To think Andy Burnham is doing a decent job so far?

Sorting our borders means checking who comes into the country by any means and stopping those that don't have the correct visas. Sending them back putting them in boats or planes back.
I haven't spoken to the beggars but I know someone who does on a daily basis - it is a minefield

To add the boat numbers have roughly halved but half of a big number is still a big number - we've had hundreds of thousands entering the country since Blair opened the doors in ?2003 - 23 years of it.

He isn’t just not talking about it at all, though. I saw a clip of him talking about immigration literally yesterday - he just isn’t making it central to his agenda. And he doesn’t need to. The number of small boat crossings are down. Of course people will still care about immigration, and certain people will always care alot about immigration, for reasons of their own, but most people really don’t care about it anywhere near as much they care about housing or health care or the economy.

The bus cap is not unfunded - and we’re definitely not going into more debt to pay for it. I agree with @blossomtoes that the long term ambition is likely to be to get more people on the buses, therefore increasing revenue. In the meantime, they’re using money that was allocated as climate grants to developing nations and changing those grants into loans, so that they’ll be paid back at a later date and are therefore future income (on this, I would say I agree with @Throwaway380 and my one uneasiness with Andy Burnham’s administration is whether they’ll be strong enough on climate action).

I think what’s difficult is on the one hand, people are saying that Andy Burnham isn’t doing enough to help people on the cost of living crisis, and on the other they’re saying he can’t afford what he is doing 🤷‍♀️

Can you clarify what you mean by "sorting our borders"? I'm guessing not the small boats since there's been a significant drop this year not that you would know from the mail and express.

Who are these many who "want to be on the streets" begging? Have you spoken with them personally to discover this?

To be fair, you’re probably right that Head North doesn’t set out monetary policy - and if that’s what you’re after then you definitely will have to wait and see - but I still found it gave me a really useful sense of Andy Burnham’s economic instincts and priorities. It definitely isn’t short on ideas! I would genuinely recommend it - even if you’re unlikely to agree with much of it.

Well if they don't sort out our borders I'm voting for Farage. It's not as though the other parties have done much for anyone except give away money they don't have - he can hardly be worse.
Sorting out social care would be a great thing as it would reduce bed blocking - that would be a big difference in the nhs.
Sorting the homeless - good luck with that. Many want to be on the streets earning (begging) - they don't want housed as it means following rules like no heroin injecting which they won't follow, or being an illegal immigrant and won't go back home.

This, in Scotland the only people on the buses are the ones under 20 or over 65 as they get it for free! It’s ridiculously expensive for the few that have to pay, I got a bus for first time in ages recently. £7 for a return of 3 miles each way. Whereas the blue bus pass… you can travel the length of Scotland for free!

People also care about other people on benefits having more money than they do, even if he's not talking about it.

Interesting. Of course we also know that far more of our financial issues as a country are due to companies and the rich not paying all their taxes / fraud, but that's not how it's presented by rw media like the Mail. You don't hear them banging on a out that - far easier to blame the people on benefits.

Surely the bus fare cap will be funded from increased use. It costs the same to run a bus whether it’s full, empty or somewhere in between, the more people there are on the bus the more money is collected.

People only care so much about immigration because Farage et al are obsessed with it. Burnham’s entirely right not to indulge them.

Far better to leave people with no improvements in their pocket, eh?

You do know the number of boats is significantly lower now, right?

I really don’t have confidence about his attitude to climate change - I don’t feel he seems to have any handle on it at all. As the fires have shown we need to be preparing the country to be more resilient for extreme weather.

I think just not talking about immigration is a bit naive. People do care about it even if he's not talking about it.

People also care about other people on benefits having more money than they do, even if he's not talking about it.

The bus fares cap is unfunded. So we are literally going into more debt to pay for it.

And also, great, so people on buses pay less to get to work. But what about people who use the train, tube or car to get to work? Where's their bung?

Spending money we don't have is what leads to scenarios like the debt crisis in Greece.

Yes you're £40 better off a month, good for you. But are you comfortable with the idea that the country is going further in to debt to pay for it? That your grandchildren will have to pay back that £40 a month several times over?

As for border force in France, well small boats are still arriving. And what happens once they're here? They stay, none get deported at huge cost and risk to British taxpayers.

“Spending a pot of money" was a generalization (and genuinely not intended to be patronising) but the success story of Burnham’s Manchester is still in my opinion just evidence of a well administered local authority, and I thought that Head North was widely acknowledged to be lacking in any macroeconomic content. Equalization is just socialism isn’t it with a fancy new name isn’t it?

When asked where the money is coming from Andy says "stay tuned" so I'm eagerly awaiting this. I think I know (my hard earned assets) but perhaps I am wrong.

Thanks, this is a really helpful post.

Obviously, no one will know the details of Andy Burnham and the Chancellor’s plans for the economy until the budget in October but if you are genuinely interested in Andy Burnham’s thoughts on “generating the pot of money”, you should read his and Steve Rotherham’s book: Head North.

In very brief, Andy Burnham believes in economic decentralisation, allowing local leaders to generate and keep more wealth within their regions, thereby driving growth in parts of the country where the economy has stagnated. Andy Burnham knows in principle that works, because it has worked so well in Manchester, where - contrary to your somewhat patronising idea that the Mayor of an enormous city region “just dished out pots of money” - he generated enormous private investment to the city, and built Manchester’s reputation as a good place to do business.

Investing in skills, in the green economy, and in creative media and digital industries are all things he’s spoken about too. And I think it’s well known he leans towards taxing wealth and assets over taxing wages.

You might disagree with Andy Burnham’s ideas on how to create wealth and increase the standard of living for ordinary people but to say he hasn’t got any, or even that he hasn’t spoken about them, simply isn’t true.

I guess we’ll have to wait for the ten year plan for the detail. Getting young people off benefits and learning trades is a good start. It’ll be essential if the promised house building programme is going to happen.

What I would like to know from people who are Andy Burnham supporters is this. As mayor of Manchester his job essentially was to spend a pot of money. He is a gifted administrator and communicator and he was very good at this job. As PM so far he seems to be missing the part of the job which requires him to generate the pot of money. He's told us that he wants to go back to a pre-Thatcherite socialist Britain but he hasn't explained how this will create wealth and increase the standard of living for working people (obviously it will be nice for people who live on benefits in social housing).

And seeing what a crook he is. I guess they’ll get what they deserve.

I thought there was a good chance he would lose but DH read me some stats last night that seems to say the opposite. Crazy that the people of Clacton would vote him in again even having seen how useless he is.

I know where my money is. Too much work involved in being PM. Of course it would all be moot if by some miracle he lost on the 13th.

I agree with this - I think Farage’s response will indicate where his ambitions actually lie. If he’s serious about wanting to one day be Prime Minister, then I don’t think he could or would ever countenance joining forces with Restore. If what he actually wants is to continue to make a massive amount of money by fuelling division, then he might.

Lowe has some strong conditions that if Farage accepts, any attempt to pretend to be mainstream will be out of the window. I think Farage knows his success depends on convincing more 'ordinary people' rather than hoovering up the dirt of the far right.

Rats in a sack.

This pact is beginning to look like a good idea! Imagine all the infighting.