If after 10 years as PM Andy Burnham has these kinds of figures he'll be happy politicalbetting.com
If after 10 years as PM Andy Burnham has these kinds of figures he'll be happy– politicalbetting.com
Greater Manchester residents believe Andy Burnham was particularly successful when it comes to transportTransport: 75% good jobEconomic growth: 46%Policing: 36%Housing: 31%yougov.com/en-gb/articl…
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He will be helped by the divide on the right between Tories and Reform though with FPTP, which might cool his desire for PR. Note too a slight majority of Tory voters in Manchester think he did a good job but Reform voters think he did a bad job
If a business halved its market share in less than 18 months then the board would replace the ceo
The whining that he was hard done by is getting really boring.
He had a huge majority, a fair amount of good will and he decide to piss it all away by not listening to his party and never taking responsibility for anything.
Take The Mandelbrot comedy.
Some, here, have suggested that it was an obvious use of a poacher to deal with a poacher. The problem is that in the desire Not To Know, Starmer made sure that Mandelbrot wasn't investigated fully. He knew, full well, what was going on down the chain. What Robbins was expected to do - not tell the PM bad news.
But that's an absence of courage. An absence of leadership. A smart leader would have demanded a five hundred page dossier on Mandlebrot. Because the dirt is always there. If you don't want to know it, it just means that you will be last to know.
A smart leader would have read it over a Scotch. Then rung Mandelbrot to tell him the bad news - medical retirement. maybe, but he'd have to pull out of being the US Ambassador.
The unanswered question is can he move from being a successful mayor in a Labour city to being PM ?
Time will tell
Ben Kentish
@BenKentish
Andy Burnham specifically mentions social care as a “neglected” issue he wants to address. Let’s see what he actually does about it but hallelujah at hearing a politician who isn’t Ed Davey even talking about one of the worst, and least talked about, failures of the British state.
https://x.com/BenKentish/status/2078083822789259760
He failed because he was a terrible manager and an awful communicator. Everything else is secondary.
I'd also like to be on record as a big backer for Burnham - "hopeless noddy of the year award".
*I recognise that possibly goldfish have better memories than urban myths give them credit for.
RIP
https://news.sky.com/story/west-indies-cricketing-great-sir-garry-sobers-has-died-13559353
I can't decide whether Restore's 11% is good or bad. 11% for a minor, far right party is more than such parties usually get, but this is their homeland, so only coming 6th doesn't look good. Reform won this comfortably regardless of them.
This was the last mayoral/PCC election to be held under FPTP and it shows the failures of FPTP in a multiparty system. Reform won easily, but only got 27%. 27% would only have been third in 2024, when only 4 parties stood. The biggest question in UK psephology is whether voters at the next general election get their tactical act together or not. Reform are beatable in most places.
And Malcolm Nash wasn't too shabby either.
'The Free Speech Union has said that, should Heather Herbert join the Free Speech Union, we would do our best to help him.
Heather Herbert posted a vile and deeply offensive statement on the social media platform BlueSky about the tragic murder of Ann Widdecombe.
The University of Aberdeen employee has now been arrested and charged over his offensive comments.
While the Free Speech Union does not support Heather’s offensive comments about Ann — a dear late friend of the FSU — it is not an offence, no matter how offensive, to speak ill of the dead.
Ann was a staunch defender of our fundamental right to free speech, and we very much doubt she would have supported Police Scotland’s actions.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9323zddvwko
For me the indicator is psychological. Toes don't curl when great leaders have a tough task/speech/debate.
You can have leadership, ownership of risk. Or you can have plausible deniability and fire subordinates for what you told them not to tell you.
You can't have both.
He has shit judgement e.g. he didn't see the Winter Fuel Allowance cut as an issue until it was an issue. Ultimately, he was weak and shit, which is not survivable unless the economy is booming. If you haven't used your blockbuster mandate to start fixing the basics, then what the hell are you using it for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RXID8yMkTo
It's already eye-wateringly expensive for local councils and the individual, councils can't pay more so is he going to ask the fortunate pensioners to contribute towards care for the unfortunate?
A return to state/council run care homes run not-for-profit rather than PE?
Just been through this, local Bupa 70-80% of the other private homes, surprise me until I realised Bupa are not-for-profit.
Still 70-80K per annum from net income / savings.
Only ever saw him live once at Ilkeston where he scores a ton vs Derbyshire in quick time
What a player
"Burnham will take us back to the 1970s."
(Side note: ~40% of UK population were born before 1980. Yes, PB - you ARE as senior as you feel.)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/17/west-indies-cricket-great-sir-garry-sobers-dies
Top bloke.
..He famously declared in 1968 in Trinidad leaving England, led by Colin Cowdrey, 215 to win in 165 minutes.
The match was lost by seven wickets and there was something of a furore in the Caribbean but Sobers was unrepentant. “That series was so boring,” he said. “The first three Tests had been drawn. England were bowling something like 12 or 13 overs per hour. I was so fed up and this wasn’t what I thought of as cricket”...
Taking ones chance with a jury is why Burnham will overturn Lammy.
But Ilkeston as a place for famous historic cricket encounters? Who knew?
Here's mine from within a couple of miles of where the parents lived.
During Derbyshire’s match against Warwickshire at Blackwell Colliery Cricket ground in 1910, which was to end in a draw, Arnold shared a nine wicket partnership of 283 runs with the Captain, John Chapman. Arnold scoring 123 runs and Chapman 160. This was a world record for first class cricket and has never been beaten. There is a plaque commemorating this event in Blackwell community centre.
https://www.spanglefish.com/bmwcc/index.asp?pageid=197865
It still stands:
https://stats.acscricket.com/Records/First_Class/Overall/Batting/Highest_Partnerships_for_Ninth_Wicket.html
It was quite a ragbag to hold together, but you need to have gumption to do it, which SKS did not.
megan kenyon
@meganekenyon
Notable to hear Burnham pledge to fix social care in his acceptance speech. Last party leader to do so so explicitly was Boris Johnson (his promise to end crisis in social care "once and for all" in 2019). A notoriously difficult issue to tackle - Johnson tried with his health and social care levy but it was scrapped by his successors. Big trade off that we can never seem to work out -- who pays and how? Starmer kicked the can down the road with the Casey review. Will be interesting to see how a Burnham government tries to tackle it.
https://x.com/meganekenyon/status/2078121426398146897
The Nuffield Trust have a report on it and what it could teach us in the UK: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-05/1525856899_learning-from-japan-final.pdf
He may not get ten months if we have a bond strike in the next few weeks...
A little something to make me sweeter
Oh, baby, refrain
From breaking my heart
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you make a me work so hard"
The best that can be said of him is that he was politer than Truss. But Truss had a view of the world and a willingness to execute policies to further that view. She only lacked the political skills to command consent and reassure other powers, so she died rapidly. But Starmer had no view other than to follow the law, which is nice for an eight year old but not for the PM.
Labour have got to stop putting fools into positions of power. They don't know how to do the job, don't know how to organise and command consent of 400+ MPs, and...well I'll stop because I've ranted about this before. And if he thinks he deserves the NATO job he can just eff the eff off, because he's simply not up to it.
I did smile at one of this accused persons followers saying they shouldn’t speak to the FSU or seek their help as they are ‘fascists’
The radar, anti-air and intelligence will be good, and the supplies are all there, but it's not much more than a trip wire now.
It couldn't repel a serious attack.
Linehan shouldn't have been arrested for his "kick 'em in the balls" tweet (unless someone did, in fact, commit an s20 assault, in which case he is fair game as an accessory should there be a proven causal link between his tweet and the attacker).
Speaking ill of the dead shouldn't be an offence either. It should also be remembered that Anne Widdecombe believed that trans women (at least those who have had "the op") are women, which is more than can be said for many regulars here.
Since we're on #pbfreespeech, how do we feel about JK Rowling suing amnesty international for calling the 51 gender critical organisations listed in their recent report "anti rights" (Including an org that PB's resident terf is a member of)?
I happen to disagree with the amnesty report and think it's massive overreach, but the correct response is rebuttal rather than trying to silence one's critics with lawfare.
IMHO the UK needs to introduce US-style anti SLAPP legislation to prevent the super-rich from silencing their critics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJUKR99izKU
Caroline Lucas hijacks The Rest is Politics. It's climate change, btw.
Links to reports in the video notes.
Mandelbrot was sending emails out of his official account to his private account, complete with classified documents attached. etc. There was tons of stuff that would have been found by a real investigation.
It's not that difficult to get kit there, as one thing the RAF does have is a decent number of A400s.
https://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/content/13-august2026-election-of-member-of-parliament-to-the-clacton-constituency
How soon do they publish the list of candidates ?
There's more than one candidate?
https://x.com/MattCartoonist/status/2078155319914488167?s=20
🌳 CON: 34.6% (+8.5)
🌍 GRN: 32.7% (+14.0)
➡️ RFM: 19.9% (-10.1)
🌹 LAB: 5.2% (-10.6)
🔶 LDM: 3.6% (-5.6)
◼️ RES: 3.5% (New)
🎩 MRLP: 0.5% (New)
Conservative GAIN from Reform UK.
Changes w/ 2026.
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/2078121200048304315?s=20
“We are aware of the political message display from Argentina. We understand it’s against the rules but we also know it’s a matter of their nationality and we respect it.
We will make a decision after the final.”
https://x.com/FabrizioRomaxno/status/2078006000699740325?s=20
This isn't Rachel Reeves we're talking about!
I'd rate him as the greatest all-round cricketer ever. He was also a real gentleman. He lived a good life to a good age, though, so no tears.