Chris Whiteside's Blog

There are two versions of this, the one I first heard (and sang) was "Miss Hoolihan's Christmas Cake" But apart from the names it's the same. For some reason the memory came into my head this afternoon, so I thought I would put this Irish Rovers version up as today's music spot.

No party leaves government and thinks, " Yup, mission accomplished – we did everything we wanted and we did it perfectly. "  We need political leaders to confront mistakes they made in office and explain how they'll do better next time. This is normal and healthy.  " Why didn't you do it while you were in office? " is an intellectual cul-de-sac. Tom Harris (former Labour MP) on X yesterday.

Today Kemi Badenoch will set out the next steps in our plan to root out identity politics from our public services. Live on X from 10:30am. Don’t miss it! Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) / X

"Another sunny day on the doors of Aberdeen South. It’s clear voters are sick of the SNP. The best way to beat the SNP and stand up for our North Sea oil and gas industry is to vote Douglas Lumsden on June 18." Douglas Lumsden MSP , Conservative candidate for the Aberdeen South by-election

 

"There are only two ways of telling the complete truth - anonymously and posthumously." Thomas Sowell

Pollster Opinium asked 2,051 people what they thought of the responses of four of the party leaders to the murder of teenage student Henry Nov8wak. Percentages saying they approve or disapprove were as follows: Nigel Farage: 26% approve, 32% disapprove Keir Starmer: 26% approve, 27% disapprove Zack Polanski: 12% approve, 17% disapprove Kemi Badenoch: 28% approve, 15% disapprove 

"This wasn't institutional racism. It was institutional incompetence." Headline on the print edition of Kemi Badenoch's article in today's Sunday Times about the murder of Henry Nowak. It's a very good article and you can read the whole thing (no paywall) at Kemi Badenoch: Institutional racism? This is institutional incompetence Here are some more highlights. "People are right to be angry about the murder of Henry Nowak.  But rage is not a strategy. "   "People like JD Vance will blame migration. Others social media, knives, racism or the police. There will be recrimination and finger-pointing, with too many people forcing the facts to fit what they want to believe. There is a lot to be angry about but the job of a politician is not to tell people to be angry, but to offer solutions.  People need us to fix what has gone wrong. " "I have my own view of what has gone wrong. Some will disagree. But this much should be beyond dispute: if p...

"Some people collect stamps, some collect train numbers, some collect rare coins, some collect miniature wargames figures.  Reform politicians collect community notes calling out their lies. And it’s quite an impressive collection!" James Cleverly MP on X today. And he's right. I've seen more community notes on the last few weeks calling out false statements made or repeated by Reform UK and Reform politicians than all the other parties put together. 

"Today we remember the sacrifice and bravery of the British and Allied forces who stormed the beaches of Normandy 82 years ago. They fought for freedom, duty, and our values. We will never forget their sacrifice." Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch

 

This parody is superbly done (and performed well enough as a song to be worth listening to for the music regardless of the humour.) Sheev Palpatine (the evil Emperor) on the Saxophone accompanies Anakin Skywalker who is singing " I'm never gonna fight again " to the tune of "Careless Whisper."  Brilliant.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has posted his open letter to the Russian president on X. Here it is. "Open Letter To the President of the Russian Federation From the President of Ukraine When you came to power in Russia more than 26 years ago, many people in Ukraine viewed you positively. That is how it was. But that is now in the past. Now, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians view it positively that our long-range drones paid a visit to the opening of your forum in St. Petersburg, covering a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers. As you know very well, that distance is not the limit of our capabilities. For 26 years, your time in power has completely changed the agenda of relations between Ukraine and Russia. From discussions about trade and other civilian matters, our nations have moved to talking almost exclusively about strikes and losses. You have spent nearly half of your 26 years in power in Russia waging war against Ukraine. Whatever you may say about NATO, ...

"The Henry Nowak episode reveals a fault line between the two parties of the right. That line is not one of policy, but character. Farage’s instinct when faced with the pleas of a grieving father was to reach for the culture war button and stir up division. Whatever his views on supposed “two-tier policing” may be, using a young man’s murder as the opening line of a political attack is not the behaviour of a statesman.  Badenoch’s restraint, by contrast, was precisely the type of attitude one would hope for in a political leader. By all accounts, she could have gone in for the kill. The footage is disturbing, the questions it raises about police conduct are real, and there would have been no shortage of applause from the Conservative Party’s base had she followed Farage’s lead. But she chose not to. That choice matters not just to those in SW1 but to the wider country. Badenoch is already experiencing a personal popularity bump in the polls and this episode will only serve to stre...

"Today I have met Lucy, Mark and Katie, Henry Nowak’s mother, father and stepmother. Their courage is extraordinary. They have endured the most appalling loss, it is a life sentence for them.  They have also faced the agonising decision to release the harrowing body-worn camera footage, knowing how painful it would be and how strongly people would react. They did so because they want truth, accountability and change. They have asked that we work across political parties and religions to rebuild trust in the police. That trust has been broken because of what happened, and I agree with them on that. We must also be prepared to examine, carefully and seriously, religious practices or exemptions that permit the carrying of dangerous weapons in public, and other activities that are not conducive to the public good. We also need to examine where the law needs to change. Henry’s family do not want anger to tear communities apart. They are a family who have friends across faith and race, ...

Out this afternoon campaigning in Hawcoat & Newbarns for the Conservative candidate Marco Fawcett. And here is a piece of music from Steeleye Span to which to wind down an relax after the campaign.

Polls have now closed at 10pm today (4th June 2026) in the Hawcoat & Newbarns by-election in the Barrow and Furness constituency for a seat on Westmorland and Furness council. A big thank-you to everyone who voted, especially those who voted for the excellent Conservative candidate is the enthusiastic and energetic Marco Fawcett.

Polls opened at 7am this morning (4th June) and will remain open until 10pm in the Hawcoat & Newbarns by-election in the Barrow and Furness constituency for a seat on Westmorland and Furness council. If you live in the ward, You do not need your polling card to vote but do need some form of photographic ID - it can have expired as long as it clearly identifies you Possible forms of ID include Passport Driving licence (which can be full or provisional) Bus pass Blue Badge An identity card with the "Pass" hologram The Conservative candidate is the enthusiastic and energetic Marco Fawcett, who has been working very hard for this by-election, and I am very impressed by him.

"Identity politics divides our country whoever is doing it. The Conservative Party rejects it.  We believe in universalism and equality under the law. We must not treat people differently on the basis of skin colour. We have to build faith and trust in our institutions. If there is one thing that should come from Henry’s death, it is that we make things better, so that this does not happen to any of our boys again. That is what I am committed to. I do not want his death to be in vain. Let’s do this for Henry. Let’s get this right." Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch

Journalist Stephen Pollard has published on X here and in the Spectator  here a response to the smears which Reform UK has been putting round against Kemi Badenoch. I think it is worth republishing here. Zia Yusuf’s attack on Kemi Badenoch shows he is a hypocrite I’m usually resistant to the sentiment behind one of the oldest political jokes: How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips move. In my experience – I’ve been in and around Westminster for nearly four decades – most politicians might have large egos but they are genuinely trying to do their best for their country. The idea that all politicians lie with impunity is corrosive and wrong. But it’s not always easy to make that case. And the wilful, brazen smearing of Kemi Badenoch by Reform over her reaction to the murder of Henry Nowak is one such example of that difficulty. Yusuf’s hypocrisy would be laughable if the issue at the heart of all this – the murder of a young man – was not so tragic Speaking on yester...

"I don’t want to hear about Black Lives Matter. I don’t want to hear about White Lives Matter. Everyone matters. Henry Nowak matters." Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch

On my return from Barrow (see previous post) I attended the annual meeting which Egremont Town Council, like all Town and Parish councils, is required to hold each year for members of the public to ask questions of the council. The meeting was held in Egremont Market Hall at 5.30pm this evening. It was not well attended though we did have some useful discussion about the council's Safeguarding policy and a few other issues. The chairman of the Town Council made a report which will be placed on the Town Council website.

Out today in Barrow campaigning in a council by-election. Had a friendly reception on the doorstep but what really struck me was the extent to which far more people were wiling to say who they certainly would not be voting for than who they were.  There was plenty of support for Marco, the Conservative candidate, but I was struck by how many people (including previous lifelong Labour voters) told me they would absolutely not be voting Labour. I also met more voters who told me they certainly would not be voting Reform.than I did who were certain they were going to vote for that party. Though FWIW I think the by-election is a close race between the Conservatives and Reform UK. More on this to follow In the meantime, some music to relax after campaigning: the award winning theme m usic from Sid Meier's Civilisation IV, "Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin. (The lyrics are the Lord's Prayer in Swahili)  

Look what Labour's Welfare secretary admitted in one of the documents released yesterday following the Mandelson investigation:  

Gilbert & Sullivan's wonderful song in which the first Lord of the Admiralty seeking the hand of a captain's daughter, has no idea how forcefully his arguments plead the cause of his rival for her hand, a common seaman ...

On this day, the First of June, in 1794 the British and French fleets met in battle. Here are three of the most beautiful of the many pictures which have been created to capture what become known in Britain as "The Glorious First of June."  What was particularly unusual about this battle is that both sides succeeded in the object for which they fought. The objective of the French fleet was to get a grain convoy through to France, which they succeeded in doing, the objective of the Royal Navy was to inflict serious damage on the French fleet, which they also succeeded in doing. Here are three depictions of the event, painted respectively by Derek Gardner, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, and John Bentham-Dinsdale.

 

 

🚨 NEW Westminster Voting Intention Conservative: 21% (+1) Reform UK: 21% (-) Labour: 19% (+1) Green: 18% (-2) Lib/Dem: 11% (-) Via Lord Ashcroft Polls @LordAPolls Fieldwork, 21-26 May (+/- vs 27 Apr)

 

 

Out this evening in Hawcoats with our excellent candidate for a council by-election. More details coming shortly. And to relax after getting home, Elizabethan Serenade by Ronald Binge.(Paintings by Vladimir Volegov)

 

 Westminster Voting Intention: Reform:                          24% (-1) Conservative:               19% (+1) Labour:                           17% (=) Green:                             16% (+1) Lib/Dem:                         14% (=) Restore:                             3% (-1) SNP:                                    3% (=) Via @YouGov, 25-26 May. Changes wrt 17-18 May.

 

 

The new Star wars film, "The Mandalorian and Grogu" brought the characters from the streaming show "The Mandalorian" to the big screen today as it was released in cinemas. Here is the theme music: And here is a link to a review: Instant review of "The Mandalorian and Groghu

On the government's decision to allow the purchase of Russian oil refined in third countries: General Lord Richard Dannatt, the former head of the Army: “ This is a morally bankrupt move by a Government focused much more on short-term popularity and not on issues of greater significance, namely the lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.  Shameful is the word that comes to mind. ” Phil Ingram, a former colonel in Army intelligence, accused Labour of “ playing politics with people’s lives ” and said the move was an “immoral” and “ sickening act ”. Come on Starmer, you've U-turned on everything else, another urgent U-turn needed on this one.

Congratulations to councillor Adam Brierley and his team on this fantastic result: Votes cast: Con 1,185    60% (+33%) Ref 534        27% (+27%) Lab 129          7% (-13%) Lib 107           5% (+5%) Conservative GAIN from Independent (No independent candidate this time)

 Send Keir Starmer a message.  Sign our petition to Get Britain Drilling ⬇️ You can sign our petition at: Back British Oil

The following passage was being shared on X today. The people who posted it said it was a quote from  Woody Allen. I have not been able to verify whether this quote really comes from him, but whoever wrote it, I am republishing it because it is powerful. "I always thought the biggest advantage of New York was that you could be neurotic and nobody noticed. In other cities, they send you to the doctor if you talk to yourself. In Manhattan, they offer you a column in a magazine for it. Yesterday I went out to buy salmon. By the way, it's the only stable Jewish tradition that's survived Babylon, Rome, and my relationships with women. I was walking through Brooklyn thinking about death. Not because I'm a philosopher. But because I'm already over ninety, though originally I'd planned to make it to seventy at most. And suddenly—a crowd in front of a synagogue. At first I thought a famous psychoanalyst was performing there. In New York, people line up for hours to hear...

 Kemi Badenoch has set out the Conservative policy agenda to put Britain back on track:

 

I see that my friend Michael Winstanley, a former Mayor of Wigan who was my immediate predecessor as Chairman of the Conservative Party in the North West, has been adopted as the Conservative candidate in Makerfield. Michael is a really nice guy, a loyal friend, a man of great integrity, and would be an excellent MP for Makerfield,

  As Kemi Badenoch put it, "After 18 months of “standing up to Putin” the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries. Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences. We are now importing from Russia instead of drilling in the North Sea. Insane."

 

 

Some of the most infuriating, and destructive, people to deal with in a democracy, are the monomaniacs who can never accept that an issue has been decided. This particularly applies to extreme nationalists of any stripe and extreme anti-nationalists opposed to them who cannot treat the question of whether the country they identify with should be part of a larger unit or not as resolved other than in the way they believe right, and when they lose a democratic vote start organising a new campaign from the very next day for a new vote to try to reverse the result. There is a difference between a vote on whether or not to break up a particular country, or pull a country out of a complex and deeply integrated international union, and an election which puts party A rather than  party B in as the government of a country. In the latter case it is entirely reasonable for people who support party B, or indeed C, D or E,  to campaign to gain or regain office at the following schedule ele...

 

"Knowledge can be enormously costly, and is often scattered in widely uneven fragments, too small to be individually usable in decision making. The communication and coordination of these scattered fragments of knowledge is one of the basic problems- perhaps the basic problem- of any society." Thomas Sowell

 

"If NATO is lucky, they can join Ukraine." Garry Kasparov

"The best negotiator with Russia is still the Ukrainian army." Marko Mihkelson   Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Estonian Parliament. 

With the news that there will be a by-election in Makerfield, hat tip to Deuxvingarian for thoughts on a new volunteer canvasser Reform UK might get ...   For the avoidance of doubt, this is a joke and I will be there canvassing for the Conservative candidate. POSTSCRIPT Deuxvingarian also suggested an even more effective way for Sir Keir Starmer to sabotage Andy Burnham ... POST POSTSCRIPT   I'm still backing the Conservative candidate

 Health Secretary Wes Streeting has resigned from the government, saying "Where we need vision we have a vacuum, where we need direction we have drift." The above quote is from Streeting's resignation letter.

Kemi Badenoch is the leader Britain needs  

  "There is no lie your opponent can tell about you that hurts as keenly as an uncomfortable truth." (Stephen Daisley , from his article on Kemi Badenoch's response to the King's Speech, see blogpost at Stephen Daisley on Kemi's reply to the King's Speech .)

Treasury Minister Torsten Bell commenting on being rude today compared with Torsten Bell being rude himself last September ...   Hat tip to Jason Groves @JasonGroves1

Journalist Stephen Daisley wrote in the Telegraph that opposition leader Kemi Badenoch "has just shown what a real leader looks like" as she skewered of the government in the debate on the King'" s Speech: "As Keir Starmer’s premiership circles the drain, with his colleagues desperately trying to flush away an election-winner they now regard as an embarrassment, it fell to Kemi Badenoch to tell the Prime Minister and his Government where they had gone wrong. Emily Thornberry protested at being “lectured”, and indeed it was a lecture – a forensic and devastating analysis of a party that had 14 years to prepare for power but has run out of steam after only two. In a sometimes humorous but mostly bracing response to the King’s Speech, the Conservative leader told the Prime Minister: “ Leadership is about having a vision for this country. It’s about having the courage to take difficult decisions, persuading your party that those difficult decisions will pay off in...

"In an era when we are heartily sick of politicians making crazy promises which they cannot keep, it's strange to think the answer is to support ones whose promises are crazier still." Charles Moore , perhaps the best line of this excellent article.

Lord Ashcroft has an important interview with Ukraine's former Chief Diplomat Dmytro Kuleba which has been published on his website and on Conservative Home. Here are some key extracts. "As the war in the Middle East draws global attention away from Ukraine, the Russia-Ukraine war is only intensifying. The spring campaign is now in full swing causing substantial casualties on the battlefield. At the same time, Ukraine has mastered its strategy of conducting deep strikes against Russian oil refineries, forcing Russia’s Vladimir Putin to state over the weekend that the war may be nearing its end and the trilateral talks between the US, Ukraine and Russia may finally be on the horizon. "With the world’s focus increasingly fixed on Iran and the wider region, I sat down with one of Ukraine’s most prominent voices – its former foreign minister and now a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, Dmytro Kuleba – to discuss the trajectory of the war...