How do you think Andy Burnham will do as PM?

the man for the moment?

  • at the very least he will do a better job than Keir Starmer

  • I'm excited for a Burnham premiership

  • I feel cautiously optimistic about our immediate future

  • this job is not a poisoned chalice - there's loads of room to show what he's made of

  • the mess is too great - it'll be an uphill fight

  • he will lead Labour into the next GE

  • he will not lead Labour into the next GE

  • I think his policies will drive down inequality

  • I think he will do well on foreign policy

  • I think he will put together a strong cabinet

  • I think he is style over substance

  • I trust his motivations

  • he will be as liberal/progressive as signposted

  • he will be LESS liberal than expected

  • I'm hopeful he'll be a good PM

  • I'm not hopeful he'll be a good PM

  • I'm fully on the fence for now

  • OTHER PLEASE STATE

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Jark

Jark

PLUMP and RIPE
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ok - I know this is very subjective as a question and could be answered any number of ways.

based on what we've heard so far - he's mostly talked about devolution, number 10 north, and economic renewal - how do you think Andy Burnham will do as PM?
 
Unless he appoints Milliband or someone similar as Chancellor, he's just Starmerism with vibes, which is pointless. So if the times reporting from this evening is correct, he's DOOMED AND DESERVEDLY SO
 
I do think he’ll at best stop Reform getting a majority and maybe hold off the greens gaining seats in the wealthier central London areas.
 
This sums him up for me. He's just another Starmer with a more working class veneer.


Image-4.jpg
 
I think his policies will drive down inequality, but the part that people find quite hard to digest is that inequality has been going down for a while in the UK - at least in terms of how the worst off are doing. It's probably one of the best countries in the world to be on the minimum wage. If anything, it's actually starting to piss off a fair few middle class professionals (junior doctors, for example, who are really starting to get a bit chafed at how small the difference between them and someone on minimum wage is starting to get).
 
Anyway, I'm in a very 'I wanna see the receipts' mode with Burnham on which one we're getting. But I think it would be quite hard for him to be as genuinely inept politically as Starmer was. A man who was genuinely convinced he was doing the job properly when he literally wasn't doing key parts of the JD at all.

I'm quite positive on some things I've heard from him so far, a fair bit sceptical and wary about others. And he's got a bit of a vicious intray.
 
ZenGiraffe said:
Unless he appoints Milliband or someone similar as Chancellor, he's just Starmerism with vibes
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SERIOUSLY? From ONE DECISION? :D

With both the left and the right at this throat, the man is DOOMED FROM THE START!
 
He's being asked to do what's expected of The Labour Party. He won't. He's stay centre right with a small side order of centre left. If Streeting is in his cabinet, it's over before he's started.
 
funky said:
SERIOUSLY? From ONE DECISION? :D

With both the left and the right at this throat, the man is DOOMED FROM THE START!
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I mean, just the most important staffing decision he will make, that will be indicative of his entire approach to his premiership.
 
Different person, same problems. The key problem is of course social polarisation.

Starmer missed the mark as PM. I don't think what we saw was he who he really was a person - he misinterpreted the brief. I figure he'd have remained about 25% in the polls if he'd stuck to left leaning policies. Trying to please everyone was fucking stupid.

Burnham is smart enough to recognise what went wrong, so he has that advantage. At best he'll give us some left leaning policies and give Labour a chance in the polls. He's already changed the tone on Palestine. I know the Greens are concerned.
 
Burnham is a better communicator than Starmer by a mile. He's got a few genuinely good socialist/left leaning policies up his sleeve. It'll be the internal Labour battles that make or break him IMO.
 
obviously there's a massive amount in his in-tray and you never know what fresh hells could pop up at any point, but as things stand I think his most important day one brief is to define and communicate a vision and direction for government and start answering some existential questions.

such as - do we want to be a nation of growing inequality (contrary to what Penelope says, we are)? is it possible to do government differently, with a wider array of voices shaping policy? does Labour still have the ambition to be the party of the working person? and will it dare to stand up to those who scapegoat immigrants for all of our problems, or will it continue to toe the line and demonise them? what will it do about the billionaires? does it give a fuck about the planet, and have the will to shape policy around clean energy?

or in other words - convincingly tell a story and shape a narrative in a way Starmer was never able to.

simultaneously he needs cabinet picks that back up the answers to those questions. you can say one thing but if you're keeping Shabana Mahmood where she is and giving that weasel Streeting a plum job, you might be undermining your words. Red Ed as Chancellor or not feels like the big litmus test.

it's going to be an interesting first couple of months. he talks a great game but let's see if he can avoid the kind of immediate fuck ups and inexplicable own goals that plagued SIR KEIR right from go.
 
I just think the problems are so big and require such sweeping change that someone walking in without a mandate won't be able to deliver on them.
 
what would having a mandate from the GP change? given that so many with mandate have failed...
 
To be fair, Boris Johnson "got Brexit done" (projectile vomit) because his mandate & majority broke May's parliamentary deadlock. It works when smashing through big and controversial policies.
 
Johnson got Brexit done because it was a populist movement. Throw a few stories out about jobs for foreigners and tell a few lies about the NHS and voila. Nothing to do with mandates.

If the left keep falling over themselves to criticise each other then we’ll just have a repeat of what happened with Boris, only worse.

Anyone who can unite the apathetic centre and the right will always win power.
 
Also Boris didn’t give a fuck about Brexit - it was his dress rehearsal for PM, an expensive stunt. Ten years later and we’re all highly amused as Farage’s latest stunt, yet it’s all part of the plan. Not sure his is working as he’d like, but he needn’t worry - the left will find some way to clear his path for victory!
 
I'm not advocating for Boris, or for Brexit. I am saying he won an election to "get Brexit done" (which broke May's parliamentary deadlock) and then he smashed his (shit) "deal" through.
 
ZenGiraffe said:
The left are pretty united behind binface!

And more generally, stop blaming the left for Labour's failings, and blame Labour instead!
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I was talking about his path to PM. The Binface thing is irrelevant.
 
Loufoque said:
I'm not advocating for Boris, or for Brexit. I am saying he won an election to "get Brexit done" (which broke May's parliamentary deadlock) and then he smashed his (shit) "deal" through.
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I wasn’t really disagreeing with you, just expanding the point.

I just think if the left put as much energy into taking Farage seriously as they do criticising Labour, then we’d have a shot at keeping him out of power

There’s a difference between holding the government to account, and shitting on everything they do - usually before they’ve even done it.
 
Yeah his choices so far have not been great :D

I wonder if he’s had to do any wheeling and dealing - I would have thought an unopposed electee can pick whoever he wants, to a degree
 
Fucking useless appointment. Don't even get me started on the sheer pointlessness of making Ed Miliband foreign secretary.
 
he's said he wants a "broad church" but what on earth has Mahmood done to suggest she deserves chancellor. she'll be gone long before any GE.
 
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