Chris Whiteside's Blog

Mufasa, an 8-foot long Boa Constrictor which escaped from a home in Kells, Whitehaven while his tank was being cleaned, has been found alive and well this evening after ten days on the slither.

There has been a recent fashion in some quarters to demand, and in others to give, apologies for historic crimes committed by the distant ancestors of those apologising against the distant ancestors of those apologised to. Part of me has always found this faintly ridiculous, though the fact is that just about all countries have done terrible things in the past and I do agree that where this is true it should be acknowledged. Where the argument becomes ludicrous, however, is when people start suggesting (as was apparently put forward during David Cameron's visit to Jamaica) that the descendants of people long dead have some kind of not just moral, but financial, debt to descendants of the victims of wicked things done centuries before anyone alive today was born. This is usually raised in connection with the slave trade, a hideous practice which people of every race and almost every country were engaged for centuries until, in 1807, Britain voted to ban it, and our Royal Navy ...

As Copeland Conservatives are back in election mode -we have had several good campaigning sessions, this evening and earlier this week for the Howgate county council by election on behalf of Conservative candidate Andrew Wonnacott - I thought I would re-start on an occasional basis my "music to relax after campaigning" series of posts. No sign yet of Labour or UKIP making any effort, by the way: many electors had noted that their polling cards had arrived and knew there was an election, but several have said to us "you're the only ones who've been round." This is Bach's concerto in C minor for two harpsichords and strings (BVW1060) And of course, we need consultant led maternity at WCH in Whitehaven and FGH in Barrow, so #SupportOption1

There are times when the old saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" can have an element of truth, but there are times when it is a fatal mistake, and never more so than when dealing with Syria. There were good and bad arguments on both sides when parliament voted a few years ago on whether to authorise military intervention in Syria after the poison gas attack, but one of the invalid ones which has sometimes recently been offered is that attacking President Assad meant helping DA'ESH (which has since claimed to be an "Islamic State") who were much less powerful at that time. There are more than two sides to the war in Syria. Here is a map published this month in the Economist showing which areas are believed by the Carter Foundation/Institute for the Study of War to be mainly controlled by various factions including the Assad regime (light blue), DA'ESH (red), other rebels or Kurds (yellow or green) or others, or in gray where no one faction has out...

There has been a new one-way system for vehicles at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven for a few days and I gather it is still confusing people. At the moment you have to drive clockwise round the outside of the hospital site. I believe this will apply until the new Accident and Emergency facility opens next week.

‘We are not going to charge off to the Right because they charged off to the Left.” ( David Cameron ) He added: “If we deliver the economic security that we have spoken about, solve the entrenched social problems in our country and don’t rush off to the Right, but govern for the whole of the country, then the strength of this party as the party of Government for 2020 and 2025 will be very strong. It is in our hands."

Jeremy Corbyn seems to have pleased his own supporters enough to head off any immediate attempt to overthrow him, but in general the Labour conference appears to have been pretty underwhelming to people other than hardcore Labour supporters - and not even all of them. Iain Martin, editor of CapX, appears to be the marginally the least impressed in a field of very unimpressed people. He argued in one piece that " Labour Conference looks utterly bonkers ," and in another that Jeremy Corbyn's speech was " the worst leader's speech I have ever heard. " Guido has collected a set of quotes from left-wing media commentators who gave Jeremy Corbyn the kind of kicking you would expect him to get from right-wing commentators and them to have given Cameron, which you can read here . Like Ed Miliband last year, Corbyn made no mention of the country's deficit. Alex Massie, a Scottish journalist who describes himself as a Labour voter - yes, there are a few ...

"Having led his party to near extinction, Nick Clegg vows the Liberals will be the ‘comeback kids’ of politics. Its eight MPs are more like Milky Bar kids — male and white, they melt under pressure and are relics of a bygone era." ( Amanda Platell in the   Daily Mail )

The row tearing UKIP apart, as The Economist writes here,  reflects a cultural divide between two kinds of "Out" people who will be supporting British exit from the EU. One is positive, business-friendly, forward-looking, and pragmatic. The other is, to take The Economist's words,  the "brassy populists" who are concerned about "immigration, political correctness and metropolitan elites. Europe, for them, is about identity." They are particularly passionate about national sovereignty and fear that Europe "is sapping the country's distinctiveness." If the two work together they would have a very good chance of taking Britain out of the European Union. If the past week is anything to go by, there is more chance of a fatal schism. The Economist could have said, but didn't, that remarkably similar fault-lines will exist on the pro-EU side. Though they are much less numerous and confident than they were, there are still some peo...

The Prime minister appears determined to take advantage of the disarray in other parties, not to go flying off on an ideological crusade, but by making a pitch for the centre ground of politics and trying to represent as many people as possible. Speaking to a 200-strong audience at the Blenheim Literary Festival in his Oxfordshire constituency, David Cameron said : “We have got to respond to what is happening by saying ‘we are not going to charge off to the Right because they charged off to the Left.” He added: “If we deliver the economic security that we have spoken about, solve the entrenched social problems in our country and don’t rush off to the Right, but govern for the whole of the country, then the strength of this party as the party of Government for 2020 and 2025 will be very strong. It is in our hands. “The Conservative party won 37 per cent at the last election and I can’t see any reason why we can’t get up to 40 or 43 per cent like Mrs Thatcher at the next e...

Dan Hannan on MEP on office trunks as a symbol of what is wrong with the administration of Brussels. I don't go all the way with Dan but he certainly makes a good point about the persistence of bureaucratic costs and outdated practices in Brussels. He's framed it at an anti-EU point and it works as one, but ask yourself this. Does the British government have similar ongoing ridiculous costs? Even after five years of austerity, I bet it does.

I am delighted to say that Warwick University Student Union has confirmed that Maryam  Namazie WILL now be allowed to visit as an external invited speaker. They will also be apologising for the initial communication indicating that she would not be allowed to accept the invitation from the University Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society to speak there. The fact that I am pleased and indeed relieved by this decision is absolutely not because I agree with all her views - I am no atheist - but because it would be totally unacceptable that expression of those views should be banned. The Warwick SU statement makes interesting reading: Warwick SU to host Maryam Namazie as an External Speaker "In the last few days we have all seen much debate, and considerable concern, expressed about an application to Warwick Students' Union made by the Warwick Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society, that an SU society host the campaigner and blogger Maryam N...

"Both parties' activists" (Labour and Lib/Dems) woke on May 8 to a Britain much harsher than they'd thought. On that grey and rain-flecked morning the world had kicked them in the teeth." "What do you do then when the bullies have humiliated you in the playground? You run back to the sandpit, back to what you know: you shrink your canvas so it fits you, rather than growing to fit this wider, crueller frame. "In your shrunken world, your party meetings, your earnest debates, your card votes and shows of hands, reality still fits theory. "You shut out the voices you don't want to hear, Your angry tweet skewering tory meanies gets thousands of re-tweets and favourites. Your Facebook post goes viral. Righteousness resurgent! Surely the Universe is with you now? "Your new leader has just got 250,000 votes - winning on the first ballot: a gigantic mandate! "The Conservative party got 11.3 million votes in May. It's not just a ...

As the recordings to which this post originally linked have been removed from YouTube, here are two replacements which are working as of July 2017. In 1711 Antonio Vivaldi published a concerto for four Violins and supporting instruments. Here is a recent performance ... Johann Sebastian Bach liked this piece so much that  he transcribed it for four harpsichords. Here is a modern performance of his version: Which do you prefer?

"We've exchanged one loser for an even worse one." (Peter Mandelson on Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn here .)

Jeremy Paxman is usually known as the scourge of all politicians but in the Daily Telegraph this week he had a piece with the title and last line, " What is wrong with cherishing the land in which you live ?" Through the medium of discussing Shakespeare's play "Henry V" he discusses what patriotism means in a modern context. I have no time for those who think we should with to separate ourselves from, or think ourselves somehow innately superior to all other countries or their inhabitants, which is more like nationalism or xenophobia than patriotism. But surely you can love your country in a way which recognises and accepts that people of other lands love theirs. And for all our faults, there are plenty of things about this country to love.

A really great morning's campaigning today in lovely weather in Moresby Parks, Gilgarran and Parton for by-election on 15th October for the Howgate division of Cumbria County Council. We had a strong team from Copeland out with our candidate Andrew Wonnacott and were also joined by several of our friends from Allerdale. Out again this afternoon in an other part of the division. Friendly reception on the doorstep, with my favourite comment being "You're very welcome, we're not Corbynistas here!" The election was caused by the resignation of the previous Labour county councillor who is now MP for Workington. Besides the Conservative candidate Andrew Wonnacott there are also Labour and UKIP candidates. I think this by-election is starting to look interesting ...

They must have been really, really short of news yesterday if the BBC was reduced to reporting this  report of a debate at a Swindon primary school about whether police sirens go "Nee-nah" or "Woo-woo" ...

“We shouldn’t turn a treaty change into something traumatic or taboo.” “We mustn’t close the door to the British if what they are demanding from other member states is acceptable.” ( Emmanuel Macron , the French economy minister, speaking on a visit to London about the need for the EU to accommodate the concerns expressed Britain. He also said creative ways can be found to amend the EU treaties

The Platform of No Policy Since before the days when I was a student myself there have been idiots, usually but not always well meaning ones, on British university campuses who try to suppress opinions they think are dangerous not by defeating them in argument but by banning them. They never seem to realise that this is contrary to what should be the entire ethos of an institution of learning. This week's outrageous decision by Warwick University Students Union to ban an invited guest speaker from an ex-Muslim organisation demonstrates that such authoritarian stupidity is alive, well, and as destructive as ever.   At best these bans are hysterically funny, at worst they are truly frightening.   Possibly the funniest single moment of my entire student career was at a hustings in the mid-eighties for the election of members of the National Union of Students executive, when an SDP candidate for the NUS exec, Mark Hatton, made an unfortunate...

Iain Dale's blog features a "Daley Dozen" of the dozen best posts from around the blogosphere that he has read that day, and Paul Staines' "Guido Fawkes" blog has a "Seen Elsewhere" panel which lists a similar number of articles on blogs of MSM websites which he recommends as worth a read. I'm not going to list that many "Don't miss" articles, but there were three things I've seen today which I thought were particularly worth a recommendation, two in Standpoint and one on the "Notes from North Britain" blog. 1) Let's start with the latter. Professor Adam Tomkins , who writes the " Notes from North Britain " blog has put up an absolutely superb post here on why he is seeking election as a Scottish Conservative to the Scottish parliament. He has written a masterly demolition of the Scottish National Party's pathetic record of failure in government, and how they have fooled far too many people b...

I was one of 192 members of the public who attended the first of two open days held today and on Saturday to allow people to see inside the brand new £90 million West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven which will open its' doors to patients on Monday 5 October 2015.      The event was attended by extremely helpful members of staff who were on hand to answer questions about their new departments. I would like to thank all those who showed me and others around. This will be the case again on Saturday when the hospital will be open to the public as follows:            Saturday 26 September 2015 – 10.00am-1.00pm (last entry 12.30pm) More details on my hospitals blog at http://savewestcumbriahospitals.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/nearly-200-people-view-new-hospital.html And don't forget to  #SupportOption1

A happy and peaceful EID to all Muslims in Britain and around the world. Here is Prime Minister David Cameron's EID message.

Public open days will be held tomorrow and on Saturday to allow people a glimpse inside the brand new £90 million West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven in advance of opening its doors to patients on Monday 5 October 2015.      Both events will also be attended by members of staff who will be on hand to answer any queries about their new departments. The hospital will be open to the public as follows: Thursday 24 September 2015 – 10.00am-1.00pm (last entry 12.30pm) Saturday 26 September 2015 – 10.00am-1.00pm (last entry 12.30pm) The open days will allow members of the public the chance to see what the new single en-suite patient rooms look like as well as some departments such as the new Accident and Emergency Department, Outpatients and Maternity.      There is no need to book a place and entry will be through the existing main hospital entrance on level 3 where the new hospital can be accessed next to Fairfield w...

Since he is a former spin doctor who was forced to resign after Guido Fawkes obtained emails showing he was plotting to plant disgusting sexual smears about senior figures in the Conservative party - and their spouses - Damian McBride may consider himself an expert on smears such as the one in a certain book from which the Daily Mail has been publishing extracts this week. However, there are a couple of problems with his analysis in the Guardian today here . First of all, the story which has been spread about David Cameron's student days, which I will not dignify by repeating, is extremely similar to the smear in a famous anecdote about former US President Lyndon Johnson - a similarity which has struck almost everyone who has written about it because the LBJ anecdote has been quoted in the vast majority of reports in the MSM or the blogosphere about the PM's time as a student over the past few days. And the point about that anecdote is that when he was told that the stor...

"Jamie Reed hasn't just burnt his bridges with the new leader of his party. The manner of his publishing a resignation letter highly critical of his party's leader on social media about a minute into Corbyn's acceptance speech was more like dynamiting the bridges and smashing up the pieces with a sledgehammer." "If, God forbid, Corbyn or any of his allies were elected Prime Minister during the rest of Jamie's parliamentary career, his influence on behalf of his constituents will have been compromised." ( Chris Whiteside , in discussion with colleagues this week.)

We had a good team out in Moresby this afternoon with the Conservative candidate Andrew Wonnacott to kick off our campaign for the Howgate by-election on Cumbria Council Council. The by-election will be on 15th October. There are three candidates, Andrew Wonnacott (Conservative) plus Labour and UKIP candidates.

I thought we were moving from the silly season back into the grown-up world, but apparently not. After a difficult week for the new leader of the Labour party, in which he faced horrendous headlines which ranged from legitimate concerns about his policies and associates to salacious gossip about his past private life, the left have got their own back over the past 48 hours as half the country has been sniggering at ridiculous, salacious and unverified allegations about the Prime Minister's student days. Ironically most of the worst stuff in the papers in both cases has come not from open enemies but supposed allies. It has been Labour supporters and ex-supporters who have been behind a great deal of the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn in the press up to now - through that will change now that he is Labour leader and as elections approach -  and similarly the worst attacks on David Cameron have always come from the right, not the left. This week's entire ludicrous set ...

"These revelations will do far less damage to Cameron's reputation than Ashcroft's pre-election polling did to his." ( David Herdson on Political Betting.) "It is in the book because Lord Ashcroft has made the (probably correct) assumption that the Prime Minister has more on his plate than to sue him for libel over an unprovable allegation from 30 years ago. Without any corroboration, his story is little better than playground gossip - if a journalist had published, his or her own reputation would be on the line. What all this say about Lord Ashcroft’s own reputation I will leave for others to decide." (Ian Kirby,  former political editor of the News of the World and is now Head of Media at MHP Communications, writing in The Spectator here . He makes the valid point that the rumours MPs tell about each other are extremely unreliable.)

I am pleased, and not at all surprised, that the MoD has moved quickly to slap down the unidentified "serving general" who was quoted in yesterday's Sunday Times appearing to threaten mutiny if any future Corbyn government attempted to implement measures which the security services thought would undermine national security. An MoD source said "These remarks are not helpful. No one thinks it is a good idea for a senior serving officer to undermine a potential future government."

Warning to ( insert name of person you consider a large rat here ): stay away from the Kells area of Whitehaven. As of 8am this morning Mufasa, an 8-foot Boa Constrictor, is apparently still on the loose in Whitehaven after slithering to freedom on Friday night from its' owners home in North Row, Kells. "He usually eats one large rat a week," his owner told the News and Star. So Jeremy Corbyn supporters can insert the name of a certain local MP in the space above, while to judge from my twitter feed at least some Tories, especially those who have seen today's Daily Mail, might have an alternative suggestion. The snake is a family pet and escaped having been left for five minutes to soak in the bath while his tank was being cleaned. He appears to have escaped down the toilet, leading to this month's most cringe-worthy headline in a local paper, "Flush him out!" Boa Constrictors are not poisonous, and are native to tropical Central a...

The "Matter Patter Song" from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "Ruddigore" (first line "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation" ) seems rather appropriate for the new leader of the Labour party after a rather difficult week (particularly as it also includes lines like "If I were not a little mad and generally silly .") It has been stolen and adapted for various other purposes including other Gilbert and Sullivan Operas but here is the original: This is how it appeared as "borrowed" for the Kevin Kline film version of "The Pirates of Penzance" (blink and you'll miss it but Angela Lansbury actually admits at one point that the song actually comes from Ruddigore) And if "Spitting Image" were still in business I am sure they could update their eighties version featuring Neil Kinnock with lines like "My economic policy's as mad as any hatter But I'll never be elected so it really doesn...

I fully understand why Britain's intelligence and security services are upset at the possibility of Prime Minister Corbyn. There are and would be, of course, means to express that concern which are legitimate within the rules of our constitution, and means which are not. If there were any doubt in my mind that the concerns expressed really are coming from the intelligence services and the army, and not from, say, the Conservative party, it is the fact that Cameron, Osborne, and the people working from them would never have been politically unsophisticated enough to plant the following in today's Sunday Times: "A serving general warned that there would be a direct challenge from the army and mass resignations if Corbyn became prime minister ..." “ There would be mass resignations at all levels and you would face the very real prospect of an event which would effectively be a mutiny,” the general said. “ Feelings are running very high within the armed forces. You...

An 8-foot snake is apparently still on the loose in Whitehaven after slithering to freedom on Friday night from its' owners home in North Row, Kells. The snake is a family pet and escaped having been left "momentarily unattended" while it was being cleaned. Boa Constrictors are not poisonous, and are native to tropical Central and South America. They are excellent swimmers, but prefer dry land, living mostly in hollow logs and abandoned mammal burrows. So don't let unsupervised children go near rabbit holes or hollow logs anywhere near Kells until the snake is recovered. A police spokesman said that "The animal does not pose an immediate risk to the public. However if sighted, the advice is not to approach it it but to contact police immediately." The number to call is 101.

An eight-foot long Boa Constrictor has gone missing last night in Kells, Whitehaven. The snake does not pose an immediate risk to the public, however if sighted advice is not to approach and it and contact police immediately. Anyone who sees the snake is asked to contact Cumbria Constabulary on 101. More details from Cumbria Crack at   http://www.cumbriacrack.com/2015/09/19/warning-after-8ft-boa-constrictor-snake-escapes-in-whitehaven/

A year ago today we woke with relief to the news that the United Kingdom would, at least for now, remain united. We need to work to address the grievances of Scotland and build a new relationship between the four countries of the UK which gives all of them - Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and yes, England a fair deal. The SNP has been doing some ambiguous wittering about the possibility of a new referendum, which is clearly mostly designed to keep the issue alive. If you look at the small print of what they have been saying they are nowhere near the level of support for Independence which would give a sane person confidence that they could win a second referendum in the near future - and given their clear statements last year that the first referendum was a "once in a generation" choice calling one might badly backfire on them, just as the "neverendum" did on Quebec nationalists. So we have had a torrent of ridiculous nonsense from the SNP about "The ...

  This is what Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian had to say about Jeremy Corbyn's first week. Some of the Corbynistas will dismiss Freedland as a "Tory" but he isn't anything of the kind, and more than most of the people at whom they have hurled that description are. Indeed, writing as someone who really is a Tory, I am getting increasingly tempted to start a class action for defamation against the Corbynistas for being associated with some of the people they have called Tories - Tony Blair for a start. A Labour leader who is getting this sort of comment from the Guardianistas would be wise to listen to them.

There will be a by-election for the Howgate division of Cumbria County Council on 15th October 2015. The election was caused by the resignation of the previous Labour councillor for the area, which is just North of Whitehaven, following her election as MP for Workington. There are three candidates: Conservative: Andrew Wonnacott Labour: Gillian Troughton UKIP: Eric Atkinson The Conservative campaign is getting under way and I greatly look forward to reminding voters of Distington, Moresby, Gilgarran and the other villages in the division that their Labour MP says that the new Labour leader's policies about the most important industry in our area are "poorly informed and fundamentally wrong." Needless to say local Conservatives agree that Jeremy Corbyn's policies are poorly informed and fundamentally wrong. We will therefore be urging the voters of Howgate division, including any Labour voters who share their Labour MP's opinion about his new leader...

This morning this blog passed 400,000 page views since the traffic monitors went live a few years ago. Thanks to everyone who has visited the site in that time, and I hope you found it interesting.

Jamal Muhammed Raheem Ul Nasir was jailed for a total of seven years at Leeds crown court in December last year for his attacks on two children. He was convicted of two counts of sexual assault on a child under 13 and four counts of sexual activity with a child. I am pleased that he was refused leave to appeal against the severity of this sentence. I suspect that if you asked the British public 90% of them would say it was far too lenient, and although it is a good thing that we have sentencing in this country by the courts and not the mob, many fathers in this country and of all races will be thinking "If my daughter had been one of his victims I would have regarded any sentence short of hanging as too lenient." However, I am very concerned indeed about the wording of some of the comments made by the trial judge and the way the court of appeal decision is being reported . The trial judge appears to have said that the fact the victims were Asian had been factored in as ...

"My party chose to blow itself up" ( Alistair Darling on Radio 4 this morning.) I understand the above comment was not a specific reference to the election of Jeremy Corbyn but the general conduct of Scottish Labour post-referendum. However, what he did say about his new leader was: "Jeremy Corbyn has won, he won overwhelmingly and he has a mandate. I know what he’s against but I’m not actually sure what he is for. And what I would say to him, if I had a conversation with him, is that he must know first impressions gained by the electorate, especially of a party leader, tend not to go away and less than week after he’s been elected, I think he needs to spell out where he stands on key issues – like the economy. Because if he doesn’t then frankly he’s never going to get off the ground." and of Labour's position today "I’m sure all clouds have a silver lining but I haven’t quite seen the silver lining here yet." He also had an excellent re...

Nick Cohen is someone I always described as an intelligent and consistent left-winger. Unlike too many people on all points of the political spectrum, and far too many socialists, Nick tries very hard to avoid hypocritical double standards. That has made him increasingly uncomfortable with those you would expect to share his worldview, In this superb article in The Spectator, Nick explains why he has given up on the left. A couple of extracts from his article: "In the past, people would head to the exits saying, ‘Better the centre right than the far left.’ Now they can say ‘better the centre right than the far right’. The shift of left-wing thought towards movements it would once have denounced as racist, imperialist and fascistic has been building for years. I come from a left-wing family, marched against Margaret Thatcher and was one of the first journalists to denounce New Labour’s embrace of corporate capitalism — and I don’t regret any of it. But slowly, too slowly...

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, apologised last night on Question Time for his 2003 comments suggesting that we should "honour" the IRA armed struggle. He said last night “I think my choice of words were wrong. I accept that. I should not have said the issue about the honouring, I actually said afterwards that there’s no cause that justifies the loss of life in this way… I accept it was a mistake to use those words, but actually if it contributed to saving one life or preventing someone else being maimed it was worth doing because we did hold onto the peace process… If I gave offense, and I clearly have, from the bottom of my heart I apologise, I apologise.” You can see the apology last night on Guido Fawkes' blog at http://order-order.com/2015/09/18/john-mcdonnell-apologises-for-praising-iras-bombs-and-bullets/#:KZeRLJMVngxwkA Postscript: And also on the Spectator website, with an acerbic response from Douglas Murray to which I will be sending the link...

"T here are some nasty people in the world, you know. Some of them – get this! – are even nastier than Tony Blair. And even if you leave them all alone, they will not stop . "Not for all the tea in Islington North. "What's more, there are certain... issues with Corbyn and the company he keeps. "He doesn't just have skeletons in his closet, he hangs up his shirts in an ossuary. "This is not a trivial matter. Those who underestimate the problems this will cause are fooling themselves (and in some cases, losing sight of their own moral compass)." ( Taylor Parkes , from an article in The Quietus )

The policies of new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are coming under scrutiny - particularly on economics. "Let's do the Time Warp Again!"     (Picture of Jeremy Corbyn as an old Labour icon from the Economist) Giving evidence at the House of Commons Treasury select committee, Bank of England governor Mark Carney was asked by Labour MP John Mann about a number of Corbyn policies, such as "people's QE" and did not pull his punches in his reply. Mr Carney said: “The issue would be imperilling potentially the achievement of price stability. The consequence of that of course would be inflationary. “The people who tend to get hurt the most by inflation are the poor, the elderly, those that can’t hedge themselves – that’s been the experience throughout history and I’m sure that will be the experience in the future if the Bank of England were not to conduct policy not consistent with achieving its mandate from parliament.” Printing more money to expan...