Chris Whiteside's Blog

Millions of people in the UK have local elections tomorrow, Thursday 1st May 2025./ Elections will be held for 23 councils and six mayors in England. Around a third of electors in England are eligible to vote, and more than 1,600 councillors will be elected. On the same day there is also a parliamentary by-election in the Cheshire seat of Runcorn and Helsby. These elections will decide who spends millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on your behalf. Obviously I would hope that people will vote Conservative, but what is even more important is that you turn out to vote for whichever candidate you think will make the best job of looking after your local area. I have been campaigning for ANNE HANDLEY, the Conservative candidate to be Regional Mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire, a tough non-nonsense candidate who I think would make a fantastic Mayor for the area. I also went over to Runcorn and Helsby to campaign for SEAN HOULSTON who in my humble opinion would make a great MP for that ...

From 7.00 pm this evening (Wednesday April 30th 2025)  to 5.00 am tomorrow morning (Thursday May 1st 2025), National Highways will be working on the A595 northbound and southbound, from Calder Bridge to the Blackbeck Roundabout.  The notice refers to "traffic signals for sign replacement/reinstatement." They estimate, quote, " slight delays (under 10 minutes). "  However, since this is one of the most atypical stretches of trunk road in the country, with two of the main entrances to Sellafield at either end, and being almost the only way of getting from the Egremont / Beckermet area to the Calder Bridge / Gosforth / Seascale area without massive detours,   I would treat that estimate as a very rough guess if I were you.  National Highways is responsible for maintaining motorways and major A-roads, so closures of smaller roads will not be included in their schedule. Don't assume that means Cumberland Council or the police won't close any such roads in the ar...

“There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.”   — Thomas Sowell.    

Many a true word is spoken in jest, as the saying goes. The Cumbria Chronic is the harshest and most effective critic of the councils and politicians of all parties in Cumbria, and of the rest of the local media ecosystem as well. As I have written before, they do not generally take prisoners. Howeer, they published a piece this week by "The Secret Councillor" a.k.a. "Cllr Neville Waffle" (not his real name) which I reckon just about every councillor in Britain will either laugh or cry on reading and recognise as containing a bucket load of truth.    CLLR NEVILLE WAFFLE WRITES – The Cumbria Chronic Click on the link above for the whole piece, or here are some extracts.   "Ah yes, being a Councillor — the glamorous life of power, prestige, and public adoration. Who wouldn’t want to spend their nights in cold village halls being shouted at about potholes, dog muck, and missed bins? I used to have hobbies. Friends. A vague sense of self-worth. But now? Now I’m a c...

 

The Chronic has a piece about last week's the Egremont Town Council by-election, with the title   PAPERS PLAY DOWN REFORM WIN? – The Cumbria Chronic . Note the question mark at the end of the title. Click on the title for a link to the article. The Chronic has asked whether the local Cumbrian papers are unduly downplaying the result, without quite answering their own question, although they give a pretty big hint. They imply what they think when they write "The local papers clearly view one seat on a Town Council as a “blip” rather than the first tremor of an impending earthquake. It’s a mistake that rival political parties are almost certain to repeat." We can reasonably infer from this that the Chronic thinks that the papers have indeed downplayed this result. (Grammar fanatics and would be grammar students might like to note that the above first part of this blog post includes a rare example of the related words "imply" and "infer," which relate to ...

 

As sung by the choir at Selby Abbey this morning. The lyrics begin with " Cantate Domina Canticum Novum " which means " O sing to the Lord a new song. "

 

For everyone who was out on the stump today:

 

Extended and very dramatic version!

The "Cumbria Chronic" news and comment website doesn't take prisoners. Two thirds of their articles are no-holds-barred attacks on the government, all the local MPs and other elected politicians of every party. The other third are attacks on all the other local news organisations in Cumbria for giving those in power far too easy a ride - an accusation which in my humble opinion is, sadly all too often justified. Because Labour currently holds the majority of power in Cumbria with four of five MPs and one council ("Crumberland"), and the Lib/Dems most of the rest with the other MP and the other council ("Wokemorland & Farcical")  most of the Cumbria Chronic's articles have criticised these two parties with an occasional swipe at the Conservatives or non party bodies such as "NHS Daleks." Presumably in the interests of balance, they have now decided to do a piece on the Reform UK leader. They're not taking prisoners here either. I d...

Despite - or perhaps even partly because of - the fact that polling cards had not been sent out, the turnout in the Egremont South Town Council by-election yesterday was 26.3%. Obviously a lot of people had got the message that there was an election, and many of them told us on the doorstep that they were cross about the decision not to send them polling cards. 26.3%  may sound disappointing, but it is significantly higher than I have sometimes seen in a Council by-election not coinciding with other elections. The other factor which may have boosted turnout was local concern over the proposals for a Solar Farm at Dent Fall. It is probably worth pointing out that the planning application for Dent Fell has not yet been submitted, and after the initial proposals got a huge raspberry from local residents when the potential applicants went to public consultation, it is quite possible that the proposals may change significantly before an actual application comes in.   The votes were...

 "Headlines don’t build hospitals and nationalism doesn’t fix potholes." Quote from a Cumbria Chronic article, " The Madness of King Nigel ," see further comment on the article later today.

"One man cannot run the country." Quote from a Cumbria Chronic article, " THE MADNESS OF KING NIGEL ," see further comment on the article tomorrow.

EGREMONT TOWN COUNCIL SOUTH BY-ELECTION This local election will take place on THURSDAY 24th APRIL.  Voters can vote by attending their usual polling station – see below, between 7am and 10pm. Electors registered at the following addresses can vote at this station: THE MEETING PLACE, EGREMONT METHODIST CHURCH, EGREMONT Bank Lane​​​Mackintosh Drive​​​                                                   Wyndham Place Beck Green​​​Main Street​​​​                                                             Wyndham Terrace Bleach Green​​​ Main Street – Salford Terrace​​                    Wyndham Way Bridge End...

 

Thoughts of sympathy to all those mourning the late Pope Francis today. His majesty King Charles III put it beautifully:

 

The difference between a patriot and a nationalist is that patriotism is loving your own country while nationalism invariably seems to end up as at best othering and opposing, at worst hating someone else. This easter the economist magazine had a Bagehot column about the political advantages of overt displays of patriotism. The Conservatives used to be masters of this - Sir Keir Starmer has so thoroughly learned and applied the lesson that Bagehot reckons he out-patrioted the Conservatives. If we want to win next time we must not let him do that again.

Lamorna Ash has written a book called "Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A New Generation’s Search for Religion." Extracts from it appear in today's Observer and on the Guardian website with the title Could I become a Christian in a year? | Religion | The Guardian (Click on the title/link above to read the whole article.) When I saw the title I was reminded of the famous, quote in “Epitaph for a Man Killed by Falling” by William Camden (1551–1623), popularised in the 20th century in Graham Greene's novel, "Brighton Rock," suggesting that it is possible to turn to Jesus for mercy in the last second of life:    Larnorna Ash's spiritual journey as described in the book and article started, quote, " in the most earthbound, airless way. I was at my desk in a bedroom overlooking the hardscrabble surrounds of Harringay station in north London.  It was early 2021, so there was nowhere else to be. All I wanted was something to write about. In my notebook wer...

The origin of this anthem as I was told the story is that Samuel Sebastian Wesley wrote this lovely piece while he was organist of Hereford Cathedral. This was at a time when cathedral choirs were at "a very low ebb" and it was written for an Easter day service at which only three trebles and the Dean's butler, who sang bass, were available.  Wesley was a genius and the anthem would undoubtedly work for four such voices, but I prefer it with a full choir, as performed here by the choir of St Paul's cathedral or as I heard it sung this morning by the choir of Selby Abbey.  

Wishing all Christians in the UK and everywhere - and anyone else reading this and celebrating this great festival - a happy and peaceful Easter.

One of the reasons, opinion polls suggest, that the Conservatives were in office from 2010 to 2024 was that for fourteen years the party maintained a lead as the party most trusted to manage the economy. One of the factors in Labour taking over last year was that they took over, and held for two years until now, a lead on this issue. Labour has now lost that lead. Britain Elects has an interesting article - well, interesting to political anoraks like me, anyway - on the subject, written by Ben Walker, which you should be able to get to by clicking on the link below:   Labour loses its lead on the economy - by Ben Walker Some extracts: "Today Britain Elects is launching a new poll tracker. Who of the two main parties does the country trust most to manage the economy? Because a hard-won perception of competence on this issue has, it seems, been blown away by a series of communications failures and policy decisions." "There can be no doubt the comms of this new Labour gover...

Out today in Kingsley with a great team, campaigning for Sean Houlston, the excellent Conservative candidate in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election  (front and centre in the photo below.) Sean Houlston | Conservatives Note also the line up of three North West Region Conservative chairs on the right of the picture - myself on the right, my successor and the present regional chair Amelia McCourty to my immediate left (front row) in the picture, and my predecessor and the current Chairman of the National Conservative Convention Michael Winstanley left of Amelia (also front row).

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

 

 

 

Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for Brent, had once posted that "A child is born without a sex." Simon Myerson KC posted in response on X, "Some MPs are born without a brain."

"Greater Love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends ." The Bible - Gospel according to John, Chapter 15, Verse 13.

As per my quote of the day, there are a lot of people who are amazed that it took the Supreme Court to settle the question of what is a woman. But there is a reason why so many people have been equivocating over this for a decade. We need to strike the balance which protects and ensures respect for trans people without jeopardising, or indeed completely dismantling, freedoms and protections for which women have been fighting for centuries. As Professor Cass pointed out in her review, it is most unfortunate that this debate has become so toxic. It cannot be right that anyone who wants to ensure that there are effective measures in place to protect women from sexual predators is at risk of being labelled a transphobe or "TERF" who hates trans people and can be demonised. Nor is it right that anyone who wants to see trans people treated decently is in danger of being accused of wanting to abolish rights and protection for women. There are a small number of extremists and hardlin...

The Cumbria Chronic has this take on yesterday's Supreme Court ruling: "A court — yes, a court, not a laboratory, not a womb, not a medical professional — has finally been forced to define what a “biological woman” is. This was British politics at peak madness. This is not science anymore. This is law. This is a shotgun wedding between Kafka and Darwin, officiated by Judge Lord Hodge in a wig made of taxpayer despair."

Out campaigning for Jeff Hailes in Egremont South today. Here's a little something for anyone who has been out on the stump to relax to.

The national officers of the Conservative party's voluntary wing have send a warning to all association officers and encouraged wider circulation. A number of Conservative party members have received what purports to be an invitation to join a Conservative party call this evening (16th April 2025) There is no such call and the invitation is fraudulent. It is an example of a "phishing" scam. Anyone who complies with the instructions in the invitation is at risk of finding their phone has been hacked. Never enter a security number when one is asked for unexpectedly.

"Currently got people messaging claiming fond memories of "Measles parties".  In the three decades prior to the introduction of the vaccine the NHS recorded 11 million cases, and 7,800 deaths.  In the three decades following its introduction the NHS recorded 2.5 million cases and 464 deaths.  In the last three decades the NHS recorded 76,000 cases and 37 deaths." ( Dan Hodges on X, formerly Twitter.)

Mike Starkie, former Mayor of Copeland, has released the following statement today. "How ironic that a matter of a few weeks after the Labour Government finally took the idiotic decision to not allow the West Cumbria Mine, the demand for coal is hitting the headlines.  The West Cumbria Mine should have by now been constructed and fully operational after being granted planning permission six years ago.  A mixture of the inept handling of the application and in many instances deliberate obstruction by the Labour led Cumbria County Council along with the eco lobbyists resulted in the whole process becoming protracted until the new Labour Government and their suicidal net zero nonsense killed off the project, to pursue Ed Miliband's mad green agenda. We have this week witnessed the Labour Party in a last-minute scramble to save British Steel at Scunthorpe and having to ship coal in to keep the furnaces going from halfway around the World (without it seems any consideration of the ...

 Not often I quote a President of Argentina, but ...

 

 Cumbria Chronic has a devastating column on the betrayal of Britain's steel industry  here . It includes this description of Sir Keir Starmer "Keir Starmer is the political equivalent of a beige electric Volvo —technically moving, but only because the Earth spins beneath him. A former head of the Crown Prosecution Service – it shows. He has all the charisma of a damp sponge and the revolutionary fervour of a Tax return. His eyes bear the scared, hunted look of a man working on the rebuttal to a question that no-one has asked yet. He approaches life like a risk assessment seminar at a lifeguard convention. This is a man who could witness the collapse of the country under his watch and respond with a strongly worded memo and a lukewarm promise to launch a “review”. His soul hums at the frequency of a malfunctioning printer. If Tony Blair was New Labour’s used-car salesman, Starmer is the warranty department. Dull, legally extremely dangerous, and thoroughly incapable of any joy...

Election Maps UK have published their latest aggregate results of the 230 Council By-Elections (for 235 Seats) since the 2024 General Election: Labour was defending almost half of those seats - 116 out of 235 - and won the largest number, 74, but they had a net loss of 42 seats, more than a third of the number of seats they were defending. The Lib Dems were defending the second largest number of seats, 46, and also won 46 seats, so zero net gains or losses. The Conservatives were defending 37 seats and won a total of 61, which means a net gain of 24 seats: the largest net gain of any party, and more gains than all other parties gaining seats put together. Reform won 14 seats coming from no seats defended, so a net gain of 14 seats. Both legacy and social media have generally made vastly more fuss about 14 seats won by Reform than about any of the other 216 by-election results. And let's be honest winning 14 seats from nowhere is a significant achievement. However, but anyone who im...

Also sung this morning at Selby Abbey.

 

"Wishing Jews in the UK and around the world a peaceful Passover. As we reflect on the message of freedom of the holiday, we stand with those still waiting for theirs. The hostages must be brought home. Chag Pesach Sameach." Kemi Badenoch

On Thursday 24th April there will be a by-election for a vacant seat on Egremont Town Council. Polling Stations will be open from 7am to 10pm If you are an Egremont South resident and normally vote at the Methodist Church in Main Street that will be your polling station for this election. If you normally vote at Bookwell Masonic Centre, your polling station for this election will be there. As I have already posted, the Town Council decided not to send out polling cards for this election. The council was split down the middle with three of the six councillors at the meeting voting to send out polling cards and three against. I was one of the three councillors who voted that the council should pay the £1,400 cost of sending out polling cards.  Local democracy is in grave danger of being overwhelmed by apathy, but how can councillors and politicians like me expect the voters to take democracy seriously if we ourselves don't take it seriously enough to vote the money to run elections p...

Anne Handley, the excellent Conservative candidate for Mayor of East Yorkshire was out campaigning today in Goole and elsewhere: I was out with a team of Selby Conservatives campaign for Anne in Howden.  On the other side of the Pennines I know that Whitehaven and Workington Conservatives have been out today in Egremont South with Jeff Hailes, the Conservative candidate in the Egremont South Town Council by election. For everyone who has been out campaigning today, here is some music to relax to: Purcell's Trumpet Tune

 

Douglas Murray : " You spent a year and a half talking about Israel. Have you ever been to Israel? " Dave Smith : " Have you been to Nazi Germany? " Douglas Murray : " You can't time travel. "

 

 "Have you seen adolescence yet?" (Hat tip to Tim Stanley who made this joke on X, formerly Twitter. The picture of course, is set at the time of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and its' real title is "When did you last see your father?" 

"It's like some sort of brain warping virus has taken over broadcast media. In what world is it an issue that Kemi Badenoch hasn't watched a TV programme? I watched Adolescence and thought it brilliant. But it's a TV drama. That's all it is. No one has to watch it. It's like berating someone for not watching Strictly because everyone else is. So what?" ( Stephen Pollard on X,  formerly Twitter, responding to the attacks on Kemi Badenoch for not having watched the fictional Netflix drama "Adolescence")

 I like this meme which I saw posted by "No farmers, no food" on X today:

‘I don’t need to watch Casualty to know what's going on in the NHS.’ Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch responds to quite literally the most stupid questions I have ever heard asked by BBC journalists - and that's a pretty high bar.  She wanted to talk about real crimes, real problems and the experiences of real victims and they were asking why she hasn't watched a work of fiction produced by Netflix.

"I've seen some low political stunts in my time. But Labour announcing the axing of the already wholly inadequate local Rape Gang inquiries on the brink of recess is outrageous." ( Dan Hodges , former Labour and Trad Union staffer who is now a journalist) POSTSCRIPT: On the same subject Sir Trevor Phillips,  former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said that the government's response to grooming gangs is "utterly, utterly shameful”, adding “I cannot tell you how cross I am about it.” See and listen to his comments on X: Times Radio on X: "“I cannot tell you how cross I am about it.” The government's response to grooming gangs is "utterly, utterly shameful”, says Sir Trevor Phillips, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. 🔴 Listen to @TrevorPTweets from 1pm: https://t.co/ElNHhIYcEN https://t.co/hyiA0JiTIc" / X

Solar farm proposals delayed.  Egremont Town Council have issued the following statement on the latest developments around the proposal for a huge solar farm east of Egremont at Dent Fell. The statement reads:  “Egremont Town Council has received further communication from Belltown Power saying 'the project timescales have shifted slightly in response to the feedback we’ve received so far. To allow time needed to fully understand and respond to the comments we’re receiving we’re now working towards a submission later in the year, with a second round of consultation expected to take place before we submit. We are looking forward to communicating this to residents at the event.'   As a statutory consulted ETC will receive the planning application for comment and we will keep communicating as we receive anything.” 

"New figures show, the Labour Chancellor's reckless anti-business Budget is costing us a job every 9-minutes!  You can't tax your way to growth. As an entrepreneur, who has built businesses from scratch, I know it's business that creates prosperity." Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride Here is an article he wrote expanding on the point:

I've had some pretty serious disagreement with many of the things Elon Musk has posted over the past few months, but none at all with the short video Musk posted today on X in which the late Professor Milton Friedman explained how thousands of people from around the world co-operated to make a simple thing - a pencil. It's a really good description, in just two minutes, of how some of the most simple products we take for granted have come from world-wide trade. Watch it and you will have a better idea of how our interconnected world works. Musk's posting this video has been presented as a subtle push back against tariffs and a suggestion that it would be far better if the negotiations which Trump says he would welcome with any country except China were to result in an agreement for zero-zero tariffs. Here is a link to Musk's post -  Elon Musk on X: Friedman's pencil speech / X Or you can watch the speech directly here. 

Asked "How much should people really worry about the balance of trade?"   American economist Thomas Sowell replied,  "Somewhat less than you worry about being struck by lightning."   This was the opening exchange in Thomas Sowell's part of the clip below, which begins with a speech by Milton Friedman in which he askes what an unfavourable balance of trade really means, and is then followed by an interview with Sowell.

This is the best analysis I have so far heard of the Trump Tariffs and what could go wrong as a result of them. Well worth a listen. I hope the US administration listen too.

The US administration's tariff policies announced this week are probably the worst example of economic self-harm inflicted by any government on its own country's economy, never mind the rest of the world, in living memory. Those of my American friends who supported  Trump told me that one of their main reasons for doing so was that they were unhappy about high inflation under Biden. One of the most immediate impacts of imposing or increasing tariffs on your imports is to put prices up. The people who voted for Trump in the belief that he would cut inflation are not going to be delighted that far from cutting inflation his administration is directly causing prices to rise, and nor should they be. I will have some more to say in the coming week about this, but the US administration has been acting like a Laurel and Hardy figure, swinging a sledgehammer around and accidentally hitting people - hitting Americans, the very people the policy is supposed to help. Putting taxes on impo...