Posted on 05/19/2026 9:29:19 AM PDT by RandFan
“A vote for me will be a vote to change Labour,” Mr Burnham told the audience at the Great North summit in Leeds. For Labour, read Sir Keir Starmer.
Mr Burnham could be prime minister before schools break for the summer holidays, so what he says on the campaign trail in this mother of all by-elections really matters.
The theme first. Mr Burnham is arguing that Britain has been on the wrong path since the 1980s, a four-decade slide into decline that he is vowing to overturn.
It is a rebuke not only of Thatcherism, which he argues gutted the North via deindustrialisation, but also of New Labour for keeping some of its tenets in place into the 21st century.
Seeking to channel this anti-politics sentiment, Mr Burnham is framing himself as an outsider, ready to take on Whitehall and make it work better for the people.
But how? For one, he is putting up in lights his discomfort with how far Thatcher’s privatisation drive went, linking it with today’s rising cost of living.
Taking whole chunks of the water and energy industry into some form of public ownership is part of his solution, as well as rail operators – something that is already under way under Labour.
Another strand of his economic vision appears to be reindustrialising the North. Details are scant, but presumably any proposals involve sizeable amounts of new public investment.
Soaring rents is another area in which the Greater Manchester mayor wants intervention, telling ITV News that chasing increasing rents via benefit payments is driving up public spending.
The policy prescription here is hazy. We know Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has been exploring a rental cap. It seems Mr Burnham’s instinct is top-down Government action
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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This is the trend now it seems, more top down government.
Who are you going to vote for?
You can have Massie and Cassidy...
collectivism has many names
the result is always the same
the state is primary
the citizens are slaves
Ha ha
In a General Election the choices are just as bad at least in my lifetime.
Can you blame me for not bothering and following George Carlin’s advice......
You can always count on the left to replace one of their failure with someone worse.
It’s called a ‘political death spiral’
I feel like the UK has been here before.
After WWII, Britain went very socialist. By the 1970s, they had nationalized a number of industries, and the economy was stagnant. That’s why the voters turned to Margaret Thatcher. They wanted her to dig the country out of the hole that socialism had made.
The media — as far as I can tell — managed to convince the public that, yes, the UK was in a hole — and it was 100% Thatcher’s fault. So the voters got rid of Thatcher. And they have spent more than 30 years since, going more and more in a socialist and globalist direction.
Now the public is (once again) tired of the socialism and eager to try something different. And the media — as far as I can tell — is making the suggestion that more socialism is the fix they need. Certainly you don’t want to do anything stupid like go in the direction Thatcher suggested.
> And the media — as far as I can tell — is making the suggestion that more socialism is the fix they need.
Burnham is selling that to the voters or trying to he’s trying to put down any malaise to too much free market, etc.
He wants to nationalize everything
“”> And the media — as far as I can tell — is making the suggestion that more socialism is the fix they need.
Burnham is selling that to the voters or trying to he’s trying to put down any malaise to too much free market, etc.
He wants to nationalize everything””
***
Isn’t that what communists always do? Espouse that it just hasn’t been done quite right yet, but they’ll do it right this time and fix it with MORE socialism... and nationalize everything so they have complete control.
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