Monday music spot: "I'm a Believer" song The Monkees

Another song from the Monkees TV show which became a huge hit five decades ago (and had another burst of popularity a little more recently courtesy of Shrek and Donkey ...)

Action on Mental Health

Mental health is often a Cinderella service which has been neglected by governments of all political colours.

So I am pleased to learn of the announcement by Jeremy Hunt that 21,000 more mental health nurses will be recruited and that £1.3 billion will be spent to treat an extra one million people by 2021.

Quote of the day 31st July 2017

Remembering the 3rd battle of Ypres.

This weekend we remember one of the most terrible conflicts in which Britain was involved during the 20th century: the third battle of Ypres, also known as the battle of Passchendaele, is generally considered by historians to have lasted from 31st July 1917 to 10th November 1917.

Nobody has ever agreed exactly how many people were killed and wounded but it would appear to have been a little over half a million (around 260,000 on each side.) Huge armies fought in dreadful conditions over a landscape which had been turned to a quagmire of mud and lunarised by heavy artillery. Those of us who have been lucky enough never to be within a hundred miles of a battle can have no conception of what it was like, but we can understand that it was horrible.

The last few survivors of the battle died of old age within the past decade.

The cost of the battle, and the sacrifice of those who took part, must not be forgotten.

Rest in Peace.

A hard border in Ireland would be a tragedy - and a sea border would be a farce

When on holiday or visiting family in Ireland I usually arrive on the island via a ferry at Larne and drive through Northern Ireland before reaching the country of Ireland.  So have occasion to cross the UK's one land border, which when Britain leaves the European Union in 2019 will become Britain's border with the EU.

It is a meandering border, several hundred miles long, which is not marked or policed. In many places you only know you have crossed it because the speed limit signs change.

People on both sides of the border work, shop and socialise across it. Many shops and businesses anywhere near the border take both pounds and Euros.

After a lot of agonising about which way to vote, the difficulty of finding a satisfactory means of dealing with this border which does not sabotage either the economies of both parts of Ireland or the ambition for Britain to regain control of it's borders was a significant factor in my eventual decision to vote Remain.

The re-creation of a "hard border" between the two parts of the island would have severe consequences for the economy of both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Equally, it is difficult to see how you can have freedom of movement between Ireland and the rest of the EU, freedom of movement between Ireland and Northern Ireland, plus freedom of movement between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and yet not have freedom of movement between Britain and the EU.

Which means that there is no simple solution so we have to find a compromise which works.

Some form of the present Irish "freedom of movement" area with monitoring of movement into and out of the island by people who are not citizens of either Britain or Ireland appears to be the least worst solution.

A "Sea Border" between Britain and Ireland would be unworkable and quickly become a farce.

Sunday music spot: Tallis "If ye love me" sung by The Sixteen

Quote of the day 30th July 2017

Saturday music spot: The Monkees "Last Train To Clarksville"

I used to watch the Monkees TV show as a small boy because it was often very funny and I liked the music. The significance of the words of songs like this one completely escaped me at the time.

Now I understand that Clarksville was a departing station for young men drafted to fight in the Vietnam War I realise that lines like "And I don't know if I'm ever coming home" had a lot more kick than I appreciated ...

Charlie Gard RIP

In a statement issued on yesterday evening, the parents of Charlie Gard said: "Our beautiful little boy has gone, we are so proud of you Charlie."

Prime Minister Theresa May said: "I am deeply saddened by the death of Charlie Gard. My thoughts and prayers are with Charlie's parents Chris and Connie at this difficult time."

Pope Francis tweeted: "I entrust little Charlie to the Father and pray for his parents and all those who loved him."

Quote of the day 29th July 2017

"A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence."

 

(Jim Watkins)

Friday music spot: The Pointer Sisters "I'm So Excited"

This 80's classic song was used as the opening theme and at certain key points of the 1990 film/TV version of Judith Michael's book "Deceptions" so I can'[t hear it without thinking of Stephanie Powers dancing on a boat ...

On enlightened capitalism:

Last week Scottish Conservative Leader Ruth Davidson MSP published a most thought-provoking and excellent article on the "Unherd" site which was titled:

"Ctrl + alt + del Conservatives must reboot capitalism."

This article was well worth a read and anyone who has not done so can find it here."

It was a very wide ranging piece which began by pointing out some of the massive benefits which the market economy has brought to greatly improve millions of people's lives, but went on to point out that, particularly in the past decade, those benefits have not always been visible or evenly spread and that for some people. as she put it,

"market failure piled upon social failure piled upon political failure "

have left them with poor options and no stake in the system. It is hardly surprising that many such people have turned to the siren voices of populists of right or left who reinforced their feelings that "the system" is stacked against them, offering instead what sound like simple and clear-cut remedies.

As Ruth wrote in that article,

"How does a teenager living in a pit town with no pit, a steel town with no steel or a factory town where the factory closed its doors a decade ago or more, see capitalism working for them?

Is the route for social advancement a degree, student debt, moving to London to spend more than half their take home pay on a room in a shared flat in Zone 6 and half of what’s left commuting to their stagnant-wage job every day; knowing there is precisely zero chance of saving enough to ever own their own front door?

Or is it staying put in a community that feels like it’s being hollowed out from the inside; schoolfriends moving away for work, library and post office closures and a high street marked by the repetitive studding of charity shop, pub, bookies and empty lot – all the while watching the Rich Kids of Instagram on Channel 4 and footballers being bought and sold for more than the entire economy of a third world nation on Sky Sports News?

Not a single person familiar with this impossible choice should be surprised at the rise of the populist right and left, of Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, with their simple, stick-it-to-the-broken-system narrative."

Ruth goes on to write about some of the solutions we need to consider - fixing the housing market (a policy, please note, which is likely to require less government intervention rather than more), reforms of corporate governance, restrictions on tax avoidance, lowering barriers of entry to market competitors and reforms to education are among the things she touches on.

But it is also necessary to foster the ethos of responsible capitalism. The most successful and effective business leaders in today's world are rarely the "robber baron" type of capitalist but those who use their economic power in positive ways. And even those companies which have come in for criticism - much of it justified - may have got other things right which we can learn from.

This week she has also linked to an another article on the Unherd site, this-one by Chris Deerin, which calls out examples of good business practice of the kind which can lead us towards a model of good corporate practice. It's a moderately long read - thirteen pages - but worth the effort.

The idea of ethical capitalism has been someone discredited both because some of those who promoted it were naïve idealists and because some companies who should have known better have been caught out in very unethical capitalism.

It is time to revive it.

Quote of the day 28th July 2017

Thursday music spot.

I originally posted this comparison two years ago and was disappointed to notice today that both the performances I linked to at that time have since been removed from YouTube.

So here it is again with two links to some of the (many) performances which work today.

In 1711 Antonia Vivaldi published an excellent concerto for four Violins and supporting instruments. I believe that like most of his music it was popular for a time, almost forgotten for many years, and then revived in popularity in the 20th century.

(Yehudi Menuin and Nigel Kennedy had, I think, rather a lot to do with the revival in popularity of Vivaldi, and I used to own an audio cassette, in the days of that now largely vanished technology, with a great performance of this piece led by Y.H.) 

Here is a more recent performance ...



Johann Sebastian Bach liked this piece so much that, some two decades after it was first published  he transcribed it for four harpsichords. Here is a modern performance of his version:



Which do you prefer?

Quote of the year

"Anyone who thinks the West Cumberland Hospital doesn't have a future, or that we are closing it, can think again."

Stephen Eames, Chief Executive of Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, on the news that  between £35 million and £50 million of new government money is to be invested in improving facilities and services at West Cumberland Hospital, as quoted in today's Whitehaven News.

Melanie Phillips on the tragic case of Charlie Gard

The tragic story of Charlie Gard is every parent's nightmare. There are no right answers about how to deal with such a case: no decent human being can feel anything but sorry for the plight of this infant and his mum and dad. All parents must be thinking something along the lines of "There, but for the grace of God, go I" (or the equivalent is for those of other faiths or none.)

To have such cases resolved by the courts should be a last resort: it is far better than decisions about the clinical care of any child should be taken by doctors in consultation with the family rather than by juidges and lawuers. The only thing even worse than having such decisions end up in independent courts would be having them taken by politicians, commentators or twitter - let alone by politicians commentators or twitterati thousands of miles away.

There is a thoughtful piece on the subject by Melanie Phillips on the subject which you can read here and which I recommend.

She concludes her piece as I will conclude this one by saying that the last word should be given to Great Ormond Street hospital when a statement from the hospital said that all their thoughts

“go with Charlie and his mother and father – the hospital wishes each of them peace in their hearts at the end of this day and each day to come”.

Quote of the day 27th July 2017

Of philistines, maths and log tables

One of the things which most disappoints me which stops people achieving their full potential is a disdain for key educational subjects, and there is no worse example than people convincing themselves that they cannot do maths, or that this essential subject is more difficult than it actually is.

There was an example on BBC Radio Cumbria yesterday, with two presenters who referred to a sportsman with a degree in maths. I think they were trying to suggest that he was more clever than people often assume athletes are, but it came over as "maths is boring and difficult" and this is not an opinion which people in positions of influence in the media or anywhere else should be encouraged to promote, even accidentally.

Examples of the comments made on Radio Cumbria included one about algebra being difficult and another which was disparaging about logarithmic tables "what are they and what use are they?"

Oh dear, oh dear. Sigh.

I suppose it doesn't help that dictionaries are often written by people who are good at English and not necessarily good at maths - I've just checked the definition of a logarithm in an otherwise quite good dictionary - one of the Oxford range - and if I didn't already know what they are I would have found that definition given completely incomprehensible. It's so poor I'm not going to quote it.

I find logarithms quite useful in the statistical aspects of my job as an economic analyst, though I usually get a computer to work them out rather than looking them up in a table.

My late mother, who was a teacher, once jokingly described log tables as "a means of multiplying and dividing for people who only know how to add and subtract."

That is an example of a true word spoken in jest because you can indeed use them that way, though it is not really what logarithms are most helpful for.

Let's see if I can explain why logarithms can be useful.

A logarithmic table is a table which expresses the value of the numbers in the table as powers of a base number; most often that base number is ten.

(Occasionally instead mathematicians use a number called "e" which is about 2.718 - it is used because certain formulas incorporating this number have useful properties in differential and integral calculus.)

Any number to power Zero is One.

Any base number to the power One, is the base number itself.

Any base number to the power Two is the base number squared.

Any base number to the power Three is the base number cubed/

In a table with the base of ten,

One expressed as a log 10 value is zero (because ten to the power zero is one)
Ten expressed as a log 10 value is one (as ten to the power one is ten)
100 expressed as a log 10 value is two (as ten to the power two, or ten squared, is 100)
1,000 expressed as a log 10 value is three (as ten to the power 3, or ten cubed, is 1000)

The point where most people's eyes start to glaze over when even a very good teacher (which I do not claim to be) tries to explain logarithms is when you start on the two components of a logarithm, which are called the characteristic and the mantissa, and yet understanding these is really helpful if you want to be easily able to manipulate numbers.

Any "real number" (the definition of a real number is an issue for another day) can be expressed as a number between One and Ten multiplied by a power of ten. This is known as "standard form" (or sometimes as scientific notation.)

So for example. 100 in standard form is equal to One times ten squared (ten to the power two)

e.g. 100 = 1 * 10(2)

2,000 is two times ten cubed (ten to the power three)

e.g. 2,000 = 2 * 10(3)

31,623 is 31.623 times ten to the fourth power

e.g. 31,623 = 3.1623 * 10(4)

If you convert any of these numbers to a logarithm using base ten, the whole integer part of that logarithm - the bit to the left of the decimal point - is equal to the power of ten in the standard form of the number. This is called the characteristic and it tells you what order of magnitude the number is for which this is the logged value.

The left-over part, the fractional value to the right of the decimal point, is called the mantissa
and it tells you what the first (and subsequent) digits of the number are, e.g. the first term of the standard form will always correspond to the same mantissa.

So in the above examples,  the log of 100 is 2.0, with the characteristic of 2 representing ten to the power two and a mantissa of zero representing the number One in  100 = 1 * 10(2)

The log of 2,000 is approximately 3.301, with the characteristic of 3 representing ten to the power three and a mantissa of 0.301 representing the number 2 in the standard form 2,000 = 2 * 10(3) and whenever you see a logarithm with the fractional component or mantissa of 0.301 or thereabouts it means that the number for which this is the log is approximately equal to two multiplied by ten to the power of the part of the number to the left of the decimal point.

So if you see any logged figure of around 6.301 it's in the ball park of the log of two times ten to the power six, which is about two million.

The log of 31,623 (or thereabouts) is 4.5. In this case the characteristic of 4 representings ten to the power four so the number is in the tens of thousands, and a mantissa of 0.5 representing the number 3.1623 in the standard form 31,623 = 3.1623 * 10(4) and whenever you see a logarithm with the fractional component or mantissa of 0.5 or thereabouts it means that the number for which this is the log has a first integer of three (and if the mantissa is exactly 0.5 the next four digits will be one, six, two and three.)

OK, you may or may not find this interesting, and many people probably will not have read this far, but some of those who have will be asking "but what actual use is all this?" More than you might think.

In the days before computers, log tables could be used to speed up complex calculations provided you only needed an approximate answer. (My calculation of "about two million" above was actually off by 38, to the nearest whole number,  because I had only cited the logarithmic value to three decimal places.)

We no longer need log tables for that now that almost everyone has easy access to computers (an iPhone has more computing power than NASA had when they sent men to the moon.) But logarithms they can be very useful to statisticians when you are looking to measure or predict proportionate relationships rather than linear ones.

Suppose you are an economist looking to chart the a demand curve which shows how sales of a product increase, other things being equal, when the price falls. If the relationship is a nice straight line on a graph - a fall in price of £5 per unit always causes a 100 units a week increase in sales, that sort of thing - you can estimate it with a simple linear formula.

But most real world relationships don't work like that and do not produce nice straight lines on a graph. As "The Economist" once wrote

"Beware of forecasters with rulers!"

Real world relationships are more often non-linear, and produce a curve when graphed.

Non-linear relationships, particularly those which take a proportionate form - e.g. whenever the price goes up by 10%, the volume of sales drops by 15% - are much easier to calculate and model by incorporating logged terms into the calculations.

I was lucky enough to have teachers who could make this sort of thing interesting. But it is more than interesting to be able to understand the different patters which numbers can take: it is genuinely useful in many numerate professions (including mine.)

Teachers like that are worth their weight in gold. A wise society recognises their value - and that of education. And does not encourage people to mock the value of numerate skills or any other type of learning.

Quote of the day 26th July 2017

Flood resilience grants deadline extended

The deadline for anyone affected by the floods in Cumbria following Storm Desmond to apply for a flood resilience grant has been put back to the end of September.

If you were affected and have not applied for help, don't lose your chance to do so.

Suddenly people are noticing again that Corbyn's Labour cannot get anything right

 

Jeremy Corbyn issued the following tweet today: “As school holidays start today, many will struggle to meet childcare costs, which have doubled under @conservatives.”
 

However, this simply is not true, contradicted what the official Labour party statements said, and they had to scrabble round to correct him.

Unfortunately as Channel4's FactCheck points out here the correction is wrong too ...

Quote of the day 25th July 2017

"Labour is not being straight with voters about its' stance on student debt or the EU."

(The Times leader headline yesterday.)

Cumbria Health Scrutiny

Cumbria's Health Scrutiny committee - a joint committee run by Cumbria County Council but which also contains one councillor from each of the six districts in the county met this morning at County Hall in Kendal.

There was an interesting discussion about the minutes of the call-in meetings on 22nd March.

I asked for the work programme for the committee for the forthcoming year to look at the lessons which could be learned from that scrutiny process and this was taken on board.

It was also noted that the committee will be reviewing what actually happens to the service as a result of the decisions the NHS success regime took.

There was also a very interesting presentation to the committee from the NHS care commissioning bodies. Among the issues noted was the challenge of recruiting staff and it was noted that the huge investment which has just been agreed in our local health services - £65 million pounds announced last week -is something we must shout about as it demonstrates that the government and the NHS are committed to the future of local health services in Cumbria.

Corbyn and Student debt

Today's daily mail headline:

So when he said here that reducing the existing "massive debt" burden of those who have already graduated was a "priority" and added "I will deal with it" Jeremy Corbyn did not realise what the costs involved were. I am reminded of a comment by William Safire:

And someone who says he will deal with an issue when he has no idea how much it will cost, whether he describes it as a "promise", a "pledge" or a "priority" or an "ambition," cannot know whether he will be able to do what he is saying he will do or not. Even if such a man turns out to be right - which Jeremy Corbyn did not - he is not being straight with people.

Quote of the day 24th July 2017

Quote of the day 23rd July 2017

"It is not inequality that bites deepest, but injustice.

People expect that the CEO of a corporation will be the highest paid person on the payroll. What they don’t accept is that FTSE 100 bosses are paid 174 times the average worker’s wage in this decade – compared to 13 to 44 times in 1980."

(Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davison MSP in an article on "Unherd" called

"Ctrl + Alt + Del Conservatives must reboot capitalism" of which more anon ...)

Sunday Music Spot: the sixteen sing "Salvator Mundi" by Tallis

Dunkirk

Just come back with my wife from watching the film "Dunkirk" in the cinema.

Must confess to being very moved. It was a powerful film about a critically important event in our country's history. I can recommend the film.

Saturday Music spot: The Barron Knights "Oh Miami"

A humorous musical account of a supposed holiday in Florida

Corbyn's empty promises come back to bite Labour

During the general election Labour made two rash and irresponsible promises to past,  present and future students.

They promised to scrap the tuition fees introduced by Tony Blair's Labour government and then increased by Labour after the party had clearly and explicitly promised in their 2001 manifesto not to do so.

Jeremy Corbyn also referred to the existing debt owned by former students who went to university since fees were introduced and clearly implied that he would write off that debt.

A good example of what Labour was saying during the election can be found in an interview he gave in the NME dated 1st June 2017 which can be found on their website under the title

Jeremy Corbyn: "I will deal with those already burdened with student debt."

Let me quote verbatim the relevant part of the interview:

“First of all, we want to get rid of student fees altogether,” Corbyn told NME. “We’ll do it as soon as we get in, and we’ll then introduce legislation to ensure that any student going from the 2017-18 academic year will not pay fees. They will pay them, but we’ll rebate them when we’ve got the legislation through – that’s fundamentally the principle behind it. Yes, there is a block of those that currently have a massive debt, and I’m looking at ways that we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing that debt burden.”

"The Labour Party leader added that the specific details of his plan had not yet been worked out due to the rush of the snap election, but that the pledge was a priority and they were dedicated to seeing it through."

 

“I don’t have the simple answer for it at this stage – I don’t think anybody would expect me to, because this election was called unexpectedly; we had two weeks to prepare all of this – but I’m very well aware of that problem,” said Corbyn. “And I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively compared to those that went before or those that come after. I will deal with it.”

 

You can check for yourself here

 

So although he admitted that he had not finished working through the "specific details" of his plans, they were more than just some vague "ambition" as Labour representatives are now trying to pretend, but a "pledge" which was "a priority"and Corbyn said "I will deal with it."

Labour still pretend that they intend to scrap tuition fees for future students but have now more or less admitted that the idea of writing off the debts of past graduates is just an "ambition" which they are not going to promise because they don't want to promise things they cannot actually do.

But as Henry Hill writes on Conservative Home here, just as Corbyn's comments about how he wanted to write off student debt cut through to many people, not all of whom would normally have considered voting Labour, a lot of those people have noticed that Labour has now rowed back from those election campaign comments.

Ask Nick Clegg or any of the other Lib/Dems who lost their seats as MPs or councillors between his student fees U-turn and this year what happens when your promises run too far above your ability to deliver.

One of my colleagues suggests that every time Corbyn or one of his team makes an unrealistic or undeliverable promise from now on we should all call out "free unicorns."

I suspect there may yet be plenty of opportunities to do so.

Isle of Man trips from Whitehaven cancelled at short notice

For thirty years the ferry MV Balmoral has run an annual series of summer day trips from Whitehaven to the Isle of Man. These have always been extremely popular.

Those trips should have been running today: they were planned for the three day period from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd July 2017

However, at less than two week's notice the  Maritime and Coastguard Agency refused to give permission for the "International trip" to go ahead.

The short voyage is at no time close to being out of sight of land, and the Isle of Man is a UK Crown dependency, but the voyage is technically classed as an international one.

The agency was less than forthcoming about the reasons for the ban but hinted at safety concerns.

They apologised for the short notice but appeared to blame the operator, White Funnel limited, saying "operators are encouraged to apply in good time and before making other commitments."

Since this service had been running for thirty years I must confess to raising an eyebrow - if there really are safety issues, which I do not have the information to judge, why did they not come up before?

And if the MV Balmoral is not safely able to carry passengers on a trip from Whitehaven to the Isle of Man, is it safe to carry passengers anywhere?

The journey may technically be an international one but it's probably less dangerous than a trip from Southampton to the Isle of Wight (because there is less chance of hitting other maritime traffic.)

I hope that whatever the issues were, they can be resolved in good time and the service resumed in 2018.

Quote of the day 22nd July 2017

£1 million regeneration scheme for Copeland goes live on Monday

A £1 million scheme has been launched to transform Copeland’s towns: applications to take part open on Monday.

Mike Starkie, Mayor of Copeland, launched the scheme for which it is hoped that £500k of taxpayers' money to regenerate shopfronts in Copeland’s towns and villages will attract match funding of £500k from the private sector.

The Copeland Pride of Place Town Centre Regeneration Scheme encourages local business owners to enhance the external appearance of town centre shops and buildings as well as improving the borough’s built environment and street scene.

Grants are available for up to 50 per cent of the value of the work required, up to a maximum amount of £5,000, to improve the external appearance of commercial property, principally the ground floor trading elevation. This 50 per cent contribution means that local businesses will be required to invest in their premises to match-fund the grant.

The scheme is open to owners, landlords and tenants of units that are located within Copeland’s towns and villages, with priority given to the four main town centres of Whitehaven, Cleator Moor, Egremont and Millom.

£375k of the fund has been allocated to improving the principle town centres. £75k has been allocated to villages in Copeland and £50k for street improvements.

Grants awarded to commercial premises must maximise visual impact focusing on improvements to windows and window frames, doorways, external decoration and signage.

Applications open on Monday, July 24. For more information contact the Council’s Economic Development Department by email at shopfront@copeland.gov.uk (link sends e-mail) or by calling 01946 598433, or visit the CBC website on http://www.copeland.gov.uk/node/28716.

Mr Starkie said: “This project has the potential to be transformational for Copeland. We all have enormous pride in our borough, and this funding will help us and the community continue to create a place where people are proud to live, work and visit. This council is delighted to be at the forefront of helping to make this happen.

“We have a wealth of fantastic and innovative small businesses in the area – some with family histories going back generations - and it is vitally important that we support those who wish to improve the appearance of their premises, their contribution to their communities and to reach their full commercial potential.

“Our towns are steeped in rich architectural heritage and, while costly to maintain, we must ensure that we’re doing all we can to enhance the unique character of the borough’s built environment for everyone to enjoy and to have pride in our place.”

Those who shout loudest are not always right ...

John Stuart Mill was one of the wisest human beings who ever lived, and I believe that even though I do not share all his opinions. Here is one which I very much do share.

I was reminded of that opinion this week when reading an article from Andrew Lillico on the Reactions site,

"Those who shout loudest often aren't in the majority."

The article might be subtitled "(but often think they are, and that this gives them the right to shout down opposing views.)"

I agree with Mill that we don't have the right to shut down opposing views even when we are in the majority, and I would still take that view even on the rare occasions when we have objective proof that we are right.

When people think they are in the majority but actually aren't, the error is often caused precisely because opposing views have been shouted down.

The article mostly gives examples of people who are broadly on the left shouting down what are seen as right-wing views but it can happen in either direction. And should be avoided.

Quote of the day 21st July 2017

£65 million for health in Cumbria

More than £65 million has been awarded to support the development of health services in West, North and East Cumbria.

This will include between £30 million and £50 million to be made available for West Cumberland Hospital. (WCH)

The work at WCH will include a new diagnostics suite, housing cardiology, breast screening, a vascular lab, and a new mortuary. It is expected that the work will be completed by Spring 2018.

Trudy Harrison MP has welcomed this "fantastic news" which will mean faster diagnostic turnaround for conditions including cancer, shorter waiting times, and better patient care.

The announcement of £65 million for health services in West, North and East Cumbria was made yesterday morning by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens at the Kings Fund, and includes significant investment in:    

• Cancer care including a new radiotherapy machine,     
• £30 to £50 million for the next phase of development at WCH      
• The establishment of Integrated Care Communities (ICCs) which will mean more co-ordinated health and care services delivered locally.

More details on my health blog here .

Quote of the day 20th July 2017

Talleyrand and Brexit

My first reaction on seeing that George Tregfarne had published an article on CAPX about  Talleyrand and Brexit was

"What did he mean by that?"

(This was the supposed response of European statesman to the news that the brilliant statesman and arch-survivor who served five consecutive regimes in France from the French Revolution through Napoleon and the Bourbon restoration had finally died.)

But the point of the article is that Talleyrand's doctrine of legitimacy is the best way through to successful Brexit. This is described in the article as “all sides should, for a moment, put aside their demands and start from the position: 'How do we achieve a legitimate outcome, which will be practical and be widely accepted?'”

Talleyrand wrote: “The spirit of the times in which we live demands that in great civilised states supreme power should only be exercised with the consent of bodies drawn from the heart of the society that it governs.”

Tregfarne points out that Brexit is not a single event, but a process which will take years and that whether it is a success or not depends on numerous actions to be taken over decades. Many of those actions will be taken long after Mrs May has left government and nor will they all be taken by those he calls "the gerontocratic revolutionaries who lead the Labour Party."

We need to take a long-term view. The people who called on Theresa May to reach out across the political divide and try to form a consensus on Brexit were right - and it is a pity that when she did so the call was rebuffed by the Labour party and used as an opportunity for point-scoring while it was taken as a sign of weakness by the press.

Quote of the day 19th July 2017

"I lost the Band-Aid while I was making a Thousand Island salad dressing"

(Tim Burton quoted in the Sunday Times this week. They suggested their readers would be relieved he became a film director and not a chef.)

Money, Money, Money - from Jane Austen to Smartphones

Today being the 200th anniversary of the death of the great writer Jane Austen, the Bank of England unveiled the design of the new £10 note which bears her image (and for which part of the manufacturing process will take place at Wigton in Cumbria).

I very much welcome both the long-overdue recognition of an important writer and the role Cumbria is playing in modernising the British currency.

However, I think that another piece of news which I saw this week in the New York Times about money may have much more long term significance.

Paul Muzur has written that "In urban China, cash is rapidly becoming obsolete" and so are credit cards.

The article begins as follows

"There is an audacious economic phenomenon happening in China.

It has nothing to do with debt, infrastructure spending or the other major economic topics du jour. It has to do with cash — specifically, how China is systematically and rapidly doing away with paper money and coins.

Almost everyone in major Chinese cities is using a smartphone to pay for just about everything. At restaurants, a waiter will ask if you want to use WeChat or Alipay — the two smartphone payment options — before bringing up cash as a third, remote possibility.

Just as startling is how quickly the transition has happened. Only three years ago there would be no question at all, because everyone was still using cash."

 

Anyone interested in how our economy might develop in the future would be well advised to read the rest of this article which can be found here.

Writing as an economist, the potential economic significance of this goes WAY beyond what we may all find ourselves carrying to pay our bills.

Now I don't go all the way with those who believe that "fiat money" created by banks is a great disaster for our economy.

But they are absolutely right that through the change from a system where most transactions were carried out with notes and coin to one in which most are carried out by changing numbers in bank accounts, vast amounts of spendable money were created. It is also the case that poor regulation of that money can have serious consequences not just for first financial markets and then property markets but also for the whole of the rest of the economy.

There is similarly the potential for the creation of a system where most transactions are carried out using smartphones to create vast amounts of spendable money. If the companies who are doing it, and the financial regulators, are not on the ball about the consequences and the need to make sure that money is properly secured, the results could be 2007 all over again.

This should not be taken as a prophesy of doom. Most innovations have the capacity to bring great good if managed well, but harm if managed badly. The use of phones to pay many of people's bills is certainly an example.

I'm just suggesting we try to ensure that we take advantage of the early warning which has been provided because we have seen this happen first in China to be ready for it, and to have the right regulatory and corporate protection in place to go down a sound track if and when this happens in the West, not a risky one.

Egremont Town Council

Attended Egremont Town Council this evening.

There were a number of issues discussed affecting the county council including the need to progress improvements to the A595 and traffic schemes through parts of the Town Council area such as Bigrigg and Egremont.

There were also a large number of residents present about the planning application currently with Copeland BC for a coach depot at the former County Council depot site in Baybarrow Road Egremont. This site was sold by the County Council prior to my election - there was concern expressed about it at the Egremont Town Council meeting in February - but local residents are particularly concerned at the potential greater impact of the current proposals.

I was asked to investigate a number of potential issues relating to this and will do so.

Tuesday music spot: Cliff Richard "Out In The Country"

This cheerful and enjoyable tune makes me laugh for all the wrong reasons ...

In my early twenties I and some friends in the moderate wing of the late and unlamented FCS used to sing a range of modified songs taking the mickey out of out external opponents in NOLS (the National Organisation of Labour Students) and our internal opponents, e.g. the people who eventually got FCS shut down by Norman Tebbit for being too right wing.

No, that's not a joke.

These songs, most of them written by myself or Paul Goodman, were the student political youtube parodies of the eighties.

One of the best was a version of "In the Country" called "The International Secretary" in which the chorus was changed from "Out in the country" to "Out of the country" and a few more minor changes made the song all about the sort of student politician you can find on both left and right who spends more time supporting looney extremists on the other side of the world than campaigning to do anything useful in their own country.

Now which political party has a leader old enough to claim a pension who still behaves like that kind of student politician?

Quote of the day 18th July 2017

That I am posting the following quote should not be taken to imply approval of everything Stephen Daisley says in this paragraph:


"Among my infinite repertoire of unpopular opinions is admiration for Tony Blair. I am one of those merry partisans — I hesitate to use the plural — who reckon that for all his faults he was a good’un.

But even those who disagree with me (such people tend to be known as ‘the majority’) ought to acknowledge his insights into politics and the European scene. Particular attention is deserved for this aperçu:

‘If a Right-wing populist punch in the form of Brexit was followed by a Left-wing populist punch in the form of unreconstructed hard-Left economics, Britain would hit the canvas, flat on our back and be out for a long count.’"

This comes from an article "Blair may be a shouty old uncle but he's got a point about Corbyn"


My view of Tony Blair is shared with those Stephen calls "The majority."

Nevertheless you do not have to agree with Blair or his views on Brexit to think he has a point on this one. Even if you argue that Brexit will benefit Britain's economy in the long term there will still be some disruptive effect during the period of transition. If the UK were to adopt hard left policies at the same time as the disruptive part of the Brexit process, the combined effect could have dire results for the economy.

Blair is often disastrously wrong but as Stephen Daisley say, he has a point about Corbyn.

St Bees Parish Council

I attended the meeting of St Bees Parish Council this evening. The meeting was preceded by a "drop-in" consultation on Copeland BC's draft Conservation Area design guide.

Issues discussed included cycleways (with particular relevance to the possibility that improved cycleway may be provided by a forthcoming development), road markings and safety generally in the Outrigg area of St Bees, the forthcoming Mining planning application, the Sellafield travel plan, and issues around hopes for improvements to local roads.

Monday music spot: "It was on a Monday morning ..."

Classic Flanders and Swann, "The gas man Cometh."

New Independent report ranks NHS as best of 11 countries

An Independent report has ranked Britain's NHS as the best health service of those in eleven leading countries.

This is of course down to the hard work and dedication of Britain's doctors, nurses, dentists, midwives and all the other people who work in our NHS.

Quote of the day 17th July 2017

"The only winner in the cabinet briefing war is Jeremy Corbyn."

(Katy Balls, title of a Spectator article which you can read here.)

Spoof articles and when people confuse fiction with reality ...

There have been some amusing spoof articles over the last few weeks.

London mayor Sadiq Khan has been accused of ignoring London's White Walker problem according to someone at News Thump who has perhaps been watching a little too much Game of Thrones.

The Evening Harold had an interesting post the day after the election:

Father Christmas returns to Narnia at last.

But the best post I've seen on a spoof website today isn't really a spoof at all, and it was posted eight years ago but is getting thrown up by search engines today because of a certain controversial announcement made within the past couple of hours.

Here is a link to a Daily Mash post in 2009 if you want to read how

"Fans of Doctor Who are reminded that it's a science fiction story for children."

Quite.

(The same people did one more recently which WAS a spoof,

"New Doctor should be a Dalek, say Daleks,"

in which the Supreme Dalek complains that “It’s not the 1960s anymore. These narratives about heroic Gallifreyans saving humanoids from extermination are outdated and offensive ..."

Shadow Chancellor admit's Labour student fees promises just a "ambition"

Any young voter, parent of a young voter, or anyone else who voted Labour in June because they believed Jeremy Corbyn's promise to scrap tuition fees and write off student debt would be well advised to watch this clip in which Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell admits that these promises were only "a real ambition" but not a promise, adding "we're not going to promise something we can't deliver."

(Hat tip to Guido Fawkes)

As Guido says, "It was fantasy politics, a pack of lies all along…"

Sunday music spot: Orlando Gibbons "O Lord, in thy wrath"

The choir of Clare College Cambridge, under the direction of Timothy Brown, sing "O Lord, in thy wrath rebuke me not" by Orlando Gibbons.

Quote of the day 16th July 2017

Health Scrutiny meeting 24th June

I have today received the agenda papers for the forthcoming Cumbria Health Scrutiny meeting on 24th July which are available on the CCC website here.

This meeting will receive the draft minutes of the now notorious meetings on 22nd March for which the actual scrutiny meeting minutes are available here and the record of the "dispute resolution" meeting with the NHS "Success Regime" which took place during the recess is available here.

There is a protocol for attempting to resolve disagreements between the Health Scrutiny Committee and the NHS organisations which the committee is supposed to scrutinise before you get to the stage where the committee "calls in" decisions and refers them to the Secretary of State.

The manner in which that protocol worked on 22nd March was deeply unsatisfactory.

If the minutes are correct the Health Scrutiny spent most of the seven-hour period between 10.30 am and 5.30 pm discussing the concerns raised by thousands of residents, patients and staff about the Success Regime proposals and voted to "call in" three key aspects of those proposals. There were three adjournments, so let's assume there were about six hours of discussion, formal and informal.

There was then a recess, during which a forty-minute "dispute resolution" discussion between lead members of the scrutiny committee and the Success Regime took place. During this time four members of the scrutiny committee went home. The minutes of that meeting state that it finished at 6.10 pm.

The seven remaining members of the Health Scrutiny reconvened, received assurances from the Success regime as detailed in the minutes linked to above, voted again on the three areas they had previously voted to call in, and reversed two of those decisions.

According to the draft minutes this reconvened meeting finished at 6.20 pm which means that if both sets of draft minutes are right it could not have taken longer than ten minutes.

A forty minute discussion with the NHS trust and a ten minute meeting of the seven committee members who had not gone home, to reverse the decisions made earlier that day by eleven members of the committee who had spent about six hours discussing concerns raised by thousands of residents, patients and staff.

Absolutely extraordinary. More about this on my health blog at

http://savewestcumbriahospitals.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/health-scrutiny-looking-back-to-22nd.html

Second Saturday Music spot: The Barron Knights "The Sit Song"

In this eighties song the Barron Knights were extracting the Michael from Barbara Woodhouse, who at the time was a celebrity dog trainer ...



Postscript: I set this one to appear on the blog today a few weeks ago when doing some advance planning, and forgot that I had done so, hence two music spots today. A little different from the rather more cerebral piece of music I posted this morning but I hope that in their very different ways both gave pleasure - though this one is amusing rather than beautiful!

Saturday music spot: Handel's "Lascia ch'io pianga" (Rinaldo);

This exquisite aria, sung here by Kirsten Blaise with Voices of Music playing original period instruments, comes from Handel's opera "Rinaldo"

The words are

Lascia ch'io pianga
mia cruda sorte,
e che sospiri la libertà.
Il duolo infranga queste ritorte
de' miei martiri sol per pietà.

which translates as

Let me weep
over my cruel fate,
and sigh for freedom.
Let my sorrow break the chains
of my suffering, out of pity.

Performed by (left to right, back to front)
Kati Kyme, baroque violin
Gabrielle Wunsch, baroque violin
Elizabeth Blumenstock, baroque violin
Maxine Nemerovski, baroque violin
Lisa Grodin, baroque viola
Farley Pearce, violone
Shirley Edith Hunt, baroque cello
David Tayler, archlute
Hanneke van Proosdij, baroque organ
And of course, Kirsten Blaise, soprano.

Communications issues continued

Can I repeat the apology given earlier to anyone who has been trying to contact me without success. I thought I had solved almost all the issues but this past fortnight some of them have returned with a vengeance.

I managed to trace the messages from all except one of the people who posted on Facebook that they were waiting for me to respond to them. (Most of them were in my SPAM filters. I have marked them as "trust mail from this sender" and am checking my filters on a regular basis.)

The county council set up an email account for me: there were a few dropped balls because some people tried to contact me on it before it was working, but that was sorted out and my county email account did work from late May until 2nd July 2017.

Unfortunately I am not able to access my county council email at the moment. I am trying to get this resolved but may have missed some messages.

If you tried to contact me on my county council email account after 2nd July, or if you have tried to contact me by electronic means and not had a response within ten calendar days, please assume that I did not get the message.

My home address is given on the imprint at the foot of this blog and on the Cumbria County Council website and I am in the telephone directory: the phone numbers on the directory and the CCC website are working.

 I repeat the apology for any convenience.

Quote of the day 15th July 2017

Friday music spot: Purcell's "Music for a while"

Trudy Harrison promises to visit all nuclear businesses in Copeland over summer.

Copeland MP Trudy Harrison has said that she will visit all 60 nuclear businesses in her constituency during parliament's summer break.

Her comments were made after she spoke in a debate in Parliament this week on the UK's membership of Euratom - the European Atomic Energy Community, responsible for nuclear safety and security in Europe since 1957 – which Britain is set to leave at the same time as the UK leaves the EU.

Brexit Secretary David Davis subsequently confirmed that ministers will press forward with plans to leave Euratom but he also insisted there is a "strong mutual interest" for close co-operation once the UK has left the bloc.

Mrs Harrison said:

“The Government’s position paper released yesterday demonstrates the absolute commitment to maintain a close and effective relationship with the Euratom Community."

“As I made clear during this week’s debate, safeguarding has to continue under international law. It is imperative that new co-operation agreements are in place. Safeguarding is critical for the nuclear industry, and particularly for Sellafield, a community that is home to thousands of nuclear workers and the Centre of Nuclear Excellence (CoNE)."

“During recess I will be visiting the 67 nuclear business in Copeland and following the Secretary of State’s (Business Secretary Greg Clark) previous visit, both the Minister for Energy and Industry, Richard Harrington MP and Jake Berry MP, Northern Power House Minister, will be visiting Sellafield and the Moorside site in the coming months."

Figures published by the Nuclear Industry Association last month showed that the majority of  Cumbrian nuclear employees - 14,707 - are based in Trudy Harrison's constituency.

She added: "I welcome the Government’s commitment to ensuring a smooth transition to a UK nuclear safeguards regime with no interruption in safeguards arrangements and to provide certainty and clarity to industry."

“As vice chair of the Nuclear All Party Parliamentary Group, I hope to facilitate the creation of a cross party working group which will allow further scrutiny of the Government’s progress throughout the negotiations.”

A595 closed near Bootle due to RTA

There was a serious Road Traffic Accident about a mile north of Bootle this evening. The emergency services are dealing with the incident, but it has been necessary to put diversions in place (not at all an easy thing to organise in that part of the world) and delays were expected.

Quote of the day 14th July 2017

Employment at record levels

Latest employment figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released yesterday show that the number of people in work in Britain has passed 32 million while the number of people available for work but unable to find it has dropped below 1.5 million.

Employment has grown by 324,000 over the 12 months to March 2017, taking the employment rate for people of working age up to 74.9% which is the highest since records began in 1971 while the number of people seeking work has dropped by 152,000 in 12 months while the unemployment rate dropped from 4.9% to 4.5% over the same period and is now as low on a comparable basis as it has been since the mid 1970's.

Employment has risen in every region and nation of the UK since 2010.

The increase was driven by increases in full-time jobs, not part time ones, and the number of both men and women in work has risen, with the largest increase being of women in full-time jobs.

There has also been an improvement in the employment rate for young people. The unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds was 12.5%, lower than for a year earlier when it was 13.5%, and well below its highest rate of 22.5% in late 2011.

This is excellent news on jobs but no grounds for complacency: we also need to get productivity up so that employers can afford not just to employ more people but to do so at better salaries.

Giving with one hand and taking away with the other ...

During the recent general election Labour promised to scrap student tuition fees.

This week Labour ministers announced that the tuition fee cap for students attending Universities in Wales will rise next year.

The degree of double standards shown by the Labour party never ceases to amaze me.

Judging the Judges

I found it more than a little ironic that the same political party whose senior representatives complained bitterly that the government was not doing enough to protect the independence of Britain's judiciary when the press criticised senior judges as "Enemies of the people" for making a ruling which they liked and the press didn't like, also contains MPs who are the first to attack the suitability of any judge appointed to head an inquiry.

To be fair this is partly a matter of political parties being coalitions of people with diverse views rather than individuals being inconsistent. Some of the same Labour politicians and left-wing publications who were at the fore in urging the government to defend the judges over article 50 have been desperately trying to distance themselves from those in their party and on the left who have been making personal attacks on judges such as Lord Justice Sir Martin Moore-Bick, head of the Grenfell Towers inquiry. But you could very easily be forgiven for missing that fact because this impression does not come over on the media.

Vastly more prominence has been given in both social and mainstream media to comments attacking the government or judges than to any comments defending either. So much so that, until doing some background research for this post, I had not realised that those who people who defended judges over article 50 had generally not joined the media lynch mob against Sir Martin and several of them had actively defended him.

Of course, the former comments fitted neatly into the political or media narratives that various people wanted to push and the latter didn't ...

Nevertheless the point has to be made that judges are, by definition, highly experienced, well paid and famous people who, even if they have reached their position from a humble start, are easy to caricature as members of the establishment. But if unprincipled politicians are quick to use this to jump onto, or indeed start, bandwagons attacking any judge or highly experienced figure appointed to head an inquiry or investigation into some grave event or disaster as a "member of the establishment out of touch with the people" they will make it difficult if not impossible to run such inquiries.

If there has ever been a bandwagon of which it is clear than any politician who joined it proved themself an irresponsible populist who does not deserve election to public office, it is the attacks on Sir Martin Moore-Bick. The Grenfell Tower tragedy was a horrible catastrophe which cost scores of lives - we still don't know for certain exactly how many - and which has highlighted serious systemic failures far too wide-ranging to be the responsibility of one council, one party or one part of the political spectrum. The survivors and families of the victims deserve honesty and respect and to be treated better than being used for cheap political point-scoring.

The task for the head of that inquiry is not primarily to be nice to everybody, it is to get to the truth about

1) Why did the fire start?

2) Why did it spread so quickly?

3) What could and should have been done differently to prevent these events and, given that the fire did start, get more people out of the building alive?

4) What lessons are there from this terrible tragedy for building safety, safety issues in general and our emergency services which Britain should act on to reduce the chances of such a terrible event ever happening again?

The race, age, gender and social class of the head of the inquiry are utterly irrelevant to his or her ability to establish the truth about these things. It is as wrong to attack Sir Martin for being a white straight male "member of the establishment" as it would have been to try to block the appointment of an "anti-establishment" lesbian and person of colour on the grounds of her gender, colour or orientation or any reason other than whether she was qualified to do the job.

There are things you can judge about a person from their record without having ever met them but whether they "understand human beings" is not really one of them, so I was far from impressed that the Labour MP for Kensington, who admits that she has never met Sir Martin, felt qualified to inform listeners to Radio Four that he doesn't. But this was only the worst of a number of foolish comments by Labour MPs attacking his appointment.

I've never met him either but people who have done so speak highly of his abilities. Let's give the guy a chance to do this important job before rushing to judgement.

Quote of the day 13th July 2017

"Presently, what we hear circulated on the airwaves by Sir Martin's detractors are complaints born not of evidence but of half-truth and prejudice. Nothing that has been said amounts to a sustained, reasoned critique.

Criticism for this should be levelled not at the victims and families but at those whose public duty is to represent, inform, counsel and champion their interests. It is those representatives, exploiting tragedy and encouraging misnomer in service to their own agendas, who should be asking whether they are truly suited to their role."

(New Statesman article accusing those MPs who have scored political points against the head of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry of "dabbling in fearmongering," which you can read in full at http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/07/grenfell-inquiry-critics-martin-moore-bick-are-dabbling-fearmongering.)

Midweek music spot - a classic advert from the past

One of the funniest adverts of all time ...

Thanks to the Police, Highways Agency and AA

I had a rather frightening, and indeed potentially dangerous  breakdown last night on the M6. Thanks to the emergency services for their quick and effective response.

My car lost its electrical systems - including the hazard warning lights - late last night on a stretch of the M6 which had neither a hard shoulder nor street lights.

I tried to reach the next hard shoulder or refuge but was unable to do so before the vehicle became unable to move.

I had to use the last shreds of power to move the car as far off the carriageway as I could get - which was nothing like all the way - and then I and my passenger had to get out and stand on the other side of the crash barrier while I called 999.

It was a very dark night - there was a full moon but it either had not yet risen or was obscured by cloud. We had a nervous few minutes watching while hundreds of vehicles shooting past, mostly travelling between 60 and 70 mph, had to avoid my car and each other. Fortunately for all concerned all the passing drivers were alert enough to see my car in good time despite the fact that it's lights went from faint to  the police and highways agency turned up quickly, briefly closed the road while they moved us to a safe place, and resolved the issue. The AA and recovery companies they arranged managed to get us home for breakfast time, tired but safe.

I was impressed by and grateful for the professionalism of our emergency services.


POSTSCRIPT

For those who have been teasing me about whether it was the car's battery that went wrong, I await the full investigation when the car goes back to the manufacturer's approved repair people - it is still under warranty - but it does not appear that there was anything wrong with the battery other than not having any impossible features such as infinite capacity or the ability to give more energy than had been put into it.

Of course, if the breakdown had been caused by a faulty battery, you could argue that this proves the importance of things like batteries as argued by "undercover Economist" Tim Harford in an article which I linked to on this blog a few days ago.

Quote of the day 12th July 2017

Quote of the day 11th July 2017

The graphic does not attribute this quote, but it does of course come from the pen of J.K. Rowling, who puts the words into the mouth of Professor Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter book.

Whitehaven Town Centre closed due to bomb threat at Morrison's

The Morrisons store in Whitehaven was evacuated today following a bomb threat.

A spokesman said: "The store received a bomb threat and was evacuated as a precautionary measure."

Emergency services attended.

The town centre was closed to all traffic for a period.

POSTSCRIPT - The all clear was eventually given.

Seoond phase of WCH development gets under way

Excellent news for residents of West Cumbria as the next phase of improvement at West Cumberland Hospital (WCH) in Whitehaven gets going.

The second phase begins with work on an area to house a new Diagnostics Suite (Cardiology, Breast Screening, and Vascular Laboratory) and Mortuary beginning this month (July 2017).

Following the £90m investment by North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust in ‘Phase 1’ which saw the new hospital building open in October 2015, this next phase known as ‘Phase 1b’ represents a further investment of £8.9m. The Phase 1b scheme will prepare for the demolition of parts of the old hospital and for the subsequent ‘Phase 2’ of the hospital redevelopment.
    
The new Diagnostics Suite will be in a fully refurbished part of the old hospital building, providing patients and staff with the same quality of care environment that patients in the new hospital are already experiencing. The work is set to be complete by Spring 2018 and as part of this work; two of the main lifts in the old hospital will also be fully refurbished.

In addition, as part of the ‘Phase 1B’ programme, a new multi faith/secular area and Bereavement Suite has already opened in a more central location as a space where people can come for peaceful, reflective time.

The Henderson Chemotherapy Suite is also set to move to an interim location within the hospital where there will be a lot more space and a better environment including a therapies room, additional accessible toilet facilities and improved privacy and dignity for patients and their relatives. When the Trust signs off ‘Phase 2’ of the redevelopment, the Henderson Chemotherapy Suite will form part of that phase to create a purpose built chemotherapy facility.

As well as work on clinical services, new support services accommodation and offices are being created in order to start preparing some areas of the old hospital building for demolition in 2018. This will involve the demolition of unused parts of the old hospital and in turn, it will allow the Trust to create a new main entrance during Phase 2, with the new building visible from Homewood Road.

    
Stephen Eames, chief executive at North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, said:

“I am delighted to publicly confirm the next phase of the redevelopment. We have had very positive feedback about the new hospital from both staff and patients since it opened in October 2015 and we now want to ensure there is a clear timeline for the remainder of the works to be completed.

“As well as the work taking place this summer which will provide many benefits to staff and patients, we very much look forward to the planned demolition of parts of the old building in order to showcase the fantastic new building.

“The next step is to refresh the outline business case (OBC) for ‘Phase 2’ and finalise ‘Phase 3’ plans of the redevelopment which will allow us to look as a health and care system at ensuring we make the best possible use of the space we have including considering academic functions with our partners at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

More details on the Trust Website at

http://www.ncuh.nhs.uk/news/2017/July/next-phase-of-wch-redevelopment-underway.aspx

Quote of the day 10th July 2017

Lake District awarded World Heritage Status

Great news for Cumbria today as the Lake District was awarded World Heritage Status by UNESCO.

The decision means that the Lake District has joined the likes of the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu by being awarded this status.

 

The national park was one of 33 sites around the world to be discussed by the Unesco committee in Krakow, Poland.

The committee praised the area's beauty, farming and the inspiration it had provided to artists and writers.

The Lake District is the second part of Cumbria to be put on the Unesco World Heritage List, the other being Hadrian's Wall.

The committee suggested the impact of tourism be monitored and requested improvements in conservation efforts.

    

Lord Clark of Windermere, chairman of the Lake District National Park Partnership which put together the bid, described the decision as "momentous".

Sunday music spot: "The trumpet shall sound" from Handel's Messiah

Quote of the day 9th July 2017

"I suspect the Left overstates the degree to which Corbyn and Corbynism is popular. Labour benefited from low expectations during the election campaign. There was a sense in which a Labour vote was a cheerful protest vote precisely because so few people thought that Labour might actually win the election. Voting Labour was the best way to send a message to a government that foisted an unwanted election on an unhappy people.

It was not necessarily an endorsement of everything in the Labour manifesto even if, individually, many of those policies polled well."

 

"Consequently the actual contents of the Labour manifesto and the party’s specific policy proposals were of relatively little importance. Labour offered an alternative – in terms of rhetoric as much as anything else – and that was more than enough. The contradictions in Labour’s offer mattered little; nor was it deemed necessary to explain how, precisely, that offer might be paid for. Labour’s weakness – that is to say its evident distance from power – became a paradoxical strength."

 

"Elections are a two-step process in which voters make two decisions. First, is the government good enough to deserve another term? Secondly, is the opposition good enough to deserve office themselves? In this election, voters answered both questions in the negative."

 

"The evidence that voters thirst for purity, on either extreme, remains dubious."

 

"It’s reasonable to think that a more plausible Labour party could actually have defeated May last month. Then again, if she faced a more plausible Labour party she wouldn’t have called an election in the first place."

 

(Alex Massie, from an article on CAPX which you can read in full here.)

"Undercover economist" Tim Harford on the technologies which really change things

If you only read one article on the internet this week, make it

"What we get wrong about technology"

on the Financial Times site by Tim Harford, author of "The Undercover economist."

Tim argues that it is not the miraculously impressive new devices and techniques which make you think of Clarke's law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") which really change things but the simple, cheap basic things like paper, batteries, shipping containers and barbed wire.

An extract:
"Paper opened the way for printing. The kind of print run that might justify the expense of a printing press could not be produced on parchment; it would require literally hundreds of thousands of animal skins. It was only when it became possible to mass-produce paper that it made sense to search for a way to mass-produce writing too."

"Not that writing is the only use for paper. In his book 'Stuff Matters' Mark Miodownik points out that we use paper for everything from filtering tea and coffee to decorating our walls. Paper gives us milk cartons, cereal packets and corrugated cardboard boxes. It can be sandpaper, wrapping paper or greaseproof paper. In quilted, perforated form, paper is soft, absorbent and cheap enough to wipe, well, anything you want."

"Toilet paper seems a long way from the printing revolution. And it is easily overlooked — as we occasionally discover in moments of inconvenience. But many world-changing inventions hide in plain sight in much the same way — too cheap to remark on, even as they quietly reorder everything. We might call this the “toilet-paper principle”.

Chris Grayling writes

Transport Minister Chris Grayling announced £6.1 billion this week over the next few years for roads improvement as I mentioned in an earlier post.

He also wrote an open letter to residents of Cumbria this week confirming that the A595 is one of the roads which the government hopes and expects to see improved.

The letter below first appeared in the North West Evening Mail here, because some of it replies to an untrue allegation made by a Labour MP via the Mail that the government was ignoring the A595.

Here is what he had to say:


"WHEN I visited Cumbria during the election I made a promise – I promised action on the A595.

Contrary to a report in The Mail yesterday in which claims were made I had forgotten that promise, I can tell the people of Cumbria that the A595 is top of my roads priority list. Not least because Trudy Harrison is holding me to it.

I understand Cumbrian concerns about the road, having seen it in ‘action’. It’s clearly not viable for the future to have a major route that carries HGVs from a port passing through a farmyard.

And that’s why when I launched my national transport investment strategy yesterday (July 5th) I mentioned the road specifically as one that needed upgrading. The strategy will pave the way for far-reaching improvements for the A595 – and others like it in Cumbria and beyond.

I am building a new Major Road Network that will take money from vehicle excise duty and see up to £1bn a year allocated to building bypasses on main roads.

Vehicle excise duty is more commonly known as road tax – and I’m determined to see it live up to its name. For nearly the last 20 years government money has been targeted primarily on the motorway network, and has left the management of important local roads like the A595 to local authorities.

They can – and do – bid successfully for cash to carry out important local projects.

And, indeed, one of them is just about to happen up the road. I can confirm that proposals for the Whitehaven Relief Road will go out for consultation next year. And, subject to that consultation being successful, that upgrade of the road will be delivered.

So I am delivering on my promise to see action for the A595. Not yet on the thorny issue of Grizebeck, but on another bottleneck that slows journeys through Cumbria.

Anyone who needs to travel into Northumberland might also have seen the work carried out to take traffic away from Morpeth. A new bypass opened in April and should create up to 8,000 jobs.

But while local authorities have been successful in winning road upgrades, the problem with the old system is that local authorities find it difficult to plan when they don’t know if there will be cash available. And it means that some of the schemes earmarked for approval aren’t planned centrally as well as they should be.

The new system I am introducing will see up to £1bn a year available for local authorities to carry out projects exactly like improving the A595. Or indeed the A590, which I know also causes concern to Cumbrian residents.

As transport secretary, my focus is firmly on improving transport for people who use it. For Cumbria, that means working to get rid of bottlenecks on main roads like the A595, or looking at ways we can take away the misery of through-traffic from rural towns and villages on busy routes. And it means better and faster rail services, with quicker journey times and more seats. When HS2 is built, it will mean passengers from Cumbria boarding high speed trains at Carlisle, Penrith or Oxenholme and moving from the West Coast Main Line to high speed rails in the north west and on to Birmingham and London.

But another key focus is about spending transport money where it will have the most impact. The government is committed to spreading wealth away from the south east to all parts of the country. That would be crucial at any time, but will be even more important as we deliver the economic benefits of Brexit.

So making the A595 a functional trunk road is not just beneficial for the motorists who use it. It's also important in driving economic growth in Cumbria by better connecting different parts of the county.

My plan to create a new Major Road Network will seek to identify the crucial links across the country where the annual £1bn investment can best be spent. And when that process is complete, I fully expect a compelling case to be made for a bypass at Grizebeck.

My appeal to the people of Cumbria is this - make your voice heard. When the consultation is launched I want you to tell us which roads need our attention. You are the experts. You use the roads every day and know where the bottlenecks are. You run the businesses and know where they could expand if roads were improved. And you know where there are opportunities for Cumbria to grow and flourish with extra investment.

So I've set out what I want to see. And now I need to hear your voices too."

Chris Grayling
Secretary of State for Transport