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?

It'll damage Manchester.

We need new jobs not relocated jobs with big payoffs for moving.
It'll mess up house prices further.

If we had HS2 you could be in Manchester from London a bit quicker.

Don't know what happened to government office north West. That was in Piccadilly and was another tier of nonsense.

I don't think greater Manchester needs a mayor.
And annoyingly everyone calls him the mayor of Manchester but it is greater Manchester and it's not all great

His drama outside the library during COVID was pure nonsense and really annoying.

He's only creating an office for a few of his mates in Manchester at the tax payer expense - it is what chronies do for each other. At least he isn't spending his dodgy mates to the US to be ambassador.

He wants greater devolution, and plans to base the office where devolution has been most successful. I genuinely don’t see why that is an issue, and it looks like people are just determined to find fault with anything he sats or does, just because.

It’s this.
They did the same with Starmer and that’s why everyone claims to hate him now. It was never Starmer. It was the press and social media finding fault with even the most positive thing.

Christ on a bike, did you study stupidity at university?

At last!! The next PM announcing the largest council house building programme for years. That's the only solution to start to revive society and Burnham can be based anywhere.

It’s going to blow your mind when you learn that, in the private sector, I lead a team spread across five continents from my desk in Manchester.

I like his ideas.

The UK is - factually - "hypercentralised" in favour of London & the South East.

Letting local people decide what is needed is logically sound. Let Westminster deal with big, global issues.

For us in Scotland, I agree that the Central Belt equates to the South East & that the SNP tend towards centralising power.

Centralisation has failed. Look where the UK is now. Something else is needed.

I explained my doubts in an earlier reply, you must have missed it. I'm sorry to say I think it's rather lazy to dismiss people as "just determined to find fault with anything he sats [sic] or does, just because." People have clearly and repeatedly explained precisely why there are concerns, and you have failed to address them. Which is of course your right - but I feel it is disingenuous to claim you believe criticism is unfounded. You may like him and trust him, but you can presumably understand why others are sceptical, and claiming they have absolutely no reason to be and that everybody's just pretending to be worried when they really actually know there's nothing to worry about is a bit silly.

While you may indeed think it makes perfect sense for him to base the devolution office where it has been 'most successful', that does not explain what other options were considered on the way to this decision. One would expect such a large, expensive decision to at the very least require some discussion of alternative options, and yet this seems to have been a choice he made entirely on his own. And even he's not claiming it's because it's where devolution has been most successful, that's just your interpretation. I believe I am not alone in thinking it's purely because that's where he's from, rather than from any analytical calculation of where it would be best placed. I would love to be proven wrong, as it's obviously terrifying to confront the notion of having a prime minister who would do something like that. I'm very surprised if you can't see why people are worried.

I personally think it makes far more sense to place it somewhere more central, with excellent transport link, and in desperate need of the magic he brought to Manchester. Then he can demonstrate Manchesterism can work anywhere, and silence his doubters. I would have thought he'd jump at the chance. Now, you may disagree obviously, but I'm sure you can accept that is a perfectly valid idea, and I am very curious as to why he discounted it when he was debating the location. I'm also fascinated to know where else was considered, and I doubt I'm alone.

Hopefully he'll soon reassure everybody and release details of the consultations and analysis that's been undertaken.

We already have a great deal of devolution. We were objectively far better off when we were more centralised.

However, correlation does of course not equal causation.

No just naturally stupid. A bit like the people who think Burnham is the Second Coming.

It's unlikely to happen, no matter what the media says.

Who is going to get them, though?

I don't personally see how he will combine governing with defending the Wall, but give him a chance

Manchester is the north West north the Midlands. The Midlands is Birmingham way.

Ey up, ey up surely?

How many weeks did that take you?

Andy just wants to WFH.

Oh no, so the MPs can now have a third home!

It’s absurd. It’s not about if there are phones in Manchester it’s about where the entire senior civil service is, and where the security currently sits. Andy will create huge administrative costs.

he’s such a moron. His comments last year about ‘not being in hock to the bond markets’ tell everyone what they need to know - that he’s a simpleton who doesn’t understand the economic fundamentals of macro government. He will crash and burn while taking us down with him. His voting record says it all

Labour in general is ridiculous - doing everything they criticised the Tory government for doing

This. The political system is broken. The public don’t respect politicians, votes mean nothing anymore. In the same way the public no longer respect veterans, the elderly, doctors, teachers etc.

No one can do right, especially if they aren’t male or dominant. So here we are with a revolving door of leaders who can’t truly lead because their days are numbered the minute they step foot into their roles.

The cycle continues and then we have to ask what kind of people WANT that job? Who wants to put their family at risk by taking on the prime hated, can’t do anything right, position? Those who truly care will be pushed to stand down as it’s just not worth the aggro. Those who don’t truly care, who are in it for the insider trading, the connections, the back handed payments, the fame, will be the only ones left to choose from.

Stop hounding every bloody politician. The media and public bullied Starmer and the same will happen next time. The public (because of the media) won’t be happy until Reform are voted in, and what a shit show to freedom, rights and a future that will be. It’s so depressing, especially for our innocent kids who have to put up with the world that adults make.

Quite.

I mean, first they moved the ENO to Manchester.

Now AB is apparently planning to move some government bits and bobs up North.

Where will it end……..

I'm thinking of getting myself a translation Whippet.

My cats will be useless, both a very monotone East Mids.

It's all rainy like, and they don't talk normal. T'internet doesn't work there.