Chris Whiteside's Blog

 Yesterday's Conservative gain from Labour in Harrington, West Cumbria was matched by a Conservative gain in Westminster On Kemi Badenoch's watch the Conservatives have been gaining seats from Labour in council by-election after by-election, while Labour has been losing formerly safe council seats in every part of the country. The figures speak for themselves:    

 

Congratulations to Councillor Billy Miskelly, who today gained a Harrington ward seat on Workington Town Council from Labour in a by-election. Votes cast were: Billy Miskelly, Conservative - 273 votes Labour  - 146 votes. Postscript added when this News and Star post became available:

The latest More in Common Opinion Poll has the Conservatives in the lead on 25%, Reform UK second on 24% and Labour third on 23% Of course, exactly like most of the other recent opinion polls, some of which had Reform UK first and some Labour first, with each party having been in all three possible positions from first to third, the differences between the parties are within the polling margin of error. What the polls are consistently telling us is that all three political parties have support in the mid-20's. And with the next election probably a little more than four years away, that means that all three have everything to play for and everything to lose.

A new paper from Policy Exchange strongly challenges the Government’s claim that a deal must be signed with Mauritius to protect the joint UK-US exclusive access to the electromagnetic spectrum on Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos islands. The paper is backed by Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat MP – Former Minister of State for Security and former Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He writes in a Foreword that  “… as the authors of this report show, every single defence of the deal put forward by the British Government – whether strategic or legal has proved to be baseless. It is past time for the Government to come to its senses, to remember its duty to defend the UK’s vital strategic interests, and to walk away from the deal.” You can download the paper here: Policy Exchange - The Chagos Debacle

Yesterday this blog passed three million pageviews since the traffic counters were turned on, which was on 7th January 2010. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to visit and to read anything you found here, and I hope you found it interesting.  

 

 

 

Churchill's response to the Munich surrender of 1938: It is not wrong to talk to Russia to see if an acceptable peace deal can be found. But it would be absolutely wrong to try to force Ukraine to accept a peace on unfavourable terms. That would be to repeat the mistake that Chamberlain made at Munich. And Churchill's prediction that far from "Peace in our time," Munich would be followed by a terrible war proved only too accurate.

"On the third anniversary of the start of Russia’s illegal invasion, we all need to remember how this war started, and restate our shared values and why we collectively back Ukraine. The Conservatives are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine. They have been battling the most flagrant breach of territorial integrity and sovereignty in Europe in recent times. They are on the frontline, protecting the principles that underpin our whole way of life – democracy, liberty and the rule of law. I’m proud that Britain has stood with the heroes of Ukraine as they defend their country, and that the UK Parliament has been united in our resolve to do all we can to back them." Kemi Badenoch on X, formerly twitter, this morning.

  "Failure to act now will be a mistake on a par with Europe's appeasement of the dictators in the 1930's." Andrew Neil , from a newspaper article in the Daily Mail which you can read in full here:

Congratulations to Councillor Will Calverley, who won the Tiptree Ward seat on Colchester City Council on Thursday, increasing the Conservative share of the vote by 10.8% to 55.3%. For full details of the results see Declaration of Result of Poll  · Colchester City Council

 

Douglas Murray has a powerful piece in the New York Times presenting ten truths the West cannot afford to ignore. Here are some extracts.  "Putin is THE dictator and 10 Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril "This has been a dizzying and disorienting week in international diplomacy. One with wild implications for Ukraine, the future of America’s standing in the world and President Trump’s legacy. Trump is absolutely right in wanting to end the bloodshed in Ukraine. The suffering has been appalling and the stalemate brutal. But in the furious mix of wild opinions this week from the White House down, there are at least 10 truths that every American voter must hang onto. In Trump’s rush to end the bloodshed, these are also the truths against which any deal will be judged and which will define him when the history books are written. To ignore them or not treat them with the gravity they deserve will also have enormous consequences for decades to come:" Truth No. 1 ...

 

A lovely performance from the Kings' Singers,

There have been some sharp exchanges over the past few days, both here in Britain and around the world, on where people stand in respect of the Putin's invasion of Ukraine. I have seen very few people who object to peace talks being held in an effort to see if an honourable and sustainable peace can be negotiated. There are even fewer people in Britain, though sadly there appear to be a few, who think it is OK to call Zelenskyy a dictator or blame Ukraine rather than Russia for the war. This is what YouGov found yesterday that people in Britain think about who is to blame for the war in Ukraine - and it IS a war, not a "special military operation."   To put this in context, if this poll is accurate then the proportion of the public who hold Ukraine mostly responsible or entirely responsible for the war is 3%, about the same proportion who think the Earth is flat. 

Someone calling themselves "Mark" posted on X in the early hours of this morning UK time that "I don't know how fair the Russian elections were, but Putin has been elected to office all these years." Sir Bill Browder replied: "Tell that to Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov. Oh wait, you can’t because Putin killed them."

Tim Montgomerie used to be a Conservative but recently defected to Reform UK. He had this to say to his new party today on X, formerly Twitter. " Reform’s silence on Trump and Ukraine must end and end urgently : Nigel Farage has invested a great deal in his relationship with Trump and on so many issues from immigration, tax, net zero and trans on the domestic front to a more hawkish approach to China and Iran on the global stage, there was good reason to do so… but the last few days have changed everything.  I had a lot of sympathy with candidate Trump’s ambition to end an incredibly deadly war which had begun to resemble WW1 in the scale of fatalities being incurred without any obvious conclusion to fighting in sight.  But Trump has moved well beyond that humanitarian goal. It’s clear he has chosen to ally himself with the blood-stained tyrant in the Kremlin rather than the invaded people of Ukraine and their grievous suffering. Trump’s dishonest attacks on Ukraine and Zelens...

“This is a very ill-advised intervention by the Lady Chief Justice. There was nothing in the least constitutionally improper in the recent exchange between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Parliamentarians, including Ministers, are free to disagree with judgments and to say as much. Neither judicial independence nor the rule of law entitle judges to be free from criticism and the Lady Chief Justice is wrong to attempt to suppress criticism.” Richard Ekins KC , Head of the Judicial Power Project at Policy Exchange, responds to an attack on both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition by the Lady Chief Justice. Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr says she was “deeply troubled to learn of the exchanges”  between Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch at Prime Ministers' Questions about an asylum case. I am deeply troubled by some of the language used by the Lady Chief Justice, specifically her statement that "Both question and the answer were unacceptable...

 Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch posted the following in support of the Ukrainian president today: Massed Russian bots and paid agents, and some people in the West who really need to think carefully about listening to Putin's propaganda machine, have been repeating ad nauseam the suggestion that Zelenskyy has cancelled elections. No genuine democrat likes cancelling or postponing elections. But it can be very difficult to hold them when you are at war with an enemy who is firing missiles at or dropping bombs on large areas of your country. When Britain was at war with Nazi Germany it was agreed, through the proper legal and constitutional channels, to delay the general election until after VE day. This did not make Churchill a dictator and as soon as Hitler was defeated he called an election and accepted the result when he lost. Holding an election in Ukraine in the absence of a ceasefire would be extremely difficult and would certainly put the lives of voters at risk. Can anyone...

Twenty-five years ago today my wife and requested this music at a very important service. It was lovely to listen to this arrangement of Widor's Toccata today.

 

 

  REMEMBER HOW THAT WORKED OUT! In Munich in 1938, without allowing the Czechs to be in the room, Neville Chamberlain thought he could get "Peace in our time" by handing part of their country to a dictator to appease him. All it achieved was to give Hitler longer to build up his war machine. A few months later Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia. A few months after that he came for Poland. And the second world war, in which 50 million people died, happened anyway - against a Nazi regime whose armed forces were significantly stronger in September 1939 than they had been at the time of Munich. Insofar as anyone on the British side was to blame for how many of our people were killed in that war, it wasn't those who argued we should stand up to dictators, it was the appeasers. THE WEST MUST NOT MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN! As Gavin Barwell wrote on X formerly Twitter, today, "If Putin is allowed to come back in a few years and take the rest of Ukraine, he won't stop ...

 

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, emphasised the need to protect Free Speech in the Telegraph and on Twitter today. She said  "Free speech is a Conservative principle and is under threat. We must fight for it.  Rules to protect people from perceived harm have over-reached. Being upset or offended shouldn't be the state's concern.  Silencing free speech harms democracy, culture and individual resilience." Under the last Conservative government a law was passed by parliament, with all due process and democratic scrutiny, to protect free speech in Universities. It is a law that many academics and students think is desperately needed. One of the most worrying decisions by the new Labour government, and one of the first acts of the new Education secretary, was to stop that law coming into effect.

Labour: 'we promise to reduce your bills by making energy more expensive' Reform: 'hold my beer ...' (From Julian Jessop on X, formerly Twitter Julian Jessop on X: "Labour: 'we promise to reduce your bills by making energy more expensive' Reform: 'hold my beer...'" ) Labour came into office having made an election promise that their new energy company would cut energy bills yet have many policies which were always going to put energy prices up, and indeed, energy bills have been rising. Julian is referring to this and to the energy policy launched by Reform UK this week, claiming that they would "lower energy bills for working people" when all four elements of it would put energy bills up. Reform UK's energy policies announced this week are: TAX: "Windfall tax on renewable generated power"                    Extra Taxes won't cut energy bills, it will put them up TAX:  "A Solar Farm tax on farmers"      ...

Amusing column today supposedly representing the thoughts of Whitehaven and Workington's Labour MP. It starts off as follows: "On Valentine’s Day this week I had the pleasure of taking part in a special Party Political Broadcast to our older voters. It went as follows: Labour is Red. The Tories are blue. F**k your Far-Right wheelie bins and f**k Reform too! The punchline was suggested by our WhatsApp group called Trigger A By-Election. Many of us agreed that the language needs a bit of work. The Chancellor has offered to rewrite the script once she has finished updating the ninth draft of her CV which she has spent a decade working on." If you want to read the whole thing you can find it at: TALKING TOSH: VALENTINE’S DAY – The Cumbria Chronic

‘Breakfast clubs’ were the justification given for Labour’s pernicious Education Tax, harming children (many with SEN) in the middle of an academic year. The basic funding rate they’re giving schools is 60p per breakfast. This is not a joke - it’s Labour Party policy. ( Anthony Boutall on X formerly Twitter, responding to a news report that Primary schools invited to trial Labour’s flagship free breakfast clubs have pulled out or are having to take a financial hit after being told that the basic funding rate is just 60p per pupil. You can read that report at Schools' Week by clicking on the link below. Breakfast clubs: Heads snub pilot as 'we can’t run at loss’ )

An amusing piece from the Cumbria Chronic website following the leaking of Labour's plans for a "Digital Rapid Response team" It starts as follows: "SINKING in the polls and led by a Prime Minister disliked by 52% in a recent survey, the new Labour Government is about as popular as an arrow through the neck with a gas bill attached. Having gone after pensioners, farmers, businesses, Council Tax- payers and then flaying anyone with grooming gang concerns as being on the “far-right bandwagon”, you would think now might be the time for wiser heads in the Party to give urgent reconsideration of its election promises? Not a bit of it… Apparently, the word coming down from the top to local members in Cumbria is that the Party’s plummeting popularity is all the fault of, er, you know who. A new Labour Party “memo” seen by the Chronic and sent out from a regional office blames the “Media and right-wing forces” for undermining the Government and “Stirring up division”. You c...

"Speaking to businesses across the country, they’ve told me Labour’s tax hikes are causing worry and fear for what’s to come. They are the backbone of our economy, they create growth and jobs, so why is Labour doing everything in their power to make it more difficult for them?" Kemi Badenoch , leader of the opposition and leader of the Conservative party.

Former Conservative defence secretary Grant Shapps has proposed four tests which any proposed peace deal for Ukraine must meet. The most important of these is that  UKRAINE MUST BE THE ULTIMATE ARBITER OF ANY DEAL. How would we react if Putin had invaded Britain and someone presumed to tell us we had to give him some British territory?  Without even consulting us?  We would not accept it. Nor should the West put Ukraine in that position.  

"The deputy chief whip, Mark Tami, was seen with one paw heavily bandaged. Note to whips: when testing thumbscrews, do not insert own hand." Quentin Letts

"Britain must lead in providing Ukraine with military support and potentially military presence to give Ukraine confidence that any peace will endure.  The government has my support if that’s what it decides to do." Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP speaking in parliament yesterday, and on X (formerly Twitter)

  Politics ends at the water's edge. Whoever is in government in the UK we will continue to keep the promises that we made in exchange for Ukraine giving up Nuclear Weapons that we would guarantee and support their territorial integrity against any aggressor.

 

 

 

 Abraham Lincoln was both on 12th February 1809. He once said "If you have never failed, you have never lived."

 

 A summit has been held in Scotland between eleven of Britain's most senior Jewish and Muslim leaders. They have agreed on a reconciliation deal to improve relationships between the Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK, which is being called the  'Muslim-Jewish Reconciliation Accords.' Earlier today these accords, which are also being called the "Drumlanrig Accords" were presented to His Majesty the King. Great to see an example of faith leaders working together to promote peace and harmony. I hope this has the success it deserves.

Fifty years ago today Margaret Thatcher, who went on to become Britain's first woman Prime minister, was elected the leader of the Conservative party. The Conservatives have now elected four women leaders. The Labour party has yet to elect their first one.

"A touching speech from Kemi Badenoch at an anniversary event just now.  She recalled that when schoolboys in Nigeria told the girls that their place would be in the home, she would respond with two magic words: Margaret Thatcher." Dan Hannan. (The anniversary concerned was the 50th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher becoming leader of the Conservative party)

There are some political mis-steps that are incredibly embarrassing but which, when they happen to a political opponent have me thinking "There but for the grace of God go I" rather than "What an idiot." A classic was Stephen Byers when education secretary getting brain-freeze during a live interview on air and getting a fairly simple maths example wrong. Today Nigel Farage, or someone on his staff acting in his name, managed to mis-spell the word "Education" in a tweet about education (since apparently deleted). Oops! Look, every human being does things like that occasionally, and I repeat, if it just happens the once my first reaction is "There  but for the grace of God go I." Mind you, if someone of whatever party keeps doing this kind of thing - particularly a party leader who ought to be able to employ a decent staff to catch that sort of mistake - that may be a sign that they're not paying enough attention to the details.

 

"The Chagos debacle confirms all the negatives that voters had formed about Starmer - that he is weak, woke, spendthrift, lawyerly, unpatriotic, a bad negotiator, a champion of every country but his own." ( Dan Hannan,  writing in the Telegraph. You can read the article at The Falklands War heralded the end of British decline – the Chagos betrayal shows it’s back )

The present Labour government was elected with the largest majority in history on a share of the vote which usually wouldn't get a party anywhere near to even being the largest party. This is because the opposition to them was divided. The best chance of Labour remaining in government - if they continue behaving as they have in their first few months, the only chance - is if those who oppose them remain divided. So it is understandable that Conservatives regularly get asked if there is any prospect of a deal between the Conservatives and Reform UK. The reason that it is a waste of time to consider this is that Reform could not have been clearer that they do not want one. Reform UK issued a statement today which begins as follows: "There are no circumstances in which Reform would ever do a pact with Boris Johnson or the Conservative party." Full text here:  Reform UK on X: "Following false reports in the media today, please see our statement:" / X The Conservativ...

Health minister Andrew Gwynne has been sacked and suspended from the Labour party after a newspaper revealed he sent a string of offensive and abusive WhatsApp messages. In messages seen by the Mail on Sunday, Gwynne said he hoped a 72-year-old woman would soon be dead after she wrote to her local councillor about bin collections. The newspaper said he also joked about a constituent being "mown down" by a truck. Gwynne also reportedly posted sexist comments about Angela Rayner, and racist remarks about Labour MP Diane Abbott. And he reportedly said someone's name sounded "too militaristic and too Jewish", adding "Is he in Mossad?' The Conservatives said the messages showed there was a "rot" in the party that "needs fixing". "There is a clear contempt for pensioners in the Labour Party," said Conservative co-chair Nigel Huddleston. Source: BBC Andrew Gwynne: Labour health minister sacked over WhatsApp messages - BBC News

"The Education government team saying the Ed Sec doesn’t need lectures from successful school leaders because the Ed Sec went to school herself would be like the Health Secretary saying he doesn’t want to hear from doctors because he once went to hospital. Madness." (Headteacher Katherine Birbalsingh )

(The paintings which accompany the music in this YouTube clip are by Vladimir Volegov)

Private Eye magazine, noting all the other media outlets, politicians and ambassadors who have been falling over themselves to distance themselves from past statements criticising President  Trump on his return to office, have published a front cover with an apology which may contain just a tiny bit of irony ... I particularly appreciate the note at the bottom,  "This statement has not been fact-checked."

 

"The Prime Minister and Attorney General have taken leave of their senses in paying a foreign government billions to take possession of a strategically vital British territory." This was the heading of The Times first leader yesterday about the dreadful deal which the PM and attorney general are trying to push through to pay the government of Mauritius to take over the Chagos Islands following a non-binding suggestion from the International Court. There was a case for starting negotiations with Mauritius following the court's recommendation, to see if an acceptable compromise could be found, as the last government did. However, the deal now on the table cannot be any stretch of the imagination be considered an acceptable compromise, it is total surrender at a ridiculous price. There is no case whatsoever for proceeding with such an absurd deal. The Teams leader goes on to say of Sir Keir Starmer and  Richard Hermer, the PM and Attorney General, that  "In an act that ...

 

 

"Keir Starmer is back in Brussels. He risks restarting the Brexit wars under the pretense of closer ties with the EU. I’ve set five tests to ensure he doesn’t undo Brexit.   Under my leadership, Conservatives will always stand up for Britain and fight for our hard-won freedoms." (Kemi Badenoch) The five tests are:

"Russia has worked out how to weaken or overthrow western governments without firing a shot.  "New defences, including revealing the scale of these activities, strengthening election laws and discrediting those who are paid by Moscow, are needed urgently. "A US President who thinks Canada is the enemy will not help with this." "We should notice that the end of the street is on fire - and an arsonist is heading this way." (William Hague, some of the concluding lines of an article in today's Times called "Divided West is precisely what Putin wants, " which among other things lists some of the evidence of Russian interference in elections in other countries.

 

It's fascinating to see which of the spoof pop song names in this parody of the Top of the Pops rundown by the Barron Knights have dated, and which of the jokes are still as appropriate as ever.  Followed by the "Masochistic And Sadistic Hospital song" (the initials are a reference to a US comedy TV show called "MASH" which was set in an army medical unit in Vietnam during the conflict there. The theme music for that TV show is the melody of the song.)

"Reeves bangs on about "hard-wiring growth into every Cabinet decision" yet destroys it with every decision she takes. The Chancellor is a one-woman growth destruction machine." Harvey Jones , in an express article about two of Labour's latest disasters which you can read in full at:   Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband declare war on UK’s two biggest firms. Express.co.uk

 

I jumped the gun last week.  The feast of the presentation of Christ in the Temple is often the last Sunday in January, but it can be in early February. And it is in fact today this year, not last week.  So here is a different recording of Johannes Eccard's masterpiece written for this feast.

"Like burning bank notes to stay warm." Oliver Johnson , head of one of the country's leading University Maths departments, on the Labour government's decision to scrap the “hugely successful” Advanced Mathematics Support Programme. Running since 2018, the initiative helped state schools teach further, higher, and core maths. Delivered by the Maths Education Innovation charity the scheme is seen as crucial in the age of AI. Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, described the decision as "spectacularly short-sighted," highlighting the ongoing need for better maths provision to prepare young people for well-paid jobs that drive economic growth.  Concerns Over Plan to Cut Back A-Level Maths Support Programme - MES

Responding to the news that David Lammy, Foreign Secretary in the current Labour government, has spent   £916,177 on flights, of which £891,719 was on private jets, since the last election , his Conservative predecessor James Cleverly had this to say: "I’m not going to criticise the PM or Foreign Secretary for air travel on government business.  I’m going to criticise them for breathtaking hypocrisy.  Labour’s criticism of me when flying on government business was relentless." Note that, because he isn't a world-class hypocrite like Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner, or most of the rest of the Labour front bench, James Cleverly is NOT criticising Lammy for doing exactly what he did himself, and not am I criticising Starmer or Lammy for something I would have defended when Conservative Prime Ministers and Foreign secretaries did it. When in opposition Labour submitted a large number of Freedom of Information requests about and made performative public attacks on, the use by...

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” George Orwell, "1984." (Hat tip to Iain Dale who reminded me of this quote on X, formerly Twitter, yesterday)