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.

As the unfortunate resident of a Reform local authority, I fear this may indeed prove to be the case. I'm not against the idea in principle, but at a time when my council is controlled by a bunch of incompetent miscreants who barely know what day it is, I'm not optimistic.

Still waiting to hear from you on this @LuckyHazelFox

Strong female leaders are expected to tone down their language and forthrightness. You may not have intended to use a term that's normally reserved for "little women" but that's how it seemed.

100%.

I hope he dresses smarter when he’s on the world stage

No, you are wrong. Women don't need special language, special permissions or special conditions. We are equal in every sense and as long as our equality is protected by law we can stand up for ourselves.

Anyone with a mindset of genuine equality will judge the person on their actions - and indeed will expect to be judged themselves on their actions - sex and skin colour absolutely irrelevant.

You are asking the other poster to tone down their language which is more "little women" thinking on your part than that of the other poster.

If only your rationale was always equally applied on here.

"Rein it in" is not a term normally reserved for "little women". What on earth are you on about? If I had said something like "rein in the hysteria" (to be clear I would never apply that word to her) you might have a point.

Badenoch's own colleagues balked at her use of "Gestapo".

Yep, all of this

I have thought about this a but more overnight. More power to local areas is potentially very exciting. Where I live in Worcestershire, we receive less money for education per child than children just a few miles away in wider Birmingham and the education sector in Worcestershire is terribly underfunded. Local government can’t do anything about this and instead it’s down to some mysterious formula where it has been declared that Worcestershire should receive less funding per child. And we have a problem with lower educational outcomes than other parts of the country. Devolution could help to change this. It’s just one example.

On the other hand, Birmingham’s political leadership is incompetent and bankrupt and the Worcester council is very close to bankruptcy. Some of the extreme candidates in Birmingham at the last election were frankly dangerously antisemitic and not remotely interested in local issues. How can we trust local leaders not to waste funds? Are they really competent enough? Local leaders are not all of the same calibre as Burnham and so we won’t automatically have mini Manchester across the country.

There is a lot to consider with this.

Now he’s saying he will live between London and Manchester. I hope that won’t cost too much as that will involve a lot of people moving up and down and security

and potentially creates two competing seats of power

Kidderminster is terribly neglected. I have first hand experience of their main college. Yes, It was sad to see in comparison to money thrown at Birmingham. I also have experience there. The waste of money and inept leadership and they are in danger of becoming independent!

Of course it's going to cost a lot of money. Not to mention the security procedures that come with being part of the London hub. Is that going to have to be replicated at hus second base? He's a machiavellian traits are a sign of things to come.

Yes it’s easier to slip under the net outside a centralised, scrutinised power base. And Burnham isn’t just replicated as Manchester mayor everywhere else.

Yep.

and why Manchester again? Because he can go home every night? Why not Carlisle or Liverpool or Newcastle or Sheffield

How will their heads fit through the same door?

Sorry edited as I linked the wrong quote.

Re feminism, I think a lot of posters on here read feminist literature from decades ago and apply it today. Eg what was needed in the 1960s is not the same as what is needed today.

Personally I think that today the key thing to do is let women be professionals and deal with their professional life as professional lives, and deal with social issues better eg get porn off the high street and off the internet, get rid of the dark web, etc. Personally. You may disagree.

I think basically that Andy Burnham is perceived to have concentrated on domestic policy, and also really focused on Manchester needs. Whereas we have a country sliding into wwIII, really complex international situations to deal with, outcomes of which will have huge, huge impact on all of the UK including Manchester, and a large number of serious domestic issues, more pressing than devolution right now (as pointed out upthread) plus no infrastructure in place to deal with devolution and no money to pay for it.

If anyone actually wanted the UK to slide in wwIII right now for whatever reason, they will be delighted to have a PM who is focusing on devolution rather than saying no to unwise military decisions!

Ihave looked at Burnham's record on foreign policy and it seems he made a point of following the whip on everything, but keeping it to simple blank statements, which I think is something he will need to look again at. Good foreign policy decisions and leadership right now is so important, to keep us out of war and to increase sophistication when it comes to understanding all the different interest groups in relation to foreign affairs and in relation to negotiation, for the long term benefits of civilians everywhere.

As well as all of the many really difficult domestic issues to deal with - and again the various interest groups pulling/funding in different directions in relation to domestic issues.

We need a really well informed and capable PM right now, someone who understands all the strands, capable of critical thinking, wisdom, morality, someone with background knowledge, ahead of the game, IMHO.

The decisions taken in the next few months even will very much impact on every normal family in the north and the south and every part of the UK.

Sorry, my second attempt to answer that was full of mistakes, didn't make sense and I was too late to edit
I meant:
In relation to feminism, I think a lot of posters on here read feminist literature from decades ago and apply it today. Eg they read literature written in the 60s and 70s and apply it to today whereas what was needed in the 60s and 70s is not the same as what is needed today.

Personally I think that today women can be professionals and deal with their professional lives as professionals, without help, but we need to deal better with social issues which affect women on a fundamental level - eg get porn off the high street and off the internet, get rid of the dark web, etc. You may disagree.

I’m pretty sure it was in the manifesto -more powers to the mayors / regions was defo in it

What? Are you worried money will be spent outside of London now? We need that, not everything is about London, there's a whole world outside London that has been neglected for far to long. Bring it on

He won't be very popular if he gets in as PM and immediately raises yet more taxes from hard working people. He's so left wing he will probably borrow more and spend more and it's our kids and grandkids who will be left paying all of the borrowing back. Reeves borrowed a lot and taxed a lot already.

He already annoys me more than Keir Starmer and that's quite a feat in itself.

Have you seen this video of him commenting on AI users posters for No 10 North?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/e27vNjQuf-s

It's just embarrassing. Has he really got nothing better to do with his time that try to make 'be my mate' videos?

I saw one tweet about this that said something like 'Just give him a permanent spot on Lorraine Kelly's show and be done with it".

Really haven't got much to attack him with, have you?

Yes, I believe that's a really fair assessment.