Chris Whiteside's Blog

I don't know how I managed to miss it, but in addition to the Cumbrians I have already mentioned, Gina Tiller, who was Chair of the North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust until last year, was also awarded the MBE in the 2020 New Year's Honours list. The list of Cumbrians honoured includes: Paul Foster, departing head of Sellafield, CBE for "services to business"   John Hudson, BAE Systems, CBE for "services to the Royal Navy and to Naval Shipbuilding and Design."   Sascha Hilary Wells-Munro of Kendal, OBE "for services to the NHS and patient safety."  Ben Stokes of Cockermouth and the England cricket team, OBE "for Services to Sport."  Professor John Howarth, Deputy Chief Executive of the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust and local GP, MBE for "services to General Practice."  Gina Tiller, former Chair of NCUH, MBE "for services to healthcare in Cumbria."  Elizabeth Cornford of Grange-over-Sands, MBE ...

Yesterday's carol was "In the Bleak mid-winter" set to music by Harold Darke. But there is an equally lovely version set to music by Gustav Holst …

One the first day of the new year and the new decade the number of page views on this blog has passed the 1.6 million mark, Thank you to everyone who visited during the last fifteen years and I hope you found it interesting. All the best to all of you for future and I hope you will find this blog interesting in the new decade too.

It seems to be fashionable at this season to make predictions for what is going to happen in the new year, So here is my thoughts on what will happen over the next twelve months. 1) Britain will leave the EU, with a withdrawal agreement, on 31st January 2020 2) The relationship between the UK and Scottish governments will continue to be difficult 3) Reform of local government including greater devolution will be taken more seriously and begin to make more progress 4) There will be more investment in the NHS and in Britain's transport infrastructure, including and especially in the North. 5) Negotiations between Britain and the EU on a new Trade deal will be noisy, controversial and difficult, but a deal will eventually be struck, probably in the early hours of the morning and the very last possible day to do so, by the end of the year.

It is still the Christmas season for another five days, so here is a New Year's day carol: "In the Bleak Mid-winter" set to music by Harold Darke, sung by King's Cambridge.

As we come to the end of a year in which it has more than once been the case that people with opposite opinions have voted the same way, each gambling that blocking the "centre" position will break things their way, it is worth seeing who called it right. It' wasn't always the side who one would have expected. I am reminded of a statement by William Lamb, a.k.a. Lord Melbourne: WINNER OF THE YEAR: Boris Johnson He pretends to be a clown but he is nobody's fool. I think it is time to recognise that the PM is a far smarter political operator than any of his enemies or some of his friends give him credit for. Yes, he's been lucky, especially in his political opponents. But he made some of his own luck - and exploited with ruthless effectiveness what was gifted to him. LOSER OF THE YEAR: Jeremy Corbyn And thank God for the good sense of the British electorate in making it so. WINNERS WHO OVERPLAYED THEIR HAND BUT GOT AWAY WITH IT: ...

There is an excellent article by the Economist on calling out politicians and others who say things which are not true - and when we should accuse them of lying, talking nonsense, exaggerating, misleading people, or making a mistake. If you are registered to read the Economist online, you can find a text version here . There is also a very good video version featuring Lane Greene, the Economist's language correspondent who I presume to have been the main author of the article, with similar but not quite identical script and this is available to watch via twitter here or on YouTube, which will play if you click on the window below - As they rightly say (in the print version) "Journalists should be tough when powerful people say untrue things. When those statements first hit the headlines , “false” packs plenty of punch. Reporters should demand to know the reason for the false statements." But, to quote the video version, after encouraging people to use word...

There is no perfect measure of inflation. I was challenged the other day for quoting the Retail Price Index (RPI) which was described as a "discredited measure." I don't accept that but I do accept that it might have been helpful to quote both the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and RPI measures and I have gone back and changed the post concerned to do so. There are various ways to measure inflation and about the only thing which most economists and statisticians agree on is that no one measure is ideal for every purpose. In my professional work I would usually look at all the main measures to get the best picture of what is going on and then use whichever seemed most relevant to the specific target group. There is considerable disagreement among economists and statisticians about whether the RPI or the CPI is the better measure of inflation. But many would concur with the view which the distinguished economist and statistician Simon Briscoe of the gave in a note pr...

Levels of domestic abuse in Copeland and in Cumbria as a whole are shocking and have been for some time. That would be true even just based on the figures for recorded incidents but it is suspected that for every reported case there are many instances for which no complaint is made. The stereotypical case, which does represent the most common type of abuse, is men attacking their female partners, which is of course completely intolerable behaviour, but the most recent figures show a substantial amount of violence by women against men and within same-sex relationships and this is also totally unacceptable. It does not help matters that the media does not always take violence against men seriously and sometimes publishes incredibly unhelpful stories. I recall being incensed when one national newspaper ran a disgraceful front page headline accusing two actors who played on-screen tough guys of being "big girls' blouses" in real life over suggestions that their female ...

"I think I know why reasonable argument is no longer possible. It's social media. When you had to express your displeasure in the past you wrote a letter and you enclosed your address so that someone could reply. This meant you had to watch your language and your manners. Not any more. Now your can hide behind a blanket of anonymity and say anything you like." ( Jeremy Clarkson , writing in the Sunday Times yesterday about the effect of anonymous social media posts on the level of courtesy and constructive engagement in modern public discourse.)

An interesting piece by Philip Thompson on Political Betting about Blair's legacy here . And a warning to all political parties, especially when messing about with the constitution: 1) Be careful what you wish for 2) Beware the law of unintended consequences 3) These warnings particularly apply when setting up one-sided changes to the constitution. Changes which you think will give you an unfair advantage can have precisely the opposite long-term effect ...

My previous post mentioned that Cumbrians honoured by Her Majesty in the New Year's honours list included: Paul Foster, departing boss at Sellafield, who has been awarded a CBE for " services to business "  John Hudson, BAE Systems, has also been made a CBE for " services to the Royal Navy and to Naval Shipbuilding and Design ."  Professor John Howarth, Deputy Chief Executive of the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust and visionary local health leader - and local GP - has been made an MBE for " services to General Practice. " Other Cumbrians honoured this year include: Ms Sascha Hilary Wells-Munro of Kendal who receives an OBE "for services to the NHS and patient safety."  Mr Ben Stokes of Cockermouth and the Enlgand cricket team receives an OBE "for Services to Sport."  Ms Elizabeth Cornford of Grange-over-Sands has been awarded the MBE "for services to Young People."  Mr John Butler of Ulverston also beco...

1097 people have been honoured by the Queen in the 2020 New Year's Honours list. On a first read through I noticed a number of distinguished Cumbrians were honoured These included * Paul Foster who has just retired as head of Sellafield, has been awarded a CBE * John Hudson, BAE Systems, has also been made a CBE * Professor John Howarth, Deputy Chief Executive of the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust and visionary local health leader, has been made an MBE. Congratulations to them and to all the people honoured. In relation to this honours list as a whole, 789 (72%) of the recipients are people who have undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacity.  556 women are recognised in the List, representing 51% of the total  9.1% of the successful candidates come from a BAME background  11% of the successful candidates consider themselves to have a disability (under the Equality Act 2010)  3.3% of recipient...

“Only twenty-seven people in Britain can explain why the day after Christmas Day is called Boxing Day, but that doesn't stop millions from marking it by staying home from work. An intriguing side effect of thus having two consecutive public holidays is that no matter what days of the week they fall on, the British can easily justify taking the whole week off." ( Alan Beechey , from "Murdering Ministers: An Oliver Swithin Mystery.")