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Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
Whitehouse responds to Telegraph story that Trump's inner circle have discussed ditching the iran peace deal as soon as the mid-terms are out of the way.Now that is good comedy.
"The White House denied the claims, insisting Mr Trump “always operates in good faith and honours his commitments”."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2026/06/20/trump-considering-tearing-up-iran-deal-midterms/
kle4
4
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
Burnham is now clearly the leftwing candidate in any Labour leadership election now against Starmer and New Labour Streeting. Whereas he wasn’t in 2015 with Corbyn taking that role nor in 2010 when Ed Miliband and Abbott were the leftist candidates and he wasn’t in still relatively New Labour.An apt comparison. Reagan acquired the profile and chops required to win the highest national office by way of the California governorship. Burnham has done exactly this via the Greater Manchester mayoralty.
Burnham might take some encouragement from Ronald Reagan who was beaten by Nixon in the 1968 Republican primaries and narrowly by Ford in the 1976 Republican primaries. As we all remember though Reagan won the 1980 Republican primaries and then the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections
kinabalu
2
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
Reflecting on the Makerfield byelection result, I think (as I said) that Burnham was the favourite going in, and never really looked troubled.
Reform would always have struggled, but I think could have performed better if they had developed an effective counternarrative against Burnham, beyond their charge that he was using Makerfield as a stepping stone. That was clearly believed by a lot of people, but it couldn't really go anywhere. I felt where Burnham was weakest was at the point of WASPI - it was an embarrassing f U-turn in real time. But for whatever reason it didn't seem that this was capitalised on.
They also had a problem with the plumber, who I don't think was a terrible candidate, but was undoubtedly damaged, particularly by the Vorderman letter to the women of Makerfield. The letter was an utterly cynical piece of confected outrage, and I think in response I would have issued an utterly cynical confected apology, and gone the 'bad boy forgiven' route. I also might have been tempted to put Kenyon up for an interrogation with someone like Kuensberg so the public could see him sweat it out. High risk, but I think many women might have seen it and ended up with some sneaking sympathy. His line would have been - 'sorry, regret my comments, however do we want a society where the only people who are allowed to hold office are people who have never said anything regrettable on social media?'.
Even with all that, I think Reform's best result would have been to be 'robbed' by Restore. That would have fit their narrative nicely. Sadly they just missed out.
Reform would always have struggled, but I think could have performed better if they had developed an effective counternarrative against Burnham, beyond their charge that he was using Makerfield as a stepping stone. That was clearly believed by a lot of people, but it couldn't really go anywhere. I felt where Burnham was weakest was at the point of WASPI - it was an embarrassing f U-turn in real time. But for whatever reason it didn't seem that this was capitalised on.
They also had a problem with the plumber, who I don't think was a terrible candidate, but was undoubtedly damaged, particularly by the Vorderman letter to the women of Makerfield. The letter was an utterly cynical piece of confected outrage, and I think in response I would have issued an utterly cynical confected apology, and gone the 'bad boy forgiven' route. I also might have been tempted to put Kenyon up for an interrogation with someone like Kuensberg so the public could see him sweat it out. High risk, but I think many women might have seen it and ended up with some sneaking sympathy. His line would have been - 'sorry, regret my comments, however do we want a society where the only people who are allowed to hold office are people who have never said anything regrettable on social media?'.
Even with all that, I think Reform's best result would have been to be 'robbed' by Restore. That would have fit their narrative nicely. Sadly they just missed out.
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
She's probably predicting rather than proposing.Taking back control...So she says but she never pushed it as PM for a reason nor are the current NZ PM or LOTO
Jacinda Ardern: ‘New Zealand will become a republic in my lifetime’
https://www.thetimes.com/world/australasia/article/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-interview-kkppf03f9
Plenty of New Zealand polls for keeping a constitutional monarch over a politician head of state too
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/10/22/nz-citizens-keen-to-stay-wedded-to-the-monarchy/
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
Surely the only topic we should be discussing this morning is red cards for mouth covering?
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
I see the EU has voted to deport illegal migrants. Be interesting to see whether that will affect polling on rejoining.
AnneJGP
1
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
There was also an extremely nasty incident in Edinburgh last night, involving someone allegedly mowing down delivery cyclists and running about with a big knife.
Baffled as to why it’s not got into the news yet (other than our local press). I suspect there would be a different reaction if the ethnicities were reversed, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on how the Crown Office approach it.
Baffled as to why it’s not got into the news yet (other than our local press). I suspect there would be a different reaction if the ethnicities were reversed, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on how the Crown Office approach it.
Eabhal
3
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
I have two AV threads lined up for the next few days.One thing I will say in Andy Burnham's favour.Hopefully you will highlight that if it goes to a membership ballot, we'll be using AV.
Tuesday is the tenth anniversary of the United Kingdom voting to put economic sanctions on itself and I had planned to do several threads on Brexit but now I'll be doing lots of threads on Starmer being ousted/the Labour leadership contest instead.
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
I am thinking of jacking this PB comedy caper in. It someone posts "Kemi Badenoch is the greatest LOTO since Margaret Thatcher" they get thirty likes. I come up with biting satire and not a single like. Is their comedy really so much better?:facepalm:Perhaps I should have added a crying with laughter emoji.I'm sure many judges do, given how silly many of them are.Crap A levels?Andy Burnham is a Cambridge man, and so is Wes Streeting, and indeed Diane Abbott. So one way or another...Diane Abbott is not a Cambridge man. Judges have ruled that is not possible.
But I was thinking more that she's a woman...
Re: A reminder on how Andy Burnham performed in his two previous leadership campaigns
Surely the only topic we should be discussing this morning is red cards for mouth covering?Bloody hell, I didn't know TSE could see I was doing that whilst typing away!
