Chris Whiteside's Blog

"Congratulations to everyone getting their results today 🎉 If you’re heading to university, this should be an exciting time. You should be optimistic about your future, not worrying about student loan repayments following you for decades. Conservatives want young people who work hard for a better life to keep more of what they earn. That’s why we’re starting by scrapping the unfair interest on Plan 2 student loans 👇 Kemi Badenoch describes Conservative proposals on Student Loans / X Kemi Badenoch Leader of the Conservative party

“Equality of rights does not mean equality of results. I can have all the equal treatment in the world on a golf course and I will not finish within shouting distance of Tiger Woods.” — Thomas Sowell

Of course I seriously considered posting "Total Eclipse" with the late great Bonnie Tyler as my midweek music spot for this evening: but that would be far too obvious and it was only a partial eclipse anyway. So here instead is Fran Jeffries' fantastic performance from the first Pink Panther film of "It had better be tonight" (or Meglio Stasera.) What is particularly spellbinding about this performance is the way in which, while singing the actual superbly and bringing it to life, while dancing in a way which grabs the attention of everyone in the room, Fran manages to interact with so many of them individually, from the film's nominal central character, the jewel thief played by the suave and sophisticated David Niven, to Peter Sellers as the bumbling police inspector who steals the show with his ridiculous antics.    A great performance from a truly classic film.

"It is so easy to be wrong - and to persis in being wrong - when the costs of being wrong are paid by others." Thomas Sowell.

A once in a generation opportunity to watch a solar eclipse in the UK takes place tomorrow (Wednesday 12th August 2026 If watching,  DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITHOUT EYE PROTECTION SUCH AS CERTIFIED ECLIPSE GLASSES! Across the UK, the Moon will cover roughly 90% to 95% of the Sun in the late afternoon and early evening. The event begins around 6:08 PM to 6:18 PM BST and ends near 8:00 PM to 8:10 PM BST, varying slightly depending where exactly in the UK you are. Regional Eclipse Timings (British Summer Time) Edinburgh & Glasgow: Begins at 6:08 PM; maximum coverage (approx. 91%) at 7:05 PM; ends at 8:00 PM. Manchester & Liverpool: Begins at 6:13 PM; maximum coverage (approx. 91-92%) at 7:10 PM; ends at 8:03 PM. Birmingham: Begins at 6:15 PM; maximum coverage (approx. 92%) at 7:11 PM; ends at 8:04 PM. London, Bristol & Cardiff: Begins at 6:16–6:17 PM; maximum coverage (approx. 91-93%) at 7:12–7:13 PM; ends at 8:06–8:07 PM. Truro, Cornwall: Begins at 6:18 PM; maxim...

  "Economic policies need to be analyzed in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the hopes that inspired them."" Thomas Sowell

Out delivering Mayoral surveys in Millom this morning and early afternoon. Friends of mine were out today campaigning in places from Carlisle to Selby and throughout the country. And for everyone who's just finished pounding the streets, here's something to relax to: Bach's "Gloria in Excelsis Deo."

Kemi Badenoch : "Simon Levy’s victims paid the price for a system that failed to impose consequences. No more women should have to pay that price. Law and order are the first duty of government. The Conservative Party is ready to enforce them again. Read more in my piece in the Daily Mail👇" Failure after failure left Simon Levy free to prey on women at will. This madness MUST stop, writes Tory leader KEMI BADENOCH | Daily Mail Online

I know I have already used this a few times this year, but there are few better ways to relax on a hot summer evening than to listen to a piece of music like Binge's Elizabethan serenade while looking at beautiful pictures which seem to have the heat pouring off them.

I bet they didn't sing the anti-Jacobite verse, (the one with the ending which might give reasonable offence to Scottish people) though!  

 “I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much undetermined and unpredictable, to a pretense of exact knowledge that is likely to be false.” — Friedrich Hayek

 92% of reported crimes go unsolved. That must change. Crime must have consequences.

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 on 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 il...

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.