Chris Whiteside's Blog

A superb article in the Indy this week by Matthew Norman, which you can read in it's entirety here , about the speech which Ed Miliband might have made to Labour party conference had he taken a truth serum. Highlights from the article: "Three minutes and 45 seconds into Ed Miliband's speech yesterday, my mind wandered off to a fantasy world in which some mischievous sprite had spiked his larynx-lubricating Evian with a truth serum." "Conference," intoned Little Ed in the escapist grotto of my mind, "you'll have read that this is the most important speech of my life ... "It couldn't matter less. Outside this hall and a few newsrooms, think-tanks and blogger's bedrooms, not a soul is listening to a word I say. "Yet irrelevance is what defines any Leader of the Opposition so early in the life of a government the public has clearly decided to give a fair chance. That same public has also decided that it can no more picture me grinning ...

On Political Betting this week Labour supporter Henry G Manson had some interesting comments on his party's conference. Some of them were as follows: "This was a bad Labour Party conference. It was confusing, contradictory, let the government off the hook and needlessly created an array of hostages to fortune. It all the feel of an emergency party conference arranged with a fortnight’s notice – not a platform planned carefully to showcase an alternative government and Prime Minister. "This week wasn’t just a car crash. It was a 30 car pile-up. I could write 10,000 on words on what went wrong. For now here’s my summary from a Labour perspective. We now have: • A leader who certainly does not look like a Prime Minister. If a first impression wasn’t already formed by the voters then it has this week. If the speech was composed and delivered with the intention of demonstrating his weaknesses over his strengths then it succeeded. He’s a nice guy but he’s out of his depth and...

I was amused to hear the President of the European Commission tell the European Parliament today that it had been a fantasy to imagine that you could have a single currency and single market without a single economic policy. Funnily enough, a few years ago when there was a serious debate in Britain about whether we should scrap the pound, it was those of us who wanted to keep the pound who made exactly that point. Those who were arguing that you could join the euro without having a common european policy would be found on the side who were arguing that Britain should join. It’s because it would have meant too big a loss of economic independence that we wanted to stay out, and are glad that we did.

Hat tip to Conservative Home for pointing out one of the flaws in The Daily Telegraph's campaign against the Government's planning reforms, specifically the claim that they would make it harder for local councils to stop traveller sites being established. Not so says Bob Neill, Minister for Local Government: "Top-down targets for traveller sites undermined local discretion and turned a blind eye to unauthorised development, harming community cohesion. The Coalition Government is scrapping the previous Government's planning rules on traveller sites and issuing explicit new planning guidance which increases protection of the Green Belt and open countryside. Stronger weight is being given to protection of local amenity and the local environment. And through the Localism Bill, councils are being given tougher enforcement powers to tackle the abuse of the system." Localism means councils choosing whether or not to allow these sites. To say it means a "new legal ro...

Thinking about some of the misplaced opposition to nuclear power recently provoked a line of thought about how often you find people holding combinations of views which you would not expect to find together. Sometimes the combinations are counterintuitive but fall short of a direct contradiction. Sometimes people manage to believe things which are directly incompatible. Here are a few examples 1) SUPPORT FOR ABORTION AND OPPOSITION TO THE DEATH PENALTY (or vice versa) As the "New Scientist" once put it, "The people who think human life is sacred before birth are often the same people who think it isn't after the age of criminal responsibility." It is by no means an exact match, but it is surprising how many people who think it is wrong for the state to execute convicted murderers also come out towards the "pro" end of the spectrum on state provision of abortion on demand, and equally surprising how many people who are towards the "anti" end ...

The independent Boundary Commission has now published proposals for new parliamentary constituencies, and these will be open to public consultation for the next 12 weeks, until 5th December 2011. The proposals for Cumbria, and consultation arrangements, are given below. (Paragraph numbers are from the North West proposals document, from which this is an extract.) Initial proposals for the Cumbria sub-region 88. There are currently six constituencies in this sub-region, none of which has an electorate within 5% of the electoral quota. The electorates of all the existing constituencies in this county are substantially lower than the electoral quota. It was not therefore possible to leave any existing constituency boundary unchanged. 89. As mentioned previously, we propose to allocate five constituencies to this subregion, a reduction of one from the current arrangement. When developing proposals, we noted that our options were limited due both to the large geographical but small electora...

There are certain iconic events in each generation that everyone remembers - for my parent's generation it was when JFK was shot, for mine the most significant was the murderous attack on the twin towers ten years ago today. It is important that we should never forget the events of that day. About three thousand innocent people were murdered for no better reason than that they happened to be working in a building which to the perpetrators was a symbol of things they disapproved of, or were rescue workers who tried to save the lives of people in that building, or were on the civilian airplanes which were hijacked to crash into those buildings. The victims were male and female, young and old, citizens of many different countries (including about a hundred British people), undoubtedly included people of possible political viewpoint (from those who had voted for George W Bush to those who despised everything he stood for) and certainly did include every possible religious viewpoint (fr...

West Cumbria may get 80 mph winds today. Have been out in the garden removing or fastening down anything which was at risk of literally blowing away. If you'r reading this on 11th September 2011 and are in Whitehaven or West Cumbria, I strongly advise you to check that there is nothing in your garden which you wouldn't miss if this happenened. You probably don't need me to tell you that when it blows here, it really blows.

I would much rather see even the daftest of government policies, whether in Scotland, the UK, or anywhere else, overturned in the ballot box rather than the courts. Nevertheless, there can hardly be any doubt that the lawyer who proposes to challenge the outrageous policy of the Scottish government on student tuition fees has a point. If the Scottish government had ruled that students normally resident in Scotland should be entitled to free University Education, but that ALL students not normally resident in Scotland should have to pay a fee, that is a decision which they should be entitled to make. I realise that such a policy may be challenged by other EU countries, but I cannot see that it would be unfair or unreasonable. However, to allow students from all parts of the EU other than England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to attend Scottish Universities for free, while singling out residents of those three countries for a charge is blatantly discriminatory. To charge a fee ...

Last year something flipped inside Derek Bird and he gunned down twenty three residents of Copeland, twelve of whom died. (If I hadn't been working down south that day, I would have heard the shots of the Whitehaven shootings from my office.) Last month Norway suffered in turn from a crazed mass-murderer, and they have been remembering the victims today. I am sure I will not be the only resident of Whitehaven and indeed of West Cumbria who will be thinking of both our own victims and of the people of Norway today, and remembering all the victims and their families in my prayers.

I never thought to see an England cricket team win six consecutive test series, including a crushing defeat of an excellent Indian test side, and go to number one in the world rankings. Very well played.

I served many years ago on the Conservative party's former National Advisory Committee on Education (NACE) with Professor Paul Wilkinson, the country's leading academic expert on terrorism, who has just died. He was a remarkable man. I did not know him well, but I did know him well enough to have great respect for him. Rest in Peace.

The death of Mark Duggan must be fully and impartially investigated. And it will be. Those who have concerns about this have every right to organise peaceful and law-abiding demonstrations. They do not have the right to riot, burn, or loot. I have been rather irritated by those on both sides of the political divide who have sought to blame their political opponents for the riots which have been taking place. The riots are not the responsibility of David Cameron. They are not the responsibility of Gordon Brown. Or Tony Blair, John Major, Maggie Thatcher, Jim Callaghan, Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, or Robert Walpole. They are the responsibility of the rioters. Madsen Pirie in his book "How to win every argument" defined a logical fallacy which he called "Thatcher's Blame" and which he described as follows: * if you want to blame your political opponents for civil disturbance during a period of wealth, you claim that their policies ha...

Hat tip to Tim Montgomerie at Conservative Home for pointing out that Luke Bozier has been writing some surprisingly sensible things on the Labourlist blog. "Labour says the reason it created this fiscal mess was to save the country from a collapse of the banking system. But let's get real – the reason there's a deficit is because tax income didn't cover the high public spending before the credit crunch/banking crash. Had the Labour government had a spending review mid 2000s, and reduced public spending, the deficit today would have been smaller. We must begin to admit that we were fiscally irresponsible for years, in order to gain the trust of the public again, at least on the economy." He continues: "It's a shame Ed didn't include a single book on boosting growth or economic responsibility in his summer holiday reading list. It's clear we can't leave this job to the shadow chancellor – he's made hardly any effort (nor has Ed Miliband fo...

A natural disaster on the other side of the world had dire economic consequences for West Cumbria this week, as the NDA announced that because of the halt to Japanese demand for reprocessing while their nuclear power plants are offline, the existing Sellafield Mox Plant (SMP) will be closed. Tony Fountain, CEO of the Nuclear Decomissioning Authority, said that “The reason for this [closure] is directly related to the tragic events in Japan following the tsunami and its ongoing impact on the power markets. “As a consequence we no longer have a customer for this facility, or funding.” An NDA statement said: “The NDA board has assessed the changed commercial risk profile for SMP arising from potential delays following the earthquake in Japan and subsequent events. It has concluded that, in order to ensure that the UK taxpayer does not carry a future financial burden from SMP, the only reasonable course of action is to close SMP at the earliest practical opportunity. The decision is no ref...

Calder Avenue in Whitehaven will be closed for maintenance works for approximately two weeks from Wednesday (27th July.) This is obviously going to cause a fair amount of disruption, because the one-way system funnels all traffic towards the town centre from Calder Valley, Valley Park and half of Mirehouse through this road. But anyone who has the misfortune to be forced to use this road knows that this work needs doing. For the duration of this work the one-way restrictions on the Northern half of Foxhouses Road will be suspended.

The EU referendum bill has now been through both the Commons and the Lords. The passing of the 'Referendum Lock' fulfils a Conservative Party manifesto commitment to give the British people a say on further power transfers to the EU. Foreign Secretary, William Hague has welcomed the Parliamentary passage of the EU 'Referendum' Bill saying: "For the first time it gives real control to Parliament and every voter in the country over the most important decisions a government can make in the EU. "This is good news for our democracy and will significantly strengthen it. "For the first time it gives real control to Parliament and every voter in the country over the most important decisions a government can make in the EU. "Trust in the EU has been severely damaged. "It is only by giving voters proper control over any future proposal to change the Treaties - the EU's rule book - to shift powers from Britain to the EU that we can begin to reconnect p...

Following the shocking allegations about the "News of the World" and the closure lf the paper, here is David Cameron's speech at the press conference he gave to explain about the action the government is taking. "Good morning and thank you for coming. Over the past few days, the whole country has been shocked by the revelations about the phone hacking scandal. Murder victims, terrorist victims, families who have lost loved ones in war, sometimes defending our country… …that these people could have had their phones hacked into order to generate stories for a newspaper is simply disgusting. I cannot think what was going through the minds of the people who did this. That they could hack into anyone’s phone is disgraceful. But to hack into the phone of Milly Dowler, a young girl missing from her parents, who was later found to be murdered, is truly despicable. But this scandal is not just about some journalists on one newspaper. It’s not even just about the press. It’s ...

On the evening of last Thursday, which was the day certain public sector unions were on strike, I was at a function with a number of friends, and it happens that most of the people I was sitting with were either retired teachers or still are teaching. All were affected by the dispute over pensions. Incidentally, teachers at independent schools are on the same pension as those in state schools.) Quite a few of the teachers I was talking to were members of one of the unions which was striking on Thursday. I'm told that the head teacher of the school where many of my friends work sent an email round asked any staff member who felt they needed to strike to come and see him. The ATL representative sent an email offered to go with any such person to see the head - and by one account, also offered to provide an exercise book to go down the back of their trousers. None of those I spoke to had been on strike but they had very mixed views about the merits of the action. Some pointed out that...

This year's excellent Whitehaven Festival is estimated to have pumped two and a half million pounds into the local economy. Which in the present economic climate is just what the doctor ordered. This should be something Copeland council are thinking about. Hard. Not many years ago, lack of support from the council was a major reason why the festival nearly died. That must not be allowed to happen again.

Hat tip to Conservative Home for this summary of the three arguments David Cameron put to the Local Government Association on public sector pensions. Argument one: We can't afford to go on like this "In the 1970s, when a civil servant say retired at sixty, they could expect to claim a pension for around twenty years. Today, when they retire at sixty, they can expect to claim a pension for nearly thirty years – about a fifty percent increase on before. Now, obviously, more people living for longer is a great development for society. But more people claiming their pension for longer has a real life impact on our ability to pay for pensions. Indeed, we are already seeing the impact. In 2009, total payments to public service pensioners and their dependents were almost £32 billion – an increase of a third, even after allowing for inflation, compared to 1999." Argument two: The balance between pensions in the public sector and those of the taxpayers who pay for them is not righ...

There was good news for West Cumbria today: the Government has pushed ahead with plans for new nuclear power plants in the UK as it confirmed a list of eight sites where the next generation of reactors can be built, which include Sellafield. In the first major announcement on the future of nuclear in the UK since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the Government outlined the locations deemed suitable for new power stations by 2025, all of which are adjacent to existing nuclear sites. The eight sites are: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, South Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey. The overwhelming majority of residents in Copeland will consider this excellent news, as the comprehensive defeat of Green candidates here in last year's general election and this year's council elections demonstrates.

There is an almost inevitable tendancy for governments, even when they start out the other way with a localist or pro freedom and human rights agenda, to become less committed to it, and increasingly centralist as they go on. For the first few years a government is in power, it is not unknown for them to remember what it was like in opposition, or to remember some of their election promises about devolving power, or both. But as time goes on, frustrations when ministers have trouble getting a policy implemented, and are afraid of being blamed when things go wrong, be it a terrorist attack, general crime, or the economy, tends to make them very authoritarian. Hence if a government doesn't make any moves towards decentralism, localism or greater freedoms in it's first eighteen months in office, it never will. Even the last Labour government, which by the end of its' thirteen years in office had become one of the most authoritarian and centralising governments in the last hund...

Took the children into town again for the final day of a wonderful festival. Watched the air display from the north end of Kells, near the Candlestick, then wandered through the town to sample some of the stalls and let the children have a couple of rides. Great to see Whitehaven full of people enjoying themselves.

Very shocked to learn last night that my friend Adrian Smith died suddenly last Monday aged 52. Just goes to show that death can come when we least expect it. The Obit reads "Died unexpectedly on Monday 13th June 2011 aged 52. Sadly missed by his partner Stella, his brother Stewart, sister Deborah and all his nieces and nephews. Funeral service at St Mary's Church, Aspenden on Wednesday 22nd June at 2.45pm." Adrian had a great sense of humour and a real sense of fun, and was really great company. He had strong opinions on a number of subjects but was never unpleasant to those with different ones. There is a guestbook linked to his obituary at the Harlow Star website where those who knew him can leave a message here . To avoid causing alarm to friends of any of the other people with whom Adrian shared his name, I had better add that the Adrian Smith who has just died was an old boy of Bishop's Stortford school. This is not the Adrian Smith, formerly of Harpenden, who a...

Took the children into town for the second day of the festival. Lots of people there, all having a great time. Lump in my throat when the spitfire flew past. Told my children that they should always remember that they've seen a spitfire flypast - there may not be a working original with flying hours left whey they are grown up. And that this is still a free country because seventy years ago when their grandparents were about the age that my children are now, 600 brave young men, flying planes like that one, fought off attackers many times their number.

When the "Closer To Home" review of hospital and health services in Cumbria took place, pressure from local medical staff, patients and residents secured a slight increase in the number of beds retained at West Cumberland Hospital - an a promise that the number of beds against usage would be kept under review and increased if it was shown to be inadequate. It's time to have a very serious look at the number of beds currently available against what is needed. One of the front page headlines in yesterday's Whitehaven News read " Hospital's bed shortage leaves patients waiting in ambulances. " The article begins "A shortage of available beds at West Cumberland Hospital has led to some emergency patients having to termporarily wait outside in ambulances. "And on one occasion nine patients were said to have to sleep overnight in the A&E department because there were no spare beds on the wards. "The problem is not down to staff shortages in ...

This weekend for three days starting tomorrow (Friday 17th June) it's the Whitehaven Festival and it looks like yet another fantastic event. Full details are given on the festival website here . Highlights include: Friday: Fish cooking and Afternoon Tea Demos on the Sugar Tongue, Jet Skis and Book Launch by Jean Christophe. The latter is at 6pm Saturday: Live music on three stages, street theatre, Jet skis and celebrity chef demos. Spitfire flypast at 4pm Sunday: Forces Parade starting 10:30am at the Sea Cadets' and finishing in the Arena. Full air show program from 3pm All three days: Tall Ships, Cookery demos, Jet skis, fairgrounds and stalls (Note - I originally quoted the information on Copeland Borough Council website which said that the Spitfire flypast would be on Sunday. It was actually on Saturday.)

I have already mentioned the Cumbria libraries consultation, at which the remaining meetings in Copeland (all held at the relevant library) are: Cleator Moor Thursday 30 June 4pm-7pm Distington Thursday 23 June 1:30pm-3pm Keswick Wednesday 29 June 4pm-7pm Seascale Wednesday 15 June 1pm-2:30pm Thornhill Friday 17 June 10:30pm-12pm Whitehaven (Daniel Hay library) Thursday 23 June 4pm-7pm If you cannot attend one of these events, there are other ways for you to have your say before the discussion closes on 30 June 2011 * Email your thoughts direct to yoursay@cumbriacc.gov.uk * Write to the County Council at Have your Say, Communications Team, Cumbria County Council, Carlisle , CA8 8NA

There were suggestions in certain newspapers yesterday, particularly by Labour's shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, that proposals in the "Protection of Freedom" Bill to stop keeping the DNA of innocent people in the national DNA database amount may potentially "allow serial rapists to escape detection." As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, rape is a horrible and serious crime, and we need to ensure that those who are actually guilty of it are convicted and severely punished. However, if you want to protect women from being attacked by locking up rapists, it is rather important that you convict those who are actually guilty of it, not those who are innocent. Keeping the names of thousands of innocent people on DNA databases doesn't necessarily increase the chances of convicting the guilty: it is at least as likely to produce more false allegations against those who are not. And an erroneous allegation of rape can be a life-wrecking experience. It is worth emp...