Best Of

"Empty suit"
"Starmer with a northern accent"
"Vacuous and weak"

Well this is impressive, I must say. I've been reading elsewhere that the big problem with Andy Burnham PM is that few outside Manchester know what he's all about. But plenty on PB have sussed him already, even before he starts.

It's what makes us special.

Plenty on PB will have bet on Burnham becoming Prime Minister. *That* is what makes us special.

Yet no-one had him down as PM at the end of this year in the PB competition.
Only five (of 66 entries) even thought he’d be an MP in 2026.

Yep. The critical mass 'we' did not call this at all. We got it wrong.

I don't believe we imagined the Starmer collapse would be so comprehensive and so swift.

Indeed. The 2nd 'hero to zero' PM in 4 years - from newly elected with a big majority to ousted by his own party within half a parliament. Amazing. It must be saying something about where our politics is atm.

The gap between what we think we are entitled to and what we can actually afford grows ever wider. I fear that Burnham, if anything, is currently pushing that gap even wider and there is going to be fairly rapid and profound disappointment when reality hits. But hopefully I am wrong.

Premature. Burnham isn't doing anything yet, let alone "currently pushing that gap even wider".
Give him a chance, at least.

This is a ghastly attack on lawyers.

Excl: Senior community leaders, lawyers and academics in Britain have helped to advance the political priorities of President Xi through a series of Chinese state-linked organisations across the UK.

The organisations, often presenting themselves as cultural or business groups, have also in some cases functioned as “liaison stations” and “talent recruitment bases” for Chinese provincial governments and state organs.

An investigation by @thetimes draws on research from @ipacglobal, @ukctransparency, and extensive Chinese-language material.

The files, which include official Chinese government notices, archived websites, internal speeches, and freedom of information disclosures, indicate that prominent figures in Britain’s Chinese community held roles within organisations linked to the Beijing's United Front Work Department.

There is no evidence those involved believed they were acting for the Chinese Communist Party or have acted illegally, but the material illustrates the breadth of Beijing’s overseas influence networks.

https://x.com/Geri_E_L_Scott/status/2069721613126291476

https://www.thetimes.com/article/eb1b1037-70b1-42f2-a731-1930fa9ad630?shareToken=764b15d418cea187b203d0069b951716

Excluding Liz Truss who is Scottish, Andy Burnham is first bona fide Northerner to become PM in 50 years.

Jessica Elgot
@jessicaelgot
·
58m
I’m really sorry to do this but the last Northern PM was actually Roundhay’s Liz Truss - as much as she tried to disown our great city.

https://x.com/jessicaelgot/status/2069701020280561709

She was born in Oxford, that rules her out as a bona fide Northerner.

As the most bona fide Northerner on PB I can tell you we Northerners take this stuff very seriously.

I'm not quibbling with your overall conclusion, but how does that make her Scottish?

In 1977 Truss and her parents moved to Warsaw in Poland, but returned to Britain after John and Priscilla found it "quite grim".

After living briefly in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, the family moved to Paisley in Scotland when Truss was four years old, where she attended West Primary School. In 1985 they moved south to Leeds,

And this makes her Scottish?? Not even the SRU would claim that.

She spent her formative years in Scotland (ages 4 to 10), if that's not Scottish then I don't know what is.

Some Scots don't even accept Tony Blair was Scottish, I mean born in Edinburgh, educated in Scotland...

Excluding Liz Truss who is Scottish, Andy Burnham is first bona fide Northerner to become PM in 50 years.

Jessica Elgot
@jessicaelgot
·
58m
I’m really sorry to do this but the last Northern PM was actually Roundhay’s Liz Truss - as much as she tried to disown our great city.

https://x.com/jessicaelgot/status/2069701020280561709

She was born in Oxford, that rules her out as a bona fide Northerner.

As the most bona fide Northerner on PB I can tell you we Northerners take this stuff very seriously.

I'm not quibbling with your overall conclusion, but how does that make her Scottish?

In 1977 Truss and her parents moved to Warsaw in Poland, but returned to Britain after John and Priscilla found it "quite grim".

After living briefly in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, the family moved to Paisley in Scotland when Truss was four years old, where she attended West Primary School. In 1985 they moved south to Leeds,

And this makes her Scottish?? Not even the SRU would claim that.

She spent her formative years in Scotland (ages 4 to 10), if that's not Scottish then I don't know what is.

Some Scots don't even accept Tony Blair was Scottish, I mean born in Edinburgh, educated in Scotland...

To some Scots, if a Scot has ever left Scotland for more than a holiday they are no longer Scottish.

Remember the Is Andy Murray British website and ramp the logic up to insane levels and that is how Scots work.

The way to hit back is to use the adjective "Scotch" which annoys them intensely for some reason.

It can drive us to drink.

'The prime minister's chief secretary Darren Jones might have ruled himself out of the Labour leadership contest - but former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns could still challenge Andy Burnham.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight on Tuesday, Carns insisted he is "pretty serious" in considering a leadership bid, but wants to "see behind Andy Burnham what the policies are" before making a final call.

As a reminder, leadership nominations open on 9 July and run until 16 July. Potential candidates have until then to amass the support of at least 81 Labour MPs to enter the race.

Asked whether he will back Burnham if he agrees with his policies, Carns tells BBC Newsnight: "I think that's a collective view across the Labour Party as a whole."

He explains the party wants to "get behind" Andy but says "we need to see that material before I can make a decision to back anyone".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwyewjpwgk9t

"Please give me a cabinet post."

If the party "wants to get behind Burnham", why does Carns want to waste a couple of months for him with a leadership election ?

In order to consider a leadership bid, you still need >80 other Labour MPs to think it is a wizard wheeze, don't you?

An interesting question.
I suspect he doesn't, but OTOH there might just be enough pissed off Starmerites to grasp the opportunity of throwing a spanner into the works ?

I think it would be fairly irresponsible at this point, FWIW.

Burnham is facing a pretty steep learning curve as it is.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/23/burnham-and-starmer-hold-frosty-meeting-to-thrash-out-transition-of-power
...Allies of Starmer said that although he was serious about an orderly handover, he had no qualms in denying Burnham – who had initially hoped to take over in September – a long coronation in order to prepare for government.

“There was a strong push from the Burnham camp to be given longer. But why should they tell Keir they want him out, then expect him to manage the ship through a potentially difficult summer? Keir will of course cooperate on transition, but it will be through gritted teeth,” one said.

Some in Burnham’s team were exasperated about the shorter timetable. “The last lot had years to prepare and still fucked it up. We’ll just have to do it in three weeks,” one senior source said. “The length of the transition will focus minds.”.

Yes must be a complete surprise to team Andy that he has become PM.

TBF, that's not really the point.
No doubt he has at least some idea of what he wants to do (at least I hope so), but developing detailed policy that can quickly be implemented at government level requires civil service resources.

I think that point is overblown and a cheap excuse from politicians. The reason for inertia in government is not a lack of policy options but a lack of political will, money and consensus. I doubt Burnham will change much.

Ah the lack of Will. What was it Reagan said;

"There are simple answers to the nation's problems, but not easy ones. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right."

He was of course wrong.

What he offered weren't simple solutions but simpistic ones.

He put the practical difficulties of implimenting policy down to it being the governments fault and red tape. Take that away and we'll be fine. They weren't.

All of this from "Drain the Swamp!" to the "Blob" just comes down to peoples frustrations about how challenging Government and change are, and that they can't just decree change and make it happen.

Peter.

I disagree, I think the answers are generally quite simple. Invest, invest, invest. Create a vision and then build it rather than fiddling by focus group. We don't invest because the lifespan of a PM is now a couple of years, for them what is the point of thinking about 10-25 years ahead?

This is the cabinet from just 10 years ago:

May, Hammond, Rudd, Johnson, Fallon, Truss, Greening, Davis, Fox, Clark, Hunt, Green, Evans, Grayling, Javid, Lidington, Mundell, Cairns, Brokenshire, Leadsom, Patel, Bradley.

How many of those are still involved bar the odd TV or media interview, if that?

We already have 100% debt and struggle to pay teh interest in that. We could have before teh crash when it was 40% but the orthadoxy then was to keep it low. We also left investment to teh city not the "Dead Hand of Government!"

Thatcher folllowed Reagan and Blair followed Thatcher.
We can only Invest if we can afford the cost of teh borrowing and right now we struggle to do that.
Good idea 20 years ago but I think we have largely misssed that boat.

Peter.

"Empty suit"
"Starmer with a northern accent"
"Vacuous and weak"

Well this is impressive, I must say. I've been reading elsewhere that the big problem with Andy Burnham PM is that few outside Manchester know what he's all about. But plenty on PB have sussed him already, even before he starts.

It's what makes us special.

Plenty on PB will have bet on Burnham becoming Prime Minister. *That* is what makes us special.

Yet no-one had him down as PM at the end of this year in the PB competition.
Only five (of 66 entries) even thought he’d be an MP in 2026.

Yep. The critical mass 'we' did not call this at all. We got it wrong.

I don't believe we imagined the Starmer collapse would be so comprehensive and so swift.

Indeed. The 2nd 'hero to zero' PM in 4 years - from newly elected with a big majority to ousted by his own party within half a parliament. Amazing. It must be saying something about where our politics is atm.

The gap between what we think we are entitled to and what we can actually afford grows ever wider. I fear that Burnham, if anything, is currently pushing that gap even wider and there is going to be fairly rapid and profound disappointment when reality hits. But hopefully I am wrong.

Just someone less vapid and authoritarian. Anything else will be a bonus.

We certainly need both of those.

But we also need someone who can face reality, explain what it means to the country in a comprehensible way and take concrete steps to at least ameliorate some of it. I think Burnham is much, much better at relating to others and telling a story but whether he has any solutions is still to be determined.

A Burnham story before they become overwhelming......

A friend just told me that she went to an art gallery in Manchester on a motor scooter and parked on a bit of waste ground and got a parking ticket. She was so pissed off that she wrote to new Mayor Andy B and told him he should introduce motor bike parking like they have everywhere in France. He replied that sounded like good idea and could she elaborate which she did and apparently Manchester now has a plethora of bike and motor bike parking.

Why was Manchester so behind the rest of the country in providing bike and motorbike parking that Burnham had to introduce it there? And why hadn’t Burnham known of the idea before from times he spent pretty much anywhere before he became Mayor, like London for example in the years he was an MP.

What makes you think that the rest of the country had decent amounts of bike and motorbike parking? When I was doing a blood test at my local hospital on Monday the bicycle parking immediately outside the entrance was full of motorbikes, chained to the Sheffield stands.

Do you have a date that the story occurred (it would help as context)? It sounds like the sort of thing that a Mayor who listened and took the initiative would do.

There's been a similar story about simplified side-road Zebra crossings (similar to central Paris), which has relied on personal commitment from people at the centre in Manchester - and has been a decade long process through quicksand to be made possible in the face of DFT set-in-the-1970s culture and small-c conservatism.

One example was that a number of Councils were lined up to do "live trials" for a period of time to demonstrate that side-road simplified Zebras without Belisha Beacons (that makes much cheaper as no power supply is required) were safe and beneficial, but they all dropped out but one because no one could irrefutably prove in advance that the trials would be "safe".

In the event the trials showed that the tendency for drivers to stop for pedestrians vs a bare junction is much greater.