Chris Whiteside's Blog

"where does Corbyn come from? What the hell is he thinking about?   “There isn’t any fundamental connection with any kind of intellectual argument there. Again and again it’s a mantra." “Look, I have nothing against the man. I am sure he is an absolutely public-spirited, well-meaning, nice individual with all sorts of moral values that perhaps I don’t have.  But actually that’s not what you want from a politician. What you want actually is judgement, discernment, you want understanding and you actually want education. You want someone who has actually got the tools to really dissect the argument effectively and I’m not convinced that our leadership has that unfortunately.” (Doctor, TV Personality and Labour peer Lord Winston quoted at: https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/house/lord-winston-labour-under-corbyn-shambles-again-and-again-its-mantra#sthash.pvwK1SL5.dpuf . ) He added: "Most of the Labour members in this House, I think, feel comple...

Next Wednesday, January 27th 2016, the 71st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp, will be marked as Holocaust Memorial day The day will commemorate all victims of genocide, from the Armenian victims of a Turkish attempted genocide during the First World War to the Yazidi victims of DA'ESH whose plight still continues. The theme will be "Don't Stand By." The Holocaust and subsequent genocides took place because the local populations allowed insidious persecution to take root. Whilst some actively supported or facilitated state policies of persecution, the vast majority stood by silently – at best, afraid to speak out; at worst, indifferent. Bystanders enabled the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has written powerfully about the impact of bystanders:   "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides...

Karl McCartney MP made use of the titles of several "Beatles" hits this week at PMQs to ridicule Jeremy Corbyn's suggestion that Britain should keep the Royal Navy's Trident Submarines but send them to sea without warheads. The PM responded in the same spirit ...

Thanks to Josias Jessup on "Political Betting" for posting this spoof report: "American astronomers say they have strong evidence that there is a ninth policy in our Solar System orbiting far to the left of even Corbyn's existing policies. The team, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has no direct observations to confirm its presence just yet. Rather, the scientists make the claim based on the way other far-flung policies are seen to move. But if correct, the putative policy would have 10 times the comedy value of Trident submarines with no missiles, and one-millionth the popularity of negotiating over the Falklands. The Caltech astronomers have a vague idea where the policy ought to be in space, and their work is sure to fire a campaign to try to track it down. 'There are many telescopes on the Earth that actually have a chance of being able to find it' said Dr Mike Brown . 'And I'm really hoping that as we announce this, peopl...

In many ways this is a great time to be a Conservative activist. Even those of us who didn't quite manage to win whatever election we fought last May nearly all had the satisfaction of watching the election of friends who did, have seen many of the things we fought for put into effect, and, extraordinarily, have watched Labour bending over backwards to maximise our chances of winning whatever election we hope to fight between now and 2020. Even if Corbyn is replaced before the 2020 election, it will be extremely easy to point out how Labour's last attempt to elect a leader who had learned from the mistakes of the past led first to the 2005 invasion of Iraq and then to a leader who had learned nothing since the 1970s. The biggest threats to the Conservative party at the moment do not come from the opposition: they come from the possibility of a world recession (and nobody of any party can remove that risk) and from the possibility that in the absence of ...

"The one thing John McDonnell and Yanis Varoufakis have in common is that they’ve both lost their marbles."    ( George Osborne )

Shakespeare once wrote "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Similarly one could make the point that an SS man or "Islamic State" Jihadi by any other name would still be a mass murderer. And a useful starting point in deciding what to call the present-day bunch of murderers headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is to consider what we call the mid 20th-century bunch of murderers headed by Adolf Hitler. If you have occasion to refer to the political party headed by Hitler, or to its' supporters, do you call them 1) By their official name translated into English  ( National Socialist German Workers Party )? 2) By their official name in German? ( Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ) 3) By the acronym of their party's full name in German?  ( NSDAP ) 4) Or are you one of the 99% of people who call them the Nazi party and its' members and supporters Nazis ? It's a short, easy acronym derived from the...

Jim King pointed out to me yesterday this excellent speech by James Delingpole to the Bruges group in December. It is of much wider relevance than the issue of whether Britain should leave the European Union. I certainly don't agree with him on all the individual points he discussed but on his basic point about how to arrive at what you believe - it's a good idea to start the process of deciding what to believe by looking at the facts and trying to get them right but unfortunately a lot of people decide what to believe not by looking at the facts but by wanting to be nice - I believe he is absolutely 100% correct. HIs speech touches on free speech, democracy, virtue signalling, and the fact that there is a much wider range of opinions and mindsets out there than most of us realise (e.g. most people do not realise how many other people do not think the way they do.) It is one of the best summaries of why some people choose to be left-wing or r...

"In Harry   Potter and the Philo sopher's Stone , the Mirror of Erised shows everyone what it is they most desire. Margaret Beckett's 35-page report into Labour's surprise defeat in 2015 serves a similar function: every bit of the Labour party will have something it can cling to. Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn will take heart from the fact that individual left-wing policies, like the mansion tax, were popular. But Corbyn-sceptics will note that it was voters that went for Tony Blair and David Cameron that failed to back the party in 2015, which they will take as an endorsement of a centrist approach. Ed Miliband's diehard supporters - they do exist, believe it or not - will see the report as an endorsement of the Miliband era policy approach but will argue that a more convincing frontman would have sealed the deal." ( Stephen Bush in "The New Statesman" on why The Beckett report won't help Labour win the next election . The lesson, not just f...

Humanity is at risk from a series of dangers of our own making, according to Prof Stephen Hawking. Nuclear war, global warming and genetically-engineered viruses are among the scenarios which he singles out. And he says that further progress in science and technology will create "new ways things can go wrong". Professor Hawking is giving this year's BBC Reith Lectures, which explore research into black holes, and his warning came in answer to audience questions. He says that assuming humanity eventually establishes colonies on other worlds, it will be able to survive. "Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years. "By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race. "However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for...

The Conservative candidate in May's PCC election has said that Cumbria needs more special constables - and adds that many veterans would be ideal for the role. Colonel Peter McCall, of Millhouse near Hesket Newmarket, believes ex-servicemen and women have the perfect background to fulfil the voluntary role. He said: “If I become police and crime commissioner, I want to increase the numbers of special constables and our brave former military personnel living locally have the perfect background for the job. “I know this from my years of experience in the army and I would be able to work with local army groups to promote the opportunity. “Volunteering as a special is a great thing for anyone to do whatever their background and shows real commitment to the safety of our communities. “It also produces a double benefit of boosting the new recruit’s experience and career prospects, while saving money for Cumbria police to invest in more visible policing on the frontline.” Cum...

The rate of inflation on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure rose to 0.2% in December from 0.1% in November, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Increases in transport costs - specifically air fares and motor fuels - were behind the rate rise, partly offset by reductions in alcohol, tobacco and food prices. James Tucker, from the ONS, said inflation was still at "historically low levels". "Today’s small rise in CPI was mainly down to air fares and motor fuels, partially offset by falls in alcohol and food prices." While this modest rise takes CPI to its highest level for 11 months, it is still at historically low levels." he said. Indeed, inflation is still below the target rate given to the Bank of England. Technically the bank is supposed to try to push inflation up towards the range of 1% to 3% - though I have no doubt that they will not do anything so silly. And Mr Carney is supposed to write to George Osborne explaining w...

As City AM pointed out here there is a card game called Cards Against Humanity. The idea is simple: one card contains the fairly innocuous opening part of a sentence and a second card is then offered that completes the phrase in a particularly silly and amusing manner. The concept has clearly proven popular with the Labour party, who now use the same approach in formulating policy. Someone lays the first card, which reads “Britain’s nuclear-armed Trident submarines...” and the line is completed by Corbyn who adds “needn’t actually carry any nukes". Someone else, perhaps Labour’s new policy chief, Andrew Fisher (who supported the Class War party at the last election), lays a card saying “If a company isn’t paying its staff £10 per hour...” and quick as a flash Corbyn offers the conclusion “ban them from paying dividends to shareholders". As City AM points out, dividend payments are a vital contribution to pensions and the prospect of such a payment ensures contin...

"Parliament's debate on banning Donald Trump: a waste of time over a waste of space." — Conor Pope (@Conorpope) on Twitter   January">https://twitter.com/Conorpope/status/689132572303998976">January 18, 2016

(Warning - this post may contain irony) It seems that there is a great reluctance on the part of some people to accept the suggestion that other people should have the right to express ideas they think are offensive or barmy. In a disappointing proportion of Universities, students demand "safe spaces" which appears to mean that their minds should be safe from coming into contact with ideas they don't like. I have to say to those people that, if you can't handle ideas you find offensive and wish to be protected from coming into contact with them, a University is not the right place for you. Since so many people believe such a host of utterly different things, and many of them find so many completely opposed ideas offensive, it is logically certain that there must be millions of people for whom some ideas they find offensive are, in fact, the literal truth. And banning the expression of even the most offensive human idea tends to have unfortuna...

               Morten Morland's cartoon in the Times needs no further comment or explanation.

There are intelligent people on both sides of the EU debate. There are people making constructive points on both sides of the EU debate. But my word, I'm getting really fed up with the rest of them on both sides. So here's today's examples of an egregiously stupid "Leave.EU" graphic that made me want to vote Remain and an equally stupid piece of scaremongering by a "Remain" supporter which made me want to vote "Leave." I started with the "Remain" threats last time so let's alternate and start with the "Leave.EU" nonsense this time. They tweeted this graphic yesterday ... "Er - like William Hague?" The founder of the "Keep the Pound" campaign is one of a number of people who were dead against joining the Euro but are now supporting a "Remain" vote. It is a perfectly consistent position - he also used the European election slogan "In Europe, not run by Europe" Tw...

I still cannot credit how many utterly awful ideas there were in Jeremy Corbyn's interview with Andrew Marr yesterday - see reports here (BBC) and here (Daily Mail) . For most politicians floating - if that isn't an unfortunate word - the idea of retaining the Royal Navy's Trident Missile submarines but without the warheads on the missiles would have been a gaffe that people would have been shouting about for weeks. But it wasn't even one of the two worst ideas in the interview. Nor was the idea of making "flying pickets" and "secondary strikes" legal again. For those who don't remember how this sort of insanity nearly wrecked the British economy in the 1970's, that was when workers who were not remotely affected by or involved in an industrial dispute were allowed to strike "in sympathy" and send pickets. E.g. you could have a situation where oil refinery workers go on strike and next thing you know the power workers a...

Just seen on the Economist site that the USA celebrated "Religious Freedom Day" this weekend. http://econ.st/1n4H1DY Perhaps that is a custom we too should adopt. It took us several difficult centuries as a country to accept the principle that people should be free to follow any religion or none and in many parts of the world people are denied that freedom. It is something that we should be promoting.

I noted a long time ago that when people speak of "morality" they often mean those aspects of morality that refer to sex. Indeed some people use words like "moral" as if they referred entirely to sexual behaviour. As C.S. Lewis put it when he noted this mode of speaking in a book written before I was born, when such a person says something like " I don't say that this woman is immoral, but I do say that she is a thief " it isn't nonsense, but means " She is chaste but dishonest ." Sometimes this confusion is used as a joke, as in a play which my late mother's amateur dramatic society produced, in which a womanising architect who is frequently found in the wrong bed but would not dream of accepting a bribe or otherwise compromising his professional standards says, "I may have no morals but I do have ethics." The allegation of having a view of morality based entirely around sex is particularly common as a charge made ...

A number of people made some very rash promises about what they would do if particular things happened at last year's general election. Katie Hopkins promised to emigrate if Labour won * but they didn't so she wasn't called on this promise, which had provided one of my most nervous moments of the election ... Paul O'Grady promised to emigrate to Venice if the Conservatives won. * they did: he didn't . In October he blamed Venice property prices for his decision Paddy Ashdown promised to eat his hat live on TV if the BBC exit poll turned out to be right * it was pretty close, and insofar as it was wrong the actual results were even worse for his party. He did eat a what was described as a chocolate hat  - it looks like a chocolate cake in the shape of a hat to me on the programme. Alastair Campbell promised to eat his kilt if the BBC exit poll turned out to be right * he ate a "chocolate kilt" at the same time as Paddy Ashdown ate the ...

Slightly out of season putting down this great Trinity anthem - once described by Leeds organist Simon Lindley as " A tremendous musical battle " - during Epiphany. Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind.

Magnificent cricket by Alastair Cooke and the England team - particularly that that superb five wickets for one spell of thirty-one balls from Stuart Broad - to guarantee win in the test series against South Africa.

The Centre for European Reform has published an interesting paper on what they see as the seven alternatives if the UK votes to leave the European Union. I suspect most supporters of Brexit may see this paper as too pessimistic and there may be alternative views about some of the options, but this paper does appear to me to be a good starting point to consider the options. You can read it at http://www.cer.org.uk/publications/archive/policy-brief/2016/if-uk-votes-leave-seven-alternatives-eu-membership

"Life is never fair, and perhaps it is just as well for most of us that it is not." (Oscar Wilde)

A weather warning for Cumbria and the North West of England has been issued by the Met Office - Yellow level warning of Snow and Ice for North West England : Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Halton, Lancashire, Merseyside & Warrington valid from 1855 Sat 16 Jan to 1000 Sun 17 Jan

The Northern end (and main entrance) to Foxhouses Road in Whitehaven is closed to traffic at the moment with emergency road works. If you are aiming  to travel from Whitehaven into the Valley Park or Mirehouse area you will need to find a route which does not include the northern tip of the road. The section of Foxhouses Road between Ehen Avenue and Bleng Avenue is open as normal, so you can get to Mirehouse via the Coach Road, Station Road, Calder Avenue, Ehen Avenue, Foxhouses Road and Bleng Avenue route. POSTSCRIPT - The road is now fully open again and the resurfacing looks to be complete.

I do not think I am the only floating voter in the EU referendum who is seriously annoyed by those on both sides of the argument who have moved from a "Project Fear II" approach of trying to scare people with what might happen if the vote goes a particular way to open threats that the EU will sabotage Britain/England in the event of a "leave" vote. This is NOT all coming from supporters of "Remain" either. The original "Project Threaten" article, which I have referred to a couple of times already, appeared in the Guardian and was written by Dutch journalist Joris Luyendijk, called " It's time for Europe to turn the tables on bullying Britain ." It was accompanied by this cartoon showing a larger than life figure representing Europe threatening to thump a smaller one representing Britain, and Mr Luyendijk's words as a caption: "The best way forward for Europe is to threaten to hit the English as hard as we can." ...