Andy Burnham unveils 'Number 10 North' plan
Growth mentioned ten times. Climate mentioned zero times. A reminder that the green economy is worth £100bn a year, benefits every part of the UK, and green jobs are paid 11% above the average wage. Burnham must stamp out creeping climate skepticism and deliver for people and for nature.
Jane Harbison2Growth -giving developers public money to build skyscrapers without any obligation to build affordable homes ?-see Ranaker
alacre.bsky.social2i fear Burnham is just Starmer 2.0. A few adjustments but the same policies in the end.
Captain Hurley 🇺🇦 🇵🇸1Sadly not shocked. Starmer II: The return of Burnham.
Richard Warren1What sort of growth & for whom? Just more GDP?
Mary Earnshaw1Can I be petty? Of course I can. Scepticism is how it's spelt but I agree with the sentiment.
Marcus 🏳️🌈🇧🇧31He’s just droning on about some nebulous concept of growth Rachel Reeves style
James Murray29As with Starmer, it was a notable omission. Burnham has been really positive towards net zero over the years and his speech hinted at regional transition plans, new industries, green spaces, etc, so why not at least reference the need for bolder climate action?
รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️🌈24ah, good growth, not the bad growth, nuh-uh, but the good growth. the kind your ma and pa talking about when ye were a nipper. i keep saying it but growth is actually bad without wealth redistribution and labour never talk about redistribution.
Atul Haria (immigrant)2It's like these record temperatures across Europe, and the 1300 deaths never happened. And it's going to get much worse. Start listening to the scientists FFS. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Andy Burnham promises the "biggest council house building programme since the postwar period."
Chris Smith27If he wants to do that he needs to restore FoM with the EU. Otherwise shortages of labour will defeat him.
Syd Barhey Esq. FCA. #FBPE15Nice idea - hope he has the skilled tradesmen and labour to deliver. I'm not convinced myself but hope that I'm wrong
Liz12I just hope that there is a supply chain and trained people to deliver this promise.
Dee the KittyServant7I feel like he's been eavesdropping on my conversations. I've banged this drum for YEARS. People need good quality, affordable, secure housing, where they WANT to live, i.e. near family, friends, work. That is KEY to good health, therefore learning, and employment. For I've been saying it!
StoptheFarRight7So, something Labour were already doing. www.gov.uk/government/p...
crasus.bsky.social6How will they stop the Tories flogging them off on the cheap should they return to power
Roland Smith92We'll need to attract more foreign construction workers first.
Dan Kaszeta FRHistS37I mean, that could be like 60 buildings
Antony Carpen4Will be interesting to see what method he’ll use - contracting private sector to build out, create a state-building agency, or enable councils to form their own in-house building units & recreate the posts of local council architects.
Veronica du Lac (She/Her)3I'll believe it when I see it
Your Friend Ravon2Based. If Andy goes this direction, with devolution, public utilities, council housing, and industrial development, things can go well! Not as ambitious as I'd be, but good!
John Harrison2And the end to death
Noble Francis2Both Labour & Conservative politicians always make big house building promises, but they have nothing to do with reality. We never even got to Gordon Brown's 240,000 new housebuilding completions a year in the UK target from 2007, never mind more recent fantasy targets... #ukhousing #ukconstruction
BREAKING:’Politics is broken - we can't go on like this' In his first speech since returning to Westminster, Andy Burnham says he wants to "build the broadest possible coalition of people to lift Britain back up".
Sixes All The Way46No PR, no EU membership, no genocide in Gaza, no public ownership, no increased taxes on the wealthiest, no ditching fossil fuels & no jury trials; Yes austerity, yes to police crackdowns, yes to surveillance, yes to authoritarian laws, yes to contracts to US tech & yes to more harmful neoliberalism
รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️🌈24'we cant go on like this' says the man who has spent 2 months telling us all he'll keep keir starmers economic policies and his absurdly bigoted social agenda.
Man in a Hat15All aspirational with no real substance. Am I surprised? No.
thackwallop.bsky.social7Take a gamble with Burnham or Farage? Both have track records. Burnham - positive achievements that benefited the people of Manchester, buses, Covid and building Brand Manchester. Farage - work shy, liar, chancer, always blaming others and corrupt.
Joh Fonte6“We can’t go on like this” So let’s continue as it was #zionisme
Cammie6Does that lifting up include rejoining EU?
Microplastics Inc.11He's already committed to the exact fiscal and political framework of the person he's replacing and hiring people who are responsible for how we got here. So we will, in fact, go on like this. Because they can't allow any other way.
Mr Socko10"We can't go on like this" man who is going to go on like this
D A V I E M O O9We need to Get Burnham Done in our Hands Face Space so we can Bring Britain Back by Being Best Buds with all! Let's Unleash British Potential by Opening Up British jobs and Backing our Future!
it's Lazzie B! once again!! 😱7i've lost track of the number of times i've heard this in my lifetime. obviously i'm not a reform supporter, but i totally understand why so many low-engagement voters are. it purports to offer a complete reset, same as they were told brexit would. this just confirms their motives. stupid.
Microplastics Inc.7I'm absolutely fascinated to see what people are welcome in that "broadest possible coalition" and I think I already know the answer.
Oli Mould2The ultimate refrain of the status quo
James S. Fallows2Ok Andy; 1. Reverse the OSA 2. Reverse the ban on puberty blockers 3. Stop supporting the Israeli government 4. Do something about the risk of the far-right (Reform, Restore) 5. Put protections into place to ensure if you can't do 4 it's harder for Farage to remove our rights as citizens
I welcome Andy Burnham’s commitment to greater devolution for London and across the country. By empowering our cities, we can unlock growth, raise productivity and create well‑paid, secure jobs that make a real difference in our communities.
รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️🌈5i don't care about growth. trickle down economics does not work.
Dame Rainbow Warrior3He's a cuckoo. Taking over someone else's success when the hard work is done! I might have to vote Labour in future, to keep Reform out but I won't support a coup.
azlarryan.bsky.social2Hopefully he will enable London and the Home Counties to work together far more effectively so the wider region can start to fix the shared problems of housing, infrastructure and transport. London and the South East depend on each other. We need government structures and reforms that respect this.
Lee Thumwood2Parliament should be moved to the middle of the UK, imo, like Brum. & there should be on site digs travellodge style for MPs to stay when required. The 2nd homes/refurbished kitchens/horse stable heating etc etc stuff should end.
okay here is my very grown-up and sensible adult-in-the-room analysis of andy burnham after his little speech.
Samantha8It is wild just how much starmers face fits in there. Oh, you caught him, what a cheeky little boy he's been
Lillydame2Blair Blah Blair Blah Blair Blah
Richard Winskill 🏳️🌈2The ascot suits you ;)
Bobbi's Warrent Service1Would have gotten away with it if it wasnt for you meddling lefties 😆
Jeffy 🌿1The deflated Burnham mask, the leering Starmer, your "I fucking told you" face. All perfect.
BLACK131And I'd have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for you pesky trans kids smile 😊
Will "Number 10 North" have a cat? How has this question not been raised yet.
Banjon16A dog. Whippet obviously. Failing that a ferret.
Samoht12Surely a dog, this dog?
Illuminatus12We demand a scraggy old mongrel dog. WE WANTS A GASPODE "Bark"
Gareth01084Definitely a ferret , on a lead
Hugin3There's a lot of joke suggestions here, but "force anyone who wants power to live with an exotic pet that demands attention and care, while we the public watch" is, I think, a legitimate path to better politicians. Ferret, parrot, IDC just something that's intrusive and intelligent.
Gin and Bacon2Maybe an African Grey that, for some unknown reason, sits on its perch squawking "Nigel? My arse!"
No, I am not being channelled directly into Andy Burnham. It just seems that way at the moment.
Carl Barker1That sounded a lot dirtier in my mind than it really should have done
redross49.bsky.social1Vote Russ for PM! Only thing I would add is bring back hanging, for politicians who lie and misrepresent the truth unless doing so for national security
ralphfarrugia.bsky.social1We all just want a working government - working for the people not for themselves and their mates. We're also not the US and we're not the EU. We can work with both but for our own selfish benefit - for once.
Andy Burnham has a very short window to turn this government around. The country is impatient for change. People have heard fine words before only to be let down badly because nothing really changes. We can’t afford more of the same.
Mark Stamp10One change you could make is to get your party off of X
hubertlaneite.bsky.social9Indeed, but if those 12 years of planned tory austerity exacerbated by brexit are to be cured it will take a decade….at least…. sadly less than clued up voters only think in days and weeks NOT decades..!!
Polly Curley7He can start by U-Turn on the transphobic policies of Starmer et al, and disallow Cass.
Rob Riddett6It would also help if opposition parties grasped a thread of reality & accepted that after 14 years of the Tories breaking the UK, 'short windows' & fast improvements 'by the end of Parliaments' etc aren't logistically possible. Undoing a decade & half could take as long to sort if not more; grow up
Sanjiv Sachdev5Get off X - that’s a change you could do
Helen #FBPE #NHS #ClimateCrisis 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇺🇦🏳️🌈💙4He’s not PM yet! Give the bloke a chance!🤷♀️
sorry I know I said I was on holiday but I do need to briefly come back to shamelessly gloat about this piece I wrote basically exactly five years ago, in 2021, about Andy Burnham and metro mayors: www.independent.co.uk/independentp...
Robert Saunders16Very perceptive! On your last sentence: Georgios Varouxakis made the interesting point the other day that Macron was the first modern French president who *didn't* move from a regional powerbase to the Elysee. So could British and French politics be moving in opposite directions??
Dave Waggy1😅 i hope you watched this whilst writing for the independent
James Agnew1(Don't have an Independent subscription so don't know if you mention this in the piece) Not beating the allegations about men thinking about this but wasn't this also an issue in the later Roman Empire with generals commanding loyal troops locally then trying to take the Imperial throne?
Good to see Andy Burnham embracing scrutiny by taking no questions after his first “landmark” speech that was little more than just vibes. The question he can’t avoid forever when he becomes PM is: when will the UK stop selling arms to the genocidal apartheid state of Israel?
aiteall.bsky.social1But also, and as importantly, he won't break with the Warfare not Welfare demands of the War Ministers and the generals who declare 'we' are in a state of war. Even though their main enemy Russia, with an economy the size of Italy, is obviously losing the war against Ukraine.
waywewerent.bsky.social1The answer to that question alone will tell us everything we need to know.
Andy Burnham confirming he won't take our key infrastructure back into public ownership.
Andy Dug28Meet the new boss Same as the old boss
Hug (with a "H")17If Andy Burnham thinks he has 10 years to reverse the ravages of #Austerity and rampant Capitalism he is as ignorant and aloof as Kier Starmer. At most he has 3 years to make substantial impacts on housing supply, energy costs and wealth tax or #Labour will be in the same position as the Tories.
Sam16Anyone who thought he was the great, progressive hope is going to be very sad very quickly. He's possibly more left wing than Keir but that's a low bar
Michael Forshaw810 year plan? 🤣 are you actually fkn serious? we're a bit beyond that kind of promise now 14 years of Tory Austerity, then 2 years of Labour ushering in the far-right with brutal policies that really hurt people but it's ok, you've got a 10 year plan? just like Starmer did good luck wi that, Andy
Boiled Like Frogs5Is this seriously your take in response to one of the best speeches in decades?
Wonko the Sane5Utilities are in public CONTROL, there are public regulatory bodies already, they don't work 🙄
Marcus 🏳️🌈🇧🇧98Fucking no point is there as we knew
Cam all one word 🇵🇸24Starmer with a Northern accent
An Animated Cylinder of Xenon for PM7God actually imagine being one of those Greens who swung Labour in Makerfield. I’d kill myself
SirKidStarverIsGone7Soo glad people have voted for Change 2.0
Aidan Fitzmaurice6Lots of journalists practicing their "why is Andy Burnham so unpopular?" faces already
chappell roan atkinson6Well then what's the fucking point? What do they think is going to change? Absolute lunacy from the Labour Party, not that I would expect any different at this point.
bogwoppitt59.bsky.social6So no changes in policy then , so what’s the point of @andyburnham.bsky.social ???????
𝓪 𝓶𝓪𝓵𝓮𝓿𝓸𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓶𝓸𝓽𝓱 🦋5love to have 10 year plans for a - charitably! - 7 year administration
Moschops 🦕🦖4Another Starmer relaunch, it seems
Scottish Socialist Party3Burnham's "greater public control" copout won't cut it: we need full democratic public ownership of public services Don't rely on the Labour Party to solve the problems facing working class people. Fight for socialist change; join the Scottish Socialist Party ✊️ #Public #Burnham #Democratic #Labour
Andy Burnham's speech made no mention of the #ClimateCrisis, included no commitment to public ownership of water and said nothing about the urgent need to properly tax the super-rich. Will this just be a Labour rebranding exercise? For the real deal: Join.greenparty.org.uk
Shoveller4Sadly, I fear it will be more of the same. Too many vested interests to satisfy and a mortal dread of the right-wing media - and, of course, the bond markets.
Ms M 💚🌱💙🦊🌳🦔🌸🐞🧶♾️1I like some of what he said. But it’s not nearly enough, despite borrowing some Green sensibilities such as hope and community! Hopefully he’ll sway many away from Reform, but Greens will need to ramp up & hold him to account on inclusion & the urgency of the climate / environmental crisis.
theologically.bsky.social1He did say local areas will be able to control their utilities: water, energy etc.
Ghost of Hope 🏳️⚧️1Thanks for remembering the trans genocide. Oh, you didn't.
Is Andy Burnham treating Scotland just like another region of England? Editor Laura Webster and Political Reporter Abbi Garton-Crosbie discuss 'Scotland gets put into the same category as Yorkshire or the 'North-East' ... it is not the same thing'
busygranof6.bsky.social9Every time I hear that England ‘will give’ is when I just turn off.
allysmith.bsky.social7I’ve worked all over England, at least 7-8yr down there. They are generally clueless as to Scotland and the ‘Union’ history. The ‘Union’ was a farce from start and has always worked against Scotland. Sold out for generations by 17th century ‘1%ers’.
Ellie5I wish Yorkshire *was* like Scotland and we had devolution; next step independence. I'm much closer physically and emotionally to Edinburgh than to Westminster.
The National5Watch The National Podcast on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7ds...
Shortbreadfairy©️3Burnham is an English Nationalist that views Scotland as an etension of the North of England which denys Scotland as a country in its on right. We're just jocks to be ruled over by two English Cities by a willing branch office on their knees
Brian Liddy5That’s not the right question! Question is, does Burnham realise the thing he wants to change in Scotland are *devolved* to Holyrood! So, if he wants to change it he’s got to work *with* SNP Scot.Govt! Does he know that? Or does he think he can do it without Holyrood’s approval? That’s the question!
ScotLassie(Extremist apparently😁)2Just another imperialistic wanker. #IndependenceNOW