To ask if you watched Andy Burnham’s bloody good speech?

[Househunt2026]

As in actually watched it and didn’t just doom scroll the commentary? It was bold and honest and pragmatic and actually made me hopeful that we have someone at the helm with a vision for a better tomorrow who has Britain’s best interests at heart.

The National Care Service is a masterstroke, paid for out of scrapping the triple lock and the very real savings of reducing NHS bills on A&E and hospital beds for elderly who should be in care but have nowhere to go.

Scrapping right to buy and increasing council control of housing, boosting the technical education track for young people, pushing renewables, nuclear and energy sovereignty, public control of key utilities for water to get bills down and reduce pollution, investing in people & getting them back to work, leasehold reform by Christmas and everyone’s energy bill will be reduced by fast tracking decoupling energy prices from global gas pricing and by having no VAT on energy bills by TOMORROW!

You can watch the whole thing here and be directly informed instead of getting your perspective filtered through all the bots and misinformation peddlers online m.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjTT_55Gi0

Well no, you're right. He's never managed to win any election. Or even a leadership bid within his own party. And unlike Trump he also appears to has no interest in making the country he rules richer or more powerful.*

I am obviously not comparing the policies, I am comparing the approach. Populism does not lean left or right, it targets the angry, ignorant masses. I suggest reading up on Rome circa 2nd Century BC to the fall of the Republic and the rise of Octavian/Augustus. Populists in all shapes and forms, with one thing in common; rousing the rabble. This is what happens when you have a large, uneducated population. And is the most persuasive reason for ensuring you have a large, uneducated population.

To be clear, I am also not remotely suggesting this one is in the league of the Gracchi, Caesar, Augustus, or even Clodius! He's a very, very pale shadow working from the same well-worn playbook. But as he's so far not even managed to even come up with anything new, I doubt he'll last long. Or maybe that's wishful thinking; I am genuinely shocked at how many presumably grown women have had their heads turned by a man whimpering on stage whilst repeating the exact same things most of his predecessors have said, with even less understanding of basic economics and geopolitical forces.

And yes, I'll happily admit to be rattled; 'he's a hateful, divisive, bitter little charlatan. He's more populist than Trump, and has so far demonstrated even fewer morals.' And he's suddenly, bizarrely in charge of the country, implementing policies nobody voted for which will cause enormous and permanent harm to all of us. If you're not rattled, it's because you don't understand the enormity of what's happening.

*As no doubt your next retort will be that I must be a Trump voter, I will pre-empt it by saying I am most certainly not - Trump is absolute scum, I despise him and his entire cabinet, and think they should all be in gaol. I am however very interested in why people would ever vote for a creature like Trump, and I see the exact same answer in why people would swoon over Burnham.

Hateful: undermined his own party, then bribed his fellow party members to stage a coup to oust the democratically appointed leader, and is now imposing his own policies which are in complete opposition to what was voted for. And doesn't have the balls to even test his regime with an election.

Bitter: always whining that he didn't get taken seriously as he was a poor northerner 🙄 I speak from experience when I say no fucker cares if an Oxbridge student has an accent - if they're talented, they're in. If they're not talented they're not in ... and then they'll whinge and whine and complain that and it must be because they're a poor northerner

Divisive: endlessly bangs on about north v south, Labour v Tory. rich v poor. Not even going to bother explaining this one; just Google.

HTH

The Left doesn't spilt when there's a threat from the right. The Greens were divided as to whether to even field a candidate in Makerfield in case it led to a Reform win. As it was they campaigned very lightly. The Left tends to unite and the right divide.

I don’t know if this is a quirk of my personality, or if it says something about the polarised and polarising nature of online debate, but when I first commented on this thread, my feelings were along the lines of, “wow, he’s a very skilled orator & I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth of his vision, maybe Labour have more to offer than I thought”

And now, following some of the completely hyperbolic, occasionally classist (“provincial”, “chip on his shoulder”, “obsessed with the North”), definitely sexist (“swooning”), criticisms of Andy Burnham and the people who are currently impressed by him, I feel just about ready to go to war for the man!!

I agree. There was very little about funding in the speech. However bold the vision, it won't happen if the money isn't there.

I suspect you represent the majority of the population. Happily.

You are arguing for electoral reform. They didn’t limp in under the system in place; there would have been a different result under a different system. Both things are true.

Happily for you, Burnham’s speech included commitment to electoral reform. (Which surprised me tbh)

What’s the old phrase?
‘Hope won’t butter my parsnips’

Did you feel ‘ready to go to war’ for Starmer when he won the 2024 GE, or at any time during his tenure?

And vibes will not reduce your tax liability or address the cost of living…

I doubt it, even the vote is about half. And he’s still on a bounce after Starmer annoyed the electorate. Now he’s got winter fuel bills to get through.

Labour is considering scrapping one of the main disability benefits for young people and offering them more intensive back-to-work support instead, according to reports.

Andy Burnham is said to be looking at abolishing the health element of universal credit, worth £217 a month, for under-25s.
In exchange, young people would be offered subsidised jobs, places on targeted back-to-work support programmes and targeted mental health support, The Guardian reported.

Thank god. Theyve fucked up Scotland good and proper.

Sadly, no. But I felt optimistic when he was elected. I found his “island of strangers” speech hard to stomach. I thought he ceded too much ground in Reform over immigration. But I also thought he showed moral bravery over refusing to join the U.S over Iran. I wish he’d lifted the two child benefit cap sooner, but I was also glad when he did it. I thought the way he was treated in the press and by his party was abhorrent. I didn’t want him to be ousted and was disappointed when he was.

But, I wasn’t on Mumsnet then. So, a substantial part of my point is maybe the polarised and polarising debate here isn’t for me, if I want to keep having nuanced opinions of my own!

Are you suggesting that only immigrants of colour would want a job in a car wash? EDIT. I don't think you are now I've read your back posts, but I'm sure there are people who do, so this still stands,

1. It's not true. The car wash at Tesco is currently staffed with all white guys (the area is overwhelmingly white majority). Up until recently it had been all black or Asian guys and the change was sudden. I suspect there was a check on who had the right to be working there.

1. Nobody needs to import an immigrant to wash cars. Wash your own, don't wash it or put it through a machine. 30 years ago, there used to be car wash machines everywhere. They are now rare, which has damaged UK productivity figures.

Surprised, shocked and delighted. FPTP does not work fairly in a social media age.

I do agree with Burnham that electoral reform is needed. Although, I have to laugh at a PM who owes his premiership to FPTP calling for it. And a PM who has policies that nobody has ever had a chance to vote on. Even BoJo had the decency to call an election to get a mandate.

You may not like my use of the word limp but Labour were rejected by 2/3 of voters. If we take in non voters, the number of people who actually care about Labour is even lower. They sneaked in thanks to Farage splitting the right despite the lowest vote share of any modern government. I call that limping.

Excuse me? The left doesn't split when there's a threat from the right?

Terrified by the rise of Reform, the left just staged a coup against a leader that handed them the biggest election victory in nearly 30 years!

no thats "fair words butter no parsnips" but its equally appropriate.

Only 20% of the UK electorate voted for Labour at the last GE. For Andy Burnham to have now garnered the support of a “majority of the population” would be nothing short of a political miracle! But of course there’s a simple way to find out.

@Raiderofthelostbattenburg I would politely suggest that if simply reading a few "criticisms of Andy Burnham and the people who are currently impressed by him" makes you "ready to go to war for the man" when you were only "pleasantly surprised" by him before, maybe you're right that forums aren't a good fit for you.

Totally agree!

Thank you for your pedantry, it wasn’t a rhetorical question.

you are welcome any time.
Possibly you meant that your question was rhetorical?

I’m walking the dog while trying to type.
Thank you for your correction.