Chris Whiteside's Blog

As a result of the economies which the coaliltion government has had to make to correct the dire financial postision inherited from Labour in 2010, compounded by years of Labour mismangement on Copeland Borough Council, the following cuts will be made in Copeland from 1st April Whitehaven tourist information centre will close Public toilets will close, including James Street (Whitehaven), Cleator Moor Square, Chapel Street (Egremont) and St Bees foreshore grass cutting on open spaces reduced to one or two cuts a year (down from 14) the concessionary travel scheme will be withdrawn plastic and cardboard recycling will not be collected from doorsteps car park charges to go up by 22p for one hour, and 70p for four hours a 15 per cent increase on cemetery prices, and a 12 per cent increase for the crematorium. Increases will also be made to some taxi licence charges. flower tubs and public displays will be removed, and street furniture not replaced when it reaches the end of ...

As predicted, this blog had it's 100,000th unique pageview since traffic measurement was installed yesterday afternoon. Hope all those who have read the blog found it interesting.

I have heard some terrible ideas suggested during my years following and then involved in politics, and read about some truly disastrous policies adopted in various centuries including this one in my academic and professional career as an economist. However, the horrendous idea of negative nominal interest rates which, according to several newspapers today, has been floated by the Deputy Governor of the Bank of  England, has to be up their with Gordon Brown's £5 billion a year raid on pension funds as one of the worst proposals ever contemplated. The proposal only applies directly to money loaned by the banks to the Bank of England rather than to the savings of ordinary citizens, but if implemented it would have knock - on effects on ordinary savers which are unlikely to be positive. It has been known for real interest rates - that is, the value of interest payments after deducting the impact of inflation - to go negative, indeed most real interest rates are ne...

Jim asked me to start a thread on the subject of tax avoidance to permit a debate and I am happy to oblige. A judge once ruled that nobody should be under an obligation to so arrange his financial affairs (the defendant in the case was a man) so as to allow the Inland Revenue to take the maximum possible amount of money from him. I entirely agree with this. Equally, when a person or company is trying to minimise their tax liability using ever more intricate devices, there comes a point where their accounts bears so little relationship to reality as to amount to a fraud on other taxpayers. If a company is employing thousands of people in country A, earning billions of pounds in revenue in country A, shipping goods from warehouses in country A to customers in country A, and yet manages to declare the vast majority of the profits for this activity in country B for tax purposes, then something has gone badly wrong. Of course, situations like this are almost always at least...

I have been following the scandal involving a very senior member of the Lib/Dems with a significant amount of concern. I am not a great friend of the Lib/Dems, and that hasn't miraculously changed  with the coalition - it was and is necessary for the good of the country that the Conservatives and Lib/Dems work together but this has not magically removed the differences between the two parties. However my first reaction to the story is to hope that the media have checked this story a great deal more carefully than the BBC recently checked an even more serious allegation about a Conservative peer which turned out to be complete rubbish. If the story is true then the individual concerned should have been driven out of public life, or at least out of any position where he could prey on young women, a long time ago. If it is not true, he is the victim of a serious injustice. It ought not to be beyond the wit of man to find a middle way when...

This blog has been around since February 2005, which means it passed the age of eight this month - a huge age for a political blog. I was encouraged to start it by the godfather of political blogging in the UK, Iain Dale, when we were both parliamentary candidates together preparing for the 2005 election. Barring a catastrophic drop-off in traffic this blog it should also see, in the last few days of this month, the number of pageviews since traffic counts were added to the blog in 2008 reach the 100,000 mark. Thank you to all the people who have taken time to read this blog over the past eight years.

For the second day in a row I have just left a huge pile of recycling material out to be collected by Copeland Council tomorrow morning. It is astonishing how much recyclable material - newspapers, glass bottles, plastic bottles, cardboard, etc - can build up in a household of four people over a fortnight. It is important for the enviroment to encourage households to recycle, but it can be quite a bit of work and I think we need some imagination to try to get dwelling designers to take into account the needs of the 21st century - including places to put material for recycling - when planning and building new homes. I think it might usefully be encouraged as a statement of good practice for inclusion in council Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) that those submitting planning applications for new housing should be encouraged to include a suitable outside store in which materials to be recycled can be placed between collections.

... are the Labour group on the London Assembly Hat tip to Political Betting for drawing my attention to the story that the opposition on the London Assembly voted to forgo any discussion on Mayor Boris Johnson's budget because a Conservative member of the assembly was a few minutes late, and they thought that if they could take the vote before that individual arrived they would have the necessary two-thirds majority to block the budget. Unfortunately for them the individual did arrive between the vote to move to the vote on the budget and the vote on the budget itself. Consequently Boris's budget was passed with no scrutiny at all. One of the few things which makes it easier to be a Conservative at a time when the coalition government is having to take all sort of unpopular decisions to deal with the mess left behind by New Labour, possibly the most incompetent government in history and certainly the one that left the worst mess for their successors to clear up. Labour w...

UK Independence Party MEP Marta Andreasen has announced that she is joining the Conservatives Less than a week before the Eastleigh by-election,  the MEP for the South East region hailed the Prime Minister's speech pledging an in-out referendum on EU membership as a "game changer" and   dismissed UKIP's chances of achieving real power. "Ukip has good people in it at grass roots that care about the future of the United Kingdom and our place in a re-negotiated relationship with Europe," she wrote. "Unfortunately, their party leader treats any views other than his own with contempt. Ukip is his plaything to mould and shape in any way he sees fit, regardless of the views of others." Ms Andreasen said Mr Cameron's keynote address on Britain's relationship with the EU last month had convinced her the Conservatives were the "true referendum party". "The Prime Minister's speech was a game changer; he promised to ...

David Cameron writes: "As Prime Minister - and as a Conservative - I'm determined to do everything I can to help people with the cost of living. We've already helped freeze council tax, stopped Labour's fuel duty rise, capped the increase in rail fares and taken two million people out of paying income tax altogether.          Last year, I said we would do something else: take action on the sky-high energy bills that families across the country struggle with. At the moment, people often face a mind-boggling number of tariffs and pay a lot more than they should do. That's why I made a personal commitment. I said it was time for energy companies to be straight with their customers and offer them the lowest available tariff. No more tricks, loopholes or small print; time for transparency. So I'm delighted that yesterday...

It is surprising and sometimes shocking how different the meaning of a phrase or sentence can be if ripped from the proper context. Words which in context are clearly ironic can appear as if meant to be taken at face value, opinions which are meant to be a description of views presented by others can appear to be the speaker's own views, remarks which are actually intended as a call to action can appear as an excuse for doing nothing, or vice versa. Doubtless this was part of what was meant by the author of the French expression "Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre." which can be translated into English as "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." (This saying is usually attributed to Cardinal Richelieu, though it may actually be the words of one of his agents.) The most egregious instance of...

UK unemployment fell in the three months to December, while the number of people in work jumped to a new record. The jobless total fell by 14,000 between October and December to 2.5 million according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) . The number in work rose by 154,000 to 29.7 million. More than 580,000 more people are employed than a year ago. The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in January fell by 12,500 to 1.54 million. Overall, the ONS said there were 29.73 million people in the UK in employment, of which 73% were working full-time and 27% were working part-time. In the three months to December, the unemployment rate fell to 7.8% - down from 7.9% in the previous quarter. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC "No-one is saying this is easy, but if you were in France or Spain or Greece... you would look at these figures and say I wish we were in that position." The number of long-term unemployed also...

For the first time ever, the UK has topped KPMG’s league of best countries to do business, ahead of Switzerland, the USA and France.   When asked which country had the best tax regime for doing business, senior tax professionals from Britain’s largest companies picked the UK above any other country. The same report showed that more than three quarters of top executives said a country’s tax competitiveness influenced their decision of where to locate. The Government is committed to making the UK an attractive place for the world to do business by creating the most competitive tax system in the G20. That’s why in the Autumn Statement 2012, the Government reduced corporation tax to 21 per cent, the lowest corporation tax rate in the G7. The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said, ‘We made a commitment to create for Britain the most competitive corporate tax system in the G20, and within just two and half years this report shows that is what the world...

Only the most complacent person could argue that we are out of the woods on the economy, but there are some encouraging straws in the wind, one of them being that the number of first-time buyers has reached the highest level in five years according to figures recently released by the Council for Mortgage Lenders. A total of 216,200 first-time buyers became homeowners in 2012. This is the first time that the number has exceeded 200,000 since 2007 and is an increase of 12% compared to 2011, when 193,000 first-time buyers took out mortgages. The Council for Mortgage Lenders stated that first-time buyers 'have benefitted from the effects of better funding conditions and the Funding for Lending scheme'. The Funding for Lending Scheme was launched by the Bank of England and the Treasury in July 2012 to encourage lending to households and businesses. The Government's economic policy to try to balance the books has won the confidence of markets and secured record ...

Between half term, a reorganisation at work, the need to acquire a new car, and a few family accidents and injuries, I have had a busy week, hence going for a few days without blogging. This valentines season there seem to have been an extraordingary number of topical variants of the old poem about roses and voilets floating around One relating to the food contents scandal: Roses are red Violets are blue My burger went "Neigh" When it should have gone "Moo!" On a current crime case in South Africa Roses are red Thieves make us furious Don't look like a burglar To Oscar Pistorius On the release of the latest installment in an all action film series in Valentine's week Violets are blue Roses are red Flowers are boring Watch "Die Hard" instead On whether there should be a referendum to decide the future or otherwise of Britain's EU membership Violets are blue Roses are red If you want a referendum Don't vote for...

Rory Stewart, Conservative MP for Penrith and the Borders, asked at Prime Minister's Question Time today whether David Cameron would join us "in celebrating Cumbria Day with us today." The Prime Minister replied that he was very much looking forward to joining Rory Stewart "at the celebration of Cumbria Day" and referred to a visit they had made to the Butchers' Arms in Cumbria, "An outstanding pub in a very beautiful part of the world"

During the weekend just gone I watched three items of TV or film made at intervals of twelve years, the first having first been broadcast fifty years ago this year. The first item I watched was the second ever Doctor Who adventure which first introduced the eponymous villains, "The Daleks" which was first screened in 1963. I then watched "Genesis of the Daleks" made twelve years later and first broadcast in 1975, and finally a 1987 medium-budget film. Seeing these three items over a weekend and comparing them with each other and what is available to watch in 2013 brought something home to me: we do not always fully appreciate the pace of technological change, or indeed social changes (such as changes to attitudes and accents) because they are taking place around us gradually all the time. It's only when you look at the changes over a decade or more that it hits you how much things have changed over the lifetime of people who are only middle aged. Pic...

The coalition government has agreed a new settlement which caps the cost of long-term care for the elderly, and has promised that "From April this year, no one will have to sell their home to fund care. Those unable to afford fees will get the right to defer paying." That's the Coalition's promise to the elderly as made in today's Sun and in other Sunday newspapers. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt will formally announce tomorrow that, from 2017, the elderly will have to pay a maximum of £75,000 towards their care costs before the taxpayer starts to help them. The aim is that the £75,000 cap - double the amount recommended by Andrew Dilnot's Commission - will strike the right balance between supporting those who've saved, without imposing heavy new taxes on working families. One of the ways in which the Coalition will fund a reform which is expected to cost £1 billion reform is a further three year freeze in inheritance tax thresholds. This second ...

John Banniser, the campaigning Rector of Whitehaven, announced at the 10 am Eucharist at St James' church today that he is to retire in March. His formal retirement date will be the 31st of March but in practice his last service at St James' will be on the afternoon of Saturday 9th March. He will be moving with his family to South Cumbria. John Bannister has taken up a great many causes in Whitehaven over the past thirteen years. He will be greatly missed. I wish John and his wife a very happy retirement.

The proposal by the European council of ministers to propose a new EU budget under which the EU's total spending limit would be reduced for the first time in the organisation's history is a significant achievement for David Cameron. As the Daily Telegraph put it, under the headline " Victory for David Cameron as EU budget faces cuts for first time in history . "Europe's leaders are poised this morning to cut the European Union's budget for the first time in its 56 year history following a major victory for David Cameron." David Cameron worked with Angela Merkel and the leaders of a number of Northern EU member countries to get the budget under control, in the face of fierce opposition from the French president and leaders of a number of other governments such as those of Italy, Spain, and Poland. The proposal which eventually emerged from the Council of Ministers represented a significant victory for Cameron and Merkel as the proposed budge...

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, writes: "No one can doubt the Conservative Party's commitment to the NHS. In the toughest financial climate we've faced in years our party was the only party to commit to increasing the NHS budget. More money to the frontline and less spent on management and bureaucracy. A commitment we are delivering in Government, which remains unwavering today. However, we'd be doing the NHS a disservice if we failed to speak out when things go wrong. The publication of the inquiry report into what happened at the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust under Labour has shown that things did go wrong - badly wrong. And it's now up to the Conservatives to ensure that this can never happen again. The report is clear that the appalling standards of care at Mid Staffs were not just a failing of that particular hospital but were also a failing of the wider NHS system. The system Labour created focused on targets, ticking bo...

Between 2005 and 2009, a large number of patients at the Mid Staffordshire hospital suffered appallingly from a lack of the most basic care, and in many cases, they died needlessly.   The present coalition government ordered a full public inquiry into the scandal when it came into office in June 2010, and this inquiry reported yesterday. Prime Minister David Cameron said: “What happened at The Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was not just wrong - it was truly dreadful. Hundreds of people suffered from the most appalling neglect and mistreatment. “On behalf of the government – and indeed our country – I am truly sorry. “This government has put compassion ahead of bureaucratic process-driven targets and put quality of care on a par with quality of treatment. “But it is clear we need to do more. We will study every one of the 290 recommendations in today’s report and respond in detail next month.”  

The Huffington Post has an item today called " Nick Clegg's Backbone found buried in car park ... "

It is remarkable how different the key issue can be to different people at any time. For many people at the moment the most important issue is the state of the economy, and particularly prospects for jobs and growth. Many individuals are particularly worried about the cost of living and struggling to make sure their income keeps pace with it. Here in West Cumbria there is a particular aspect of this: with more than10,000 people employed at Sellafield and a local economy dependent on the nuclear industry, there is a major focus on what the future of the industry will be following last week's vote by Cumbria County council not to proceeed with the MRWS process to look for a longer term solution for nuclear waste. Of course, we will still have to agree on how to deal with nuclear waste even if there are no new nuclear power stations. That was illustrated this week when Sellafield got a kicking in the media and from the House of Commons public accounts committee (parti...

In a further sign that courts are now taking the crime of metal theft with the seriousness it deserves, a gang of cable thieves have been given prison sentences totalling twelve years and ten months at Blackfriars Crown court. The thieves pleaded guilty to a string of 47 attacks in London and five counties between May and August 2011 in which they stole more then ten kilometers of copper cable, are estimated to have caused about £715,000 worth of damage, and inflicted major disruption to broadband, phone and train services. Christopher Cruz, 33, Kris Kreuder, 36, Shaun Nembhard, 44, John Newton, 36, Bill Lee, 60, and Simon Scott, 45, all pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court in London to conspiracy to steal cable. The court heard how the organised gang stole cable from the railway network and from BT in Hertfordshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Rutland, Buckinghamshire and London. All but one of the ten attacks they mounted on the BT network involved live cables causing signific...

SeanT  had this to say in a post on the "Political Betting" site on the day that a body found under a carpark was confirmed to be very probably that of Richard III while Chris Huhne resigned as an MP after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice by persuading his then wife to take penalty points for speeding.  "Chris Huhne buried. Richard III exhumed." I hope and expect that the courts will treat Huhne the same way they would treat anyone who wasn't an MP and who committed the same crime. I would have said the same whichever party he stood for.

Saturday was a very clear day and in Cumbria probably the most beautiful day of 2013 so far. On Saturday morning I was out "walking the patch" with my colleagues Graham Roberts and Stephen Haraldsen in Bransty ward in Whitehaven. It was so clear that you could not just see  the Isle of Man, as Stephen said you could practically see people moving on the Isle of Man. In the afternoon my wife and myself had to drive over to Newbiggin near Penrith. Absolutely gorgeous views of the Downs and the Cumbrian Mountains. After a rotten week it cheered me up.