Chris Whiteside's Blog

Copeland Conservatives had a good campaigning session today in the Bay Vista area of Whitehaven Central ward, on behalf of our candidate in the Copeland Borough Council by-election, William Dixon. We found a lot of support: we also heard, and paid careful attention to, strong concerns by local residents about planning proposals which have come back yet again, despite being refused twice by the councillors on the Planning Panel, a refusal which was sustained at appeal, to build new houses which would be served by the already overloaded and unsatisfactory access through Elizabeth Crescent. Bill Dixon has listened carefully to these concerns and we will make sure they are passed on to the appropriate councillors and officers.

Yesterday the Education Secretary announced that schools with poor discipline will receive expert support to curb unruly behaviour and prevent disruption in the classroom. All over the country we see examples of schools with great behaviour cultures achieving incredible things for their pupils – and we want that to be the norm.   That’s why we are investing £10 million to improve discipline as part of our work to raise school standards for all. Supported by renowned behaviour experts, the funding will set up exemplary schools as ‘Behaviour Hubs’ and pair them with those that need to transform their culture – equipping them with the tools they need to tackle poor behaviour.   By empowering teachers with the best evidence to make decisions that are right for our schools, we can ensure every child gets the best education and deliver on our manifesto commitment to back teachers to improve discipline.

 And from the film "Leap Year:"

New figures released yesterday showed rough sleeping has fallen for the second consecutive year across England, but there is still more we must do to end rough sleeping for good. The latest figures show rough sleeping has fallen by 9 per cent in the last year. This is welcome progress, but it remains unacceptable that people find themselves sleeping on the streets at night.   That is why the Prime Minister has appointed Dame Louise Casey as an independent adviser to lead an urgent review into the causes of rough sleeping and we have announced an extra £236 million to provide accommodation for up to 6,000 rough sleepers, giving them stability and certainty over the long-term.   We are determined to end the scourge of rough sleeping by the end of 2024 and are taking the steps necessary to achieve this, meeting our moral obligation to support the most vulnerable in society.

There have been two sets of elections in which nominations closed today: as well as the Whitehaven Central by-election, nominations also closed for the officers of the North West Region of the Conservative party. Full details of persons nominated are expected to be confirmed on Monday, but I would like to thank colleagues in the areas which nominated me for re-election as Deputy Chairman (political and campaigning.)

Nominations closed today in the Whitehaven Central by-election for Copeland Borough Council. The election will take place on Thursday, 26th March 2020 between the hours of 07:00 am and 10:00 pm. Applications to register to vote by residents not currently on the electoral register but entitled to be must reach the Electoral Registration Officer by 12 midnight on Tuesday, 10th March 2020. New applications to vote by post or to change existing postal or proxy arrangements e.g. cancellation or re-direction etc must reach the Electoral Registration Officer at the Copeland Centre by 5pm on Wednesday, 11th March 2020 if they are to be effective for this election. New applications to vote by proxy must be received by the Electoral Registration Officer by 5pm on Wednesday, 18th March 2020. This election was caused because a Labour councillor was disqualified from office under the six-month rule for failing to attend a single council meeting for six months. Prior to his disqualifica...

“If people seem slightly stupid, they’re probably just stupid. But if they seem colossally and inexplicably stupid, you probably differ in some kind of basic assumption so fundamental that you didn’t realise you were assuming it.” (This is a line quoted by science writer Tom Chivers in a review on the Unherd website of the book 'Radical Uncertainty: Decision-making for an unknowable future,' by Mervyn King and John Kay. The review is called " Are Economists really this stupid? ")

Today the Prime Minister set out a new review to define Britain’s place in the world, so we can ensure Britain can meet the global challenges of the future. The UK’s institutions, expertise, leadership and values are renowned around the world. But as the world changes we must move with it, and ensure we are utilising the best technology and the latest ways of thinking.   That’s why we are launching an Integrated Review of foreign policy, defence, security and international development, bringing in a wide range of expertise to re-examine the UK’s priorities and objectives, and ensure our great country is equipped to meet the global challenges of the future.   By fulfilling this key manifesto commitment, we will ensure that British foreign policy is rooted firmly in our national interests, not just now but also in the decades ahead.

The Home Secretary has outlined further plans to protect our police officers and crack down on the violent criminals who attack them, so that we ensure the safety of the officers who keep us safe.  British people care about the health, wellbeing and welfare of our police officers, but incidents like the appalling death of PC Andrew Harper last summer shows that something has given.   That’s why the Home Secretary has announced a consultation on the Police Covenant to make sure our police officers feel valued, while at the same time strengthening the law against criminals who assault our police officers so they get tougher sentences that fit the nature of the assault.   These measures will make clear to criminals that to hurt a police officer is simply unacceptable, and help protect and support all our brave officers for generations to come.

‘I hate Tories’ won’t put Labour back in power  “Those who still insist that Jeremy Corbyn ‘won the argument’ at the last election, despite leading his party to its worst defeat since the 1930s, take a strange pride in turning inwards ...  Zarah Sultana, the new Labour MP for Coventry South, says she cannot see a Conservative in the House of Commons without thinking about ‘the harm they’ve caused’.  She is so hostile to her political opponents that, during the recent elections for Commons select committee chairs, she tweeted a video of herself putting flyers from Tory MPs into the bin — an entirely futile gesture because the committees are divided up between the parties, based on their representation in parliament.  Her commitment to the left-wing cause is so total that she even lumps her own party’s moderates in with the wicked Tories, calling in her maiden speech for the end of ‘40 years of Thatcherism’ as if the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon ...

Former Blairite adviser Geoff Mulgan has written an interesting post on his blog called " Bluff, bluster, brilliance, and brains " which compares attempts to get a wider range of ideas into the government of the country under Tony Blair and under Boris Johnson. A couple of quotes from it: "Without buy in from the bottom the top down changes rarely stick, even in states with authoritarian powers far beyond what UK ministers could dream of ... If there is no strategy for engaging hearts and minds the programme is almost certain to fail."  "Government needs a constant influx of heretics to challenge the tendencies to cynical and world-weary fatalism that can overcome any bureaucracy." "Policy cannot be separated from implementation, and no amount of cleverness can make up for lack of feel for how things really work." "The biggest flaw that besets governments is their failure to learn. The best ones invest heavily in learning from ...

The Environment Secretary has announced that we will phase out sales of the most polluting fuels for household fires, helping to improve air quality and leaving our environment in a better condition for future generations. Wood burning stoves and coal fires are some of the biggest emitters of harmful pollutants in this country, damaging to both people’s health and the environment.   We want to move towards using cleaner fuels, which is why we will phase out the sale of traditional house coal and wet wood in England between 2021 and 2023, giving the public and suppliers time to move to cleaner alternatives.   This is the latest step in our world-leading Clean Air Strategy, as we work to clean up the air, improving people’s health, cutting household bills and leaving our environment in a better condition.

The government is launching a consultation into a new ‘protect duty’ for venue operators – to help keep the public safe from terror attacks. The devastating attacks in 2017, and more recently at Fishmongers’ Hall and Streatham, are stark reminders of the current threat we face.  Venues and public spaces need to have effective protective security and preparedness measures, and this public consultation will lead to a proportionate law that will help keep people safe while not putting undue pressure on businesses.  The proposed ‘protect duty’ reflects the proposals put forward by the family of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing attack in 2017.  Our first priority is keeping the public safe and preventing more families from suffering the heartbreak of losing a loved one.

The Prime Minister has unveiled plans to commemorate the heroes of World War Two on the 75th anniversary of VE Day. The 75th anniversary of VE Day marks a historic opportunity for us to honour the heroes of the Second World War and reflect on the sacrifices they made to defend freedom and secure peace across Europe.   That’s why we will be coming together as a country with commemorations across the UK on 8 May, with hundreds of veterans taking part in the Royal British Legion’s programme of events, Churchill’s victory speech being broadcast across the country, and a fly past Buckingham Palace by the Red Arrows and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.   With further events also planned for VJ Day later in the year, this programme of events gives the whole nation a chance to thank all those involved for everything they did, while also reminding ourselves of the fragility of peace and the need for us all to collectively uphold it.

The Conservative government is investing £2.5 million in Cross Country trains – improving journeys for thousands of passengers across the Midlands and making our country better connected. We are funding benefits to improve journeys for passengers in the short-term, as well as making sure our trains are fit for the future.  Our £2.5 million investment will produce over 20,000 extra seats a week from mid-2021 – with a boost of 5,000 a week by May this year for passengers travelling from Birmingham to Nottingham, Leicester and Cardiff.  Investing in transport is essential to levelling up the country, as we look to modernise our rail network and restructure the industry to put passengers at the heart of the railway.

We are continuing our world-leading efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus. Latest news today (24th February) is that there are four new cases of coronavirus in the UK, bringing the total number of cases of this disease in the UK to thirteen.  Public safety is the government's top priority - the UK health authorities are using tried and tested infection control procedures to prevent further spread of the virus and Public Health England is continuing to work hard tracing patient contacts from the UK cases.  The NHS remains well-prepared and well-equipped, with a number of robust measures in place and access to capital funding if they need further support.  The UK is one of the first countries in the world to have developed an accurate test for this coronavirus and we are undertaking continuous refinement of this test – in addition to investing £20 million to develop a new vaccine for coronavirus and other infectious diseases.

Let me make clear that I regard it as important that people involved in politics at all levels should try to make their public statements as accurate as possible,  I hugely regret that, with some honourable exceptions on both sides, there was a dire failure to do this by the campaigns on both sides of the EU referendum, and  I think that British politics would be hugely improved if people in all the major parties were to improve the accuracy of the things they say. In other words nothing in this post is meant to justify false or misleading statements. I have just discovered an interesting article by Will Dunn published by the New Statesman, dated on General Election day (somehow I missed it when it originally came out - I was just a little busy on that day!) called " Why voters trust certain politicians, even when they know they’re lying ." Dunn quotes an academic from the other side of the pond, Stephen Martin, who says that “Lots of us confuse truth and trust...

An explanation of one of the reasons the Conservatives won Blyth in December 2019, and praise for the hard work of Conservative councillors in that constituency, has come from an unexpected source - the constituency's former Labour MP until he stepped down at the election. Photogtraph credit: Robert Booth/The Guardian.

Today's Saturday music spot, in memory of the leaders of the White Rose non-violent resistance whose judicial murder by the Nazis regime took place 77 years ago today, is "Requiem Aeternam," the first movement of the Mozart Requiem. The words mean "Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them."

Today is the 77th anniversary of the execution of three of the leaders of the non-violent  "White Rose" anti-Nazi resistance movement - young Germans who spoke out against the Nazi tyranny and died on the guillotine for doing so. The author of the quote below is Sophie Scholl, whose judicial murder by the Nazi regime took place on 22nd February 1943, when she was 21 years old.

I've just realised that due to a technical hitch none of the posts I had planned to publish over the past 48 hours were loaded properly. They are all up now.

A year ago, Theresa May's Brexit proposals were repeatedly voted down by the votes of people who watned diametrically opposed things. On the one side it was being opposed by those who wanted a harder Brexit, possibly even what they called "WTO Brexit" and most people call a No Deal one, and on the other side by people who wanted a softer Brexit or no Brexit at all. I commented that both groups were playing with fire and they could not both get what they wanted: somebody was shooting themselves in the foot. I don't think anyone knew for certain at the time which side was setting up the exact opposite of what they wanted - the one thing we could be certain of was that both sides were taking an enormous risk. Of course, now we know that the people who dug their own graves were the soft-Brexiteers and hardline Remainers who voted against Theresa May and in the process gave the country a harder Brexit than they could have secured. That doesn't mean that ...

I've been away for a few days on business: details of the February meeting of the Cumbria Health Scrutiny were emailed out while I was away and the 237-page agenda was waiting for me when I arrived home. The meeting will take place at 10.30 am next Tuesday, 23rd February 2020 in Conference Rooms A & B of Cumbria House, Botchergate, Carlisle, CA1 1RD. It will be open to the public. Agenda items include Vascular services in North Cumbria,  System plans around building integrated care in both North and South Cumbria,  Child and Adolescent Mental Health services in South Cumbria, and  Possible changes to NHS podiatric service provided by the M orecambe Bay NHS Trust The full agenda and supporting documents can be found here .

"More serious still for these voters was the principle that Labour had refused to implement the democratically expressed wishes of the people, and often of their own constituents. Brexit therefore became a metaphor for a party that no longer listened to them, taking their votes for granted while dismissing their views as ignorant or backward. “They were saying, ‘it’s the adults talking now, leave the table and we’ll sort it out for you’,” as one former supporter put it. Another linked Labour’s apparent attitude on Brexit to Gordon Brown’s encounter with Gillian Duffy in 2010: “He tarred her with the bigot brush rather than listening to what she had to say. It’s the same with Brexit.”  These impressions – of a party unready for office and unwilling to listen – will not vanish just because the Brexit legislation is complete." (Extracts from analysis of comments by former Labour voters who abandoned the party in December 2019 as reported in " Diagnosis of Defe...

A free society needs more than the ballot box to function. Anyone who imagines that a society which practices either direct democracy or representative democracy cannot be a tyranny needs only to look at the present governments of Russia or Turkey, at how Hitler or Mussolini came to power in the 20th century, or to read Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War . Only the rule of law and independent courts can stop a democracy from sometimes acting as the tyranny of the 51%. John McDonnell. who wanted to lock up his political opponents and, when asked under what law, said he might have to invent one, will not now be Chancellor of this country. But he is one of too many people who think like Roper in Robert Bolt's play, "A man for all seasons." And while there are men (and women) like that in British politics, on all sides, we need laws and strong independent courts to enforce them, as explained by Sir Thomas More in the play, here brilliantly depicted by ...

"No judge should ever deliberately act as an enemy of the people. But neither should any judge ever fail to justly uphold the law because doing so will lead some people to call him or her and enemy of the people." A statement not a quote, because this one is from me. More shortly on this topic.

"Free Speech includes not only the inoffensive, but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative, and the freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worthy having." Mr Justice Julian Knowles , in a landmark High Court ruling which will be seen as a significant blow for freedom of speech. See extracts below of a report on the case.

Further to yesterday's post about storm disruption - check before setting off on a rail or air journey what services are running - a lot of trains and planes have been cancelled, delayed or amended this morning.

The Anglican church lectionary for today, the second Sunday before Lent, has the first eight verses of the book of Isaiah as the Old Testament lesson. This chapter of the bible describes a vision of the Lord which the prophet experienced in the year when King Uzziah died. It was brilliantly set to music by John Stainer:

I have been worshipping regularly at St James's Whitehaven for about as long as we have lived in the town, which will be fifteen years this year, but this morning at the 8am service my attention was drawn for the first time, perhaps by a trick of the light, to one particular stained glass window near where I usually sit, and I looked at it properly for the first time. The bottom part of the window clearly represents the waves of the sea, and a pair of arms are reaching up from the waves to grasp a rope which is clearly a bell-pull. The rope ascends to a church bell which is superimposed on the sun, whose rays descend back to the earth: but the wheels which swing the bell and the rays of the sun are depicted in a way which also makes them look like the wheels for the lift pulleys at the top of a mine shaft, and the struts of a tower supporting those wheels, of the kind which can still be seen at the top of the Haig Mining Museum where Haig Pit was once in operation and which are...

Last weekend we were hit by storm Ciara, this weekend storm "Dennis the menasce." Please take great care if you have to travel, and make sure any of your property which might be vulnerable to high wind is as secure as possible.

"Love is patient, love is kind.  Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, love keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.  Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.  Where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. " Three things will remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them all is love." ( From the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 4:8 and 13 )

Today was the budget meeting of Cumbria County Council. Points to note 1) The Budget The Conservative group moved an amendment, in three parts, to the administration  budget which would have allocated more money to local committees to provide innovative means to support community transport and improve local roads. It would also have provided more support for families in difficult circumstances. In accordance with the council's latest rules of procedure for the budget, the Conservative amendments had been amendments had been submitted to council officers several days previously to be checked for practicality, legality and affordability and had received signoff as meeting those three tests. In spite of this a lot of time was spent in adjournments while the administration raised constitutional points about these amendments. Eventually after a lengthy debate the Labour and Lib/Dem groups voted against spending more money on improving the road infrastructure or supporting local t...

“The billions of pounds they were promising for this, that and the other....it was pie in the sky. People are not daft.” (Former Labour voter explaining to pollster why they did not vote Labour in 2019, quoted in a report of a poll by Lord Ashcroft published in the Independent .)

Not all that long ago two of the main products sold by jewellers were clocks and watches. Despite the fact that they mostly used what we would now consider obsolete technologies - mechanical ones, often based on springs - great effort was put into making them reliable. So much so that the word "clockwork" entered the English language as a metaphor for something reliable which goes exactly according to plan. There can be no greater accolade for the professionalism of the people who used to make clocks that even today we still speak of something as having worked "with clockwork precision" or having "gone like clockwork" to indicate that it went off perfectly. So why on earth are all the clocks you get in shops these days such unreliable rubbish? (I would have used a much ruder expression but I try to keep the language on this blog suitable for a family audience.) I think that what's happened is that these days a high proportion of the populatio...

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America, the statesman who freed America's slaves and one of the greatest leaders any nation has ever had was born two hundred and eleven years ago today. Here are five of his many famous quotes "My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read"  “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” “You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.” “Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”  And here is one, obviously, which isn't really his:

Caution is still advised when travelling in many parts of the UK including Cumbria. Storm Ciara may have moved on but it is still very windy!

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." ( Ronald Reagan , 40th President of the United States of America)

The 2020 budget meeting of Cumbria County Council will be held at County Hall in Kendal at 10am this coming Thursday, 13th February 2020. The meeting will be open to the public. The agenda has been published and is now available on the County Council website. All papers for the budget meeting of the council can be read here .

Travel is still very disrupted in the aftermath of Storm Ciara and there are still yellow warnings for high winds in many parts of Britain including Scotland, Cumbria, Lancashire and the South West. Please take great care if you have to travel today.

"My dad would say ' Why the hell are we going to the gym at 4am? '  "Park would say ' Because your mind doesn't want you to .' "When you're body's saying you don't want to do something and you go and do it, you show your mind and your body that you're capable of doing it and you start to process everything differently." ( Patrick Schwarzenegger , in a Times magazine interview, on the mind-over-matter approach which the actor and bodybuilder Reg Park taught his father Arnold)

The 2020 budget meeting of Cumbria County Council will be held at County Hall in Kendal at 10am this coming Thursday, 13th February 2020. The meeting will be open to the public. The agenda has been published and is supposed to be available on the County Council website. I will put up a link to the agenda when the relevant part of the site is definitely working. The portal which is supposed to display agendas and minutes appears to be down at the moment, at least I cannot get it to display on my computers which are able to access plenty of other things on the internet including other parts of the CCC website. As POTUS might say, "Sad." UPDATE - the portal is now up and running and papers for the budget meeting of the council can be read at https://councilportal.cumbria.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=123&MId=10672 .

Storm Ciara, which it has been suggested may be the worst storm to hit the UK for seven years, is arriving as I write. We have already had some nasty bouts of high winds, hail and rain on Friday and today but much more severe weather including hurricane force winds are expected over the next 24 hours. It is recommended only to travel if it is essential to do so. Hundreds of flights and train services have been cancelled. If you do have to travel, please be very careful and allow a longer time for your journey.

Attended the annual AGM and Conference of Cumbria Conservatives today. It made two successful area Conservative conferences at opposite ends of the North West Region on consecutive Saturdays. Last week I attended Cheshire and the Wirral's excellent Annual Conference, this week it was our turn to hold a well attended conference at the Auction Mart at Junction 36 (of the M6). The  meeting began with an AGM which re-elected Richard Rhodes as Chairman and agreed a positive way forward for the Conservatives in Cumbria. We also had a superb presentation from the county's Police and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall. Great to hear a straight talking explanation of what is being done to put more police on the beat and give them the support to fight crime. Party Chairman James Cleverly gave an excellent talk at lunch and gave thoughtful but positive answers to some tough questions. In the afternoon we had a panel session with three of our newly elected or re-elected MP...

I disagree with Noam Chomsky on many things.  But here are two similar quotes from him which I think are dead right. and To be absolutely precise, what I believe in is free speech within the law. If your speech is not libellous, encouraging violence or criminal activity, or otherwise contrary to the law - and I believe that laws which might restrict free speech should be drafted with great care not to restrict speech beyond what is absolutely essential to protect society - then you should be allowed to say things which I find vile. Let's refer to a particular hard case. Katie Hopkins often says disgraceful things. She sometimes goes beyond saying things which most people disagree with into the realms where a lawyer or a court might be able to make a case that she has transgressed the law. If so the courts should deal with her. But however tempting the thought, it is not for the rest of us to try to silence her when she is within the law, even when she says thi...

Kirk Douglas, who I suspect will be remembered as one of the greatest film stars of all time, has died at the age of 103. He was justly regarded as a legend. Rest in Peace.

Working at home today, have just had three calls in less than an hour from three different fraudsters all claiming to be from different parts of BT. One of them gave the game away instantly by doing something which a genuine BT employee almost certainly would not do, e.g. referring to the company as "British Telecom" which is a trade name which was replaced by "BT" thirty years ago, and hung up when I called him on it. The other two hung up when I asked them for their Employee Identification Numbers.

The decision whether to vote leave or remain was for me an "on balance" decision with strong reasons arguing in each direction.  I agonised for a long time about which way to vote before eventually deciding to back Remain. Although, to be honest, both the Leave campaign and the Remain campaign were shockingly dire, and with honourable exceptions on  both sides there was more inexcusable nonsense written and spoken on both sides than in any other campaign I can remember, most of the people I know on both sides had completely legitimate reasons for casting their votes the way they did. The overwhelming majority of people I know who voted Remain were not elitist, arrogant or unpatriotic, and do not hate Britain. The overwhelming majority of people I know who voted Leave were not racist, xenophobic or stupid and do not hate Europe. Sadly there are exceptions to these statements and in general the people most likely to be exceptions are the people hurling such insults at t...

I spent yesterday at CW20 - the excellent 2020 conference of Cheshire & the Wirral Conservatives. It was a very well organised event: they had an annual dinner on Friday night which was attended by more than 200 people and raised £6,000 for campaign funsd, and the main conference was yesterday. The conferenced was kicked off by defence minister Johnny Mercer and closed by Transport minister Paul Maynard with a lot of very interesting speakers in between such as the new MP for Crewe and Nantwich, Dr Kieran Mullan and the Conservative candidate to return as Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire, John Dwyer. Congratulations to the new area chairman Kate Vaughan and her team for putting together an excellent event. Next weekend we will have to see if Cumbria Conservatives can match it!

Johannes Eccard's beautiful anthem "When to the temple Mary went," which was written for the feast of the presentation of Christ in the Temple (which falls today) is sung in this recording by the Choir of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral.