Chris Whiteside's Blog

This is an intensely human and funny political autobiography. You don't have to be either a Conservative or a political anorak to enjoy this excellent book. Unfortunately many of the people who would both enjoy and learn something from this book are likely to be put off by the subject matter. They should not be. Jo-Anne Nadler is a witty, charming and intelligent young woman of the late 20th and early 21st century who is normal in every respect except one - an interest in politics which has led her to work both as a Conservative party staffer and as a political journalist. "Too Nice to be a Tory" tells the story of Jo-Anne's her life in politics and the media through the Thatcher, Major, and Blair years up to the election of Michael Howard as Conservative leader. But it talks about it in down-to-earth normal terms rather than political platitudes. This is one of the most human books about politics which I have ever read. Jo-Anne's political views do come through i...

The Department of Health has admitted that a consultation document exists proposing the adoption of guidance that A&E catchment areas should be much larger. However, they claim that this document has been "wrongly interpreted" by the trusts in Surrey which referred to the recommended catchment areas as national guidance. They state that there is "no such official guidance" from the department. The Department of Health spokesman admitted that the recommendations were taken from a report by the Royal College of Surgeons supported by Sir George Alberti, the former director of emergency care. He recently recommended the closure of an A&E department in north London. The remaining two A&Es serving the area will be left with catchment populations of 450,000 each. While I am pleased to learn that the NHS trusts who were quoting this target as national government guidance appear to have misunderstood the status of the report, I make no apology whatsoever for rais...

I am deeply alarmed at suggestions that at least some some health authorities have been advised that the catchment area for NHS Accident and Emergency Units should be between 450,000 and half a millon people. If applied in areas like Cumbria the impact of such a policy would be quite disastrous. More details are given on my Hospitals Campaign blog: see link at right.

What does this say about Blair's Britain ? On the day we finally learn for certain who Tony Blair's successor as Prime Minister will be, there is a story in the local press that 7,000 people in West Cumbria are waiting for a dentist. They are told that if you want to get one, you have a much better chance if you are willing to travel 40 miles over poor roads to Carlisle or Penrith for treatment. And this is supposed to be good news as it indicates that the problem is getting better - at one stage there were more than 26,000 people in West Cumbria on the waiting list for a dentist. All this eight years after Tony Blair promised in 1999 that, within five years, everyone in Britain would have access to an NHS dentist. I do not decry the efforts the Cumbria NHS Primary Care Trust has made to improve the situation. Nevertheless the fact that a story of how only 7,000 people are waiting for a dentist can be seen as good news is an absolute indictment of the way that a government elec...

Two news stories in the last few days, one in the national and international media, one local to West Cumbria, have illustrated that the more serious a crime which is being investigated, and the greater the threat which someone may pose to vulnerable people, the more important it becomes to avoid destroying the lives of the innocent by broadcasting accusations which may be false. I have two small children. Like, I would imagine, every parent in the country I have been following with horror the story of the little girl who has disappeared in Portugal. It's a cliche that what has happened to the McCann family is every parent's nightmare, but it is true nonetheless. And closer to home, I shuddered like every parent in Whitehaven when I learned that a convicted paedophile who has been released after serving his prison sentence for serial crimes against children was housed within yards of a school and a park. The safety and security of my children is the most important consideration...

I am not one of those who argue that opinion polls are worthless, but I do think that newspaper headlines based on them have to be taken with not just a pinch, but a bucketful, of salt. You can usually find something in the small print of almost any poll which either in isolation or by comparison with the previous poll in the sane series can be used to spin any message you want to try to justify. This morning's Times headline is a classic example - it refers to a "bounce for Brown" and says that the prospect of a new man at Number 10 has given the chancellor a "poll boost." Is Conservative support down in this poll ? No. Is there a significant drop in the Conservative lead when people are asked how they would vote in a general election (with Cameron and Brown as party leaders) ? No, Cameron still has a lead of 10%, compared with 11% last month. As it is based on a survey of 1,504 people. this change is not statistically significant. A 10% lead for David Cameron,...

Simon Jenkins wrote the following piece in The Guardian yesterday. I disagree with him on only one point - he refers to the Liberal Democrats as nice. Now, some of the Lib/Dems I have met are nice, but like all parties they have their share of MPs, councillors, and activists who are anything but nice. The rudest and most offensive councillor I ever met was a Lib/Dem, who once started throwing gratuitous insults around at a funeral. As Simon Jenkins points out, when Proportional Representation or a close result creates a hung parliament or council, the Lib/Dems are often all over the place trying to decide what to do. This appears to have surprised some people in Scotland and Wales, but it should not have surprised anyone who has had the misfortune to serve on or closely observe a hung council in which the Lib/Dems held the balance of power. The Borough of Copeland is now a Lib/Dem-free-zone at all local levels above parish council - this year they only managed to put up three candidate...

I did like David Cameron's phrase that Britain is currently being presided over by a government of the "living dead." The Prime Minister has said for a year that he is going and has finally set that change in motion It is clear that much of the rest of the cabinet has either decided to jump before being sacked, or is likely to be moved or sacked when Brown takes over. As David Cameron said, “We’ve got a Home Secretary splitting his Department in two when he’s already resigned….a Foreign Secretary negotiating a European Treaty she won’t be around to ratify…and a Prime Minister who, even after last weeks drubbing, simply doesn’t understand that it’s over. “Everyone knows who the next Labour leader is. So why does the country have to put up with seven weeks of paralysis?” Mr Cameron also referred to speculation that Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt faces the chop, and scoffed at the way the new Justice Minister Lord Falconer has been publicly “pleading for his job.” As he s...

Over the UK as a whole the total changes of seats in the local elections were: Conservatives UP 911 councillors Labour DOWN 504 councillors Lib Dems DOWN 246 councillors In Copeland compared with when the seats were last contested (including last year's by-elections) the results were: Conservatives 19 (up three seats) Labour 31 (down one seat from 2003 position plus Cleator Moor by-election gain) Lib/Dems nil (compared with 2003) Independent 1 (Several independents did not seek re-election) In Allerdale Labour lost their leader for the second election in a row - and this time they lost the deputy leader as well. At this rate I wonder if they will have trouble finding candidates to take the job of Labour leader in Allerdale !

This morning's post contained both the first envelope from Copeland council addressed to me as Councillor Whiteside and what I presume will be the last one from St Albans council addressed the same way. A little known fact is that councillors who do not stand for re-election or who are defeated do not formally step down until four days after the election. I presume this was written into the law so that councils can continue to operate, especially if there is a big change, during the period before newly-elected councillors can sign the necessary paperwork to be allowed to start work. So technically my last day as a St Albans Councillor is Bank Holiday Monday and over this long weekend I am a councillor for two areas three hundred miles apart. But only technically. I spoke on the phone to my successor as councillor for Sandridge and Jersey Farm, Frances Leonard, to congratulate her on her crushing victory over the Liberal Democrats, and we have agreed that I will pass over the remain...

I'd like to thank all those residents of Bransty ward who took the trouble to vote yesterday, and particularly those who voted for me and for my Conservative colleagues Allan Mossop and Alex Carroll. The Bransty result was: Chris Whiteside (Conservative) 651 (elected) Allan Mossop (Conservative) 636 (elected) Alex Carroll (Conservative) 617 (elected) Jim Hewitson (Labour) 508 Les Hanley (Labour) 453 Jeanette Williams (Labour) 435 Smallest Conservative majority: 109 Two of the three seats in the ward were previously Labour held so this represents a gain of two seats. Overall on Copeland council Conservatives made three gains and no losses, taking two seats from Labour and one from an Independent who had been elected in 2003 as a Lib/Dem. Labour lost two seats to the Conservatives and gained one seat which had been held by an independent who did not seek re-election, a net loss of one seat. The composition of the council, and change comparing each seat with the result when it was las...

Spent today campaigning hard in the Copeland Borough Council elections. I have spent local election day, usually the first Thursday in May, campaigning every year since 1979. And every year from 1985 to last year I then spent that evening at an election count. Copeland Council is not counting the elections here until tomorrow morning and it felt extremely strange to finish the election and go home instead of heading straight to the count. We shall have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out what has happened. But one thing which is already clear is that turnouts are down and are disappointing, despite the superb weather which we enjoyed all day. There are a number of possible explanations for the lower turnout, of which the most obvious is that four years ago was an all-postal election. There are a number of other factors which may need looking into. All will have to be considered in the cold light of day when we see the full results. Well under half those eligible to vote in Copel...

I am delighted to report that the Frances Leonard has held Sandridge and Jersey Farm, which I must now describe as my former council ward in St Albans, by 854 votes against the Lib Dems 329. I am sure Frances will be an excellent councillor and I wish her well. My thanks to all those who helped and supported me as I represented the area for 16 of the past 20 years. Other news sent through to me from friends and former colleagues in St Albans includes that the Conservatives have gained Redbourn ward from the Lib/Dems. One more gain and that council goes to No Overall Control. Postscript added Friday morning: The Conservatives also gained Harpenden East from the Lib/Dems which puts the council back in a situation where the Lib/Dems have 29 seats and the other parties put together have 29 seats.

I am indebted to the North West regional office of Conservative Campaign HQ for the following story ... A Labour ministerial advisor arrives at a campaign meeting at Labour HQ. She sees that everyone is looking very depressed. "Whatever is the matter?" she asks. "We've had some terrible news and some worse news." replies one of the people at the meeting. "Well, let's start with the terrible news - what's that?" "Pakistan has just tested a nuclear weapon at their underground facility, and then India have let off a nuclear weapon at their facility:" comes the reply. "And China has warned both of them that their actions could set off a regional war which might go nuclear." "My word. Whatever is the even worse news?" "Tony has just said he'll announce next week that he's staying as PM until the end of the year."

Naturally I hope to see Conservatives winning seats in Thursday's local elections. The reason for this is that I think that the election of more Conservative councillors is likely to produce better run councils. Throughout the media, pundits and commentators have written of these elections as a verdict on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, or David Cameron. Suggestions are already being made of the number of net gains in council seats Daid Cameron needs to make to be perceived as successful. The number of Conservative and Labour candidates elected and defeated will be written up as if the main purpose of the local, Scots, and Welsh elections were a sounding board for the coming general election. However, it isn't. The purpose of the election is to decide which individuals will run local councils, the Scots parliament, and the Welsh assembly for the next few years. Obviously it is entirely legitimate for someone who wishes to demonstrate tbat they are unhappy with, say, inadequate suppor...

If you want proof that the Labour party in Copeland is so complacent and out of touch that they might as well be on another planet, you need look no further than the "Environment" section of their manifesto for the current council election campaign. One entire side of the leaflet is given over to a long list of things which, in the fantasy world inhabited by local Labour politicians, Labour controlled Copeland Council has achieved. Actually, many of them have nothing whatsoever to do with Copeland council. But surely any political party which was even minimally competent would make sure all the things they were boasting of as achievements were actually true? Could any major political party possibly be silly enough to put an election leaflet round claiming credit for an "achievement" which every reasonably well informed person in the area knows has just been abandoned ? Yes, Copeland Labour party is that silly. The first item in their "Environment" list boa...

For the past two days the papers have been full of speculation that the police investigating the so-called "Cash for Honours" scandal have recommended that the Prime Minister's chief fundraiser Lord Levy, the Downing Street Director of government relations, Ruth Turner, possibly also the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Jonathan Powell, should be charged. As far as I can discover, neither the police nor the Crown Prosecution Service have officially confirmed or denied these allegations, and nor should they at this stage. However, it has been made public that on Friday the police submitted ‘a 216 page report with supportive material’ to the Crown Prosecution Service. In a statement, the police said: ‘The Met has had extensive consultation with the CPS during the enquiry and provided them with reports together with over 6,300 documents. To date 136 people have been interviewed as either witnesses or suspects. It is now a matter for the CPS to consider the evidence, advi...

This week the House of Commons had a debate on the subject "New nuclear? Examining the Issues" which was introduced by the Conservative Chairman of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Peter Luff M.P. You can read the full text of the debate in Hansard at the House of Commons website, or on "They work for you" at this URL - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2007-04-19a.147.1&s=speaker%3A11511#g184.0 This was an excellent debate which showed the House of Commons at its best, and also showed the progress on both the Conservative and Labour sides towards a consensus that new nuclear build has a part to play in a balanced energy policy. Sadly that consensus does not yet extend to the Liberal Democrats or the Scottish Nationalists, which does not bode well for the ability of Scotland to keep the lights on if an unholy alliance of those two parties takes power North of the Border after the Scottish elections in two weeks. This is an extremely important is...

Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling announced this afternoon in the House of Commons that he is asking the QC who investigated the Alder Hey hospital case to conduct an inquiry into allegations that workers in the nuclear industry had tissue samples taken from their bodies after death. Michael Redfern, who led the Alder Hey Children's Hospital inquiry in Liverpool, has been asked to establish the facts and report to ministers. All the cases where it is alleged that tissue may have been taken without family consent involve people who died in the 1960's and 1970's. According to BNFL tissue sampling began in the 1960s and ceased in 1992. Alistair Darling, who announced the move in an emergency statement to the Commons, said that families of workers at the Sellafield site in Cumbria, and the public, wanted answers to questions raised by the latest disclosure. Mr Darling said most of the workers covered by the revelation worked at Sellafield, but he added that one indi...

David Cameron is launching the Conservative campaign for the 3rd May local elections today. He is expected to say the following. “The mission of the modern Conservative Party is to improve the quality of life for everyone, and local councils have a leading role to play in doing just that. Conservatives are the largest party in local government, and I’m proud of the work they do in towns, cities and rural areas right across the country. From Bradford to Barnet, Dudley to Daventry, and Macclesfield to Medway, Conservative led councils are delivering better services while providing value for money and helping keep the cost of living down through lower council tax. Their achievements show exactly why it’s right to give more power and responsibility to local councils. At the heart of our local election campaign this year is the promotion of civic pride. We believe in social responsibility, in trusting people to do the right thing and giving them real control over their lives. After a decade...

You never know what's going to come up on the doorstep when one is fighting a local election on conducting a resident's opinion survey. Of course, the most frequently raised issue of concern at the moment in West Cumbria is the future of our local hospitals. We have been running a petition on this subject which has secured hundreds of signatures. But a number of other issues have also been raised. Two interesting issues were mentioned to myself and my colleagues Alex Carroll and Alan Mossop on the doorstep in Bransty ward at the weekend. More than one person told us they were concerned about the proposed new Bus Station site in Whitehaven. They considered the original bus station site to have been far more suitable than the proposed new one. The other issue concerned seagulls - there are a lot of these birds in Whitehaven at the moment. You always expect some on coasts and around a harbour but the population is such that some are coming further inland. They can be noisy and agg...

If you will be away or otherwise unable to vote in person for your local council on 3rd May, you have until noon next Wednesday (18th April) to get the application form to the electoral registration office at your local borough council office. Remember that all previously existing postal votes were cancelled last year. I know that many residents of Copeland Borough who had previously had postal votes received a letter advisitng them of this, and with the letter came a form to apply again. I certainly had this letter myself, but today I spoke to someone who never received hers. If you have not applied for a postal vote within the past six months, you no longer have one, and need to apply again by noon on Wednesday if you want to vote by post.

Dan Keiran is about to bring out a book called "I fought the law" from which there was an extract in last week's Sunday Times. His basic argument is that all sorts of behaviour which British people would expect to be legal because we fondly believe that we live in a free country have been criminalised over the past few years. Now it is easy to ridicule or criticise Dan Keiran because he is not always as good as he should be at getting his detailed facts right. While browsing in a bookshop I picked up his previous book, which is called "Crap Towns." (Apologies for the bad language, but it's his not mine.) After reading the first two pages I put it down in disgust with the strong opinion that if those pages were representative, the adjective was better applied to the quality of Mr Keiran's research rather than the towns he wrote about. Certainly any numerate and computer-literate person could have established in twenty minutes on the internet that some of ...

I am indebted to Iain Dale's diary for the news that a poll out this morning shows that if there were a general election today only 7 per cent of doctors would vote Labour. Conservatives would be supported by 43% of doctors (up 16% on 2005) and the LibDems by 15% (up 4%). Labour are down from 24% in 2005. The poll also found a lack of support for Chancellor Gordon Brown leading the NHS as Prime Minister. Asked "Would the NHS provide a better service under Gordon Brown?", 6% said 'yes', 61% said 'no' and 32% said they were unsure. Just 2% of doctors described their level of morale at work as excellent, with 54% saying it was poor or terrible. This is the verdict of people who are intimately informed about the working of the NHS under a party that came to power promising "24 hours to save the NHS."

Few things have illustrated as clearly what is wrong with New Labour as their reaction when The Times eventually managed to use Labour's own Freedom of Information legislation to see the advice given to Gordon Brown before his disastrous decision to abolish the Dividend Tax credit on pension funds and thereby raid pension funds to the tune of £5 billion a year. By now this has taken £50 billion from pension savings directly and between another £25 billion and £50 billion indirectly through knock-on effects such as reduced incentives to save, consequent closure of many final salary pension schemes either to new members or even sometimes existing ones, and reduced asset prices. It is interesting to see how clearly the risk of such a sequence of events was foreseen by the treasury. Their advice to Brown warned of the possibility that Pensions would be cut Fund values would fall by up to £50 billion Council tax would rise to pay for local authority pension fund defecits Schemes would b...

Today is Easter Sunday. For those in Western countries who do not believe in the Christian message, today is just a holiday, and I wish any such person reading this a good one. For those who do believe or have an open mind on the subject, it is the day when we remember a message of hope and love which could triumph even over death and disaster. May the love of the risen Jesus be with you today and always.

The following people are standing in the elections for Copeland Borough Council on 3rd May. I have listed for each ward the number of councillors to be elected, and then the candidates in alphabetical order with the town or village where they live, and party affiliation. Addresses are given based on electoral registration details given on the nomination papers as reported to the Whitehaven News - I understand one or two of these addresses may be out of date by election day as a small number of candidates are moving house (but only within the Copeland area.) ARLECDON (1 seat): C Ross, from Kirkland, (Labour); Marie Simpson, from Arlecdon, (Conservative); Graham Sunderland, from Arlecdon, (Independent). Note - Arlecdon ward also includes Keekle BECKERMET (2 seats): Yvonne Clarkson, Calderbridge, (Conservative); John Jackson, Frizington, (Conservative); John Woolley, Whitehaven, (Labour). BOOTLE (1): Keith Hitchen, Holmrook, (Conservative) ELECTED UNOPPOSED BRANSTY (3): Alex Caroll, White...

It should have been obvious to everyone at the time that Gordon Brown's abolition of the Dividend Tax credit for Pension funds, which increased the tax on pension funds by £5 billion a year, was likely to have dire consequences. Obviously the first of these is a cumulative £50 billion directly grabbed in extra tax, but it has also been suggested that the impact on pension funds, including money which has not been invested in them because people know it would be grabbed in tax, and the overall impact of lower asset prices as this policy is one of the reasons UK stocks and shares have underperformed our international rivals, may be closer to £100 million. It has been obvious for several years that this is one of the main reasons why, in the words of Labour MP Frank Field, this government inherited one of the strongest positions on pensions in Europe but now has one of the weakest. In my view this was the worst single mistake in economic policy since Churchill put Britain back on the ...

Environment secretary David Milliband admitted last year that not all the Single Farm Payment money due to farmers this year can be guaranteed to arrive by the due date of June 2007. We are told that £300 million has been budgeted for late payment fines. I would be interested to hear from any farmers, especially in Copeland, who may be reading this about whether the money has reached you on time. I know that many local farmers had to borrow money last year because the payment was so late. Meanwhile a report by an all-party committee of MPs has suggested that the previous Environment secretary (and current Foreign Secretary), Margaret Beckett, should have been sacked for incompetence over her failure to get to grips with the issue last year. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee of the House of Commons has just published a damning report into the failure of the Rural Payments Agency (RPE) and Department of the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to pay farmers their...

I was very concerned about the effect on working people in Copeland of the scrapping of the 10p starting rate of tax in chancellor Gordon Brown's budget. This will hit many people in Cumbria: Ordinary working people in this constituency are being taxed to pay for a cheap political headline. Fiscal experts agree that because of the abolition of the 10p introductory rate of tax, the budget will leave working people worse off if they have incomes below the median £18,000 a year and do not have dependent children. The overall impact of income tax & National Insurance changes in the budget will cost working families £340 million a year. Everyone earning between about £5,000 and £18,000 p.a. will pay more in income tax as a result of the changes. There are many working men and women in Copeland who do not have children, or whose children have grown up, and who have incomes in the range that mean they will lose out because of the tax changes in the budget, and particularly the aboliti...