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

It must be so annoying for his detractors to see the cut through Burnham’s achieving with the disillusioned who have been crying out for hope for a long time. He’s very serious about getting young people into work, sorting out the mess that’s social care, re prioritising government expenditure and funding defence to make the country safe.

And yet Starmer was too serious and didn't show enough personality for some people.

Of course, if the metric of measuring political success is the number of Tik Tok videos produced…
🙄
He is an unserious character when the nation needs the opposite.

Yep!

He’s more like an influencer / content creator than a PM. This is going to get very annoying very soon!

Surely being in opposition was a feeble excuse! He should have solved all the country's ills.

Some of them still hadn't got over the Tories being given the boot. It is a myth that Whitehall is packed to the rafters with left wingers.

He was in the DoH for a year. Barely long enough to even make a start. And, yes, I heard some of the spiteful, nasty things that were said about him by people working in the department at the time too. I thought they should have been ashamed of themselves.

I completely understand your wariness if it’s based on direct, personal experience of working with him.

But what I would say, is Andy Burnham has publicly acknowledged the mistakes he made as Health Secretary on social care - and spoken specifically about what a mistake it was to attempt to introduce social care reform too close to a general election, when it could be so easily weaponised by his political opponents. That’s his whole argument for getting cross party talks underway so early in the process.

2010 is a long time ago, and especially seeing as “shape-shifting” is one of the things Andy Burnham is frequently accused of, I do think there’s a good chance his process has evolved since then.

Well, so far he has floated some good aspirations but without any detail of how they will be achieved or funded. Too early to call.

The less men think, the more they talk. — Montesquieu

or maybe

Actions speak louder than words - anon

At least it’s being talked sbout! Would you rather it wasn’t?

Are you referring to the fact that Burnham did not do anything about continuing the private sector contracts, in the NHS, when he was Health Secretary? Please @InveterateWineDrinker ?

No, he was in Government. He was Gordon Brown's last Health Secretary. He might have had a fighting chance of getting something done if he hadn't been so busy promising everything to anyone who'd listen or launching his own leadership campaign (between which there was a great deal of overlap).

I was in the Department of Health at the time. There are very few of us in my team then who think he's even tangentially suited to being PM.

If he can fix social care then he'll fix the corridor care and overcrowding in the acute hospitals - we've got over 200 patients waiting to be discharged to social care in ours!

Because there was a general election and he was in opposition. It’s going to take years to sort out.

He was going to fix it when he was Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Spoiler alert: he didn't.

He’s been PM for less than two weeks and parliament is in recess. The expectations of some people are insane.

Give him chance ,at least he is bringing social care to the forefront . It’s been kicked into the long grass for so long and it’s affecting far too many people for it to be ignored much longer

Had he actually done anything yet? Talking about what he wants to do is not a good job done

The only issue Ihave is the time it’s going to take. It’s not AB’s fault but social care is so so urgent. It’s depressing to think it’s going to be talks for months etc and that it could take years or just never happen

When he does this downward mouth face he brings to mind the muppets.

But what is interesting is the majority of people actually living in Manchester don’t see what happened over ULEZ as him tying himself in knots, or promising contradictory things. The original Clean Air Zone was designed before the pandemic or the cost of living crisis. It was no longer fit for purpose by the time it was due to be rolled out, and a vast majority of people in Manchester were grateful to have a political leader who listened to and responded to their concerns and ultimately chose pragmatism over ideology. We got the Bee network and Manchester is still going to achieve the goals on air pollution by the end of this year, without the charge.

I do understand it’s about perspective though: one person’s shape shifting is another person’s political agility 🤷‍♀️

But of course it’s absolutely true that the budget will be the real test of all his plans.

Absolutely right. But more than that, he says all the right things to absolutely everyone, whether it's pre-ordained in a speech or off-the-cuff when he's being 'authentic' (or, less charitably, when he's thinking out loud but manages to make it sound like a policy decision.)

And the problem then is that everything becomes contradictory to one extent or another. I was working in the Commercial Directorate at the Department of Health in 2010-11 when he was coming out with off-the-cuff remarks which, when turned into action by people in the NHS, were simply unlawful. And the way he tied himself in knots with Greater Manchester's ULEZ by promising contradictory things to different groups showed that he hasn't learned. So yes, he's remarkably consistent in his shapeshifting and his poverty of critical thinking.

He has made promises since becoming PM that by some measures run up to £96bn, all of which is unfunded.

I don't care about his accent, or about his dress sense. I care that he's a fraud, a chronic people-pleaser who cannot afford the promises he's making.

This all makes sense with one caveat.

He's saying all right things, but at this stage it's unclear how he's going to fund it.

So the real thing will come in Nov budget and then we'll be able to judge if he's just another one for redistribution. If he's going to hit SE/middle classes with yet another tax raid then he's goner.

Totally. The biggest political fart-and-leave-the-room in at least a century.