Chris Whiteside's Blog

The author and Oxford Don J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," died on this day in 1973. He was once asked, I believe by a prospective German publisher, about his ancestry and whether he was " arisch " and he took this, almost certainly correctly, to mean that they were asking whether he was Jewish. His response, published in "The letters of J.R.R. Tolkien" and posted on X today, must be one of the most effective squelches in literary history.   

John Stanley was born in London on 17 January 1712, seventeen years after the death of Henry Purcell. At about the age of two, he fell on a marble hearth with a china basin in his hand, causing injuries  which left him almost completely blind. He began studying music at the age of seven. Under the guidance of Maurice Greene, composer and organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, he studied " with great diligence, and a success that was astonishing. "   From the age of nine he played the organ, probably as an occasional deputy, at All Hallows, Bread Street. When he was eleven years old, Stanley was appointed organist to the church at a salary of £20 per annum. When he was fourteen, and apparently " in preference to a great number of candidates, " he was chosen as organist at the church of St Andrew, Holborn, and at the age of seventeen he became the youngest person ever to obtain a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Oxford. Though almost blind, Stanley had a...

Robert Colvile has an excellent thread on X basd on a column he wrote in The Times which dissects the Andy Burnham project and particularly the ridiculous economics which underlie it. Robert Colvile on X: "Andy Burnham's speech on Friday promised voters 'the return of the Labour they once knew' - to undo not just Thatcher, but Blair. But the economics underpinning that claim are, frankly, garbage. (1/?) https://t.co/RNnzASFe3l" / X He writes: "Andy Burnham's speech on Friday promised voters ' the return of the Labour they once knew ' - to undo not just Thatcher, but Blair. But the economics underpinning that claim are, frankly, garbage. Burnham argues that in the 1980s, communities across Britain were stripped of political and economic power. That because they 'surrendered control of the essentials', they were 'exposed to higher costs'. And that greater public control is the *only* way to bring those costs down." ( Burnham sai...

 

Like most recent polls, the one published today by "More in common" has the Conservative, Labour, and Reform UK parties fairly close together in terms of vote share and well ahead of any of the other parties. As Luke Tryl of More In Common said, the changes seen are "margin of error" changes. Nevertheless, the poll showed the highest Conservative vote share since January of this year, and Reform’s lowest in 18 months, and the Conservatives knocked Reform into third place.  Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives have been slowly but steadily gaining ground on Reform UK  for a while. No one poll, especially not one with a margin of error lead, is significant. But although one poll might not mean all that much, the trend does mean something. Here is the corresponding seat projection.

“Politicians who are nailed by their own words often try to evade responsibility by saying that their statements were ‘ taken out of context. ’ They should then be asked to explain just what those words meant when taken in context.” — Thomas Sowell, (from his December 2001 syndicated column Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene.)

There is a joke which goes back at least to "Yes Minister" about a false syllogism representing a politician's response to a problem: "We must do something, This is something, Therefore we must do it." The calls from some quarters for sanctions against Israel are a classic example. Stephen Pollard has a piece in The Sun today, which he has also posted on X, which inter alia points out that the people who would probably be hit hardest by this would be Palestinians, roughly 30,000 of whom work for the network of Israeli businesses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. I  think Stephen's piece is worth reading, so here is the version posted no X. "Labour is so obsessed with attacking Israel it doesn’t realise a trade ban will cost PALESTINIAN jobs' Imagine Britain had an ally whose intelligence know-how was so vital to our safety that the head of MI5 said the ally had “disrupted a huge quantity of terror activity inside the UK” and “saved many, many liv...

Thomas Attwood (Born 23 November 1765 in London, died 24 March 1838) was an English composer and organist. Attwood studied under Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and he was a friend of Felix Mendelssohn. As should be obvious from the dates above, he was born 70 years after the death of Henry Purcell and died before the birth of Edward Elgar. His musical career began as a chorister in the Chapel Royal, where he caught the eye of the Prince of Wales, later George IV; he went on to compose music for the coronations of both George and his brother William IV. Attwood was also organist of St Paul's Cathedral. His compositions included a number o anthems, some of which are still sung in churches today, music and songs for some twenty musical plays and comic operas, and he was also a prolific writer of glees, including a setting of A Rose-Bud by my Early Walk , a poem by Robert Burns. Of his anthems, my favourite is " Turn thy face from my sins " Apologies for the fact that, due to a slig...

Distinguished pollster Lord Kellner has published an interesting piece on the way the ratings of Britain's political leaders vary according to which pollster is asking and what question they ask and how those ratings are changing over time. You can read the whole thing  here . But there are some key takeaways. The first is that, although different companies asking different questions show different results, all of them show a consistent improvement, typically in the range 20 to 25 percentage points,  in Kemi's ratings in the ten months from October 2025 to this month. At the time Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation, Kemi Badenoch's approval ratings were well ahead of his or of those of Nigel Farage or Zack Polanski. Andy Burnham is currently enjoying a honeymoon period and is in the lead, but Kemi's ratings have held steady and she remains well ahead of Farage and Polanski. Most interesting are the ratings for "PM in Waiting." Kellner writes: " You...

Just announced: new shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith, Claire Coutinho and Richard Fuller will form the new Conservative Economic Unit. Together, they’ll be focused on one thing: building a stronger economy.

Continuing my series of music by British born composers who were working between the death of Henry Purcell in 1695 and "the rise of Elgar," which I am defining as starting with the date of his first public composition, 1889. Sir Arthur Sullivan was born in Lambeth in 1842 (so 147 years after the death of Henry Purcell.) His father Thomas Sullivan was based from 1845 to 1857 at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he was the bandmaster and taught music privately to supplement his income. Young Arthur became proficient with many of the instruments in the band and composed an anthem, "By the Waters of Babylon", when he was eight. He later recalled: " I was intensely interested in all that the band did, and learned to play every wind instrument, with which I formed not merely a passing acquaintance, but a real, life-long, intimate friendship. I gradually learned the peculiarities of each ... what it could do and what it was unable to do. I learned in the b...

 

Continuing my series of music by British born composers who were working between the death of Henry Purcell in 1695 and "the rise of Elgar," which I am defining as starting with the date of his first public composition, 1889. Sir John Goss was born in Fareham in 1800 (so 105 years after the death of Henry Purcell) and died in 1880 (Nine years before Elgar's first published work. He was organist at St Paul's Cathedral from 1838 to 1872, knighted in 1872 by Queen Victoria, and taught as Professor of harmony at the Royal Academy of Music (1827–1874) where his pupils included notable composers like Arthur Sullivan and John Stainer (both of whom were also knighted by Queen Victoria). Hymn tunes composed by John Goss still sung today include those to which  "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven" and "See, amid the winter's snow" are most often sung, but my favourite John Goss piece of music is the anthem "O Saviour of the world" -

 

Former PM Boris Johnson was interviewed at the ET World Leaders Forum 2026 by Executive Editor of The Economic Times Sruthijith KK, August 22,2026. Here is a short extract from the interview: you can read the whole transcript at Transcript of Boris Johnson Interview: ET World Leaders Forum 2026 – The Singju Post SRUTHIJITH KK : (00:26:07 – 00:26:32): In April this year, you went to the front lines of the war in Ukraine. You have since spoken out about the impact of drone warfare. Yes. How are drones changing the— I mean, firstly, take us through your thoughts on the war and where it’s going, and especially how are drones changing the equations on the ground? BORIS JOHNSON : (00:26:32 – 00:32:30): Yeah, well, SK, I mean, it’s a brilliant point. I mean, I don’t know whether anybody has been to Ukraine or talked to the Ukrainians about what’s happened, or to the Russians, but the drone thing is really terrifying. You can be blapped, you’ve zapped, blipped at any time, and miles f...

I published a good recording of Sir John Stainer's Trinity Sunday anthem "I saw the Lord," earlier today, then found this one by The Sixteen which is even better.

James Cleverly is resigning from the Shadow Cabinet to seek the Conservative nomination o be mayor of London. James would be a fantastic mayor. I hope he wins.

Sir John Stainer was born in Southwark, London in 1840 (145 years after the death of Henry Purcell) and was already a prolific composer when he was appointed organist of Magdalen College Oxford at the age of 20 (29 years before Elgar's first published work.)  He was knighted by Queen Victoria in  1888 for his services to music and his other honours included being invited to be a juror at the French Exhibition in Paris in 1878, an  adjudicator at the Welsh Eisteddfod at Caernarvon in 1880. He was also made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by France in in 1879. The piece for which he is perhaps best remembered and which is most often heard today is his major work "The Crucifixion" but my favourite piece by Stainer, also still performed, especially for Trinity Sunday, is the anthem "I saw the Lord"  

 

"Rule Britannia by London born composer Thomas Arne was the finale of the patriotic opera "Alfred" which was, obviously, about Alfred the Great, and was first performed in August 1740 (55 years after the death of Henry Purcell.) The rest of the opera is rarely performed today, which is rather a shame as it contained some rather great music, but "Rule Britannia" soon became and has remained one of Britain's favourite and most stirring patriotic songs.

 “Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” — Ronald Reagan

William Boyce was born in London in 1711, (so sixteen years after the death of Henry Purcell.) He was one of the most famouss composers of the 18th century. This piece is an ode to the year 1772: interesting concept, but it is a lovely bit of music.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was born to a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Dublin in 1852. At the age of 29 he became one of he founding professors at the Royal College of Music in London, where he taught composition for the rest of his life. Some very distinguished composers including Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughn-Williams were among his pupils. He had a particularly enormous influence on English church music, and this setting of the canticles for evening prayer is still frequently sung in English cathedrals and churches, and indeed others round the world, today.

"It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else's opinion." — Thomas Sowell

Samuel Wesley (24 February 1766 – 11 October 1837) was one of three members of the prolific and talented Wesley family with that Christian name, and was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. His grandfather, also called Samuel Wesley, was a famous poet: his uncle was John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart (1756–1791) and was called by some of his admirers "the English Mozart", but he had a son, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810 - 1876) who went on to be an even more famous composer than he was. Sadly the Samuel Wesley who wrote the piece below lived before the existence of recording devices, so itis impossible to compare his playing of the organ with those who lived in other centuries, but if half of what was said of his playing by his contemporaries is true he must have been one of the best organists who ever lived. Unfortunately many of his compositions do not survive, but here is one which does.

 National Highways have confirmed that they are proposing to cut the speed limit on the section of the A595 through Bigrigg in West Cumbria from 40mph to 30mph. The speed limit would be enforced by average speed limit cameras. There will be a public consultation before a final decision is taken. If approved the reduced speed limit would come into effect next year (2027.)

"Hope is no basis for a defence policy." Margaret Thatcher

Sir Hubert Parry was born in Bournemouth in 1840,  145 years after the death of Henry Purcell, and his first published major compositions appeared in 1880, nine years before Elgar's first published work. This piece, " Blest Pair Of Sirens, " was first performed on 17th May 1887, at St James's Hall, London.