To think Andy Burnham is doing a decent job so far?

[spiceupyourlives]

I’m really impressed by him working with the tories and Lib Dems on social care. It’s what we’ve needed more of in this country for so long, and a solution to the crisis will only come about if the next party to take charge is also committed to the solution.

We have absolutely no say in what America does or what happens in the ME. Neither do any of those other European leaders. The difference between them and us is that we like to pretend we are equal partners to the US and have any kind of 'special relationship' whatsoever. So voting on issues in another country that has nothing to do with us and who will take no notice of us is pure virtue signalling nonsense ( and a pretty colonialist mindset).

I’m not arguing it’s a bad thing. It’s a shrewd political move and you’d expect politicians to politician. I just think this is his motivation.

The Libdems have got zero chance of forming a majority government. Should have included Reform.

At the very least, we would have seen whether Reform do have any workable ideas.

Not a bad point.

@Thismountain Would you feel better if the US and Israel allied with Arabic countries instead, and focused their attack on their main military foe in the region?

No political leader has been able to find a viable solution to social care yet. I hope that Burnham can work constructively with the Tories and the Libdems to come up with something that is actually workable and sustainable regardless of who is in power. It makes perfect sense to do this collaboratively.

The real question is not whether the talks are a good idea, as they obviously are, but whether politicians from all of the mainstream parties can put aside their political differences and engage constructively with the process in order to come up with a solution that they can all genuinely sign up to.

I would like to see far more cross party working across lots of issues - they do already do this effectively on many of the select committees etc. As Burnham has said, less point-scoring and more problem-solving. It would definitely help to restore people's trust in politics and politicians. But whether or not Burnham can actually drive this change and make it happen remains to be seen.

I mean he is a very skilled career politician, which Starmer was not. I do wonder why he lost 2 Labour leadership contests, but then I notice the winners were Ed Milliband and Jeremy Corbyn so says more about the Labour party arguably than him!

He hasn't really done anything yet, he's going to talk about social care, where it will lead no one knows, he may be just covering his back so when he does whatever he does he can say (most of) the other parties agreed with him. although how much common ground may be found is dubious.

I think he is doing ok. Nothing to write home about yet but he hasn't yet done a Truss and crashed the economy. I think the cross party stuff is probably to soften us for another "I'm going to work on social care but not give you any substance for 2 years " type speech today.

This is what triggered the October 7 attacks in the first place. Saudi Arabia were due to start talks with Israel on trade etc cooperation and Iran wanted to scupper them so used their Hamas thugs to try and trigger another war in the ME. It was obvious Netenyahu was going to retaliate. He'd been itching for a reason to attack and Hamas/Iran were only too willing to give him one.

I think he's full of good intentions. However things like having a No 10 in Manchester doesn't really work out .I think giving 4.5 grand to neet parents is also a bit of a gimmick.however he has got time yet

And, as PP said, means they can’t undo it. Politics needs to be consensus driven now - it’s what works in Scandinavian countries. Maybe give him a chance before writing him off 🙄

He did mutter about standing up to the US if necessary whether he would actually do this and what the consequences would be who knows. He hasn't really changed any policies so far and up till now our support for the US in Iran has been minimal. And as said by others most of the Arab countries support the US and Iran isn't Arabic but Persian.

Reform have 5 MPs, LibDems have 72! Why on earth would you invite Reform??

Like he would have turned up anyway. He was hardly ever at the European Parliament, rarely attends the house of commons, and never holds surgeries in Clacton.

He's too busy toadying up to billionaires and making money

He's not here to make the UK better, just himself richer

Why do you feel a Manchester No. 10 can’t work?

He attends meetings and isn't stoned/pissed.

I think more cross party work is essential, particularly for something such as the NHS.

Involving the three biggest parties is a positive thing. I personally voted for Lib Dem last time because I genuinely think Ed Davey has some good plans and ideas for healthcare and should be listened to.

And Fag Ash Nige wouldn't want to be part of these talks, because he doesn't want to agree to helping fix the NHS when he could make more money from dismantling it and selling it off to the highest bidder. He just wants to bitch and moan.

In the same way he doesn't want to stop the boats (and let's not forget reform DID NOT vote for a new law that could help stop them) because if labour stop the boats, he has absolutely no ammo anymore.

I've always liked Burnham, and admire his aspirations for investment in the north and passion for Manchester over the years (i am not from the north, so have no skin in the game in this respect). I wasn't a fan of how he became PM, and began to view him with some skepticism. I think the headlines so far have been positive, and perhaps he understands that getting the media on side is the largest battle. I'll reserve further judgement until I see whether his talk translates into action. He won't be able to do much with a weak economy, so I'd like to understand where the money is coming from to balance the books/ reduce national debt. And i am saying this as a lifelong Labour supporter.

Well, that's due to our system. The Libdems got those 72 seats on 3,519,143 votes. Reforms 4,117,610 votes ended up with 5 seats.

This kind of attitude is so ridiculous and exactly why the country is in such a mess and paralysed . Consensus is the FASTEST way to get changes done. Why the hell wouldn’t he want to get everyone together on this. It’s a problem across the party divide. This is the kind of attitude that keeps the status quo where nothing happens. You are far far happier to be able to crow from the sidelines that the Labour man fucked it up - than ‘God forbid’ succeed by taking a consensus approach to a national crisis in care. It’s small minded and rather sad.

I don't even know what he means by it, government policies have to work for the whole country, is he suggesting the north of the country will have different policies than the rest of the country? Is it just for Manchester? Will it be a glorified mayor's office? Or will it be just a talking shop that refers back to London? Or he just hangs out there sometimes instead of at Number 10 in London.

Note how the Lib Dems have gone very quite on PR recently....

Too soon to tell, at the moment it is just words and there doesn't seem to be much focus on actual change and support for education at primary level.

I was with you until the ‘it was obvious BN would retaliate as he’s been itching for a reason’ comment.

Any leader in the entire world would give a comprehensive military response to a neighbour and their terrorist and state allies who launched an attack like Oct 7th. Absolutely no country could tolerate an enemy who did that, followed it up with firing tens of thousands of rockets at you and sending more terrorists into your country to murder your citizens, and who pledged their commitment to keep committing such sadistic attacks on your citizens and stated their intent to destroy your country. The tunnel system Hamas has it’s more akin to an underground city. It is hundreds of miles long and multi layer. Hamas and its allies have dedicated huge sums of money and many, many years to preparing for attacks like Oct 7th. Hezbollah have a similar tunnel network. That they will abduct and starve and country Israeli citizens in again if they can. No, no leader of any country would tolerate that. And the only country in the world that is expected to is Israel.

Details details, Burnham will work on those later. Just like any student project the first step was to spend time on the logo, which was successfully ticked off in week one.