Andy Burnham is just a dumbed down version of Starmer

[WarmHiker]

Just caught a snippet of some confident sounding commentator on tv repeating a line that you tend to hear in all news programmes. That Burnham is personable and has charisma. That line is starting make me think that as a country, the tyranny of low expectations has really hit a new low.

First thing’s first, when did saying ‘isn’t it’ after every sentence pass for charisma. Is the bar for charisma really that low.

Second, the guy’s failed upwards into a job that he’s clearly not fit for. His answer to everything is ‘Booses’.

The economy is on fire, buses. Immigration is out of control, buses. Crime is a problem, buses. We have the most expensive energy, buses. Industry and businesses are shutting down, buses.

He’s basically a small town mayor who accidentally became the prime minister because the quality of talent in parliament is non existent. Manchester is not a small town but running buses in Manchester doesn’t make you fit to be a PM. He was a failed health secretary, failed to be Labour leader twice when he actually had to have proper fight, somehow grifted his way to a mayor job for a decade. And yes his predecessors were any better. But why all the fawning over Burnham.

AIBU to think that we are headed towards a point soon when the public turns on him. He’s utterly out of his depth and the false shine will wear off in no time. A General election is looming.

All in all, so sad to see that this is the calibre of person at the top of government. What has happened to this country that no one smart wants to go anywhere politics.

What are you happy about. Actually, what has he done?

Is it the banning of music without headphone on buses? Was that your biggest problem. And happy days now that it’s sorted. Even though it’s not actually sorted, he just made a vacuous pronouncement.

This is what I mean about the tyranny of low expectations.

MPs are about the only employment where you dont need any qualifications, experience or skill set...

Well I’ve read the post and dismissing him as doing nothing but buses for Greater Manchester needs a bit of a fact check.
Mocking the way he speaks didn’t do you any favours either.

I actually think there is a lot of stuff that he could do to make peoples lives better that doesn't cost too much money and will address things that really affect peoples lives.

Parking issues, nuisance neighbours, non maintenance paying parents, poor old age driving, dangerous dogs ... the list that appears on here is near endless.

With generally nothing ever being done about it.

If he is willing to take some of that stuff on good on him IMO.

I think the really interesting thing about Burnham is that he gets the need to do things that will have a reasonably fast impact - the "little things" that people feel are eroding the social contract and making life just grindingly less pleasant, but unlikely to be transformative to the nation - with the larger, more painful and/or boring stuff that will take a long time to have impact that's either positive or negative (social care, green book reforms, public ownership changes).

In a hyper-centralised and highly-privatised (outside healthcare) political framework like the UK, and England in particular, the retail politics is important to chipping away at problems that degrade an overall sense of wellbeing. The test for Burnham is how he balances it against the more difficult reform agenda and manages a broad-but-not-deep PLP to cement that wider reform agenda tackling some of the broader structural problems.

I much prefer Burnham to Starmer.

Burnham is a politician. Starmer was a lawyer who was playing at politics. He seemed to have few ideas and was just slowly looking at technocratic solutions. And he couldn’t control his party.

I like the fact that Burnham graduated in English literature. It gives him a broader perspective than the recent succession of PPE/law/Economics graduates we have had. I also think it does lend him a charisma that we haven’t seen for a while.

And he has real policies, some are small and tactical and some are strategic. I don’t agree with all of them, but many do make sense. His small fixes are popular and easy. I don’t see what is wrong with that. Civil pride is an important aspect of any society.

However, he does have some big policies including cutting social security to fund government investment (the triple lock). That is a really good policy. Infrastructure is a disaster in the Uk and companies like Thames Water have been a grifter’s paradise for years. And decentralisation is also a good policy. Nearly all countries have diversification across regions.

If will take time to see how good he actually is at politics, but I think that he deserves a chance.

What in the ChatGPT are you on about. He's talking about trying to sort out one of the biggest issues in our country, Social Care. Either you have been in the lucky position to not have to worry about that or you're being obtuse.

That, right there, is small town mayor mentality.

If the PM’s intellect will stretch only as far as dealing with parking fines and nuisance neighbours, then he’s in the wrong job.

While the country has the highest debt to GDP ratio, sky high bond yields, businesses in crisis, creaking infrastructure, foreign investors giving up and leaving as are high rate taxpayers.

He’s just another in a long line of self serving liars. Not one of them is trustworthy all of them are about self. Everything now happens in plain sight because they rely on British people’s apathy. The government do not care about the normal person just the 1%

I don't think you can talk about the national debt and still try and block discussion of the Tories looting the country, but I'm sure you'll try.

Talking about the EU and our relationship with it is sensible too.

Rejoining the single market would be the quickest and easiest way to generate growth. He is right to not shy away from it.

There is nothing wrong with having been a mayor. He has a good team around him and you can go a long way to boost national morale by solving some of the small but annoying ways in which society has deteriorated.

Every. Single. Thread.

The least original “joke” on Mumsnet.

Well, those kind of things do make a significant difference to quality of life. But if you are looking for more macro level changes I'd cite:
Cost of living: measures aimed at reducing energy bills and bus fares.
Social protection: a substantial funding commitment to tackling rough sleeping.
Structural reform: greater regional decision-making and more emphasis on technical education.

The Prime Minister has a Cambridge degree, served on the front bench for 11 years, and was elected 3 times to lead the 2nd largest city-region in the country. So, the idea he is a dumbed down version of anyone is fairly laughable.

I think a lot of people are just really sick of politicians speaking for them, instead of to them. It is really easy to sneer about bus fares, or filling in pot holes, but fixing those things makes a tangible difference to people’s lives - and not only that, fixing the small every day things makes a lot of people feel like the country has a leader who gets them, and who cares about the same things they do. The big things are going to have to come too, of course, and hopefully they will, stating with the budget, but for now, I think that’s why he’s so well liked.

Yep.

Yes but these are issues that actually affect people and cost little money to resolve.

I agree there should also be some focus on bigger problems. But just focussing on those all the time and doing nothing to improve peoples day to day lives also isn't a great way of managing the country either.

BTW we don't have the highest debt to GDP ratio. We don't even have anywhere near the highest debt to GDP ratio in the G7.

Oh I don’t know. Being given a run for their money by ‘AI post’, ‘you are a Tory’ and ‘Russian bot’. Although someone’s yet to shout the last one, but no doubt they’ll be along soon.

That you, Kemi?

That’s a low bar. Tyranny of low expectations again. Surely, instead of looking over there at a house on fire and going haha, we’re not as bad as them with our broken smoke alarm and faulty electrics is not exactly re assuring.

That too. On your op I just avoid hearing him which helps.

Hope is not a plan.

They’re soundbites, not policies.

He's just another Labour Together -Mandelson (Epstein) plant - just like Streeting and Starmer.

And that's the level of political discourse and intellect that has got us precisely to where we are today.

The sad thing is that they actually think they are being funny or clever.

Is that all your Tory toys out of the pram, or do you have some hard (plastic) right ones to chuck out too? How could anyone call Manchester some small northern town and expect to be taken seriously? Get off your high home counties horse and start listening properly rather than through an overseas billionnaire media mogul filter.