Chris Whiteside's Blog

It is in the nature of things that some of the world's most popular people die each year, but the first three and a half months of 2016 have been utterly awful in this respect. Earlier this year, when the number of the most talented musicians, best actors and funniest comedians who had died was already remarkable, someone said that it was as if the Grim Reaper had gone on holiday leaving an intern in charge and the intern was working through a list of the most popular people on the planet. That was after the deaths of Alan Rickman, David Bowie and quite a few more well loved people but before we had lost Paul Daniels, Terry Wogan, Ronnie Corbett and now within the space of 48 hours Victoria Wood and Prince. Other are far more qualified than me to speak about the talents of these individuals and many tributes have already been paid to both Victoria Wood and Prince by people far more eloquent than I. But I will say "Rest in Peace" for both of them - two huge talents...

Today from Windsor to Westminster, from beacons up and down the country to the fictional village of Ambridge, people have been wishing a very happy birthday to a very remarkable woman. (On the Archers Elizabeth, who also had her birthday today, expressed the hope that Her Majesty has had as nice a birthday as she has.) The Queen has given nearly a century of service to this country. We have been very fortunate in our head of state for the whole of my lifetime. I am sure everyone in the country hopes she has indeed enjoyed her birthday.

I will write in more detail on Friday about the important Michael Gove speeches this week. They were an extreme Curate's egg. Some excellent bits, some dire, fully deserving much though not all of the storm of criticism from most remain supporters and some leave ones which has hit him. This is what John Rentoul has to say on Gove's input http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/what-would-brexit-look-like-michael-gove-tries-to-reassure-us-not-very-different-a6991216.html However I have some serious concerns about the Gove interventions, of which the second worst was that he utterly misrepresented the "Open Europe" assessment to which I linked to a few days back on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday morning. I assume Nick Robinson cannot have read it, or he would have torn Michael Gove a new you-know-what, and it would have been thoroughly deserved. The worst mistake however was suggesting that Britain might not have to activate Article 50 to leave the EU, an...

Stephen Bush has an amusing article in the New Statesman which points out that in the EU referendum David Cameron faces very similar problems to those usually faced by left wing campaigners: The facts are on his side, the press isn't. Welcome to the left, David Cameron . There will of course be those who consider that by backing "Remain" DC is taking a left wing position. Although I have not quite decided how to vote myself, I am not one of them. The EU referendum is proving very hard to call - and would be even harder were not most of the prominent figures supporting Leave acting as if they were doing their best to blow it. (Not that Remain have not often been their own worst enemies, as well.) The British are a naturally small-c Conservative people, and referendum results usually produce a result for the status quo. I don't think the attempt by leave to argue that there is no status quo has really cut through, though there are certainly some voters who buy...

"Umpteen is a very specific number in the context of the Brexit debate" ( Patrick Wintour's brilliant riposte to the claim by Dominic Cummings of Vote.Leave that he has spoken to "Umpteen" ambassadors who allegedly said in private - but not in public - thta their countries would want to have a trade agreement with Britain following a "leave" vote.)

Several "Leave" campaigners have taken to retweeting all the "spoof" articles published by humorous websites suggesting that Britain leaving Europe might produce extreme disasters. I'm starting to find the number of such messages mildly irritating unless the spoofs concerned are particularly funny, but one or two of them actually have been. If Leave want to win the argument they will have to answer the talk of risks by remain, not just ridicule them: after all, in Scotland, the original "Project Fear" was right! (Scotland would have gone into independence with a catastrophic budget deficit had "Yes" won because the concerns expressed by "Project Fear" that the SNP were basing their economic strategy on an overoptimistic projection of the oil price proved completely accurate) And yes, the same goes for Remain in responding to "Leave" articles about "the risks of remain." Nevertheless, one or two of the s...

When I was five or six years old, my mother caught me in a stupid lie, and I was so ashamed that I resolved that I would never, ever tell another lie. I took this really seriously, and by the time I was eleven I would boast, with complete sincerity, about the fact that I had not told a lie for five years. Here is the catch: on a five year old's definition of a lie I was telling the truth. Because during that time I had not once told a direct lie - e.g. deliberately made a statement I knew to be false. There are two categories of people who are often held to that definition of a lie - five year olds because that is what they can understand, and politicians because that is the sort of lie which can clearly be proved if you get caught. But when I was about eleven or twelve, I heard a very wise teacher called Mr Bloxham - a very remarkable man, incidentally, a Japanese POW survivor who died a few years ago well into his nineties - questioning a fellow pupil whose story abo...

"Labour Unionists betrayed no-one – least of all some imagined, tosh-stuffed, view of ‘Scotland’ – when they campaigned alongside Unionists from other parties and neither the Prime Minister nor anyone else who shares a platform with members of other parties during this squawk-filled campaign is betraying anyone either. They’re acting according to their view of the national interest – just as you are acting according to yours – and if you cannot accept that, or find yourself infuriated by that, then that says vastly more about you than it does them. And none of it good, either." ( Alex Massie in the Spectator here )

The Treasury has put out a document today which argues that Britain might be significantly worse off by 2030 if the country votes to leave the European Union. You can read it for yourself at   https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-treasury-analysis-the-long-term-economic-impact-of-eu-membership-and-the-alternatives There has been a storm of criticism of this document from many quarters, of which in my opinion two are justified, a few more are arguable, some are incompatible with each other, some are rubbish, and the BBC's dumbed down presentation by Robert Peston was an absolute disgrace. Let's start with what I think are the two justified criticisms of the Treasury paper 1) They should have explained much more clearly and simply what the numbers quoted actually are and what they mean , and 2) There should have been much clearer health warning explaining what the potential error is with this document - and what is NOT subject to error. The basic point abo...

The Marquis of Salisbury, who was Leader of the House of Lords under John Major when he was known as Lord Cranborne before succeeding to the Cecil family's main title, has written an article at CAPX which calls for a New Act of Union and expresses concern that " Britain's Political class risks losing the authority to govern ." The new act of union which he proposes, and which would need to be approved by a referendum in all four parts of the UK would, quote "re-establish governments’ authority to govern and legislatures’ authority to legislate. Such an Act would not be enough on its own. Its true validation would come from what followed. We would need to reform public administration and local government in England, our embarrassingly complicated tax regime and many other necessary things." Lord Salisbury's article is part of a reply to Bruce Anderson: both of them have been writing about whether Britain should stay in the EU, which Bruce Anderson...

Very powerful piece by Alex Massie in the Spectator about why the photos showing David Cameron, Paddy Ashdown and Neil Kinnock campaigning together for "Remain" were nothing for any of them to be ashamed of  at http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/if-you-think-this-photograph-is-shameful-you-should-probably-be-ashamed-of-yourself/ Grown-up politics does sometimes require people to work with others who don't share all their views. That can happen at any level from a Town or Parish Council to the Cabinet or in the European parliament. And if you don't get it, you probably should not be actively involved in politics. As Alex Massie says, just as it was wrong for SNP supporters to pillory Labour unionists for working with Tory or Lib/Dem unionists during the Scottish Independence Referendum, or to call those who voted "No" traitors to Scotland, it is wrong to criticise either side in the EU referendum debate for working with mainstream politicians who don...

Politicians on both the Leave and Remain sides, with the exception of a few old incorrigibles like Ken Clarke, have mostly been making a point of saying that they think David Cameron could remain Prime Minsiter in the event of a "leave" vote. I don't know whether that is true or not but I think it would be sensible to operate between now and the referendum as though it is, and that this is in the interests of both sides. The EU referendum is a once-in-a-generation decision which will have considerable consequences for many years. If it produces a "leave" vote Britain will leave and would not be allowed back in the (fairly unlikely) scenario that we should we wish to change our minds. If there is a "remain" vote, no matter how close, any Brexit supporter with the bizarre idea that it would be a good idea to call for another one any time in the next few decades needs to take a couple of aspirin tablets and go and lie down in a darkened room fo...

Contacted for comment, press officers for the official out campaign Vote Leave said: “Oh you’re from InFacts? We don’t really – we don’t talk to you”, before hanging up. (This is how the fact checking site InFacts, which although it is pro-remain does try to keep both sides on the straight and narrow and has been known to criticise people on the "Remain" as well as leave side if they get their facts wrong, reported on this page  wha t happened when they tried to speak to Vote Leave to give them an opportunity to ensure they were being quoted correctly Jn the interest of balance I will publish here any equivalent comments from the Remain side which is drawn t my attention.).

Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard, has an interesting article in today's Sunday Times which has an unusual distinction - I think it has set a record for the number of different conclusions jumped to by different headline writers and readers about who, if anyone, he is insulting. Ferguson begins by quoting the poem, which as he says is sometimes attributed to Dorothy Parker (though there is no evidence that she actually wrote it ) “See the happy moron; He doesn’t give a damn. I wish I were a moron; My God! Perhaps I am.” At no point in the article does he directly call anyone else a moron, but at the very end, exactly as in the poem, he refers, perhaps ironically, to the possibility that he might be one himself. At first Ferguson appears to be accusing the International Monetary Fund of being morons since he writes that he is often reminded of the above poem when reading IMF reports, which "almost without fail" admit that their ...

Thanks to Ian Lewis for sharing a line from "Fifty Nerds of Gray." "'I've been a bad girl,' she said, biting her lip. 'I need to be punished.' 'Very well.' he replied, and installed Windows 10 on her laptop."

This magnificent recording of the Choir of St John's Cambridge singing "Insanae et Vanae Curae" was not accessible to network problems when I initially looked for a version of the piece to post. Murphy's law applied and as soon as I published a linking to the other recording which is also excellent but not quite as stirring as this one, the problem cleared up. Previous comments still apply!

The words of Haydn's musical masterpiece can be roughly translated into English as follows "A crazed and hopeless passion invades our minds, Again and again madness fills our hearts and robs us of hope." "How can it profit you, O mortal, to seek for earthly riches but take no thought of Heaven?" "Yet if God is for you, all things are possible for you." No comments from either side of the Brexit debate suggesting this is applicable to the other, please!

Warning: the letters "TTIP" can seriously inhibit brain function in anti-Globalisation lefties and some "Leave" supporters: A trade deal with the United States would be worth billions to Britain each and every year. That applies whether it is a deal between the EU and the USA if Britain votes "Remain" on 23rd June, or if Britain votes "Leave" and was able to negotiate an individual trade deal with the USA or obtain one through EEA membership. The current position of the Obama administration's senior trade representative is that the USA is interested in regional deals and not bilateral ones with individual states, but under either the "Norway option" or FLEXCIT, a Britain which had left the EU but not the single market might be able to remain part of a trade deal with the US. Obviously that would have to include both the costs and the benefits - we could not pick and choose. The most recent of several posts in which I have ...

"If you are Jewish how could you vote for them? How could you? For me it would be like being a Muslim and voting for Donald Trump!" (Former BBC executive Danny Cohen tells The Times about his concerns over the attitude to anti-Semitism in Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party.)

We had a great campaigning session today for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections with the Copeland team in Haverigg and Millom. Conservative candidate Peter McCall joined us as we delivered leaflets and met local people. It was a very bright sunny day - so bright that I was glad to take advantage of the fact that following my eye surgery I can now wear sunglasses  - and we had a very friendly reception.

Since 2010 over 4 million of the lowest paid people have been taken out of income tax. Because of our increases to the personal allowance, a typical basic rate taxpayer will be paying over £900 less in income tax than they were in 2010. This month the personal allowance rises yet again, meaning that no one earning under £11,000 will pay any income tax . We believe that when you work hard, you deserve to keep more of the money you earn. That’s why we’re on course to increase the personal allowance to £12,500 by 2020

If there were an award for charging off in multiple wrong directions at once, a truly awful article by Laurie Penny in the New Statesman called The free speech delusion would probably win this year's. She begins her piece with perhaps the most comprehensively wrong and untrue statement which I have heard in 2016 (and considering the amount of rubbish talked by the hardline elements on both sides of the Brexit debate, that is really saying something) which is as follows: "Those who want to facilitate bigotry and shut down dissent among voices that have been silenced for too long are exploiting the language of free speech." "Oscar Wilde, who knew a few things about censorship, once wrote that he could 'tolerate everything except intolerance. ' Today, the rhetoric of free speech is being abused in order to shut down dissent and facilitate bigotry." That is not just rubbish, but dangerous rubbish. Anyone who really believes in free speech, and many...

"We are sorry to announce that this service terminates here." ( Elinor Hamilton , widow of Phil Sayer, whose recorded voice warned millions of tube and rail passengers to "mind the gap" and gave news of about rail services. He died on Thursday of cancer at the age of 62. The above quote is taken from her statement about him on their facebook page, which also referred to him as " Phil Sayer - voice of reason, radio, and railways. A dearly loved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend .") Rest in Peace.

Phil Collins has a column in the Times today the headlines for which must be strong contenders for the title of the most counterintuitive headline of 2016.  (I am assuming, of course, that only headlines which despite being apparently unlikely might possibly be right would be eligible for any such hypothetical award. Any idiot could write headlines which came over as counterintuitive because they were complete nonsense.) The main headline is "Lack of trust is what makes our MPs so good" and the subheading "We've never had a high opinion of our politicians, which has helped make them some of the least corrupt in the world." Generally we tend to think of a lack of trust as a bad sign. Where you get to the stage where you assume of every politician, in the words of Jeremy Paxman, "Why is this lying bastard lying to me?" then that can be pretty corrosive. The late Bob Monkhouse used to have a joke about politicians, "The on...

The Chairman of the Conservative party writes: In just 20 days’ time voters across the country will choose their local representatives for the next four years. These are the people who will provide a strong opposition to the SNP in Scotland, work to deliver real change for Wales, ensure local councils deliver value for taxpayers’ money in England, work with the local police as Police and Crime Commissioners and stand up for Londoners as their next Mayor. The elections are crucial because the alternative is a serious threat to both our national and economic security. On Friday 6th May people across Britain could wake up to find their local area being run by a Labour Party whose leader wants to abolish our Armed Forces, get rid of our nuclear deterrent, put up income tax on hardworking people and print money to pay for public services. We are asking supporters to give what they can to help the campaign and stop Labour and the SNP. And if you donate between now and ...

I have just returned from the formal campaign launch in Carlisle to elect Peter McCall, the Conservative candidate, as Cumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner. The Special Guest speaker was Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers, who was introduced by John Stevenson, MP for Carlisle. John, Theresa and Peter all made excellent speeches and all answered appropriate questions from the audience. I am certain that if he is elected Peter will be an excellent Police and Crime Commissioner in successful to Richard Rhodes. One other point about loyalty. Many people have a cynical view of people involved in politics at national and local level and assume that we are all consumed with ambition and only care about ourselves. Too much deference in politics is not a good thing (see another post due later this evening) but in my experience assuming all of even most politicians have only selfish motives is not entirely fair, and there was an example on display toda...

Paul Goodman makes the wisest comment about the NHS which I have heard from either side of the EU referendum argument during the campaign to date, when he urges on Conservative Home as follows: " Our message to Conservative leave campaigners on the NHS is handle with care. " Absolutely right. And the same applies to Remain campaigners. The NHS is too important to be used as a political football.