To be sick to death of Andy Burnham already

[Viviennemary]

I'm sick to death already of seeing Andy Burnham and hearing his voice. And he isnt even PM yet. Come back Keir Starmer. All is forgiven. I dont know how I'm going to suffer 3 or four more years of him in charge. Playing the part of the working class hero who is going to save the country. Give me strength.

We never vote for a Prime Minister. We vote for our individual MP, and one who can command the confidence of the House of Commons is asked to form a government.

Seems like Burnham likes being Mayor of Manchester so much he's decided to be Prime Minister of Manchester too. I guess the rest of the country will just have to hope he remembers we exist...

His No 10 North is a daft idea.

It's not devolution - that involves handing power to other bodies. This project seems to suggest that the PM and No 10 still hold power and make the decisions, but the location where the PM is sat when he makes those decisions will have moved to Manchester so Burnham can WFH and not be inconvenienced by being Prime Minister.

His absence could easily create a power vacuum in London and parliament. Westminster is the seat of government. That's where all the people Burnham is supposed to be leading are. It's where people talk, agreements are made, and deals are done. And Burnham won't be there to exercise authority, to lead, or to deal with usurpers. It's inevitable that one or more players will try to fill the vacuum caused by the absentee PM, creating further political instability and conflict as various factions in the Labour party vie for power.

@Viviennemary is a Farage fan.

Yep. It wasn't the Winter of Content, was it.

All this YAP about sturdy working class communities and virtues makes me heave. I grew up in one of those communities and hated it. His most urgent job is to repeal the jobs tax and other blunders by Rachel from accounts.

I think this really nails it.

AB doesn’t seem to grasp that he’s supposed to be representing the whole of the country now, not just the north. His whole schtick of “king of the north” isn’t helpful in creating a united nation.

For context, I’m not in London or the southeast so I’m not protecting my own interests. I just think it feels as if he’s arrived gunning for the south, desperate to please red wall voters up north.

The idea of having Number 10 in Manchester is self-indulgent and performative. By all means have policies to prevent everything feeling so London-centric but having a PM who isn’t based in Westminster is just ridiculous. Like it or not, that is the seat of government but he just seems to really hate everything to do with London and the south!

Also, as an Oxbridge-educated man who leads a wealthy, privileged life, it’s a bit of a joke trying to claim that he’s just your average man on the street. If you believe that I’ve got some magic beans to sell to you…

I also think he’s got a bloody cheek talking about positive politics and not being divisive, bearing in mind he spent months plotting and executing a coup.

Of course I will judge him on his politics and I wait to see what his policies are. However, he’s already shown that his knowledge of women’s rights is woeful and he flip flops on policies depending on public opinion. Like Wes Streeting, he’s a career politician who will say whatever it takes to make him popular.

I’m not a Starmer fangirl but I think he was doing a steady job and was a decent, principled guy who didn’t deserve to be stabbed in the back.

AB’s cabinet selection will be interesting - let’s see how it all unfolds.

Also, people pontificating about getting the Tories back seem to forget they’re the party who spent the last decade or so tanking this country and the economy.

I am left wing and generally a Labour voter but none of this feels good to me right now.

I agree. These people are delusional. Sometimes I wonder how people can be so ill informed, and so unable to connect the dots. Unless you're very wealthy the right don't give a fuck about you. They laugh at you and hold you in contempt.

The Tories caused those things

Perhaps you just like complaining?

And here it goes, the classism begins. Nothing wrong with his accent, it’s lovely and large swathes of the country speak like him- with regional accents. I’m pleased he’ll be PM, think he’s done a wonderful job in Manchester and I hope he can achieve similar things nationally.

He didn’t grow up wealthy and privileged though, he’s working class and he’s also stayed true to his roots. He didn’t send his kids to private school and he’s always lived locally to where he grew up. So what if he went to Cambridge, do working class kids not belong there?

I'm rather ambivalent on who's in No10. However, I read an article in the Grauniad about AB which said he likes to do his shopping in Asda and Costcutter which struck me as far-fetched (obviously to continue his man of the people gig.)
I'm in the north and remember when he was voted in as mayor of Manchester one of his pledges was to end homelessness. I think he failed miserably. Do think we're in for an interesting ride ahead.

I can’t stand him. I don’t even know why. Something about him makes me feel like he is going to tax the living hell out of me.

I voted YABU - give him a chance ffs.

This tendency to be hyper-critical and having impossible expectations of every politician isn’t healthy, and will just mean we’ll have an endless merry-go-round of PMs and a constant feeling of disappointment.

Burnham may be good, he may be crap, but it’s far too early to judge… , but I sense some people like the OP will never ever be satisfied… it’s probably an extension of just having a depressing cynical personality who’s constantly finding fault and always moaning about something or other.

So what if she is. Why are you trying to shame somebody who doesn't think the same way as you do. There's a word for that. Do you think entrants to Mumsnet have to undertake a survey which asks them about their political preferences? Family life and hobbies? Yes. The platform welcomes everybody and between your post and the constant bot and troll hunting, it's probably about time HQ reminded posters that. It's not in the spirit to deny other posters a voice because it doesn't suit your own ideology.

Morning Kemi. Treat yourself to a day off.

Haha and straightaway it begins. Treat yourself to a course on democracy.

The snobbery and prejudice on here towards those with a northern accent is shocking.

Isn't it just? People went on about Harold Wilson's Yorkshire accent when he became PM in 1964. I thought the sneering about regional accents was a thing of the past, but it seems not.

How long do you think he should be given before judgement?

If you're talking about classism, one might do well to remember this works both ways.

The 70’s was like every other decade - good in parts, bad in parts.

Hardly, he's not even PM until Monday.

We've no idea how good or bad he'll be yet. At least he seems like a relatively normal person, unlike Truss or Johnson.

Homelessness is complex, for some it becomes a lifestyle and they genuinely can’t imagine having a home again. It can be interlinked with MH and addiction. He shouldn’t have pledged to eradicate it for this reason, no one should. He’s tried though, he did donate a portion of his salary every month to homeless charities. I also think that Piccadilly gardens aside, Manchester is just something else now compared to what it was 15 or so years ago.

Apparently Starmer, like Margaret Thatcher, had elocution lessons. Northern accents are much better than southern ones.

Andy Burnham's accent is obviously one that he grew up with and he didn't try to lose it when he went to Oxford like a lot of working class students did.

Ha yeah and the upper class have suffered enormously as a result…