Chris Whiteside's Blog

It's a pity that The Times have put their site behind a paywall, as I would like to be able to link to an excellent article which Danny Finkelstein wrote this week about the Standards Board regime which is meant to protect ethics in local government (and which the new government is pledged to replace). He gives as an example the fact that Cardiff City Councillor John Dixon, who put a comment on Twitter inferring that Scientology is "stupid," has been referred to the ethics panel of that council following a complaint accusing his tweet of having "impinged on the right to religious freedom." You can find another website which reports on the case here . Ironically, in the subtitle, Monica who runs that blog expresses the opinion "I think it is safe to say that Scientology is stupid." Apparently not if you're a councillor, it isn't! One of the things I used to think this country stood for is that everyone was entitled to their views and everyone wa...

Mike Smithson of "Political Betting makes the following good point in response to Jack Straw's ridiculous charge that the coalition's attempts to make the electoral system fairer are "Gerrymandering." " Every so often I find myself having to explain to non-election anoraks why it is that Labour can secure an overall majority with 2.7% more votes while the Tories need a margin of 11.2%. Generally their eyes glaze over as I talk about differential turnouts etc but the point they grasp instantly is that Labour-held seats have, on average, smaller electorates than Tory or LD-held ones. This is one of the things that on the face of it seems unfair and that should be put right. It’s hard to argue against. So I wonder whether Mr. Jack Straw has made a mistake in making the Coalition move to create equal-sized constituencies the reason why Labour will oppose the electoral reform bill that includes this and the AV referendum? For it looks as if he’s trying to find an...

Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has visited West Cumberland Hospital and confirmed that the hospital will get at least £70 million from the government for the redevelopment project. The Health Secretary met staff to thank them for their hard work following the tragic shootings, and said: "I and my colleagues in Government have looked with great care at the case for finding support for the rebuilding of West Cumberland Hospital. "While other new hospital schemes are being considered in the context of the spending review, West Cumberland will be treated on an exceptional basis, given its stage of development, evident priority and the relationship with local economic redevelopment through the energy coast programme." Following the election the new coalition government put a hold on all major health projects. This freeze initially included the £100 million redevelopment of the hospital, because despite work being under way and buildings demolished, the previous ...

That is what Tony Blair thought of Gordon Brown according to Peter Mandelson's memoirs serialised in yesterday's Times. I did not think anything cold possibly make my opinion of the last government even lower, but Mandelson's memoirs have done it, both in terms of my view about them as a government and of Blair, Brown and Mandelson as human beings. The person who has taken the biggest hit in terms of losing what remaining shreds of respect I had for him is of course Mandelson himself. Either he believes what he has been writing, or he doesn't. If he is not sincere, what can we make of a person who will publish this sort of comment about his former close friends and colleagues for money? But what Mandy has written about Blair and particularly Brown reflects his true views: let's remember that he came back from Brussels to try to shore up the last government, and supported Brown remaining Labour leader after James Purnell resigned, when Mandelson's continued suppo...

Many people have been glued to the box this evening watching the world cup final. Many others will have been watching the commemoration of the Battle of Britain. It may have become a cliche that, as Churchill said, "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed, by so many, to so few." But it's also true. Our world today would have been unimaginably worse had not "the few" held off Hitler's luftwaffe. We should remember all those who fought on land, in or under the sea, or in the air, to save this country from fascism. The better we remember the lessons of that era, and their heroism, the less the risk that some future generation of our sons and daughters will be called on to repeat it.

It is comparatively rare when someone who is generally on one side of the political divide writes something as complementary about a politician on the other side as Martin Kettle's piece in the Guardian this week, " A man of grace. Cameron has been good for Britain ," is of David Cameron. Hat tip to Mike Smithson at Political Betting for pointing it out. In the second paragraph Kettle says that "Cameron is already proving to be a much better prime minister than Brown ever was." He concludes that "... in these first weeks even opponents should concede that Cameron has played a blinder. He is showing himself as potentially the best all-round prime minister of the modern era. Labour's hopefuls should learn from him." You can read the full article here .

Hat Tip to Iain Dale for pointing out this blog post by John Redwood on the demise of the BSF (Building Schools for the Future) programme. Contrary to the disingenuous statements by the MP for Copeland, the last Labour government did not give a firm "pledge" of £61.5 million for schools in Cumbria. They tried to give the impression that they had done so, but the small print of what Ed Balls actually announced was an "indicative allocation" of £61.5 million within an unfunded capital programme which the government admitted in the supporting papers for their last budget would have to take some heavy cuts. Here is John Redwood's conclusion: "In the statement I heard Michael Gove make he was clear in saying he was cancelling the approach of Building Schools for the future because it was an expensive, long winded and inefficient way of building schools. He did not say he was cancelling all new schools building. Indeed, if he is right and he can save substantia...

I most concerned about the likely implications for Cumbria of the announcements this week about school capital programmes. I am also completely convinced that, given the previous government had very quietly announced after the budget that there would be huge but unspecified cuts in the schools and NHS capital programmes, many of the programmes axed or suspended by Michael Gove this week would also have been axed or suspended if Labour had won the election. It is important that money is found for capital investment in Cumbria's schools. But a government which has just inherited a fiscal position heading for national bankruptcy, because the previous administration was spending four pounds for every three coming in, was always going to be forced to take painful decisions. Because as the outgoing Labour chief secretary said, there isn't any money left. Labour's suggestion - it was never specific enough to be called a promise - that they might provide £61.5 million for Cumbria...

As reported a few posts ago, Copeland Council is currently consulting the public on the proposed Core Strategy for the new Local Development Framework which will give guidance for what sorts of development the council will give planning permission. (For the avoidance of doubt, I should make clear that the council does not decide on planning permission for sites in the National Park: applications in this area are decided by the Lake District National Park Authority which is producing its' own Local Development Framework.) One of the requests at the public meeting a fortnight ago was that the Copeland Council website should have a link on the Homepage to the details of the consultation. Credit where credit is due, this request has been implemented. You can now go straight to the page for the planning consultation from the Copeland Council homepage, or follow this link .

Just got back with my family from watching the brilliant Carnival procession through the streets of Whitehaven. Thousands of people turned out in lovely weather to see the dancers and floats process through the streets. This was the 21st successive carnival organised by the Whitehaven Lions club who did a great job. Wonderful, especially after recent events, to see so many people on the streets of Whitehaven enjoying themselves for the second consecutive weekend.