Why do you think Andy Burnham would be a good Prime Minister?

He's 'managed' a major city and city economy to a certain extent and seems to have done a good job. So I think that's a pretty good qualification- he's not just talk, he appears to have demonstrated some genuinely positive outcomes.

Re: the Reform candidate:

searchlightmagazine.com/2026/05/reforms-makerfield-candidate-scrubs-fascist-leader-from-his-facebook-friends/

I would rather anyone, a dog wearing a straw hat and sunglasses, won Makerfield rather than that self serving pillock. How dare he think he is a shoe in.

He and others like him need to be taught a sharp lesson.

King of the North, my arse.

Well hopefully we wont have to listen to Starmer ( and Reeves) really boring yet also somehow really annoying voices.

If you are a man pretending to be a woman, he will be very good news.

I don't know though if that is a strong view in Makerfield, so I imagine it won't be long until he says like Albert Prufrock.....That is not what I meant at all, That is it not it at all.

I'm going to call the foolish Andy Burnham, Albert Prufrock from now on. It suits him.

Are you hoping for a Reform government? Because that is a strong possibility.

🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

From that article.

And the Greater Manchester mayor said the idea that single-sex spaces should be protected for biological women was a 'minority view'

Typical from Labour, but still.

I am not a fan of Burnham, but it is worth a) reading what he actually said and b) bearing in mind the audience he was addressing.

He was asked whether men who self-identify as women should be allowed to use women's toilets.

He replied: 'Clearly there is a group of people who do feel that toilets should be a safe space only for women and there should not be anyone biologically a male allowed in that space.I don't think that's a majority view. I think it's a minority view and quite a small minority view, actually. But it is a view so you can't completely ignore it. Possibly they might be women who have experienced male violence at some point in their life. I don't know, that's one way of looking at it.'

He added: 'The idea that people are falsely portraying their gender in a different way just because they want to abuse a women's space or encroach on women's safety… maybe it happens but you are talking a tiny, tiny, tiny number of people.

'So why are we allowing everyone to get into this really polarised and terribly hateful debate about these issues?

'I am going to make it really plain: I support trans rights and I want that to be known.'

So biological women shouldn’t have rights to same sex provision according to him? Any man can just claim they are a woman and go in women’s spaces? And he doesn’t think that might be a problem? Ok.

No, it shows he disagrees with you. Lots of very bright people disagree with you.

Yeah I was a supporter but his comments on women’s rights have lost me. It shows he’s not very bright.

Clearly lots of your fellow residents do recognise it because they keep voting for Burnham. Democracy can be so inconvenient sometimes, can’t it?

I’m in GM and I don’t recognise this fantastic GM that his publicity people rave about.

Well it’s made him incredibly popular in Manchester so clearly people like the way he’s spending their money.

No. He was a mediocre minister. As Mayor he has had the pleasure of spending other people’s money with no real consequences.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15830845/Andy-Burnham-men-identify-women-use-female-toilets.html

There is already a windfall tax.

EDITED - Just saw you said Ireland so that may not be the case…

Yup. Yet we had £102bn to splash on HS2 = c.£1500 for every UK resident. Beyond madness and can only assume powers that be are or are connected to the shareholders.

I don’t…

One line in your post screamed out at me - “…Energy companies made £26.2 billion PROFIT in the first 3 months of 2026…..”
Here in Ireland the left wing parties are shouting for the government to reinstate energy credits using taxpayer’s money.
So the energy companies will continue earning huge profits and the government will help those companies by using the people’s hard earned cash they worked hard for and had to give as tax to help pay their inflated energy bills.
Instead of calling for a windfall tax on those companies. 🥲
Have you seen British Gas profits ? Owned by Centrica as is Irish Gas (Bord Gais Eireann)
It’s bonkers.

I'm not sure even Jesus fucking Christ could turn things round for the UK right now unfortunately. Anything anyone tries to do to make things better is likely to cost a fuck ton of money that we don't have. Where do you go from there?

No, but equally, wouldn't it be nice if we returned to a time when reporters reported what has actually happened, rather than trying to create the headlines themselves ?

I think it was John Major who said something this week about Governing the Country shouldn't be seen as a Game Show, where you had to vote people out all the time and have a revolving door or different Leaders.

I don't have Sky and have not been impressed by the ITV News this week when I switched over as BBC News at Ten wasn't on at 10pm so I tend to watch BBC. Chris Mason spends all of his airtime trying to bring down the current Prime Minister. Whether that comes from a right wing bias or from a desire to create drama (ie this Leadership Contest), I couldn't tell you. But I don't think it is any way to be running the Country.

Labour and Starmer were helped by the media partygate onwards.

It’s not over for them yet (actually idk on that) but the members are probably right on who is more likely to win at next GE for them.