Chris Whiteside's Blog

I was quite annoyed at the county council meeting with one Lib/Dem councillor who described a number of projects to improve education in Cumbria which had been listed by my colleague Councillor Ben Shirley as "vanity projects." I would add that the first project he had listed had been the £20 million grant to the Cumbria Education Trust which has just taken over Whitehaven Academy to provide that school (formerly known as Whitehaven School) with new school buildings. ) Generations of staff, parents and former students at that school would almost certainly agree that this school has been in desperate need of new buildings for not just years but decades - both Labour and Conservative councillors also said the same during the meeting - and that whatever a vanity project is, that one is needed. The history of politics is listed with measures for which the title of "vanity project" is indeed appropriate - airports which only a handful of flights depart from, ...

At the county council yesterday (11th April 2019) there was a vote on whether or not to approve the Integrated Risk management Plan (IRMO) for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service. The IRMP says that following a pilot in the south of the county, fire service chiefs will consider replacing the full-size fire tender at Arnside, Staveley and Frizington fire stations, and the second tender at Maryport, with smaller "Rapid Response Vehicles" (RRV) which carries fewer firefighters and less equipment. This has not been presented as a saving but as an improvement to the service, on the basis that the RRV's can go out with three firefighters rather than four and may be able to get to some locations faster. There may well be places where these RRVs can provide that improvement, as part of a balanced fleet of vehicles, but I don't believe, on the basis of what serving and recently retired firefighters from Copeland have told me, that Frizington is a sensible place to re...

The right way to keep house prices at sensible levels : Ensure that enough homes get built to meet reasonable local need, that it is not made ridiculously difficult to get planning permission for necessary developments and that the homes which are built are a decent match with the ones people want to live in. The wrong way to keep house prices at sensible levels: Give the Bank of England control over house prices. Guess which one the Labour party want to try? You guessed it! The Labour leader and shadow chancellor are unreconstructed seventies "command economy" socialists who think the answer to every problem is government regulation. We can all agree that there is a problem with a shortage of housing in some parts of the country and prices and rents which make it very difficult for the less advantaged and the young to get on the housing ladder. This would not make it sensible, as Julian Harris points out in his article here on City AM, " Labour...

Britain's economy grew faster than expected at the start of 2019, showing that the Conservative government's balanced approach to the country’s finances is working. Key facts : GDP increased by 0.3 per cent in the three months to February, higher than the 0.2 per cent forecast.  Computer programming and retail trade were the fastest growing parts of the economy over the last three months.  Manufacturing output rose to its highest level since 2008, with a strong rise in computer and electrical components.

Today's Cumbria County Council meeting essentially took up the entire day, with a pre-meeting first thing, the actual meeting starting at 10 am, and it lasted until shortly before 5pm with a short break for lunch. All credit to Martin Barbour who lasted the whole meeting (not everyone did, although some of those who had to leave early had cast iron excuses such as hospital appointments) and then after the drive home joined Ged McGrath and Conservative candidates for Copeland Borough Council in Hillcrest for a spot of campaigning. I'm going to write up some of the issues coming out of the meeting such as Frizington Fire Engine What is a "Vanity project" However I will; say this evening that I would like to thank all those councillors who have sponsored me for Swimathon 2019. Phil Dew, Neil Hughes, Andy Connell, Trevor Allison and Tony Markley all sponsored me today and their combined donations plus those previously paid in either directly to me or online too...

After a council meeting and pre-meeting lasting nearly eight hours, a round trip to Kendal and back for it, and some time spent delivering leaflets when I finally got back to Copeland, I needed something good to relax to, and music doesn't come much better than the "Albinoni" adagio. I have previously posted performances of this piece several time. For those who have not already seen one of those posts or have forgotten, the rather extraordinary history of this lovely piece of music and the reason why the name of the supposed composer "Albinono" has been placed in inverted commas may be found here .

At the county council tomorrow (11th April 2019) there will be a vote on whether or not to approve the Integrated Risk management Plan (IRMO) for Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service. As currently drafted this IRMP says that the authority will consider replacing the full-size fire tender at Frizington fire station with a smaller "Rapid Response Vehicle" (RRV) which carries fewer firefighters and less equipment. This has not been presented as a saving but as an improvement to the service. I don't buy it. These RRV's may well have a place in the service as part of a balanced fleet of vehicles - for example. there is a proposal that that Maryport Fire Station, which currently has two full size tenders of which there are often not enough firefighters to crew both, should keep one of the existing large tenders but have the other replaced by an RRV. That idea, which is supported by the Allerdale local committee, appears to make sense. There would still be a large tende...

There is, rightly, concern that more needs to be done to address the needs of children with mental health issues. That's why the government is: raising mental health funding to record levels and allocating at least £2.3 billion of the £20.5 billion NHS funding boost to mental health.  piloting a four-week waiting time standard for children’s mental health treatment, training a brand new dedicated mental health workforce for schools and teaching pupils what good mental and physical health looks like.  These plans will allow 70,000 more children a year to have access to specialist mental health care by 2020-21.  Why this matters :  By investing in children’s mental health services and focusing on early intervention we will ensure all children have access to the support they need.

The Education Secretary has announced the first twelve Institutes of Technology, equipping young people with the skills they need to build well paid, rewarding careers. Key facts : Backed by £170 million of Government investment, the Institutes will be unique collaborations between universities, Further Education colleges and leading employers including Nissan, Siemens and Microsoft.  They will specialise in delivering quality higher-level training in subjects such as digital, advanced manufacturing and engineering, providing a natural progression route for young people taking T-Levels or A-Levels.  As part of the biggest shake up to technical education in a generation, Institutes of Technology will equip students with the skills employers need, setting them on a clear path to well paid, rewarding careers.  Why this matters : Alongside introducing T-Levels and developing more high quality apprenticeship opportunities, Institutes of Technology will transform tec...

The quote above is from Lord Acton's lecture entitled "The history of Freedom in Christianity" (1877) and he was referring to the French Revolution. There is a manuscript in which he wrote a similar version of this statement about the French Revolution and the great terror, which reads as follows: "It was amid terror and slaughter that one of the two elements that composed the revolution neutralised the other and the passion for equality made vain the hope for freedom."

I an strongly in favour of free trade. It has been one of the greatest engines of growth and development and facilitated huge increases in the standard of living of ordinary people. It is possible to express entirely legitimate concerns about making sure that the benefits of trade are spread as widely as possible throughout society and that as few people as possible are left behind: there can also be legitimate strategic and national security reasons to protect specific industries. But even though there may be specific exceptions, it is invariably true in general that the more open a country is to trade the more wealth that country can create, the more money will be available for better schools, hospitals and to help and support the vulnerable and the stronger that country will be. Much of the increased wealth of the world today has come from the long run benefits from past trade deals, mostly negotiated in the 20th century: much of the discontent has come because we have not alway...

The Education Secretary has announced £6.5 million to boost children’s early language and communication skills across 27 local authorities. Key facts :  On average, disadvantaged children are four months behind at age five. That grows by an additional six months by the age of 11, and a further nine months by the age of 16.  The eight projects announced today will cover 27 local councils – targeted at disadvantaged areas – to bring education and health services closer together to help improve children’s early communication and literacy skills.  This multimillion pound investment will provide better support to families in some of the most deprived areas of the country – supporting families with tips to propel their child’s learning so they can go on to reach their full potential.  Why this matters :  Ask any parent and they want their child to have the best start in life. But we know that those from a disadvantaged background often start school already ...

"For me, however, and I am sure for many people, the last 30 months of very bitter and angry debate has cut me in two. I have come to see that this is not just a simple problem of whether or not we are patriots.  Both Remainers and Brexiteers love Britain with equal strength and sincerity. Remainers are not citizens of nowhere, as the Brexiteer insult goes. Nor are Brexiteers ignorant, closet racists, as, disgracefully, some Remainers like to sneer.  Many who voted Leave have a deep – perhaps the deepest – understanding of the communities where they live; and in some of these, everyday life has been spoiled for many by policies imposed on them by a pro-European Westminster elite: policies they never voted for.  The truth is these apparently warring parties, Remain and Leave, represent different elements of the same country and opposite sides of the same coin. Sometimes the war is within our own breasts. I feel it within mine." ( Peter Oborne , writing on the Open ...

Today the government published the "Online Harms White Paper" which unveiled proposed new measures to make the UK safer online. There are some difficult balances to strike here. It is important to protect freedom of speech and to ensure that measures to protect children and vulnerable people online are introduced after consulting people who really understand the internet, in ways which will work and not just drive people to the "dark web." This is a real danger and there is a strong argument that some past attempts by governments of all parties to protect children from potentially harmful online content have made the internet more dangerous rather than less. It is far too easy to drive people whose online activity is legal and harms nobody else but which they don't want other people to know about into the arms of VPN suppliers at best and criminals at worst. However, this is an argument for listening to people who understand the internet and applying an ev...

A new website has been launched for all schools to advertise their teaching vacancies free of charge, saving schools millions of pounds a year which can be redirected into the classroom. Currently schools spend £75 million every year to advertise teaching jobs. Some agencies charge more than £1,000 per advert. Today the government has launched Teaching Vacancies, a free to use website so that every school in the country can advertise their vacancies free of charge. Over 8,000 schools have already signed up. T his is the latest in a series of steps taken by the government to help schools deliver the best value for money and ensure resources are directed to the classroom. Why this matters :  It’s essential that every child has the best possible start in life and every £1,000 not spent on advertising a teaching post is money can be spent in the classroom. the Conservatives are supporting schools to bear down on their costs so that they can focus their resources on the f...

“We have under-estimated its complexity. We are unpicking 45 years of in-depth integration. This needed to be done with very great care. It needs a hard-headed understanding of realities.” (Attorney General and Leave supporter Geoffrey Cox on Brexit and the delays to implementation of it. From a Radio Four interview which you can hear in full via BBC iPlayer here )

The next meeting of Cumbria County Council, which is the 2019 Annual meeting, will take place at 10 am at County Hall, Kendal on Thursday 11th April. The meeting will be open to the public. The agenda and supporting papers can be found on the CCC website here . There is a lot of important material in that agenda including the Cumbria Public Health Strategy and the Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) for Cumbria Fire and Rescue service. The latter is likely to be highly controversial in Copeland because it includes a proposal to replace the full-size fire tender at Frizington with a three-person "Rapid Response Vehicle" which carries less equipment and would often be sent out with only three firefighters rather than a full team of four. I voted against this twice at the Copeland Local Committee of CCC (which is opposed to the proposal) and having spoken since then to a number of past and present Copeland firefighters who are also very strongly opposed to it, I thi...

The Conservatives fought the 2015 general election on a promise to hold a referendum on Britain's EU membership and honour the result, and were elected having made that promise. Parliament then voted by a huge majority to put the question of whether Britain should remain a member state of the EU to a referendum. That referendum was duly held in June 2016 and it is worth reminding ourselves what question the British people were asked: here is a picture of the ballot paper. It didn't mention a "WTO" or "No Deal" Brexit or a customs union or ask anything about whether there should be a trade deal with the other countries of the EU (though leading Leave campaigners said during the referendum campaign that they were confident it would be easy to get a trade deal which gave Britain easy access to EU markets and vice versa.) The referendum ballot paper asked about the broad strategic question - Remain or Leave - and the assumption was that parliament w...

Because of the Conservative goernment's careful management of the economy, we can invest more in our vital public services whilst also keeping taxes low, supporting living standards and backing business. From this weekend, 32 million people across the country will see their taxes cut – saving the typical taxpayer £130 over the year and delivering on our manifesto promise one year early and giving hard-working people a well-earned tax cut. Fuel duty will also be frozen for the ninth year in a row helping to keep costs down for motorists and we will also take further steps to back business by cutting business rates. Earlier this week the National Living Wage saw its biggest ever increase giving almost 2 million people a pay rise. Only the Conservatives are building a stronger and fairer economy, cutting taxes for families and businesses, while reducing the deficit and getting debt falling. Labour's reckless plans would mean more debt, higher taxes and fewer jobs which would...

Spent this morning at Trudy Harrison's "Saturday Chataway" surgery and this afternoon campaigning with Copeland Conservatives in the new Frizington and Ennerdale ward. Congratulations to all the Conservative activists who have been out today campaigning. Time to put your feet up and relax and here is a suitable piece of music to which to do so. Handel didn't actually name this piece "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba," it is formally just the overture before the last part of his Oratorio "Solomon." However, because the that part of the oratorio does refer to the legendary visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon's court, someone suggested that this might have been meant to represent a fanfare played in celebration of her arrival, and it has carried that nickname ever since.

This week on Free Exchange my colleague John Ashmore and Oliver Wiseman decided to cheer themselves up by talking to Matt Forde. Matt is one of Britain’s leading political comedians. He hosts ‘Unspun’ on Dave and his podcast ‘The Political Party’ features interviews with some of the most interesting people in politics. They spoke to Matt about his time as a political adviser, whether it’s getting harder to make jokes about politics as the debate gets nastier and why he’s fallen out of love with the Labour party. You can listen to the interview on CAPX here .

The latest in the series of "Saturday Chataway" surgeries with Trudy Harrison MP and local councillors too place this morning at St Begh's Church Hall in Coash Road, Whitehaven from 10am to 12 noon. Residents who attended raised a number of issues including housing, planning, road safety, water quality, Brexit and Democracy. Sine I have mentioned the "B" word I should probably add that the residents who raised Brexit wanted to leave the EU and were supportive of Trudy Harrison for voting to do so.

At the same time as the District, Borough or City council elections in many parts of England and Wales (including Mayoral elections in Copeland and some of the other places with an elected Mayor) another set of elections taking place is for Town and Parish councillors. In some places these are contested but in others they have not been. I am one of comparatively few voters in Copeland who will actually have a Town or Parish council ballot paper to fill in because the Corkickle area of Whitehaven Town Council is among the minority of Town and Parish councils in Copeland which have been contested. Hence a large number of Town and Parish councillors in Copeland have been elected unopposed - indeed, quite a few parishes and towns have had fewer candidates than seats and will be looking for volunteers to co-opt. Full details of the "Statement of Persons Nominated" documents which record all the people nominated for Town and Parish councils in Copeland can be found on the ele...