Andy Burnham’s coup

[Sandysandybeaches]

I’m feeling increasingly annoyed and worried about this.
He seems like a decent chap and clearly popular in Manchester but it feels increasingly ‘off’ that he is arriving like done kind of messiah to save us all. It feels like an arrogance and very undemocratic. Were there really no Labour mps up to the job?
His aims and vision sound great but there was nothing about how he’ll actualy achieve it and I worry that people will soon feel let down and the trust in mainstream parties will be broken even further.

Thr focus on Manchester I find worrying from someone who wants to run the entire country. How does an extra layer of admin in other place help everyone else who still lives somewhere peripheral? No offence to Mancunians but they’re even further from me than London and I am not interested in the place, in fact it sounds like rural areas, the south west and north east will be even more ignored.

It does feel increasingly like a bloodless coup.

Where do you live?

Thanks OP. I broadly agree with you.

But I think that unless he comes up soon with some policies that make a difference then the shine is going to rub off very quickly and he'll be Starmer 2.0.

There are some elephants in the room that need acknowledging before talking about No 10 North which just seems to be a distraction technique.

First our public services are massively inefficient. The non front line wage bill is huge and productivity is very low there.

Second our tax system is disincentivising work, job creation and entrepreneurship. He talked of re-industrialisation but who will want to do this in the UK when it is easier and cheaper and more rewarding to start and run a business outside the UK.

Third defence is paramount. A union leader said yesterday that every penny on defence is a penny that could have been spent on welfare or words to that effect. Nonsense obviously but what does he think?

Obviously these are not the only elephants but he is yet to show any meaningful ability to tackle these and other issues. He won't be able to do it by fluttering his eyelashes and trying to keep everyone happy all of the time.

But, to be balanced, he has the opportunity to be radical and make the country better, more efficient, wealthier. But does he have the policies and the balls?

Before he was Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham was a long standing MP - and not for the city centre, for a small Northern town. He served in the cabinet - as chief secretary to the Treasury, then culture secretary then health secretary. So, in terms of experience - I don’t think you need to worry. Even if you discount what he achieved as Mayor, he has more ministerial experience than the five previous Conservative prime ministers, and than Keir Starmer.

His route to the top makes a travesty of democracy. It has all been media led.

There are so many threads like this and he's not even PM!

Ir seems to me that the waiting for him to actually become PM will
eat into his honeymoon period.

He has to come up with more than devolution and council housing.

This is a problem.

Expectations are building up
and unless he can deliver - Sorry Starmer! - he will have a hard fall.

He as thick as two short planks. Thankfully be a general election soon or we are all doomed.

Tory HQ junior staffers keeping busy!

I don’t think that’s surprising. It’s a big move to take over as PM.

Although just saw the usual Labour post re HQ, still going at this point even after ousting a PM after two years.

Agreed.

(He is not thick as two short planks, though).

He left government 18 years ago. He hasn’t been an MP for 9 years.

He has experience in government but it’s all pretty mouldy by now.

You might not like him, but he is definitely not thick. You do not get from a state school in Merseyside to Cambridge with no family connections if you’re thick, and it’s insulting to suggest so.

And they are off already ‘thick as two short planks’ - he went to Cambridge from a housing estate. You?

I know Andy, live in Manchester and spent much of the past decade working in Westminster.
this sniping - you right voters are desperate for political chaos aren’t you?

As someone who voted for labour at the last election I feel betrayed that he has been allowed to just take over and treated like some kind of god. I thought his selfie was very smug.

And in the meantime he’s been successfully running a city region. People can question his policies, but the idea he’s not experienced or intelligent enough is honestly for the birds.

I don’t know anything about his intellect or performance so far, it’s just the hype and the build up of expectations can be dangerous.

He seems to be enjoying it, so it might work out for him

I don't trust him. Policies and political beliefs aside, it's the way he's had his acolytes smooth his path to No 10 for him by forcing the current PM to resign.

He hadn't really crossed my radar until the last few weeks. I voted for Starmer and I was furious about the campaign to oust him and now this "coup".
Having had a bit of time to see AB I'm left underwhelmed. He seems 10% politician and 90% ego, seems to believe his own hype.
As to number 10 North, not a bad idea but Manchester is already the second city and while it might be convenient for AB it's not in need of the investment like others are. Why not Newcastle or Rotherham or Hull or Leeds?

I never said he wasn’t intelligent (I know others have done) and I don’t think he is ‘thick’.

Intelligence - proved by a Cambridge degree - isn’t enough though. Just look at Starmer (Oxford post-grad)!

I’m pointing out that it’s the fact that he hasn’t been in national government for nearly 20 years or at Westminster for 9 years that’s apparently made him attractive as a PM to Labour MPs and at least some Labour supporters. If he’d been in Parliament and in government under Starmer I expect he’d be as unpopular as all the others.

I pay due respect to his electoral success as mayor, though there seem to be doubts about his actual success in the job. But being Mayor of Manchester is more or less irrelevant to ability and skill as a PM.

Funny how Labour were calling for a general election when the Tories changed PMs during their term of office .... they seem to have forgotten that.

I don’t think Keir was the worse ever. The knives were out immediately (that said we gave multiple opportunities to go at him) seems the same knives are out now.
I try not to talk about politics with people who make no effort to apply any critical thinking or media analysis to what they read… I don’t know why I’m bothering here tbh!

It does not.

He was elected as an MP and other Labour MPs have a chance to stand against him if they want to challenge him as the next PM.

The Tories changed PMs like they were socks before that.

I assume you are only annoyed because this is Labour and there is a chance that we could finally have an actual Labour PM who makes real changes after Starmer and Reeves who have been useless and certainly did not stand for any kind of Labour values.

Perhaps the fact he hasn’t been in Westminster but is Labour through and through - is why he’s gone for it? He’s experienced but ‘untainted’.

since leaving he’s done a super job here by the way-

What are the Labour values you would like to see him implement?