Andy Burnham should be delivering Labours manifesto, not his own

[canthavetoomanylights]

Fair enough, have your ideas on HOW to do it, but his plans to further devolution were not voted on. Surely this is wrong.

Devolved powers shouldn't mean a break up of England and it's quite a leap to even get to that train of thought.

Every area or region has it's own specific needs - and that includes London and the SE. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to have "specialists" deciding where their money goes. The devil is in the detail, as always.

In answer to @Bushmillsbabe

I thought people didn’t like what Labour was doing so why suddenly does everyone want them to carry on doing it for another three years. As for an election Kemi Badenoch is probably the first ever leader of the opposition to say there shouldn’t be one. I wonder why.

Ooops!!

he’s really picked up the shitty end of the stick but he seems convinced he’s the answer to all our problems 🤷🏻‍♀️

i obviously hope he succeeds but i fear he’s just more of the same

he focussed on Manchester again which I'm sure makes people outside Manchester bristle! A lot of stuff has already been forced up to Manchester - BBC, ENO for example. I imagine the rest of the north feels quite overlooked

He has a god complex it would seem. He seems to forget that many of us have actually been Manchester - it was shit - so many drug addicts.

The ego clash between Burnham and Khan should be interesting.

You do realise that further devolution of power was already in the Labour Manifesto? This is just following through with that.

"In England, Labour will deepen devolution settlements for existing Combined Authorities. We will also widen devolution to more areas, encouraging local
authorities to come together and take on new powers. "

(Edited as hit return to early).

Anyone who ends their tirade with “end of”, sorry “END OF” should always be ignored.

Manchester is not a “crime ridden shithole”, it has the same issues as every other major city . It’s a bright, vibrant and busy city. I go in all the time, never once have I been a victim of crime. There are a huge variety of shops, yes, there are some charity shops.. Deansgate is 1 mile long … and I can’t think of ANY charity shops on there (but happy to be corrected). Oxford Road is over a mile long and stretched through Student Land, so I would imagine finding Charity Shops on there .. and when I say “student land” I mean our prestigious universities.

Parking charges are high, but we have an Integrated, Publicly owner, public transport network .. where for £2 I can do a single bus journey, anywhere I like.

I live in a GM Borough, and I gave no issue with what Andy Burnham has done so far. I don’t feel neglected. I think our Council Officials in the area I’m in could do better, but I think Burnhams vision and leadership has been great.

F

Devolution will just encourage local councils corruption look what happened in Berkshire town

@canthavetoomanylights devolution was in the Labour Party Manifesto from 2024. Can you outline which bits specifically Burnham has outlined that you feel clash with the manifesto?

Birmingham Council will have a field day.

Happy to correct you!

There is the Mothers' Union charity shop on Deansgate and two minutes away-still in what was once a prestigious shopping centre-are Shelter and The Oxfam.

You haven't been a victim of crime. I can't correct you on that-you say that's your experience. However, I and most people I know have-from bag pinching and being fucked and blinded at in Piccadilly Gardens (yes, foolish to go there) to being punched and having breasts groped.

I can also correct you on "bright, vibrant and busy." I can correct you on that.

That phrase sounds like something out of a two bit guide book.

I don't actually know what you mean by "bright". Do you? It's a glib adjective and unless it's describing a measure of light or someone's intelligence it means nothing.

Is it busy? It is busy with people high on spice , shop lifters and young people going to get pissed at the weekend. Have you ever gone in there-there are nothing like the crowds that used to be in Mankie on as Saturday afternoon-they're all in The Trafford Centre!

Is it vibrant? I take it you mean "exciting". No, it's not. It's dirty, littered with shit, piss and rubbish. The homeless people that liar Burnham promised to help are still there. maybe you haven't seen them.

Thank fuck he's off, although who knows what shit he will inflict on the country "Manchesterism-arsehole!

Still, there will always be the simple among us who think he some sort of Messiah instead of an ambitious hard nosed man who wouldn't stop until he got the top job.

He tried to get it fairly, twice, failed twice but eventually pushed a sitting Labour MP aside to get the job.

Do you think he would have been as keen if Starmer had been doing a fantastic job? Of course not because that would have meant Andy Capp would have been just another Northern backbencher. He bided his time until he saw the trouble Starmer was in and the rats left the sinking ship.

What do you think about the fact that he refused all questions today and banned right wing journalists from attending at all? He is a little dictator and if he isn't reigned in soon, the country will be finished.

Still, there are £2 bus fares-hurrah-you realise Burnham has just given pay rises to bus staff of up to 56%-but never mind the bung is worth it.

"Great vision and leadership"-yes, for himself and for those who are easily fooled, want to be fooled and continue to be fooled.

What would make you happy?

Great user name!

RIP Penelope.

My guess is Farage or Lowe in number 10.

He also needs to stop banging on about Manchester, before he alienates people. Manchester is not some kind of nirvana, despite recent improvements.

This. Manchester might be amazing but lets be honest they have already taken their fair share of jobs from London. What about Birmingham? Or Glasgow? Or Liverpool? Or Bristol? Or any number of other cities (including London!!) who he doesnt seem to feel he needs to consider?

Yes I thought it was odd he focussed so much on Manchester and didn’t broaden it at all

He alienated me with his Manchester Manchester Manchester speech.
And actually he's screwing Mancheater anyway but making them.hokd another mayoral election. Who's paying for that?

A PM that was not elected by the people, with a manifesto thats different to what people voted for.???
Should be an immediate GE.

That's what Labour would be shouting for if roles were reversed.

Yep. Totally agree. And I normally vote Labour

Hugely agreeing with this. If local authorities cannot manage to competently manage their remit now how is devolution going to help. One of the key problems with local authorities is the huge increase in public private agreements which basically act as a blank cheque and do not meet needs and are an immoral waste of public money. For example. In the country generally we are looking at government/local authority TOTAL failure in relation to housing, schools, curriculum, social care, hospital care and the list goes on. Key decisions affecting finance, foreign policies etc are not taken by the PM or MPs. It is an utter mess and devolution is not going to help. How does Burnham not know this. Devolution is basically creating more bureaucracy to be carried out by yet more people without the right expertise, and normal people everywhere will suffer.

It is really, really depressing. Actually no - it was pretty depressing before, now it is frankly terrifying.

Whether it was in the manifesto or not.

Totally agree.

General election.

Or they just lack the expertise. I know a retired engineer who was on the layer below the borough council (can’t remember now!) and they wanted to do a project in his area. He knew the site was unsuitable and it would either be extremely expensive or dangerous to build there. It ended up going He’s on a shoestring budget. Turns out a friend of one of the councillors owned the land which the council then bought.

they need to make sure expertise is available from central to ensure fairness