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.

But he likely won't take on any of that.

Starmer was adored on here. There were kittens named after him. He could do no wrong.

Now it’s Burnham turn.

Fickle is MN’s affection.

I think it shows that MN is largely a left wing echo chamber. Watch when Burnham crashes and burns. These same people will be nowhere to be found. Then it’ll be like ‘well we always thought he was rubbish anyway’. In comes the next dud PM and the fanclub starts gushing over them without any evidence of any substance or intellect from that dud.

Speaking of intellect and substance, did you have thoughts on any of the policy questions people have put to you during the thread?

What a crock of shite. Most political threads on mumsnet nowadays are started by reform/restore supporters who somehow imagine that they are further left than Marx

It's amazing how many of their comments are deleted, I would imagine for misinformation or outright attacks on other posters because they are unable to back their opinions with actual facts.

I'm no fan of how Burnham gained his role, I have said I will reserve my judgement on him until his budget. He is head and shoulders above the last three conservative PMs though in my opinion and they tower over Farage and co.

This is just not true. You are rewriting history. Starmer was as unpopular on here as he was in the country generally. Burnham is a very different man and politician and to pretend he is just an inferior version of Starmer is ridiculous.

Starmer was seen as the ‘grown up in the room’ on mn. And his relative unpopularity in the polls was ok as it meant something good apparently. Any suggestion he wouldn’t last didn’t go down well.

I don't doubt there were - and I'm sure still are - posters on here who really liked Keir Starmer. I can see what people liked about him - especially after the turbulence and chaos of Johnson/ May/ Truss/ Sunak, I'm sure a lot of people were extremely relieved to have someone who seemed competent, intelligent and steady in charge. My point is that I don't think how opinion of Starmer shifted on Mumsnet is any accurate representation of how people's feelings towards Burnham may or may not shift out in the real world. After all, you do still quite a fair few people defending and praising Farage on here, while away from the internet, public opinion of him is now incredibly low.

@warmhiker,

A politician needs vision and the ability to communicate it. I think Burnham has these.

I also admired Thatcher (at least her first two terms) and Blair (until Iraq and all the grifting).

It is not just about whether they are more left or right wing.

No, I’m not.

He was adored. Until he was replaced.

Yeah but "The Tooooorrrrrwwwwiiiieeesss".

Labour are talentless economically illiterate thieves

Yep

Nope. A lot of Labour supporters despaired of Starmer. I was one of them. Adored, my arse.

Starmer was replaced because he was so unpopular, including with Labour voters, that he was an electoral liability. There were constant strings of threads on here slagging him off. You really are making stuff up now..

Yes, there are threads where it was rightly acknowledged that he was.

There were also many other threads where he was worshipped.

Don't worry, he'll be out in a year if not less.

I'd rather have Burnham (or even Starmer) than idiots like Johnson, Trump, Farage or Blair, who promise anything and everything, and say things like "I swear that I can bring world peace, I just have to start this war first!"

I have much more time for those who promise small and sensible things.

But what I don’t understand is why anyone - from anywhere across the political spectrum - would really be rooting for that. Don’t you think it’s embarrassing and counter productive to have cycled through so many Prime Ministers in so short a time period? Aren’t you sick of the constant knee jerk populism that happens when politicians endlessly behave as though they’re fighting an election instead of getting on with running the country? It makes it virtually impossible for any meaningful legislation to be passed.

I would much rather have seen Theresa May, for example, have served her full term - even though I didn’t vote for her. I really think what we need most of all is a bit of stability instead of the endless drift and division.

Because no politician has ever done the same? This happens to pretty much every prime minister.

Calling him dangerous is laughable considering the current political climate.

Really? I was all for Starmer early on. I was rooting for him and some boring politics for a while. Someone slowly but surely turning the ship around, making the difficult decisions and sticking to them.

Instead we got u-turn after u-turn. He tied himself to a bunch of unnecessary and unworkable “fiscal rules” which meant very little could be done. He famously wasn’t interested in what any of his cabinet was doing, he never had any input to their decisions, they were left to just get in with it. Look at the Mandelson debacle. He promised much but delivered very little that made a difference to the issues of the day. He did some good stuff but none of it was about reducing the cost of living or improving the economy.

I don’t know who exactly adored him, but over the couple of years he was in power, I saw support for him dropping off, even among people who had been his staunch supporters. I really wanted stability for a bit but in the end his position was untenable. If it hadn’t have been burnham who ousted him, it would have been someone else.

It’s also extremely incoherent and contradictory - is Andy Burnham a ruthless, manipulative, Machiavellian schemer and a danger to the country or is a he a bumbling, parochial, regional mayor who fell into the job and only cares about buses?

He surely can’t be both. Making it easy to conclude he is neither.

I should think there will be many people in the UK this weekend who are glad that they have 3 days' food 'stockpiled", as they have no power because of the storms!

I'm rooting for him to be out because the left of the Labour party will wreck the country. It's as simple as that. He isn't comparable to May at all.

Exactly - in just about every other country I’ve ever visited in Europe, the people just seem decent compared to here. You don’t get the same entitled attitude, mindless vandalism, litter everywhere, rudeness that you get here. It’s like the whole nation needs reeducation in just being a decent human being. It would be nice if parents, rather than the PM, could instill that in children, but it’s not just the younger generations with the attitude problem IMO. Yes life is a bit crap right now and there’s stuff to be angry about, but acting like a twat doesn’t help. I think a shift in social norms and expectations is needed.

Totally untrue. Everything has to be run past Special Advisors and Ministers. They have the final say on everything.