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

Either a socialist, to keep the left happy, or the more factual social democrat. If he said he was not a socialist the left would wet themselves (as usual).

We shouldn’t be in hock to the bond markets. Hock = we owe them money, hock being a form of lending. We need to pay off our debts, I’m sure Kemi would agree with that.

Labout leaders often refer to themselves as socialists to garner support with the left of the party, doesn’t mean they are. Look at the actions not the words. St Andy is not planning taking the means of production into public ownership. Even the Tories are starting to consider bringing the utilities like water back under public control after the utter failure of water privatisation.

Andy Burnham quote:
"I'm happy to call myself a socialist, also social democrat wouldn't cause any anxiety either”

https://renewal.org.uk/articles/interview-andy-burnham/

Privatisation has been a disaster and a huge majority of the population want utilities to be renationalised. Burnham has reiterated several times that his government will keep to the fiscal rules of the manifesto.

This would be the party led by the same St Andy of Burnham who is on record as saying we 'shouldn't be in hock to bond markets' and wants public control of utilities?

Sure.

Oh that was an erudite contribution. Well done. We haven’t had a socialist government since the 1970s.

It’s not. Possibly, when Corbyn was in charge it was nearly socialist but it’s actually widely considered to be a centre left social democrat party. Despite, your compelling argument if you check a policy like acceptance of markets and rejection of total public ownership it’s clearly social democrat.

Also, the Labour Party is not a socialist party.

Bullshit!

Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!

After the successful economy led by Blair and Brown (and don’t try the World Financial crisis argument - it was a world issue) the disaster of austerity and Liz Truss I am amazed people still believe this. Unfortunately, like you, many still believe it.

Also, the Labour Party is not a socialist party.

Great! Then maybe they will come up with something that works then!!

So sick of cross party finger pointing. This country is a right mess and something has to change.

You wrote that with a straight face after Truss?

In the same way that millions still think the Labour Party will be bad for the country - that there will just be more tax and spend and leaving our children with an even bigger debt. Socialism just doesn't work. That's why they seldom are in power. They are economically illiterate.

Well, he is signalling openness to new North Sea drilling while people are literally dying from man-made climate change caused by burning fossil fuels. So a big no from me.

She had no support from her party which was the main reason. The Tories have never been a fan of the nhs let alone social care. A lot of the reform shit about privatisation comes from ex-tory mos

When Theresa May was looking at social care reform back in 2017, there was
intense pressure from select committees, healthcare organisations, and charities urging her to seek a cross-party consensus on the issue. She chose to bypass the other parties. She didn’t have the support within her own party either, and she failed to win over the electorate. So, her attempts failed.

That failure is a really good example of why Andy Burnham trying to get cross party support from the outset - so that the political pain of what will undoubtedly be difficult decisions is shared - is an excellent and necessary way forward.

I don't have an agenda necessarily but I suspect maybe he has and it's just that he wants to be PM.
I haven't hidden the fact that I thought Keir Starmer was given an unfairly tough time by the press and was actually better at the job than he was ever allowed to be portrayed.

I don't like, and never will, the way Burnham came to power and at the moment that does cloud my judgement of him. I'm not convinced it's not all just an act and it's more about him & his career than anything else.

But I am prepared to eat my words and would actually be overjoyed if he does actually turn out to be genuine and becomes the right man to lead us right now.
It's too early to tell yet of course.

Leader approvals don’t necessarily translate into party support so I don’t think any of us should get too excited.

Happy to see Badenoch progressing, hopefully it will translate into better polling. I would much rather the Tories were the main opposition to fight rather than Reform. Fingers crossed that will be the case eventually.

Kemi is showing fantastic progression on that chart - maybe we should have hope!

Based on the very short time he’s had so far, I’m impressed. His communication skills are light years ahead of his predecessor, and his announcements, for me, are making all the right noises. There’s no quick fix to any of this stuff, it’s going to take years for some things to be resolved, but so far so good.

I can’t help thinking there are some people who’ve decided he’s going to be shit and so have adopted the position that everything he does is wrong; he’s not perfect, none of them are, but a lot of people have an agenda.

Teresa May (Tory!) tried to solve it in 2017 but couldn't get it through Parliament because Labour and LibDems wouldn't support her proposals and she didn't have a majority to push it through.

Burnham is peddling hope for normal people and as a result is much more popular with young people than any other prime minister ever was. But lets see if anything comes out of this. The Tories are and have always been against social care.

Of course you did.😄

At first glance, I thought that was a forecast of the tax hikes we can expect.

I don't disagree that, with the overall taxation burden at a record high of 38% then the only solution is find the money from within the existing Government spending (or "system " as you describe it) that is being spent "ineffectively" .

The problem however with this is that what one person describes as "ineffective spending " another will describe as "essential spending ". The press and media will always focus on those examples where cuts to spending will impact those are deserving and genuinely need the money through no fault of their own. Even if in the majority of cases it is indeed ineffectual.