Andy Burnham is just showboating now - AIBU?

[1u1a]

Ok, so he wanted £65 million. He was offered £60 million. But is refusing to take it. Then he sets up a press opportunity on the town hall steps, where he feigns shock at stooges showing him the news in their phones and tries to pretend he’s only been offered £22 million - even though he has known full well for hours what the deal is - £60 million- and had been discussing it all day.

I mean I was sympathetic with him at first, but now he is just looking daft. Why does he think “the people of Manchester” are any different to “the people of... “ anywhere else? He is tripping over his own ego and his city needs that £60 million.

He will go from hero to zero very fast if the death toll in Manchester spikes out of proportion compared to elsewhere because he was trying to have his moment. Believe me, I am no fan of this govt, but this is ridiculous now.

What is actually stopping him taking the £60 million now though?

The difference is that Manchester has effectively been under a strict lockdown for 3 months already- other regions have not. People in MCR have already had 3 months of struggling to pay their rent, mortgages and bills. Tier 3 in Manchester will be devastating for a proportion of those already financially struggling.

In June the govt gave a contract for PPE worth £32m to Pestfix, a small company with assets of £18,000. The govt paid 75% upfront, and the delivered materials turned out to be faulty.

What action was taken? The govt has since awarded 5 additional PPE contracts to Pestfix, worth £313m. Part of the £10 billion (untendered and unscrutinised) contract giveaway from this government.

www.ft.com/content/7bf2fbdc-a26b-476e-a604-fac15ecfc222

But yes, Andy Burnham is show boating and being unreasonable in asking for money to help ordinary people. The silly fool should have been asking for £65 million for Tory donors, I’m sure the magic money tree would have been fruitful then.

I'd quite like him in my corner. He cares far more about the little people than the current government. Tier 3 will be devastating without the financial package and 60 mil is fuck all when put into context in terms of people and jobs within Greater Manchester. How Andy is coming out of this the bad guy, I just don't know. Money trees seem to be available for plenty else except the very people this pandemic is directly effecting. He'll get torn to shreds in the press now and lie after lie peddled against him for daring to stand up for his city and speak out against the government, sadly.

@ConiferGate
As an aside (and this isn't particularly aimed at you) I do wish people would stop saying 'London' when they mean Westminster politicians. Certainly nothing's being done to suit London. Quite the opposite.

First the original lockdown coming too late to save thousands of Londoners, then there's the current issue of increasing spread in London right now but no tier 3 because people (often living in the shires or home counties) make money out of London.

Look at what the government is trying to do to London. The ONS figures for the first wave showed the link between deprivation and high death rate. Most of the top ten areas were London boroughs. Despite this the government wants to increase London council tax to pay for the public transport system (normally used millions of non Londoners to get to work, airport, etc). Mayor Sadiq Khan is doing his best to fight for city but he's up against it. He knows there's been no approach to 'suit' London.

All this alongside the fact the government voted against feeding children over Christmas for fear of 'dependancy'. It makes politics look very bleak if this is where we're at as a country - we need more Andy's to be honest.

Fear of dependancy - they disgust me.

If he’d said the lowest he could go was £60million they’d have offered him £55million. They’ve set out to try and destroy him because they hate him. They took the £60m figure off the table yesterday afternoon and at the briefing BJ refused 5 times to confirm that it would still be made available. He only confirmed this today at PMQs. The PM having satisfied himself that he has crushed AB, he’s now turned his attention to the Mayor of London claiming he’s bankrupted TfL since taking over the job. This is a blatant lie as the number show that prior to Covid, TfL’s deficit had actually been reduced significantly since BJ was in charge. He says money will only be available if the mayor agrees to raise fares and council tax significantly. Basically, ‘we’ll help you with a TfL bailout if you commit political suicide and turn Londoners against you.’

As well as Manchester having far more people, they also have far more hospitality business per head of population than either Liverpool or Lancashire. And on top of all that, the people of Greater Manchester have already been under extra restrictions since the summer for numbers that have barely raised eyebrows anywhere else. So people in the area are already struggling psychologically with not seeing family etc.

I think he is right to discuss the lockdown as a very harmful strategy that will certainly ravage the livelihoods of residents but might not even suppress Covid if other areas are anything to go by.

@redskittleorangeskittle

The difference is that Manchester has effectively been under a strict lockdown for 3 months already- other regions have not. People in MCR have already had 3 months of struggling to pay their rent, mortgages and bills. Tier 3 in Manchester will be devastating for a proportion of those already financially struggling.

Leicester? They never came out of the first lockdown.

Other regions have been hit hard economically despite less restrictions. There's the knock on impact.

Cornwall. Already the most deprived area in the UK. Loss of tourist income, which is a major industry there.

The North East. Always overlooked when there's talk of 'The North' (perhaps because the media has a base in GM - Salford's Media City?). Parts of the NE are hugely deprived, going back pre pandemic.

Then there's London. Suffered the biggest drop in footfall. Hundreds of thousands of people there are reliant on the pub, bar, and entertainment industry. On minimum wage with no cushion of savings. They live in deprivation in some of the most overcrowded housing in the country. Look up the London borough of Newham. See also the official reports on the link between overcrowded housing and risk of Covid death.

Everywhere and everyone in need should have equal support. It's a concerning situation when we're reliant on local deals being made.

Everywhere and everyone in need should have equal support. It's a concerning situation when we're reliant on local deals being made.
@SheepandCow, this is why AB was arguing against a local deal, saying we needed a national approach and a 2wk all in it together circuit breaker.

I was also quite shocked when AB’s mask slipped for a minute on Andrew Marr on Sunday. I think some MPs from Norfolk had written to him and AB said something very similar to,”I don’t want southern MPs telling me what to do.” This makes him look like he is trying to incite division for just for his he’ll of it or for his own agenda. Norfolk is hardly rolling in cash, is it? Nobody is exactly thrilled with the way Covid is panning out and everybody would like more money, yes. But trying to push the north / south divide card is irrelevant here - why do that? People have enough on.

To be clear. This is on the government. They should've set in place a coherent and fair national approach - be that re restrictions or financial support.
As for the test, track, and trace expensive shambles. That's a big reason why we're now in such a mess.

I respected him until the stunt absolutely uncalled for. He is making Manchester look like idiots

Tonights newspapers:

Tomorrow Rishi Sunak to announce a support package for businesses in T2 who are struggling a week after London goes into T2.

Do you think this will be back dated for all the places in the north which have been struggling under restrictions for the past few months?

It amazing how the second London goes into T2 this problem suddenly become apparent to the government and they decide to do something. Its almost as if London is important and the North isn't and well Westminster isn't listening to the North.

It will be interesting to see how that plays out...

As I Northerner I look on with interest.

I also wonder how its reasonably possible to discuss things with local leaders, when they are all put on mute...

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/two-weeks-unmuted-greater-manchester-19144543
Two weeks that unmuted Greater Manchester

When council leaders here sat down to a crunch meeting with communities secretary Robert Jenrick on Monday, they found they literally couldn’t be heard.

“We got on the call and basically nobody could unmute themselves,” says one senior local figure.

“It was ‘the government will let you speak’.”

When ministers later moved to end the call abruptly, Stockport and Salford’s council chiefs had not actually been given the chance or ability to say anything.

Andy Burnham had to type in the chat at the side and point that out. Councillor Elise Wilson and Mayor Paul Dennett were briefly unmuted - and then the call ended.

This is the fourth separate story on completely different issues which has been on the same theme in two days - all from different sources and parts of the press: the government being completely tone deaf to the concerns and issues people have and talking over, muting, or making announcements about a subject an hour before a meeting on the said subject. There's a bit of a theme on communication developing.

I also note in the MEN article above:

It may not be quickly forgotten. Rarely - if ever - do you see a political story cutting through to the extent that pubs put out A-boards offering the mayor a free pint. Or advertising a burger dreamt up in his honour.

Or, in modern times, gathering spontaneously in the street to hear local politicians speak - a feature not once but twice in the last week. Or groups of men sitting outside the pub loudly and drunkenly debating the mayor’s status as the ‘king of the north’, as was the case in Manchester city centre last night. We didn’t even have a mayor four years ago. Only Boris Johnson himself, as London mayor, could rival that kind of modern civic prominence.

So it is likely ministers underestimated the mood in a region that has already been under constantly changing restrictions since the start of August. Or, equally, that they just didn’t consider it. Certainly they appear to have done little, until the weekend, to manage their own MPs here.

Its 'interesting'.

And its interesting to see how posters who aren't in the North are reacting in a very different way to those who have been under restrictions for a while.

Manchester has higher rates of child poverty than many other areas. It also is a homelessness ‘hotspot.’ Funding should be appropriate to the needs of the area rather than a formula.

Liverpool City Region, Lancashire and South Yorkshire are all around 1.5 million in population. Each region has received £40-45 million in support from the government.

Greater Manchester has close to 3 million people and receives £60 million at a push.

Burnham was absolutely spot on to be furious about this.

The fact the government claim that they couldn't give them more than the other regions whilst actually giving them less per capita and people actually believe them even though the evidence is right in front of them that they are lying is utterly shocking.

John Crace @JohnJCrace
If the Manchester offer was formulaic rather than negotiations, as some tories now trying to suggest, how come the opening offer was only £50m?

Anyone?

@NellyJames

Everywhere and everyone in need should have equal support. It's a concerning situation when we're reliant on local deals being made. *@SheepandCow*, this is why AB was arguing against a local deal, saying we needed a national approach and a 2wk all in it together circuit breaker.

Is that what he said? I'm with him on that. I was calling for that weeks ago. When the SAGE scientists advised it (heeded by Nicola Sturgeon). Unfortunately the government didn't listen to the expert advice. I'm not sure if it's too late now? Are SAGE still arguing for it? I trust their judgement.

@1u1a if that's true he's a disgrace. It's one thing to genuinely fight for what you think is best for your constituents. Quite another to completely unnecessarily for no helpful reason stoke unpleasant and frankly unhelpful distracting regional division.

@RedToothBrush we know it will go down like a sack of spuds up north. Government doesn't give a shiny shit though.

I mean Manchester has been in tightened restrictions for ages, as has Leicester. No real help or support of noteworthy substance for that . No angry Tory donors on the phones I suppose.

Op Norfolk’s homelessness and child poverty rates are lower than the national average . No comparison with Manchester. Andy Burnham was right.

@1u1a

I was also quite shocked when AB’s mask slipped for a minute on Andrew Marr on Sunday. I think some MPs from Norfolk had written to him and AB said something very similar to,”I don’t want southern MPs telling me what to do.” This makes him look like he is trying to incite division for just for his he’ll of it or for his own agenda. Norfolk is hardly rolling in cash, is it? Nobody is exactly thrilled with the way Covid is panning out and everybody would like more money, yes. But trying to push the north / south divide card is irrelevant here - why do that? People have enough on.

The government has fostered that divide handsomely themselves for the last 10 years. This would be far less of a factor if the north had had the investment the south have had over the years. Many MPs or mayors in the south aren't dealing with the level of poverty as MPs or mayors in the north are - poss bar areas of London. It's not comparable in terms of child poverty, homelessness, people living on the breadline, minimum wage.. no masks slippered, he was pointing out the obvious. Are you from the north?

Why are some people so keen to set regions against other regions?

As if the government is supporting the millions of in huge deprivation Londoners!

It's not just London in tier 2. Other regions went into it too. At the same time. They're getting a support package.
Just like tier 3 places are.

Whether it's enough for anywhere is another matter. Not in London that's for sure. Hence Sadiq Khan's attempts to fight for his city.

Why bash some of the most deprived people in the whole country because you think your area also needs more help? How does inciting unwarranted resentment and division help?

I think some MPs from Norfolk had written to him and AB said something very similar to,”I don’t want southern MPs telling me what to do.”

Not what happened. The MPs wrote to Starmer and Burnham to ask them not to ask for a national lockdown as it would harm their areas. A totally self-serving letter. Burnham's response was that it "wouldn't cut any ice" with him or the people of Manchester. I agree with his assessment.

Sage have said Tier3 restrictions probably wont work for certain places. Bolton was in T3 restrictions in their previous form and cases continued to rise.

This is one reason why both Chris Green and William Wragg (Tory MPs) rebelled against their own party in a vote and were joined in opposing T3 by Graham Brady (who abstained on said vote). They have different reasons for being opposed to the government to Labour but were equally appalled at how talks had been carried out.

I have to say if the government put you on mute when it was your job to represent the interests of the people, then standing in the street shouting to the press about it might well be your only way of making a point!

But yes, why has everyone forgotten Manchester went into restrictions in July at a much lower level than anywhere else thats had restrictions. Only Leicester has been in longer.

What is it that makes so many people have collective amnesia? I'd be fascinated to know.