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

Less about wanting them to fail and more about recognising that every time they are in power they leave us as an economic wreck from which it takes decades to recover. It’s critical that for the next couple of years they cause as little damage as possible. That’s really the best we can hope for.

Completely agree with you.

At least Reeves has gone…

Despite what you seem to think, I am not actually a paid up member of the Labour Party. In fact, I have been pretty ambivalent about them for a very long time, and only voted for them at the last election because I thought they were the best of a bad bunch. It was a low bar.

I wasn't a fan of Burnham taking the leadership in the way that he did, either. I knew Starmer was unpopular but I didn't think the country would benefit from yet another change of PM and I felt that the best option would be for them to rally round and help Starmer to actually deliver the change that he had promised.

Turns out I was wrong, and Burnham is actually exactly what the country needed. He has vision, courage, ideas and the ability to communicate them. I feel far more hopeful than I have done in a very long time, and in fact, I might just sign up for Labour party membership now after all.

As for my framing being "off" - I really don't think so. I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with me and I don't really care if they have different opinions. It is to be expected.

I would argue that you are the actually one with the framing that's "off" as you keep trying to misrepresent what I've actually said to suggest that I am somehow offended by people having the temerity to disagree with me. I'm not At all. But it seems to suit you to imply that,, despite me not having given you any evidence that would back up that representation of what I've said. I'm not sure quite why you are adopting this line or what you think it adds to your argument. But I have noticed that you have a habit of not answering posts directly so perhaps it is linked to that.

Turns out I was wrong, and Burnham is actually exactly what the country needed. He has vision, courage, ideas and the ability to communicate them.

You deduced all that from just one speech?

I thought the IMF was supposed to be knocking on the door by now.

Said who?

People who don’t think Burnham or Labour are exactly what is needed will post as such. It’s pretty simple.

I’m interested in a broader debate other than if you don’t like Burnham enough you want the UK to fail or whatever. It’s a commentary on the actual politicians. Some like him, others don’t.

I agree with some of the comments below.

Well, in fairness, there was a global crash shortly before the last time Labour left power. The Tories did a great job of convincing the public that it was Labour's fault, but Gordon Brown received substantial praise internationally for his leadership during that period.

Don't forget that we've all seen what happens whenever we have a right wing government.

No, things were already heading in a more positive direction before the speech. The speech helped to confirm it.

Ok, thanks.

I thought he was pretty quiet during the summer - perhaps, he was doing a lot behind the scenes, beyond his devolution set-piece.

I'm interested in that broader debate too.

But what I mostly get from your posts is a sense of how much you hate Labour. That seems to be your guiding principle.

I know you like Kemi, but I haven't really seen you saying much about what you personally believe or what you really want for the country. Perhaps I've missed those posts.

I’d love it if there was a broader debate than right good, left bad. It would be a lot more interesting that’s for sure.

And ditto for your posts about other parties.

Idk read as you like, if you’re interested in my views I don’t particularly mind if you do or skip over.

Mostly I’m looking for threads that aren’t all pro Burnham / Labour and I’m interested in and agree with some comments below.

I want to agree with you.

Please help me - who and how will pay for this bold vision? the new "manifesto" (which is de facto manifesto) will cost a lot. UK gilts are about 6% now so even servicing existing debt will require tax rises.

Where the money will come from?

I think those are all fair questions. We will have to wait until the budget to get some answers. Judge it then, by all means - I will be scrutinising it personally.

More eager to see Labour fail than to see the country and its people thrive.

The only people who thrive under Labour are the ones looking for ways to avoid working, billionaires, tax avoiding corporates and real asset investors. Everyone else gets screwed.

Isn't that exactly what Burnham keeps asking for? He's all about cross party working and consensus building in order to solve the problems that the country is facing.

That approach could make such a huge difference to the country - it could produce genuinely better policies that could be implemented on a much longer term basis. It won't work if the other parties are still stuck on point scoring though.

Hopefully Kemi and the other party leaders will put the country first and get on board. I won't hold my breath though.

I don't think that's true but whatever. I could come back with a comment about who typically does well under right wing governments but we all already know and it doesn't really add anything to the debate.

Do you think there's a way to improve the country without paying for things?
And if not, should we just leave things that will cost money unimproved?

I’m not sure that the IMF will save us this time. But let’s see how the next budget goes. We just have to try to stay afloat long enough to get to the next election.

Go for it. I have as much contempt for them too.

That's the problem with binary thinking, no imagination.

His speech was simply awe inspiring and should be compelled watching for everybody in the country. I imagine a lot of women up and down the country are starting to develop something of a crush on the bloke, I know I am! 😍 ❤️ 🇨🇳

Whyever not? I thought the IMF had a magic wand.

Its not the paying for things that is the issue. It is who is paying for them and how.