If Andy Burnham is the Soft Left’s Great White Hope, They Really Are Finished
Jesus said love thy enemies. So as we watch the whole stable of New Statesman writers having to pretend that the potential leadership bid of Andy Burnham is something close to the second coming of Keir Hardie, the proper Christian response is surely pity. As it turns out, the Labour mayor of Manchester has been blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election by Labour’s National Executive Committee, in a typically Starmerist–Stalinist move. But the breathless tones in which the soft Left’s “Prince across the water” is being hailed by the supposedly thoughtful elements of the Left-wing commentariat nonetheless speak volumes about their intellectual exhaustion.
“An underpriced future triumvirate: Burnham, Miliband, Mahmood”, trilled Tom McTague, editor of the New Statesman, on X this weekend, after Mahmood appeared to praise Burnham on the Sunday morning shows. For a brief moment, this prospect struck McTague as portending a fresh political dawn, to be known as “The Green-Blue alliance”.
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Great article, really enjoyed that.
“slightly more charismatic than Sir Keir Starmer – something that can be said of most amoebae” Loved that. Yes another Communist that the Fake News ‘trills’ about. Quel surpris. Just another guy who has never worked and hates this country and its heritage/history.
What is “aspirational socialism” and in what way(s) does it differ from “non aspirational socialism”?
I think aspirational socialism is when they’re hoping to be elected and the other sort is what happens after they’ve been in office for a year and been mugged by reality.
It’s just another weasel word such as “progressive” to lure in the unsuspecting brain dead. The result will always be the same, ruin. By then another fresh bunch will be conditioned into by the so called education system, which is in reality a system to teach kids what to think rather than how to think. Then they will “learn” about the terrible way kids who did not like milk had it brutally taken away, or miners who were in reality political pawns in the progressive takeover.
The truth is that 90% of politicians are a complete waste of time and are definitely a wasted vote, but the brain dead commies will persist in their endeavours to create conditions of unrest and then blame someone else for the result.
There’s an invisible h in it and it’s inaudibly aspirated because of this.
It’s one of those Freudian slips that implies a simple truth; “aspirational socialism” implies its opposite, just as light implies darkness and darkness light: socialism is the opposite of aspiration. McTague is just too dense to understand that imagining a dumb Freudian slip to be a penetrating aperçu doesn’t actually make it one.
I’d like one of them to explain the difference.
Don’t mess about, Laurie, speak your mind!
Full of LOL moments and generally hilarious till you realise who’s in charge and for how long (potetntially).
Last paragraph sums up the ‘second coming’ of Burnham perfectly.
Very good writing Laurie, posh people do have a good turn of phrase when it comes to insulting idiot politicians.
Good article, mentioning ‘road to nowhere’ and and ‘buckle up’. puts me in mind of Steven Wright, the wry US comedian and master of the one-liner. With his deadpan delivery he drawls: “I like picking up hitchhikers. I tell them “buckle up.. I wanna try something. I’ve seen it done in a cartoon and I think I can pull it off.” More sense in that joke than the Suckhere/Burnham farrago.
First class article. A joy to read. Punctures lots of balloons.
Is Greater Manchester a better place to live now with Burnham in charge than before he was slotted in as Mayor, or King of the North as he likes to be known – not King in the North Mr Wastell – and the answer is a resounding No? And I live in Greater Manchester. For context only about 20% of the Greater Manchester population voted in the mayoral elections. We didn’t want a mayor. I do not know of one single town or village that has seen any improvements since Burnham parked his arse in his capital city. Everywhere is run down, high streets are collapsing, filled with charity shops and takeaways which attract hordes of delivery drivers parking all over the place. Towns are so run down we are even losing our pound shops. 😀 Streets are dirty and full of litter. Fly-tipping has morphed into an industry and parts of most towns are no-go areas for the sake of “community relations” innit. Unemployment has sky-rocketed and bollox to official figures; public services are horrendous as too health services. And before anybody tells me these things have nothing to do with Burnham I counter that they do. He sets… Read more »
Would Burnham even be allowed change the disastrous policy of increased dependents on the state for votes whole taxing workers and businesses out of existence? Would he even want to? Labour with the Green lunatics will continue wrecking the country and may even form a coalition government.
The role is due for re-election in 2028. Lots of questions arise.
1 Will there be a General Election before then
2 If not who will be the Labour candidate in 2028
3 Will Labour cancel the Manchester Mayoral elections so Burnham is stuck with it until after a 2029 GE
4 Will Burnham be allowed, if he applies, to become a candidate for a Westminster constituency while still Mayor
Lots of fun still to enjoy.
From Grokipedia: “Kayfabe constitutes the unwritten code in professional wrestling obligating wrestlers, promoters, referees, and support staff to depict scripted rivalries, match outcomes, and performer personas as authentic occurrences beyond the confines of live events.”
The kayfabe concept has spilled over into other areas of public life where scripted rivalries supplant actual personas and events. And provide plenty of raw material for pundits.
So… Burnham, Starmer, and the Labour Party are perhaps all kayfabe and we would all be taken for mugs if we believed it was real.
On a different tack could kayfabe explain a lot of the set piece dramas we see? For example the goons of Ice and accompanied riots and mayhem while in reality the Donald is probably de porting no more illegals than sleepy Joe. (Though I’ll grant you he’s done a better job on border control).
If all the problems of the country were created by Thatcher and than made much worse by the 14 years of Tory government before the very much enlighted Sir Two-Tier took over the helm, what happened to and during the Blair/ Brown period in between? Whole country switched to standby?
[…] our archaic, adversarial political system has struggled to find long-term solutions. So we are stuck in a rut and in hock to the bond markets because of the resulting volatility and uncertainty.
This isn’t guff at all. So-called representative democracy is adversarial because it’s driven by different parties which are politically opposed to each other voter may freely vote for. It further suffers from volatility and uncertainty because there’s an election every couple of years and fairly frequent changes among the people who actually govern the country who struggle to find long-term solutions because they will usually not remain in office for long terms.
The short version is: Burnham wants to abolish democracy in favour of an aspirational socialist dictatorship where long-term plans can be made and executed by the people in power and which thus isn’t affected by political volatility and uncertainty because he thinks that’s the more sensible political system. Or claims to think. That he wants anything beyond him becoming the dictator and NEC the future Politbüro is something we can only believe in.
Burnham is the man who ran away from Westminster following his defeat by Corbyn and the takeover by Momentum. He didn’t have the guts to stay and oppose it.
Great article to march the authors brilliant interviews. I wonder, has Mr Wastell, in the name of diversity and inclusion, considered inviting Mr Burnham to a cross examination and establish once and for all if the Evening Standard’s reportage is valid: “Who’s a pretty boy then?… one wonders what our heroes of the rugby field and cricket pitch would make of Andy Burnham with his long eyelashes, trim eyebrows and what may be a touch of mascara..”
““An underpriced future triumvirate: Burnham, Miliband, Mahmood”, trilled Tom McTague, editor of the New Statesman…”
The three Harpies.
The Harpies appear throughout Greek mythology as part-human and part-bird mythological beasts that conjure feelings of dread and disgust in their victims.
Quite so, quite so.
Harpies are female.
Deindustrialisation started in the 1940s with the post-war Marxist-Labour Government which nationalised industry and ran it into the ground within ten years. More coal mines were closed before Thatcher then after. And businesses and people were left paying over the odds because of an unaffordable welfare-state/NHS… tax rates 35% then 5% increments up to a top rate of 83% plus 15% super tax, and 46% corporation tax, out of control spending and borrowing leading to the Labour Government calling in the IMF, devaluing the Pound, trashing the economy – all before Thatcher and why she was elected. We joined the EEC in 1973 giving up our successful trade with EFTA, the Commonwealth Countries and USA. EEC membership did not produce the economical miracle and “The Sick Man of Europe” just got sicker. The 1992 EU/Fourth Reich was the final over-regulated, protectionist, Green madness and transfer of sovereignty and wealth from the UK to the centre, bringing to an end the UK’s ability to develop technology and innovate and trade globally which was the driving force of the Industrial Revolution. History didn’t start the day Andy Burnham was born – the UK’s descent into Socialist decay was well in train whilst… Read more »
You have missed the damage the left wing unions did to our industry with their intransigence to modernisation, which with the railway uions continue to this day.
Burnham must have known the rules and that his chance of being approved were not good before he indicated he wished to stand given his only supporter was dog whistle Powell. Being a mayor is just cutting ribbons and appearing at places and announcing things other people will do and, should they fail, it will not be your fault. Two Tier Kow Tow Kier could give him some pointers of what happens as PM. His halo would slip very quickly when things got no better. There is another hurdle to becoming leader and that is overcoming a party membership that for some bizarre unfathomable reason prefer Miliband as leader.
Burnham should be in prison for his cover up of grooming gangs along with others.