No 10 North

[Arewethereyetarewe]

I have just seen this on the news. The building and meeting with some regional mayors.

Is this a good move or a gimmick?

I want to be positive but I am not sure 🤔

As a proud northerner, I think it's utterly ridiculous. This is ALL about Burnham's convenience, it's not about redistribution of power through the north. If it was, put the office in Sunderland, or Bradford or somewhere that actually needs an economic boost, not Manchester which is already far more prosperous than other parts of the North.

Well tell me what it is lol, because no 10 north it ain’t. Unless burnham thinks a gov is just him.

Reading other comments it’s apparently only once a week. So basically he just wants a 4 day week. Because just like everyone’s health - we can ensure urgent things happen only happen on Monday to Thursday from 8 to 3pm

The uk prime minister can get on a train.
I had the absolute pleasure of yelling something rude in the general direction of David Cameron at Euston.

But anyway
Why not No10 north? It sends a decent message and also makes a cut between him and all the fuckwittery of the last 10 years

And btw he doesn’t. Two days after he’s come in and Warwickshire counties have been rolled up into larger authority’s. We are losing our council. Losing our hard saved surplus and being rolled in with councils of huge debt. They have split the north and the south. Well they haven’t. They have gone east and west, subsectioned off the richer green and lib voters and called them south from the industrial and manufacturing poorer and deprived side which they called north which is in fact east Warwickshire. It’s all been political.

I expect he’ll be supping pints up the working men’s club before heading off for a Northern Soul all-nighter.

Not.

That’s one strong reason why this No 10 North is such a gimmick and will fade away. Burnham will be doing a Prescott and playing croquet at Chequers whenever he can.

So something that happened 2 days after he took over is his work…

He's working 1 day a week from an existing high security government building. Other prime ministers have done the same, just without calling it "number 10". The name is just a symbol of his priorities, but changing the door sign will hardly have broken the bank.

The government approved this plan on the 16th. Burnham didn't even become an MP until the 18th.

It’s been in the works for longer than that. But it is a Starmer/ Lab move.

The question was whether it’s a single authority or ‘north/ south’.

And no it wasn’t decided before burnham became MP. It was literally announced by the inspector after his first PM speech they had decided to do N/S.

So yes he had been in office 5 mins. But still. Rolling councils up is not devolution. Many are devastated here in Warwickshire. Depends what council you were originally in as to how screwed you got.

This is being done all over the country. Norfolk is being divided into the wealthiest Norwich area, the West and, making what will probably be the poorest LA in England, the East. It was done well before Burnham came to power. I think devolution is a good idea, as is ending the multiplication of services under multiple councils but it's been botched for political reasons.

Blimey! He acts quick then if he’s done that in 2 days! Except - it was nowt to do with him, was it? Plans were in place years beforehand.

I strongly suspect that Chequers will be used for entertaining and nothing else. I’d be astonished if Burnham spent more than a fraction of his time there. Maybe this would be a really good time for it to be divested, along with all the other grace and favour residences.

Sorry, you are right it wasn't before he became an MP. He became an MP on 18th June, the announcement was published on 16th July.

But that's still before he became leader of the Labour party or prime minister.

Maybe keep Chequers but do they really need Chevening, Dorneywood ...

I wish he’d picked somewhere that needed real economic stimulus, not Manchester which just makes it look like Andy wants to get home quick for the weekend.

The civil servants will be working from home much of the time so will make bugger all difference to them. I work for an LA and am in the office one day a week.

I thought this too. I like the idea in principle.
it’s a huge waste of talent in the rest of the country to make it all about London and the SE.

But then if you believe government decision-making attracts investment, then I don’t know why you would create a seat of government in a place that’s always been an anomalous unicorn of younger demographics and more international and national connectedness and greater investment, like Manchester. Burnham could prove the theory by siting it somewhere very economically deprived and giving new transport links, infrastructure and a new international airport etc

Get rid of the lot. They’re anachronisms. God knows what their upkeep costs.

I totally take your point, but then people really would be up in arms about the cost - in Manchester there is a pre-existing campus that has been allocated and budgeted for as a massive civil service base, and Andy Burnham already has a team there. I presume that is why they are able to do this at minimum cost.

Disagree. Need somewhere to entertain as a PM. I would not want to be a PM trying to meet friendly or hostile heads of state over a Cameron-style ‘kitchen supper’ in the apparently small flat above number 10.
Burnham’s going to have to have somewhere to use soft power on MPs as well. You need these traditional places to do that.

I don’t know why they are doing this. Yes I get duplication of services but I feel it’s really reinforcing the differences and structurally embedding those. Also short sighted as the poorer areas are where the families are (so sen need costs) and the industry rates income, and the richer areas are where there will be very big care costs shortly. So it will flip and we don’t have the diversity to offset these fluctuations.

They will probably switch it back then. Right when the poor area is finally having its moment to do better.

The trouble with poor areas is people often move from them if they get richer so the area itself stays poor.

Fair enough. It just wasn’t a great look all the white middle aged men in suits walking in to number 10 North on the first day.

Hopefully the aspiration to regenerate will involve dispersal of good jobs around the regions in smaller towns not just the major cities. The civil service does loads of things. It definitely doesn’t need a fast travel time to London for some of the things that it does.

That would make him the first prime minister in history who had the luxury to personally be able to spend time on his own constituency.

I'd be bloody cross if he spent a day a week on Makerfield, he should be delegating all that to his constituency office, he has far more important things to spend that time on.

Major spent every Friday here.