Andy Burnham - how can this be allowed?

You sound just like Alf Garnett @Marmalademorning!

Your beloved Labour Party promised not to raise taxes on working people though didn’t they? Although now it appears that was all just a pack of lies designed to win them the election. You’ll be crying your eyes out when Reform get in next time. (I’m one of those nasty Tory middle England voters you despise so much by the way 👋😂).

The British (well, the middle england Tory British) are obsessed with the absolute evilness of tax. Starmer achieved a landslide by promising them exactly what they wanted - continuity from the Tories (including no big three tax rises), without their corruption, ineptitude and chaos, and the delusion that our deep structural economic malaise can somehow be fixed that way.

If you want to move beyond that delusion you need to somehow wake up the voters, not blame the Labour party - who have tried enough times over the last half-century to make the case for tax as a necessary part of building a better society - for finally accepting that it can't be done.

I agree the entire tax system creates inefficiency from top to bottom.
However, they may have not won without that manifesto pledge so I don’t think there was much scope to raise those taxes. Reforms yes, raising taxes no.
Welfare cuts are inevitable. So is harsher controls on immigration. I think it was madness to do away with the 2 child benefit cap. If they had invested it directly in schools for the same children it would have been accepted. Like this it is just fodder for Reform voters who think it goes to large immigrant families primarily (whether factually true or not).

I know. That would have been the easy thing to do but it would have set a precedent that breaking manifesto pledges is OK. And I firmly believe it really, really isn’t.

The problem is that promising not to touch the big three means they are going to try and raise taxes that don’t bring in that much as it is and tend to create friction

they would have been better off putting their hands up and saying ‘sorry - looking at the state of the finances this is the best way to do it’ - increased IT, sorted out the thresholds and cliff edges and made the system efficient

I don’t agree with their tax promises but manifesto pledges should be kept otherwise there’s nothing to stop a party being elected promising the moon on a stick and then saying “Only joking” once they’re in power. We need more honesty in politics, not less.

I think they should have reversed Hunt’s NI bribes cuts for a start.

Their manifesto pledge on tax was awful and they should have had the courage to go against it tbh because the tinkering they are doing is terrible for the economy

we need to accept we are a country in decline and manage on that basis

The head of GCHQ will be speaking from Bletchley Park as well, reiterating much of what Blair said about cyber security and AI and the tech revolution. We have to position ourselves in our niche, working public and privately together, including universities.

Keep digging your head in the sand @blossomtoes. Farage will take the best from Blair’s essay and run with it, whether you like it or not. And if he does that - the establishment will likely vote for him. That is the reality of the matter. Blair is actually trying to help the Labour Party and the country.

He advocated the current government ripping up its manifesto pledges on workers’ rights, the environmental and taxation - you know the things they got a mandate for. He’s turned into the epitome of a dishonest politician.

Yes agree it’s a good essay. Rishi Sunak was on the radio this morning and gave the same view on leadership change It’s more fundamental than that

https://institute.global/insights/politics-and-governance/the-labour-party-is-playing-with-fire-over-its-future-and-the-future-of-the-country

I think Tony Blair is right in most of what he says in this essay. Especially about the soft left and going further left. There is no mandate whatsoever for this and Labour will be deeply punished by the electorate. That much is a guarantee.

I recommend people read this essay as it informs a lot of what is going on and should also be read in conjunction with the IMF report.
If politicians actually bothered listening to economic, financial and legal realities and base policy on it, and lead strongly based on policy, England and Great Britain would soon recover.

Saw some documentary about banking or financial careers, person said that back in the day when banking was basically counting money and giving out loans if you went to the right school and your dad and grandfather had worked at a big bank in London or wherever you were basically guaranteed a role at some level, even if you were pretty thick, it was just connections and networking, now as banks have moved heavily into trading and other financial shenanigans that were once the domain of shady offshore hedge funds they need people with real maths skills, a real feel for trading etc. so if that maths/trading genius happens to come from a housing estate in Newcastle he or she will be jumping over people from much more privileged backgrounds for top banking jobs, they said they almost felt sorry for the people from the more privileged families as they just couldn"t compete anymore on connections alone. I found that interesting, even more ironic though is that they are all going to replaced by AI so even raw talent can"t help you now!

"Charismatic" covers people like Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood or the lead singer of INXS, it doesn"t apply to people who comb their hair with a balloon.

I must admit I don’t really understand the class system so this obsession with showing yourself to be working class seems very clumsy

yes agree GB was an old style politician

I don’t know. I don’t share the MN obsession with the class system. He wasn’t the last PM with integrity, Major and Gordon Brown are cut from the same cloth for me. Both honest, decent men who are led by their values.

Was John major the last working class PM?

feels like he was the last PM who didn’t see it as some sort of game tbh

My MP for years was John Major. During that time he was foreign secretary, chancellor and PM. He was also a fantastic constituency MP because he employed a highly competent team. It can be done.

I'd prefer that my MP held the most powerful position in the country than was languishing on the back benches. Having a direct route to the the ear of the PM is a considerable advantage. Worth more than turning up to open the local fete I'd have thought.

Good. You say this as if it’s a bad thing. All these extensions just create more unaffordable houses. Part of the reason bungalows are so rare now is because so many have had an extra storey added.

there’s nothing technically “wrong”
about it, we vote for a party for 5 years not a leader
Both Liz Truss and Rishi became PM without a GM so it’s hardly unusual So did Boris but at least he did then call a new GE. It’s not impossible that AB might do this if elected leader.

However it doesn’t sit entirely right with me because
a. People voting in makerfield should be right to ask how well is he going to represent them if he’s sat in 10 Downing Street. Up to them in the end though.

b. I’m in GM and would far rather have him as mayor than Reform. I’m a bit annoyed he may not see out the rest of his term as I voted for him but I just about see the greater good argument here

I think the North is more synonymous with the idea of WC than the South. We have a long history of a N/S divide, and a feeling that resources and politicians attentions are concentrated in the South where the wealth lies. WC people from all over the UK can often relate to the idea of being overlooked and ignored by the wealthy and privileged. So AB with his Northern accent and plain speech suggests someone who may not do this because he's 'one of us'.
His high levels of education offer reassurance to those prejudiced against WC left wing politicians as being loud mouth rabble rousers, who are all fight and limited competence. The Angela Raynor stereotype.
Obviously there are highly educated MC Northerners and WC southerners with limited education. But stereotypes feature heavily in politics. Every day we have Reform supporters making sweeping statements about what the WC want and think, framing all WC people as white, obsessed with immigration and turning to Reform. Which as a WC woman have nothing to do with me or my life.

Only one constituency voted in Starmer at the GE. The rest of the population (that voted Labour) elected a local MP on the basis of the party’s manifesto… hoping that the party would stick to what it had promised to do.

Nothing’s really changed there. IF Burnham gets in, he’ll be restricted by the GE manifesto commitments to the same degree as Starmer chose to be. Where he adds new policies, or ignores the manifesto (as Starmer has several times now), he’ll have to convince all the sitting Labour MPs to get behind him. If they think that’s a non-starter then they’ll rebel, as they’ve done to Starmer, and force him to take a different approach.

I don’t actually mind Starmer. We’ve had big personalities recently (Boris) enough to put me off overly charismatic politicians. Someone a little more decisive than he is made out to be would be nice but, then again, I can remember Maggie so…

I think Andy burnham leans very much into the stereotype that northerners are working class. I know that’s why my (northern) dad doesn’t like him because he thinks he’s a phony!

So, are you saying people are either northern OR well educated?
Or is it that you can be either working class or well educated?
Are only northerners working class?

As a working class northern bird with 2 degrees, I wonder if I actually exist.
I don't like Andy Burnham either.