To think Andy Burnham needs to start to show us he can talk about more than "the north" and "buses"

[joeymaynardssandwiches]

I want to get behind Andy Burnham, I feel he's got the potential to be a great counterpoint to the rise of reform. And I do know it's "silly season" in politics and with parliament closed I guess there's a limit on what initiatives can be announced

But so far it feels like he hasn't broken away from being a northern caricature who just bangs on about buses.

I'm a "northerner" (who always thought of Manchester as the part of Midlands ) but I can only do my job in the south and I can assure Andy there are big pockets of deprivation in the south too.

And I am all for public transport, and investment in it. But it just feels like a real "low hanging fruit" approach for his first few weeks and I want to hear him talk about thornier and less uncontroversial issues.

And admittedly I haven't been reading every news story in depth as I have been busy with the kids so he may have discussed other things. But that is my overriding impression at the moment and it feels a bit frustrating

Badenoch is busy driving out all the moderates from her party. So in some ways it is not surprising. Plus she can never admit to mistakes, she simply doubles down.

It is difficult for her, her days are numbered one way or another. In my view she won't lead the party into the next GE. Even if she does, she will be finished if the Tories come third after Labour and Reform. Chumming up to the far-right is not going to save her.

The same posters were adamant Starmer would outlast KB. They were wrong on that so the same confidence doesn’t really work.

I am not interested in what you think of me. I am nothing to you and you are nothing to me.

You’ve lifted some stats and plonked them down and in your mind the argument is won. I’m happy you believe you have found your party and you have found your leader. I think most stats are flawed and very much skewed to suit whatever objective is trying to be proven. If Rachel Reeves policies have succeeded in growing the economy I am a monkey’s uncle. She was absolutely clueless.

Immigration is responsible for the rise of Reform and Restore. One of those parties could indeed win the next election and that would be a fucking disaster.

If our new PM could actually show he wanted to do something about unskilled men from abroad coming in through our notoriously porous border it would help both Labour and the UK.

Which same posters? What is their relevance to my post? I have never said anything about KB outlasting KS or vice versa.

KB will never be PM. I'd bet on it.

Yep I’ve seen all this. It has the same surety to those claiming Starmer would last.

Do you think because of Racism?

The low hanging fruit of Russia. I'm not are you are on the forefront of understanding international security. They are one the biggest threats to us and are funding the second biggest party in this country (Reform). They also have close links with the Tory party (esp johnson).

Do you think renationalisation of utilities and improving the services is easy ? Or sorting out social care? Improving Education for both academic and trade routes? Help for Neets? Seriously reducing Homelessness?

These are all things that affect me in my work and daily life. And don't consider them low hanging, because if they were somebody else would have sorted them out by now.

That is such an interesting question. Would some Tory supporters not vote Tory in a GE because they don't want a Black woman as PM? I don't know. She won the leadership, so I'd be inclined to think that wouldn't be the case. A different scenario for those Tories who have defected to Reform, perhaps?

I don’t think it’s the Tory voters not voting Tory. It’s all the floating voters that primarily vote for policies and it’s whether the policies are of interest to them and whether the person fronting those policies are acceptable.

I’m not sure what the ‘chumming with the far right’ is meant to mean but if it’s Meloni Starmer did the same visit and bigged that up.

All the major parties are shifting right, including Labour. Burnham knows he could sink or swim based on border control.

So what are those amazing policies Badenoch has up her sleeve that would be better than Reeves’? Please give me one.
We saw 14 years of Torries ‘wonderful’ policies and what they did to the country, but we are not meant to mention them any longer. So we need to know what this new Tory Messiah is going to bring to the country that will be better than the previous 14 years.

Ah, right. I honestly don't think anyone other that a dyed in the wool racist would not vote Tory because of Kemi's race. And a lot of those probably have already found their political home in Reform or Restore. That doesn't mean I think all Reform supporters are racist, before anyone jumps on me!

The neo-nazi she defended is the person I had in mind. Also she seems to approve of Lowe.

Interesting that nobody complained when we had a PM who never talked about the North. (Which was pretty much all of them)

Given the vast majority of our poverty is in northern regions, why would anyone be bothered that a PM wants to improve that? Raising people out of poverty is not only the right thing to do, it is one of the best things for an economy.

Starmer was the PM, meeting other heads of state was part of his job, regardless whether he agreed with their views. Keeping Meloni on the right side was crucial in his international policy of firmly supporting Ukraine. I don’t remember him posting on social media that she was the greatest prime minister.

I think if we dug around in all the parties they are fucking up all over the place with who they are accepting donations from, who they are allowing to run locally, who they have allowed to be MPs and lords. I still don’t understand how Angela Rayner is back on Governmebt as Secretary of State for housing no less!! What on earth. For decades I didn’t bother voting at all and I can see why. Dirty business.

It’s interesting how much the narrative changes because a poster is pro Labour.

Starmer met Meloni for tips on how to stop crossings.

He also met her to discuss Ukraine. In fact he spoke to her multiple of times about Ukraine. No change of narrative. He was the head of state meeting another head of state. That’s what they do. He even invited Trump for a state visit. It does not mean he admires him.

Maybe he needs to go to Poland for some tips on how to secure a border.

As said he wanted specific ideas on how to deal with crossings.

Have you tried reading the news, or is this just based on some facebook meme? He’s talked about many things that aren’t buses..

@EvangelicalAboutButteredToast
Well as long as he doesn’t meet the far right who are banging on about immigrants but when they were in power the immigration was out control and the government was busy selling dodgy visas.

Show me you haven’t read the full thread by showing me you haven’t read the full thread 🤣

And to discuss Ukraine.