AIBU to wonder how a government can be based in Manchester?

[dottiedodah]

Andy Burnham is proposing to govern from Manchester when he starts on July 20th.How can this be so ? Surely all previous governments have been based in London?

I guess it would be like being based in London but everyone would have funny northern accents.

He can govern from the moon as far as I’m concerned if he can make the changes this country needs !

he won’t last more than 5 minutes ( thankfully) so it’s all irrelevant really

But this what people wanted.....

Tbh I didn't have a lot of love for Starmer but we've got to stop teasing prime ministers live premier League managers. They need a full term to prune of they can do any of what they set out in manifesto. The co stant chopping, changing and infighting detracts from the actual job at hand

The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland all have a government based across multiple locations and they seem to function perfectly well. South Africa did this as part of the constitutional changes in the 90s. Venom seems strongly in favour of a pretty radical program of devolution, and that does seem to work quite well in Germany.

Although until we can reliably catch a train on time between london and Manchester, all bets are off really aren’t they?

Hear, hear!

What makes you say that?

Wait until you hear there are governments based in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast... 🤯

It’s actually the midlands.

So would be equally distant for everyone to get to.

Though I must say it’s easier to get from the actual north (Newcastle) to London by train than it is to the new Identifies as North (Manchester)

He won't last five minutes because the problems are systemic. Governing from Manchester is pie in the sky and would be a total waste of money, which we do not have. He cannot make any great changes.

He’s going to move a chunk of the prime minister’s office to Manchester. Not the entire government. Although if they close the Houses of Parliament for refurbishing like they’ve been saying they need to for a while, one option would be a temporary relocation to another part of the country, so I suppose the chance of that option being selected has ticked up a notch.

Manchester isn't in the Midlands. it might be near the middle of the whole Island but that isn't the same thing.

I think it's a great idea.

Power has gone to his head.

It would be impossible. Everyone knows governments can only function from London. Manchester doesn't have things like phone lines and internet connections and offices and transport hubs and so on, nothing ever gets done here- if people need to make a decision they have to take a train to London to do it!

They have been talking about moving parliament outside of London for the refurb for decades. I think the biggest blocker is then all the civil service offices in Whitehall that ministers need access to easily.

Moving MPs is relatively easy, is the massive wider government machine that makes this difficult.

By all means move a chunk of the number 10 function to Manchester as a symbolic gesture; but when the shit hits the fan it will be a pain in the arse having key personnel in separate locations around the country

I mean there’s literally no reason it couldn’t be. Odd thing to take issue with.

Travelling from Manchester to London is generally faster then travelling from Newcastle to London.

He doesn't propose to move 'the government' to Manchester. He proposes to move one specific part of the Prime Minister's office/staff to Manchester, which is a perfectly reasonable idea.

Surely all previous governments have been based in London?

So what? You realise things don't always have to stay the same, right?

Lots of public sector organisations have started to move their business out of London, because in most cases, there's no practical reason they need to be based there and it's considerably cheaper to have premises elsewhere. It also means that public sector workers can afford to live close to work and have a better work-life balance, a lower carbon footprint and more disposable income.

Manchester isn’t the Midlands. I live in the Midlands and I’m at least 2 hours away from Manchester.

Anyway @dottiedodah The government can function from Manchester, or Birmingham or wherever, it doesn’t need to be in London

We already have governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff and Belfast.

I’m sure Manchester will manage fine.

I wonder whereabouts in Manchester they’d put it. Was walking past the people’s history museum earlier on my break and saw all the journalists outside after he’d given his speech, it would bring some jobs in which would be good news

Oxford was once the capital…

It's in the middle of the island of Great Britain.

It's not in the middle of England, which is what is meant by the term 'The Midlands'.