the decision to re-admit Diane Abbot to the parliamentary Labour party. He notes some of the extraordinary things she has said about international affairs. As someone who used to be on the far left himself, he explains the mindset of those who hate the West so much that they will defend almost any action, no matter how evil, from those who are the West's enemies. Cohen also notes that a surprising proportion of people on the far right of politics in various countries - he gives Trump and the MAGA Republicans in the USA and Orban in Hungary as examples but also criticises the stance taken by some Reform K members in this country - are dangerously soft on some of our country's enemies, particularly Putin. (For anyone not familiar with the expression "The horseshoe" in politics, it's the suggestion the left-to-right axis o politics bends round like a horseshoe so that so...

"Andy Burnham’s decision to excuse Diane Abbott’s support of Putin’s propaganda is a grim omen for our future." Nick Cohen (See next post)

Here is a performance of the opening of the oratorio "The Creation" by Haydn, from " In the Beginning " to " The heavens are telling the glory of God. " And this performance has the CORRECT words. Unlike almost every other performance of " The heavens are telling " you will ever hear, the conductor, Simon Lindley, has used the version, which is available but hardly anyone else bothers to use, which avoids an egregious translation error in the second line of Psalm 19. I will confess that I am not great with languages other than English. So when someone makes a mistake in translating anything which even I can spot, it usually means it's a really bad one. Simon Lindley conducted a performance of "The Messiah" by a school choir which I sang in when I was a boy, and he made us all cross out and then staple up the version of "The Heavens are telling" in the books we were using for the rest of the oratorio, and issued a...

 Aggregate Result of the 87 Council By-Elections Since the 2026 Local Elections from Election Maps: Party name, seats won (net change in brackets), vote share (change in brackets) Reform: 17 (+6) | 23% (+12) Conservative: 17 (+1) | 19% (-1) Liberal Democrats: 15 (-) | 15% (-) Labour: 11 (-4) | 16% (-6) Green: 10 (+1) | 15% (-1) Welsh Nationalists (PLC): 9 (-1) | 4% (+1) Independent: 5 (-3) | 5% (-3) Scottish Nationalist (SNP: 2 (+2) | 2% (-1) Local: 1 (-2) | 1% (-2) Looks to me like anyone who tells you that a party they don't like is "dead" or "doomed" is indulging in wishful thinking. There is everything to play for.

Steeleye Span's tribute to the late great Terry Pratchett

"Net zero scepticism is not climate-change denial Net-zero scepticism is too often confused with climate change scepticism. But they are not the same thing. It is an elementary distinction, but an important one. Climate change is a scientific phenomenon. Net zero by 2050 is a political programme. One can accept the science while questioning whether a particular collection of laws, subsidies, targets and prohibitions will actually solve the problem. The current net zero 2050 plans do not. That is my position and has been my position for years. Yet writing in The Telegraph on Wednesday Ambrose Evans Pritchard accused me of flirting with “climate nihilism”. He warns that the Conservatives are becoming Trumpian and trying to stop the clock on technological progress. Unfortunately, he has either not listened to what I have said, or has decided that my argument would be easier to attack if he replaced it with a different one. Climate change is real. We can see its effects all over the w...

The previous secretary of state for education, Bridget Phillipson, was not exactly popular with Conservatives from Kemi Badenoch down.  We argued at the last election that the policy of taxing independent schools would not stop the very rich from sending their children to the likes of Eton and Harrow but would stop some of the less-well-off who would otherwise have scrimped and saved to send their children to schools which they thought would give them a better life, thereby paying twice and saving the state the cost of educating those children. Sure enough, 2026 data suggests that Labour's taxes on private education have resulted in a 30,000 drop in the number of children attending them, a 3.5% fall in enrolment. This is a larger fall and a faster one than ministers had planned for. Exactly as Conservatives and others predicted, far from helping the great majority of children who attend state schools, that means 30,000 more children having to fit into the same, now more overcrowded...

This performance of "Sogno di Volare" (The dream of flight) was conducted by the composer, Christopher Tin, and performed by Bel Canto Choir Vilnius, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish choir A Scalpella. It is the theme music to Sid Meier's Civilisation VI.

  Kemi has it sussed out.  While the other leaders are still fighting internal battles, external investigations or are simply moribund, the Conservatives have a new party. - A new inclusive culture of like minded Conservatives - New candidate selection rules and training - New policies enriched by members' contributions - Legally sound exit from the ECHR - A UK 'Bill of Rights' (and responsibilities!) - A suite of economic policies to revive the UK, reduce taxes, and grow the economy. A recipe for Common Sense Government 

"We always work with the grain of human nature. The grain of human nature is this: if people are given an incentive they will work harder, they will want more income to give their families a better standard of living to buy their own houses, or to buy extra pensions for themselves, so we gave incentives. And we knew if we got taxation down, ironically, we would get more income in." Margaret Thatcher.

"Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin was the award-winning theme music for Sid Meier's Civilisation IV. The lyrics are the Lord's Prayer in Swahili

Extract from a Michael Gove piece on the new Education secretary's policies

“The grand fallacy of the political left is that evil is localized in some set of ' oppressors ' from whom we can be ' liberated. ' That is also its great attraction, for it allows people to attribute their dissatisfaction to other people.” (Thomas Sowell)

Bill Oddie, one of the funniest comedians I ever saw, has died at the age of 85. To those of us of a certain generation, he will always be remembered as one of the madcap comedy trio "The Goodies" along with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden. He was also a keen naturalist and wildlife supporter and a campaigner for birds in particular. Rest in Peace.

The above is a modern performance, and a very good one. This is how the theme was used in the title sequence in the original film, sixty-three years ago.

 "If things are going to plan, then it's a very bad plan" Professor Gerdes, from his YouTube channel " Professor Gerdes explains " responds to he Russian claim that their special military operation in Ukraine is going to plan

  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.)