Chris Whiteside

Rod Liddle, the outspoken and irrepressable newspaper columnist and former broadcaster has died aged 66 after a short illness.

Not very often that I agree with former UKIP leader Henry Bolton, but his reply yesterday to Richard Tice in respect of Reform UK's utterly unworkable "Operation Fortress" plan is dead on.

Monday music spot: Greene, "Lord, let me know mine end"

92% of reported crimes go unsolved. That must change. Crime must have consequences.

I know I have already used this a few times this year, but there are few better ways to relax on a hot summer evening than to listen to a piece of music like Binge's Elizabethan serenade while looking at beautiful pictures which seem to have the heat pouring off them.

"Simon Levy's victims paid the price for a system that failed to impose consequences. No more women should have to pay that price.

Out delivering Mayoral surveys in Millom this morning and early afternoon. Friends of mine were out today campaigning in places from Carlisle to Selby and throughout the country.

A once in a generation opportunity to watch a solar eclipse in the UK takes place tomorrow (Wednesday 12th August 2026

Of course I seriously considered posting "Total Eclipse" with the late great Bonnie Tyler as my midweek music spot for this evening: but that would be far too obvious and it was only a partial eclipse anyway.