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?

Didn’t they set Colchester up as the capital at one point?

Manchester is a major city and AB is only talking about moving some functions north not the whole government! There is no reason this couldn’t work.

I moved to the north. I've never heard a conversation about southerners in any form, let alone a derogatory one. It's only been 18 years since I moved here, so I suppose there's time yet.

Cheaper housing? Not in Manchester these days! Have you seen how much rent has gone up since the southerners started moving up? 😆🙈

I had the same experience as @Monty36, although this was more than 18 years ago so perhaps things had improved by the time you moved.

Yep. There was a capital city at Tamworth too! Gosh the suffering, having a capital city so far north. (Let’s not mention that place the Vikings invaded, they’re all weird up there. God’s country indeed).

Oh, sorry, I stand corrected. A YouGov poll 48 days ago of 56,647 people (0.08% of the population) has deemed it so. It's official! 🥳

I must have missed the king's announcement, silly me.

Surely if we’re talking Britain rather than England, Edinburgh or Cardiff have a far stronger claim than Manchester anyway?

This idea has been around for a long time. If I remember rightly recent conservative governments talked about making a second seat of government in a northern city.

I'm not sure about this, how are we going to attract the best people for the job if there are no fringe benefits? I remember reading on another thread that the bar helps with security issues when it comes to MPs. I don't think it is that much if an ask to not want to be attacked which is a real possibility these days.

Do you really believe, hand on heart, that the current crop of MPs are the best people for the job?

Why won't he? Tory papers determined to bring him down, whether he does well or not? 14 years of Tory mess wont be sorted overnight.

You think a subsidised bar is what attracts the best candidates for working in government…?

All those London based people will be gutted they cancelled HS2 to Manchester 😂😂😂

I actually don’t see what the problem would be. A lot of people travel to sit in London, they’d just be travelling to a different place.

This is true and better AB than Reform but I think this North/South talk is a bit devisive, he needs to work on his delivery.

On the contrary, the idea is that power is less centralised and more devolved.

No, not so much the bar but the other list of things. As I stated the bar helps keeping MPs secure so that they can socialise without risk of being attacked so maybe there is an argument for the bar, eveninga only of course. Perhaps not though as the rest of us who work in London have to pay London bar prices in the evening.

Yeah it's all just sheep and pies up there

Not particularly but I think many of them have integrity and it is hard job. I felt sorry for Starmer, it seems to me that is how Intense the scrutiny is now enough to make him very emotional. If you are in London then it isn't much money but obviously you don't go into politics for the money.

It just seems like a pointless gimmick to me. “Look an office in the north to make everyone clap, and I’ll point to that as something I’ve done rather than any actual measurable changes”.
Also his idea of regional inequality is very north v south focused. Cornwall is one of the most economically deprived councils and still never gets mentioned.

Yes, I said this but apparently it's not about the SW.

Yeah, do you want to say something like that a bit louder for all the people working hard in our public services up and down the country?

Just seen your new reply. Oh gosh so now we can’t even manage to talk to each other north of Watford - presumably cos we can’t translate each others accents or something?

Or we have different smoke signal conventions? Is that why I’m getting dirty looks from people, what’s my smoke being translated as?? Do I just need to get back to banging rocks together?

Yep. This isn’t about inequality, it’s about giving a bung to Manchester.

If he wanted to get jobs to a deprived area of the NW he could have suggested Blackpool. Funny he’s not doing that, isn’t it?

I'm curious, were you being tongue-in-cheek there?

I hear these days they have the internet in the north