Chris Whiteside's Blog

The North West Evening Mail reports here that the entrance and exit slip road on the Northbound M6 at Junction 36 will be affected by roadworks in late February and early March. The exit sliproad will be affected from 8am on February 21st to 6am February 28th. The work will then move to the Northbound entry sliproad which will be closed from 8am on February 28th to 6am on March 3rd. During the work from 8pm to 8am lanes one and two of the motorway will be closed and a 50mph speed limit put in place.

Last night one of the perimeter air monitors at Sellafield, a site which has a very large number of radiation sensors, detected a spike in background radiation levels. This was well below the level of radiation which would have constituted a hazard, but the management took a responsible precautionary decision, in line with policies and approved procedures, to operate the site at reduced staffing levels today while they investigated. The BBC made rather a meal of this routine precaution, but it has now been confirmed that the spike was due to naturally occurring radon gas. A spokesman for Sellafield Ltd told "Cumbria Crack: “Our in-air monitors are extremely sensitive and pick up on any abnormality. Overnight the monitoring system initially indicated elevated levels of activity. Following investigation and analysis, we can now confirm these levels to be naturally occurring background radon. “The number one priority for us is, at all times, safe secure stewardship of the...

By conincidence a tweet about Prince Charles criticising "climate change deniers" popped into my twitter feed almost adjacent to this one from the Economist suggesting that Homo Sapiens Neanderthalis may live on in us, as modern humans may have some of their genes. You can take that one two ways: one way would be to compare those who don't agree that there is a preponderance of evidence for man-made impacts on the environment to Neanderthals who refused to adapt. However, I also remember a Spectator cartoon showing a Neanderthal family huddled round their fire in a snow-covered landscape, breaking into smiles as one of their number returns from a trek with the words "Great news - we're melting the ****ing Ice Caps!" Actually the whole issue of climate change is far more complex than some of the hardliners on both sides of the argument are willing to admit. Yes, there is a preponderance of evidence that human action is affecting our climate, certai...

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." (Bertrand Russell)

The great scientest, JBS Haldane (a man of atheistic leanings who respected other points of view) once said that " I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. " (Similar comments have also been attributed to Arthur Eddington) Since we live in such a strange and complex Universe, it is a brave man, and probably a very foolish one, who imagines that he has such a good idea of how the universe works that he has the right to punish others for taking a different view, regardless of whether or not that view is based on a religion. No scientific or theological position has completely clean hands where persecution of those who take a different view is concerned. Believers have persecuted atheists in theocratic countries, while atheists have persecuted believers in totalitarian societies such as the Soviet U...

"Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be." (HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, attributed)

A couple of weeks ago contractors installing fibre broadband in Cambridgeshire on behalf of BT Openreach found a human skull. The police were called and investigated: they determined that the engineers had probably accidentally disturbed an old unmarked and unrecorded grave and that there was no reason to treat the discovery as indicative of wrongdoing. I was amused by some of the comments  posted about this, for example ...   "Ah ... So this is what our fibre engineers mean by the 'head end'." "Probably a BT Sport customer who had been watching the Ashes cricket series and was waiting for an England win ..."     "The things people will do to get a head ..."   "Where is Sherlock when you need him?"   "This is probably the remains of the caveman that installed the prehistoric copper pairs" "A grave development"   "That's what you get with a skeleton crew on the job"...

"There's only one kind of common sense but a thousand varieties of stupidity." ( EVAN ESAR, 20,000 Quips & Quotes)

"It's brilliant in playing to socialism and tribalism. It's not good economics." (Digby Jones, former Trade minister in the last Labour government, who also described Ed Ball's policy as "If it creates wealth, kick it.") Similarly ... "Labour is planning to hike tax rates, not because is is sensible economics but because they think it is good politics." (Boris Johnson) "these higher taxes will have the effect of discouraging business investment in the UK." This is a quote from a letter which the heads of 24 of Britain’s most successful companies published in The Telegraph this week - you can read the letter itself and an acticle about it  here  - warning that Ed Miliband’s policy would threaten the recovery and cost jobs. At least one of the signatories has in the past given or lent large sums of money to the Labour party, so any suggestion that the business leaders who have been criticising Labour's policies are...

"The most uncommon form of intelligence is common sense." ( EVAN ESAR, 20,000 Quips & Quotes)

Today is the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Soviet army. It is remembered throughout the world as Holocaust Memorial day, when we keep alive memories of the millions of victims who were murdered in cold blood by the Nazi regime and their allies as part of their genocidal attempt to exterminate all humans who did not fit in with their plans to reshape humanity. This moving account by an 87-year old Holocaust survivor of what it was like to be sent to a concentration camp is an example of the memories we must keep alive. The Nazi genocide was not the first or the last genocide in history but to make it as difficult as possible for such atrocities to recur we must start by ensuring that this evil is never forgotten. There was another excellent piece on the subject yesterday by Ed Vaisey on Conservative Home here. While the largest single group of victims were the Jews, it is also important to remember how wide the net of ...

“How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day.”   ( Anne Frank  ) “Her voice was preserved. Out of the millions that were silenced, this voice was no louder than a child's whisper... It has outlasted the shouts of the murders and has soared above the voices of time.” ( Ernst Shnabel  on Anne Frank )

Figures due out in the next week are expected to show that Britain's economy remains the fastest-growing in Europe. Economists expect the UK to have grown by 0.7pc in the three months to December, following growth of 0.8pc in the third quarter. This represents an annual expansion of 2.8pc and equates to overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2013 of 1.9pc – the strongest annual growth since 2007 - up from just 0.3pc in 2012.   Britain emerged as the fastest growing economy in Western Europe last year and Tuesday’s data are expected to confirm the UK grew four times faster than Germany, which expanded by 0.4pc in 2013. More details here. Britain still has a long way to go: we need to get back into budget surplus and stay there for a long time to deal with the disastrous levels of debt which were Labour's toxic legacy, and not enough of the growth has yet fed into people's incomes, but at least the economy is headed in the right direction....

"It was not curiosity that killed the goose who laid the golden egg, but an insatiable greed that devoured common sense." (E. A. BUCCHIANERI)

"The only thing a person can never have too much of is common sense." (KATHRYN SMITH)

On the Daily Politics show Andrew Neil asked UKIP leader Nigel Farage whether the party still supports a number of previous UKIP policies from their website and past manifestos. The results were interesting ...

Earlier this week a group of local residents who are not connected with any political party handed in a petition with a large number of signatures, calling for a referendum on a directely elected mayor for Copeland which would effectively replace the position of the present leader of Copeland Council. It is therefore very likely that there will be such a referendum later this year, possibly at the same time as the European elections in May. I welcome this opportunity for a real choice about the future of Copeland. There is objective evidence - particularly from Audit surveys commissioned by the last government, which was of the same political persuasion as the current majority on Copeland Council - that Copeland is one of the worst run councils in the country. A proper debate about alternative ways to try to make that council more effective and better representative of its' residents is long overdue. Congratulations to the people who put together this petition.

"Ed Miliband doesn't give a toss about business. He will say anything to get elected ... it's economic vandalism." (FTSE 100 Company Chairman speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, quoted on the front page of yesterday's "The Times" newspaper.)

Anyone considering voting Labour - and also, anyone who uses expressions like "LibLabCon" or otherwise expresses the belief that there is no difference between the three main parties - should have a hard think about the concerns expressed by senior business leaders on the front page and page two of The Times newpaper today. Chairmen, Chief executives and other senior managers in FTSE100 companies expressed in so many words their concern that Ed Miliband's policies might harm the recovery or even, quote, "Send the economy back into decline." A senior executive in a major company who had been a Labour party member for two decades resigned from the party last week citing Miliband's "intellectual Marxism." Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, one major company chairman said that "Ed Miliband doesn't give a toss about business. He will say anything to get elected ... it's economic vandalism." This reflects the general...

Drilling down into the regional employment figures released yesterday reveals that the positive picture for the UK as a whole was also good overall for the North West, but not for every part of the North West. There are still towns and districts where we need to do better. Over the North West as a whole, unemployment fell by 2,800 in the most recent monthly figures, which I have seen described in the press as the largest fall anywhere in the UK. In Cumbria the picture is mixed around the county, with unemployment falling in Carlisle, Eden and South Lakeland set against rises in Allerdale, Copeland and Barrow. Ginny Murphy, economic intelligence officer for Cumbria County Council told "in-cumbria" that    "the number of young claimants and the number of long term claimants both continue to fall.” While the rise in people in work over the country and the North West as a whole, and better opportunties foryoung people, are very good news, we need to pus...

A very interesting piece in today's Scotsman here from John McTernan who despite not being one, argues that it is time for the Scottish Conservatives themselves to stop apologising for Margaret Thatcher and move on, including taking credit for Tory achievements in Scotland. As he points out, without Margaret Thatcher, half of Scots would still live in council housing. And he adds that "The grovelling stops now. Go back to the long Scottish tradition of conservatism, name it and reclaim it.   "In 2001 Jean-Francois Richard, then vice-president of the World Bank, met me when I was head of policy for the Scottish Government. He observed that the economies that would prosper in the 21st century were those with strengths in banking, biosciences, energy, education and the environment. Scotland was, and is, a world beater in those fields (though falling behind badly in education).   "It is a leader not by chance but by choice. The choices of a UK government that sh...

I gather that the original heroes of Star Wars IV to VI, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, and Harrison Ford as Han Solo, are likely to return in a new episode set several decades after "Return of the Jedi." There have been a number of first rate books by top rank Science Fiction authors such as Roger MacBride Allen and Timothy Zahn set in the Star Wars Universe and I shall be watching to see if any of their ideas are used. Since Benedict Cumberbatch seems to be on a pretty incredible roll this year, with appearances as Sauron in "The Hobbit" and Khan Noonien Singh in "Star Trek" as well as a third series of Sherlock, I wonder if he might be the first major actor to get roles in both "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" films. Grand Admiral Thrawn, described as "arguably the greatest military genius the galaxy had ever known" is basically what a combination of "Sherlock" and Khan might look ...

"People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.” ( Kent M. Keith  )

The ONS has just released the latest unemployment figures and they are good news, both for Britain and for the people who have found work. Unemployment down by 24,000 in the month - the 14th consecutive monthly fall - and by 157,000 in the last three months. Employment is now at a record-breaking 30.15 million and is up 280,000 over the last quarter - the biggest quarterly rise on record and the largest number of people aged 16 or over in work on record. There are now 450,000 more people in work than a year ago. ONS statistics available here .

Nicky Morgan, one of my old friends from YC days and now a treasury minister, made some excellent points the other day that Conservatives need to emphasise the positive parts of our message more - it's important to say positive things about the people and policies we like as well as to criticise those we don't. Being a Conservative is about preserving things, not about hating everybody, and it is important not to give the contrary impression Paul Goodman wrote on Conservative Home here that " Nicky Morgan has a point " and I agree with him. Ironically, Melissa Kite in the Guardian wrote a piece in response to Nicky Morgan called Five ways to cheer up tories and kill off the 'nasty party.'  which I am pretty sure was supposed itself to be ironic but at least one or two of her five suggestions point the way to ideas worth taking up ...

"I am patient with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it." ( Edith Sitwell )

The British economy is in far better shape than expected and the outlook has improved by more than any other major nation - according to the International Monetary Fund today. The global watchdog is raising its' prediction of gross domestic product growth in the UK this year to an increase by 2.4 per cent - considerably better than the 1.8 per cent it forecast just three months ago. The Washington-based Fund is also likely to nudge up its forecasts for the global economy but the upgrade for the UK is expected to be the biggest by far. More details available here.

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its' limits." (Attributed to Albert Einstein )

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." ( Vince Lombardi )