2026-07-23 16:35:06
Still no place for Emily Thornberry in the new #Burnham cabinet? Has she got something in her background file that makes her a ministerial no-no? She seems like a major backbench talent, it was a big surprise that Starmer didn't give her a job in July 2024.
Oooh dear, this doesn't bode well for Mr #Burnham . The function of a circuit breaker is to cut off power to a circuit, hopefully before anyone gets hurt....
"public services back under greater public control" - #Burnham in his first speech as PM repeating the formulation he'd been using for the last couple of months (and earlier?)
Problem is, most of the public will hear that as "public ownership" - a promise he can't possibly hope to keep, which in a year or two means that any of the people he's mostly aiming …
That's it then, he's met the king and is the new PM.
Reckons that first things first, he's going to end rough-sleeping. Apparently something they tell me he achieved in Manchester.
Corbyn's big first day announcement if he won was going to be that he would end homelessness immediately.
Which can only really mean putting the homeless into hostels and hotels.
But good. Certainly that's an about-fucking-time sort of announcement.
If he ends people having to sleep on the streets in the first week then I can only approve of that.
#burnham #homelessness #ukpol
There are 'heightened fears that the new regime may follow the same policy lines as the old one — “Starmerism with added affability” as one MP put it to the Star.'
Left challenges #Burnham for real change | Morning Star
I suspect Andy #Burnham's Achilles' heel will turn out to be ego,!in the end -- unless circumstances combine to give him a really rough time for the first, say, 6-9 months. If his magic plan can somehow square the circle of growing demands on public services with very little to no tolerance of payslip tax rises, he'll be feted as the god-emperor of British politics, and that sort of…
Burnham has been made leader of the Labour party then. No other candidates got the required number of nominations so it's a coronation.
He has a few things to say.
He's proud. The party is united, he says, and now they'll put that power of unity to give people hope back. And he is ready to build on Kier's foundation. Thanks Kier, for all the NHS work and renters rights and rebuilding the nation's reputation (??).
He does like to name-check all the various towns and unions of the country. Just listing them. They made Labour, apparently.
We must recognize that this generation of politicians, including Burnham himself, have failed. Four decades of neoliberalism have not been kind to all those places he listed.
He pledges to be better, and will do five things.
1) Work relentlessly to build a culture of one Labour team. No infighting. Wants to eradicate the split. End factional politics.
I guess end Starmer's war on the left then? 🤨
2) Work to build a new politics. This is the last chance for change, and we must take it together. Tell people what Labour will do, not just pick fights with other parties. Seek consensus with those other parties instead, to improve the political discourse.
3) Change political direction: know exactly where he stands and set a direction that is distinctively Labour. No out-greening greens or out-reforming reform or wearing tory clothes. Boldly confidently authentically Labour.
Housing, water, energy, transport, all broken due to privatization and concentration of wealth and power.
Four decades of political power draining from regions to corporations and central government ends now.
Take back the slogan "take back control" from the right, who gave away power to corps and quangos.
Life should be more affordable.
4) Be a leader for the north, south, east and west, for Scotland and Northern Ireland (aw, shame for the midlanders 🤣 ).
Gonna do to everywhere what he done for Manchester he reckons.
Kids shouldn't have to leave their home towns to prosper.
5) Take power back from westminster and give it to the place where you live.
More power for regions, to run trains for passengers not shareholders. Improve high-streets, and back shops and pubs, and education, and reindustrialization.
He's gonna be pro-business.
Add all that together and he reckons we'll bring back hope.
Thanks a few people in particular.
He says he knows what he believes and what he wants to do, he has a plan. He wants change, to be close to the people.
He wants it to be Andy 4 us. Labour 4 us. Bring back hope.
#ukpol #burnham #labourParty
Burn ham or Burn Oil?
Sounds like first policies are going to be more oil drilling and taking "control" of Thames Water.
Note that more oil drilling will NOT reduce the price of energy to the consumer, nor do much to increase sovereign energy independence. It will however mean lots of profits to the party donors from the oil industry, and of course mean more heat-domes and wildfires and floods and rising sea levels. More death from heatstroke.
Note also that "control" of Thames Water is not nationalization, not "ownership", it's just really more (likely toothless) regulation of private industry.
Welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss.
RE: #labour #ukpol #burnham
So, maybe all you really can hope for from an acceptance speech is a bit of empty rhetoric, but that is indeed what we got here.
Unity and decentralization and a promise that he has a plan.
Unity is easy to say, but requires unity to achieve since you ain't in control of all the factions.
Decentralization tends to be fought by centralized powers, and is a tactic really not a strategy. What do you hope to achieve with it? Can end up just remote offices for centralized power.
And that plan he reckons he has? I look forward to hearing what it actually is.
#ukpol #burnham
I don't remember ever disagreeing much with Caroline Lucas before.
But I disagree with her here entirely.
urged the Greens not to stand against the Manchester Mayor if he is selected
Andy Burnham is NOT good. He is the least bad of a bad set of candidates the Labour party is scrambling for.
When will the Labour party, even Burnham's Labour Party, step aside for the Greens? Nowhere and never. They will never reciprocate and they will always slander and lie about our Green party.
Burnham has nothing to offer. He can't offer PR, he can't offer reversing Brexit, he can't offer even to get Labour to stand down a single seat at the next election.
The most important by election in the century, with the focus of the world's media concentrated on one tiny contest and Caroline thinks we should sit down and stand back and shut up?
Bollocks to that.
We need to stand, fight hard, and present the Green case to that assembled world media and local voters.
If Burnham wins or doesn't win, so what? Labour will still be shit. Burnham is shit. The country will not be saved.
Burnham is a blairite neoliberal brexiter.
I could see a stand-down for Clive Lewis or Corbyn or something but for Burnham?
No. Burnham sucks and we must fight him as hard as we can. Get the green case out in front of people in this unique incredible opportunity to get in front of the media spotlight.
Pick a good candidate and push them hard.
#green #makerField #burnham #carolineLucas
RE: https://mas.to/@therightarticle/116645308096418648
The analysis in this article is right: Britain is in crisis because of its subsurvience to financial markets.
The idea that
Burnham's team have a plan of some sort coming in a book #ukpol #burnham #manchesterism #productiveState