Chris Whiteside's Blog

"I won't ride my horse into the city into which my Lord rode a donkey." General Allonby , who walked into Jerusalem on foot after local Ottoman forces surrendered. (My grandfather, John Whiteside Senior,  was serving in Allonby's forces as part of the RAMC detachment at the time.)

Clocks in Britain and much of Europe go forward an hour tonight as Britain and many other countries change to Summer time. 

Whitehaven and Workington Conservatives were out campaigning this morning in St Bees and had a great session. So for something to relax to after a good morning's work ... Last night I posted the theme music for the original 1963 "Pink Panther film." So here is the other exceptional music clip from that film: " Meglio Stasera, " performed by Fran Jeffries, a wonderfully cheerful song with some great singing and dancing from Fran and some great comic acting too by the rest of the cast, especially Peter Sellers.  (David Niven performed his part as the nominal lead actor in the film to perfection, but he's usually regarded as having been completely eclipsed by Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, who became the main character in the rest of the films in the series.)  This song is also sometimes performed in English as " It had better be tonight. " If you've never heard or watched this, you're missing out. Click on the box below for a treat.  

Did you ever have one of those experiences when you mind is working so closely to someone on th TV or Radio that it's almost as if you know what they're going to sy? This evening while listening to BBC Radio 4's " Add to playlist ," one of the people on the show referred to one of the most striking examples of a masterpiece written while the person who created it was dying. I thought "Is she about to refer to Pergolesi's " Stabat Mater. " She was and she did! And then later n the same programme, I was wondering of there was a link from the pieces being discussed to the theme and incidental music for the first "Pink Panther" film. There was, and the Pink Panther theme was the next piece of music! So here is our music to start the weekend: first Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" and then Henry Mancini's theme for the Pink Panther. First, " Stabat Mater " ... And the Pink Panther theme illustrated with short cli...

"If Isaac Newton tweeted that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, someone would reply, "No it doesn't." (Posted on X by Craig Deeley on 14th March 2026  Craig Deeley 🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 on X: "If Isaac Newton tweeted that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, someone would reply, "No it doesn't"" / X  ) This is a perfect example of the very best kind of joke, the kind which works on several different levels.

Fantastic set of local government by-election results for the Conservatives. Four principal council seats being contested. Conservatives won three. We held both seats we were defending, and made one gain from the Lib/Dems. Reform UK gained the fourth seat from Labour. Congratulations to newly elected Conservative councillor Lee Evans who gained a district council seat representing Stanford ward in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire from the Lib Dems Stanford Ward By-Election 🗳️ Votes cast: 🟦 CONSERVATIVE      Evans                     666    45.9% ELECTED 🟨 LIB/DEM                       Bettridge              395    27.2% 🟪 REFORM UK             Von Simpson       261    18% 🟩 GREEN           ...

"Ed Miliband's energy policy is madness on stilts. There is no higher priority than stopping him before he ruins Britain.  ANDREW NEIL, headline on article in the Mail. ANDREW NEIL: Ed Miliband's energy policy is madness on stilts. There is no higher priority than stopping him before he ruins Britain | Daily Mail Online : 

CONFIRMED: New figures show Conservative-run authorities deliver lower council tax rises than any other Party.   Average council tax rises by party control Conservative councils - 3.3% Lib/Dem councils - 3.5% Reform UK Councils - 3.7% Labour councils - 4.2% So despite promising to cut council tax, Reform UK councils have not just put up the council tax by more on average then Conservative controlled councils - they even cost you more than the average Liberal Democrat council! Vote Conservative on 7 May!

"Russia, China and Iran vote with others to demand trillions in reparations from UK taxpayers…and the Labour government abstain! Britain led the fight to end slavery. Why didn’t Starmer’s representative vote against this? Ignorance…or cowardice? We shouldn’t be paying for a crime we helped eradicate and still fight today." Kemi Badenoch on the egregious UN motion declaring the transatlantic slave trade to be the worst crime in history - which will be news to the few remaining survivors of the Holocaust - and demanding that the colonial powers pay reparations. The Transatlantic slave trade was indeed a vile crime. But why no mention of the East African slave trade run by various arab nations, which over thirteen centuries trafficked nearly as many many African slaves as in the Transatlantic slaves - at a far higher cost in human life. Ironically, the East African slave trade attracts less attention and debate not because it was a less serious crime, but because in some ways i...

Thanks to the BBC for this fact check of what is happening to energy bills. At PMQs today Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch clashed over energy bills. Starmer said: “ Because of the action we’ve taken, bills are coming down by up to £100 next month ”. Badenoch replied: “ He says bills are coming down. They are higher than when he came into office ”. Both statements were true. Energy bills will be around £117 lower from April to the end of June  in England, Scotland and Wales, for a household using a typical amount of energy. However, the bill for a “typical household” will still be higher in April this year than in July 2024, when Labour came to power. In July 2024 it was £1,568 , external  and in  April 2026 it will be £1,641  - £73 higher. My comment: Labour promised in their election manifesto to deliver lower energy bills. In fact, even after the coming slight decrease, bills are and will remain higher for the average family g...

From Conservative backbencher Peter Fortune : "As we move towards the Easter recess, I am sure the Prime Minister's thoughts are turning to the miracle of resurrection" And here is the image of the session:

Today is the 219th anniversary of the act becoming law which abolished the slave trade. On this day, 25th March, in 1807, the Abolition of Slave Trade act gained Royal assent making the trade in slaves illegal throughout the British Empire. The Royal Navy's West African squadron was tasked with exterminating this evil trade and freeing the slaves.  In the decades that followed units of the Royal Navy, mostly from that squadron, captured over 1600 slave trader ships, freeing over 150,000 slaves. There were costs in money but more importantly there was a cost in lives, mostly from disease, as it required the navy to operate in areas such as the Bight of Benin were there was a high disease risk. The navy lost about 1,587 sailors who died on slavery suppression operations between 1830 and 1865, which is just under one sailor for every slave trader ship captured or about one for every nine slaves freed. The total financial cost of slavery suppression operations over the sixty-year perio...

From Genesis, Chapter 50 verse 20, " God turned your evil into good. "  (Expanded Bible) I have picked this line from the bible as my quote for today on hearing the latest fundraising total for the Hatzola appeal. Following the atrocious firebombing of community ambulances operated for all local residents in North London by Hatzola, people who care about protecting the sick, some of whom are Jews and some of whom are not, have given £1.7 million in two days to support Hatzola. Also pleased to learn that the Met have made two arrests in connection with the firebombing.

 

"With integrity, nothing else counts. Without integrity, nothing else counts."   Winston Churchill

 From the BBC this morning. "An arson attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish community ambulance service in north London is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, the Metropolitan Police has said. Four Hatzola ambulances were set ablaze in Golders Green in the early hours of Monday morning, causing several explosions - believed to be linked to gas cannisters onboard the vehicles. No arrests have been made but CCTV footage, which appears to show three suspects dressed in black walking towards an ambulance before setting it on fire, is being investigated. Hatzola representative Laurence Blitz said it was " shocking for any normal-minded person to attack an organisation whose sole purpose is to save lives. " The London Fire Brigade was called to Highfield Road at around 01:40 GMT and the fires were brought under control less than two hours later. No injuries have been reported. Dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes after a series of explosions which c...

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

SWIMATHON 2026 I will be taking part in the 40th Anniversary Swimathon at Hensingham pool in Whitehaven. This will be the 33rd consecutive year I have taken part. I aim to swim 5,000 metres at Hensingham pool to raise money for Cancer research UK, Marie Curie cancer care, and the swimathon foundation. The 40th anniversary Swimathon is taking place at more than 450 pools around the UK from Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd March 2026. Since 1986, Swimathon has united swimmers of all ages, abilities, shapes, and sizes in a national celebration of swimming and fundraising. In 2026, we proudly mark 40 years of this iconic event — and I'm delighted to be part of it! If you want to help, you can sponsor me, or any of the thousands of other swimmers who are completing one of the Swimathon challenges. 💛 Supporting Charities That Matter Over the last four decades, Swimathon has raised over £50 million for charities. In 2026, we’re proud to support: Cancer Research UK – advancing the fight against ...

Today is the fifth Sunday in Lent, also known as Passion Sunday, and the lectionary in the Anglican church sets out two lessons which, anticipating Easter, tell stories of resurrection. The Gospel reading is about the resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus. The Old Testament lesson, Ezekiel Chapter 37, verses one to fourteen tells of the resurrection of the people of Israel after the Babylonian captivity, and uses the metaphor of a vision in which God shows the prophet Ezekiel a field of dry bones and then brings hem back to life. This inspired perhaps the most amusing of all African-American spiritual songs, "Dem Dry Bones, performed here by the Delta Rythm Boys:    

 

"Attacks on synagogues and Jewish shops in the UK, Europe and the US don't hurt Netanyahu. They only hurt ordinary Jews." ( Jonathan Freedland , headline on article in The Guardian. Pleased to see them publishing what amounts to a sensible reply to the piece by Jonathan Liew which they published a few days ago.)

I put up a link the other day to a book review on a site which has been reviewing various Science Fiction and fantasy books. They've just put up a review of one of my favourite novels of all time, " The Mote in God's Eye " by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.  Not just my favourite. The late Robert Heinlein, himself no mean writer of Science fiction, described this story as " The best novel about human beings making first contact with intelligent but utterly nonhuman aliens  I have ever seen, and possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read. " You can find the review at: Classic Science Fiction Book review: "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournelle The book itself is available from Amazon at: The Mote in God's Eye: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Amazon.co.uk

Congratulations to newly-elected Conservative Councillor Tom Martin who gained the Valley Gardens ward of Harrogate Town Council from the Lib/Dems yesterday. Reform came a poor third, Greens a worse fourth, and Labour did not put up a candidate.