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.

I agree a lot of it is gimmicky and not very meaningful. I live in the NE and do get fed up with the London centric way things work in this country. But London has been the seat of economic and political power for a thousand years. That’s not going to change because he opened an office in Manchester in a week. And Manchester is not representative of “the north”

Yes. I like him.

But that’s the right and grown up thing to do, no? All political parties know something desperately needs to be done about social care - but of course none of them want to take the political hit it will inevitably take will lead to. So, sharing the fallout will mean what needs to happen might actually happen.

What the public will be happy with and what the right & necessary for the country aren’t always the same.

Its obviously very, very early days but I think he’s made an incredibly impressive start.

You might want to read my subsequent post where I said this wasn’t a bad thing and was politically shrewd. No where in the post you responded to with such fury did I say it’s a bad thing either. I just said it’s his motivation, imo.

In fact, your rage response is what has gone wrong with political discourse in this country. It’s no longer possible to have reasonable debates where people respect and listen to each other. Instead it’s rage and attack. As you illustrate well.

He's a politician so you have to consider the political motives. Obviously if they all come to some agreement and push through some brilliant well thought out policy it will be great. But I don't really see how, we are paying an unsustainable amount for not enough services where do you go from that starting point? The only answers are cut services more or raise more money in taxes, I'm not sure Burnham can do either of those politically even with backing from other parties. It will be interesting to see the outcome.

What Arabic people? Iranians are not Arabic. Most Palestinians are... but I don't think we're supposed to mention that as we're meant to pretend they're the helpless indigenous population and the Israelis are the evil colonisers. When obviously it's the opposite. We, America and even Israel are allied with the actual Arabian nations, and are currently trying to defend them from attacks by Iran and Iranian proxies. Which I'm sure you'll be happy to learn.

As far as Burnham, he's so far announced some piddling, un-costed policies which will have little impact. Other than for the very wealthy or wasteful, who might appreciate the lack of VAT when running a mansion. For most of us it's entirely meaningless, and as apparently we don't have much money, one thinks it could be used for something more useful. As for buses, providing some more would be a far more sensible use of money. Most users don't pay anyway, and as has already been seen elsewhere when caps are introduced, bus companies will just change routes to make sure they don't miss out on profits. So a £3 single on one bus will very possibly turn into a longer journey split into two for £4.

But even if that doesn't happen, and the (non-existent) buses are cheaper for the minority of people who actually pay to use them, it seems like the most absurd way to start. How can he possibly think the country's most pressing needs are reducing £3 bus fares and saving an average household £4 a month on electricity? It's naked populism, done badly. Social care is indeed a pressing issue, and one would think he'd want to put every penny he could towards that. Especially when we are almost certainly not going to like what he's proposing, any more than we liked it a decade ago when he first suggested it. If I were one of the other parties, I would keep well clear. There's no chance at all this nasty little man will give them any credit if it goes well, so why would they bother; he's spent a career taking credit for everyone else's work, it's jolly unlikely he'll change now! Of course when it fails, he'll blame them for not supporting him. But as he'll also obviously blame for its failure if they do join him, it makes little difference.

So no, I don't think it's at all a good start. Obviously I may be wrong, and I genuinely hope I am as I have no idea what plan C is.

Social care absolutely needs to be a cross party decision and it needs sorting asap, not after waiting for yet another report, how many reports have successive governments done on social care without ever actually addressing the problem. Does that mean Burnhams doing a google job, personally I’ll wait to see the results before deciding, his tinkering around the edges with vat on electricity, bus fares etc hardly make any real impression on the cost of living day to day, doing that means increasing the tax thresholds significantly or reducing the rate of income tax, neither of which are likely

I think it is a good idea, so in part it is due to that, but it is difficult to get a hammering from the Tory press if they have been somewhat involved. It is good in a way - it stops the ridiculous polarisation our press promotes.

He has said stuff, he hasn't done anything. Massive difference, the former being a doddle, the latter quite tricky. Ask again in a year or so!

Which is his own fault as he resigned as an MP, apart from the fact thatbhis party has so few MPs as to be irrelevant.

Everyday I miss Rishi Sunak

I was very sceptical, but actually really impressed so far. He's doing sensible things, why has it taken so long to find someone like that? Starmer didn't seem to do anything at all after looking good on paper. Started badly - cutting fuel allowance for elderly, kept going back on rubbish decision and then never really achieved anything.

Of course it’s due to our system - that’s a whole other debate.

Between the buses and the electric I will be saving £85 a month. Not much to be sniffed at!

It’s a real challenge - I’m a massive fan of PR but it does worry me that Reform would gain more power. They are dangerous people and we underestimate them at our peril.

No. He’s taking the power out of London because the entire country has become London centric.

Loving him so far but the russian bots and oligarch owned press will be in full propaganda mode. They want instability.

Look at the damage Rupert Murdochs campaign against the BBC has done.

Where do you get the idea he’s a “nasty little man”? This description is completely at odds with most people who have met him or worked with him so what’s your basis for it?

He sounds logical. Like he’s doing the right things. Which begs the question, what the fuck were the other ones doing?

The majority of British people simply don't care much about wars in far away places. Before you yell at me, please note I said the majority not no-one, that's why we have the four independent MPs elected based on their opposition to the war in Gaza.

Seeing everything through the lens of that conflict is affecting your judgement. Here's a question: how much should the British people base their voting decisions on foreign policy issues which pose no imminent threat to our own country?

What about him? Is it him boasting about moving spending from poorer areas to richer ones? Is that what you liked about him?

All hat and no rabbit

Why would they be invited?They want to privatise the NHS, why invite a party who wants to destroy the NHS to a meeting trying to save it?

I'll be saving about £1 a month. If that. I suspect my amount is more typical in the main.

Very happy for you that you have buses you can use, we don't. Again, I think my experience is more usual nationally.

I do wish we, the British, would get involved in protecting the West Bank Palestinians from the terrorising and persecution from Settlers. The Police and IDF and the Courts are all biased against the Arabs.