Chris Whiteside's Blog

Hat tip to Harry Phibbs for pointing this out. It probably dates me that I get this joke, but it seems to perfectly summarise the mess the Labour party have got themselves into.

"In a dramatic break from the majority of her party, Labour leadership hopeful Liz Kendall has suggested she’d like Labour to win another election, like, ever. Her statement, described as being ‘unacceptably right-wing’ by opponents, went on to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the electorate might have something to do with who gets to win elections and it might help to listen to what they want from time to time. “If Liz wants to go round ‘listening to voters’ and ‘winning elections’ , why doesn’t she just join the Tory party where she belongs?” a supporter of veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn asked us. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned the Labour Party not to appoint an unelectable leader, although critics of Mr Brown have suggested it would have been really useful if he’d come up with that particular nugget of wisdom eight years ago." (Extract from an item on the spoof news website NewsThump, " Liz Kendall comes out in favour of winning an election ...

The film version is visually sumptuous. But this version is even more incredible. Andrew Lloyd Weber said later that, at the time he wrote this, he was in love with Sarah Brightman, (they married shortly after) and he wrote this for her. I don't know if that is why this is so extraordinary, but I don't have a better explanation. And by the way, #SupportOption1

This is of course the 2004 film version  with Gerard Butler as the phantom and Emmy Rossum as Christine. But I also love the trailer version for the stage play ... (see next post)

"I do not often attack the Labour party. They do it so well themselves." Remember who said that? Yes, it was Ted Heath. Nice to remember him for something harmless and entertaining, though Labour party supporters contemplating the circular firing squad their party seems to have made of their leadership election might not find the joke quite so entertaining. Hat tip to Alex Carroll for drawing my attention to a list of prominent Labour members and supporters who have been called the ultimate insult in the Labour lexicon (Tory) or encouraged to join the Conservative party in the past few weeks: you can read it here . Before Gordon Brown had even made his speech today on the Labour leadership, a Labour MP, yes a Labour MP, Clive Lewis, attacked Brown by linking to the Mansion House speech Brown made in 2006 as chancellor - the link goes here - and saying "Before Gordon Brown makes his speech today, read this. Then decide if he's qualified to lecture on ...

Jake Goretski @jakegoretski tweeted this yesterday about the Labour leadership election. During the 2001 Conservative leadership election many supporters of Iain Duncan Smith said things like that about their candidate and expressed other opinions which also had more than a passing resemblance to things Jeremy Corbyn supporters are saying now. Such as the fact that their man had defied the whips and made life hell for previous leaders of his own party showed that he had principles and they ridiculed the idea that someone who had refused to follow the leadership of others might have difficulty getting colleagues who remembered this all too well to follow his own leadership in turn. Much good it did us when IDS became leader. As the saying goes (it was probably first coined by George Santayana, though Churchill and many others have said similar things) "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Today is the 70th anniversary of VJ day and the end of the Second World War It is a time to remember all those of every nation who died during that terrible conflict, civilians and service people alike, but particularly those who fought and died to protect civilisation from some of the worst evil regimes in history. Those Germans and Japanese people who were not even born at the time of the war are not to blame for what their ancestors did, but equally we must not forget what a monstrous threat the former governments of those countries posed to all their neighbours and, indeed, to those decent German and Japanese people who dared to oppose them. And when we say "Never Again" it must mean that we must never again allow the countries of the free world to be as badly prepared to stand up to aggression as we were in the 1930s. Today should be, above all, a day when we remember those of whom 92-year-old veteran John Giddings, who fought in the Far East, spoke when he read ...

You might not immediately imagine that Mahatma Ghandi would be a UKIP icon, but when this quote from him was shared on twitter today it was pointed out that it had been used a lot by Kippers just before the election this May. Danny Finkelstein rather unkindly pointed out that they could still use it, but with the words "one seat" added at the end.

The Economist has an interesting - and worrying - counterintuitive argument about the decline of groups like the BNP and EDL here. It may seem odd that The Economist finds it "alarming" that an EDL organiser who told them "Whatever you print, don't say that we're a racist organisation, because we're not" appeared to really mean it, or that there were signs at an EDL rally on which they were reporting of tolerance and acceptance of all minorities other than Muslims. However, the magazine argues that although the EDL are at best "ignorant, riotous and horribly wrong" they are also  "not nearly as out of step with mainstream Britain as their opponents like to believe." The article concludes that various aspects of the decline of the EDL are "ominous as well as heartening" because the cause of opposition to Islam "is not dying. It is becoming respectable." The magazine's argument is that people who op...

Just returned from a very enjoyable visit to Gosforth Show , which is taking place today between Gosforth and Seascale. The weather has come up trumps and lots of people have turned out to enjoy all the displays, contests and craft stalls. To find the show (map here) , take the A595 to Gosforth looking out for signs, which are easy to spot: there is free parking on the West side of the A595 just south of the junction with the B5344 (the road to Seascale) and the entrance to the show itself is just north of the A595/B5344 junction.) The show will be on for the rest of this afternoon and I can recommend it.

I had already published my quote of the day this morning when Iain Dale published his, which I thought was so appropriate as to be worth repeating. It comes from a former Labour MP, making a comment which is dripping with irony about his party's current leadership election in general and Jeremy Corbyn supporters (many of whom who have told pollsters that they do not regard electability as a top priority) in particular: "We’re lucky to live in a country whose government is so benevolent that the main opposition party don’t regard removing it as a priority."

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's representatives have made a plea to the world's media not to publish unauthorised photographs of Prince George following suggestions that the behaviour of papparazi in trying to take photographs of the two-year-old boy has crossed the line into intrusive and potentially dangerous behaviour. When Prince George's grandmother was killed in a car accident in Paris eighteen years ago, her brother blamed the papparazi for contributing to the circumstances leading to the accident. That view was subsequently endorsed by an inquest jury who found that Princess Diana and her friend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed , dividing the blame for this between the driver of the car in which they were passengers and the press photographers pursuing the car. It has been suggested in recent months some photographers pursuing pictures of Prince George have: Used long range lenses to photograph the Duchess of Cambridge playing with her son in private p...

No, this is not a "silly season" spoof and we are not talking about Predator drones or any similar weapon-firing drones, but chemical sprayers. The News and Star reports  here that Trouville-sur-Mer in Normandy, northern France, has tested the use of chemical sprayer drones to discourage seagulls and there are calls to look at doing the same thing in Whitehaven. Flying “anti-seagull” drones were used in France to effectively sterilise seagull eggs using the same chemicals used in egg oiling, a process that prevents chicks from hatching. Drones would alleviate the need for people to move physically close to nests to coat the eggs and could increase the number of eggs sterilised. Pascale Cordier, Trouville's deputy mayor in charge of the environment, said of seagulls there, “They are profoundly changing their living habits from eating fish and building nests on cliffs to living in towns and becoming carnivorous as it is much easier to find food.a town in France....

There is heavy rain in many parts of Cumbria and the North West today and the Met office has warned travellers to be careful. There are already large amounts of standing water on many of the county's roads, and so motorists are being urged to drive carefully. The Met Office yellow alert predicts that between 25mm and 40mm of rain could fall in six to 12 hours, with as much as 70mm possible by the end of the day. A spokesman for the forecaster said: "Rain is likely to be both persistent and heavy at times." The rain is expected to ease during this afternoon and evening. Details of the warning at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/mobile/warnings/NW

"The great H. L. Mencken said that "for every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong." The economic prescriptions of the Corbyn camp may sound attractive on the hustings but when you look at the detail, they're not that clear or simple and they definitely look wrong." ( The Economist magazine this week in an analysis of Jeremy Corbyn's economic proposals, " Stop cheering, Keynesians ." They also suggest that "perhaps the Corbyn programme won't be as contractionary as feared because it is not properly costed. But a failure to recognise reality is hardly a reason for endorsing a programme.")

The News and Star reports here that many of the schools and colleges in Cumbria have been posting excellent exam results. Even without the controversy about the "Whitehaven Campus" plans about which I posted earlier today, it would have given me great pleasure to report that Whitehaven Academy, where I was a governor until earlier this year, have said that they are delighted with their student's exam results. Pass rates have improved substantially, with 97 per cent of students achieving their expected grades - up 10 per cent on last year’s results. More than 43 per cent of students achieved A*-B grades at A Level. Principal Philip Grant said: “These are fantastic results which are thoroughly deserved. "Our key aim is to improve students’ opportunities in preparation for employment or higher education and in particular to improve performance in key subjects such as English, maths and science. "We have had a 100 per cent A* achievement rate in physics...

It is interesting to contrast the reactions of various people to the comments being posted against articles about the Labour leadership election. Many of those posting comments about how awful Tony Blair is seem to think that a few thousand comments making this point are indicative of a great show of support for the left. By contrast people who are not on the hard left are reacting to how hard-line those comments are. I referred yesterday to the lack of civility: it reached the point that when you see how rude some of the comments allowed to stand are, you wonder what on earth the comments blocked for "violating community standards" on the websites concerned must have been like. And then you get comments like this: "If getting annihilated is what it takes to purge Labour of right-wing neo-liberalism, so be it. It must heal before it can grow strong." In a former age what began with that kind of fanatical absolutism all too often went on to book-burning and...

There is a huge row reported on the front page of today's Whitehaven News about the exclusion of Whitehaven Academy (formerly Whitehaven School) from some aspects of the proposal for a new school campus development. There appears to be a massive "blame game" going on about who is responsible for this. I was a governor of Whitehaven School for about four years prior to the school becoming an Academy and a transitional governor of Whitehaven Academy for its' first year, but completed my term as a governor and stepped down earlier this year. I am in no position to speak either for the current governors or for Bright Tribe and I certainly have no wish to accuse anyone on either side of that debate of being less than truthful. The first suggestion that if Whitehaven School (as it then was) sought Academy status this might interfere with the "Whitehaven Campus" project and make it more difficult for the school to take part did not come from any school govern...

Congratulations to all those who received good A level results this morning. To those whose results were not what they hoped for: don't give up. Best wishes to all in either camp who are now trying to get the best place they can for further study.

"I was asked about the possibility of a Corbyn victory. Gently I pointed out that a party led by Corbyn, saintly and decent man that he is, was likely to be unelectable. Which only met with the riposte that since the other three candidates appear to be unelectable too, why not go for the real thing?" (Former Labour MP Chris Mullin , author of "A Very British Coup" and "How to select or Re-select your MP" writing in The Guardian .)

A few days ago I published links to two reviews of the Dutch film "Michiel De Ruyter" which has recently been released in this country as "Admiral: Command and Conquer." (Makes it sound like a computer game, but never mind. For the rest of this post I'll refer to the film as Admiral: C&C.) Here is the trailer: The reviews which I referred to were, respectively, by British historian and author  J.D. Davies at http://jddavies.com/2015/08/05/admiral-compress-and-conflate/ and by eminent Dutch naval historian Gijs Rommelse, at   http://jddavies.com/2015/05/11/the-film-and-the-facts-about-the-movie-michiel-de-ruyter/ . Both these reviewers know vastly more about 17th century naval history than I do, so if you want a detailed account of it's accuracy follow one of the above links, but having now watched it myself I did have a few further comments. As it happens, the previous film I had watched was the British film "The Imitation Game...

Ironically, I found this article in the Guardian about why we ought to get more sleep late last night when I should have been in bed: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/11/official-middle-aged-not-sleeping-rotting-government-campaign-sleep-deprivation-40-60 As it rightly points out, most of us do not get enough sleep. And yet doing something about this ought to be one of the easiest "quick wins" to improve our health ...

The level of abuse and vituperation which people with an interest in politics have been directing at those who dare to take a different view has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished. I blogged yesterday one of many examples of nasty comments made by SNP supporters of those with different opinions, in this case Ruth Davidson. As I said yesterday, the SNP have a particularly bad "nasty" faction whether they manifest as "Cybernats" online or as street mobs like the ones which attacked Eddie Izzard & Jim Murphy during the election or David Mundell last month. However, this does not apply to everyone in the SNP - some of them are perfectly reasonable and polite people - and unfortunately it does apply to some people in all the other parties. For example I have been struck by the lack of civility displayed by many Labour supporters and activists, particularly online, in the present Labour leadership contest. The number of comments posted online a...

"If we don’t borrow less as the economy grows, we really will end up in the same position as Greece has. And unless you can cover current expenditure out of tax income, even the drastic option of defaulting on your debts won’t enable you to escape." (Former Labour councillor Tal Michael in an article on Labour Uncut called " Labour cannot return to the days of 'No compromise with the electorate.' ")

Earlier today a "Good SNP member" tweeted "Ruth Davidson is not welcome here. She is not welcome anywhere in civilised Scottish society." That kind of attitude to people with different views is what should not be welcome in any party which aspires to be part of a civilised democracy. Ruth, who has a sense of humour and is used to this sort of thing, replied "Ah, the warm embrace of soft, cuddly civic nationalism, I've missed your tender touch." If the SNP fail and the United Kingdom is still in existence in fifty years' time, it will be because so many nationalists - not all - have such an unpleasant contempt for anyone who does not share their views. The temptation to treat people of different views as quasi-human is a problem for any group of people with very strong beliefs and all political parties including my own suffer from this to at least some degree. But the SNP, in my experience, suffer from this problem to a greater degree ...

Some responses to John Rentoul's ironic "Top 20 Memes of Corbynite Denialism": He was joking, but a lot of these ideas have indeed been put forward, so here are my thoughts on them. And this is not just relevant to today. When there is next a change in government, we're going to have the mirror images to some of these ideas put forward on the right - and the mirror image responses will also apply.   1. 76 per cent didn’t vote Tory.       - on that basis, 80% didn't vote Labour either   2. Ed Miliband wasn’t left-wing at all, let alone too left-wing.       - depends on your definition of left-wing   3. Tony Blair lost 4 million votes.       - but he did win three elections   4. Ed Miliband won more votes in England than Blair did in 2005.       - so did Michael Howard and it didn't do him much good either   5. Nobody wants the first past the ...

John Rentoul of the Independent tweeted today that when he put out a list of the 20 top Corbynite Denialist memes, "I was making fun of him, not expecting him to copy them." These were the ideas concerned, and the two reasons I am taking the trouble to reprint them are a) know your opposition so you can have your arguments ready to respond, and b) sooner or later the Conservatives will lose an election, even though Labour seem to be doing their utmost to put that date back to 2025, 2030, or even later, and when it does happen we will need to avoid the mirror-image mistakes. Anyway, here are Rentoul's "Top 20 Memes of Corbynite Denialism" (note, contains irony):   1. 76 per cent didn’t vote Tory.   2. Ed Miliband wasn’t left wing at all, let alone too left wing.   3. Tony Blair lost 4 million votes.   4. Ed Miliband won more votes in England than Blair did in 2005.   5. Nobody wants the first past the post system.   6. Millions of non-voters ...