I wonder if Andy Burnham was frightened when he walked through the doors of No10 today as our FIFTH Prime Minister in four years.
Well, if he wasn’t – we all sure as Hell are. In fact, most of us are bloody terrified that a bloke who’s been running a local council for the last nine years is now going to be running the country. And the fact is, he doesn’t have a clue how to do it.
He might be a nice bloke, he might have good intentions, he might be able to talk to people in a way the robotic Starmer could not, but none of that qualifies him for the biggest job in politics, especially as, thanks to Starmer, this country is teetering on the brink of financial ruin.
And the little we’ve heard from Blank Sheet Burnham so far is all about spend, spend, spend – something the International Monetary Fund warned him last week he must not do under any circumstances. Because if he keeps spending the people who loan us the money to keep Britain going will simply stop. And the country will collapse.
But Mr Eyelash is choosing to ignore all that because he’s got a point to prove having twice been knocked back as Labour Leader. In fact, much of what he’s talking about today is what he was talking about back then, which rather suggests he has no new ideas.
And times – not to mention politics – have changed hugely since the last time he was in Government in 2010, which was SIXTEEN years ago.
So how in God’s name can he be ready to run a Government now? He’s had no time to prep. He stupidly thought Starmer would hang on until September to give him and his team – which is already being slated as not being up to it – some time to cobble together a grand plan.
But a wounded Starmer was having none of it and told them ‘To Hell with that – you’ve ousted me, you deal with the consequences’. Pause for thought here – did Starmer ever really care about Britain or its people if, in order to stick it to Burnham, he sticks it to us in the process
Anyway, I digress – the point is Burnham’s had less than a month to throw together his grand plan and the truth is I don’t think he’s even got one now. He’s just churning out stuff from yesteryear and hoping it’ll do for now.
But what he’s already made clear is that he doesn’t give a stuff about people in the South – just the North because the truth is that’s all he knows.
So, before his premiership has even started, Burnham has reinstated the North/South divide. And it’s not me saying that – it’s a new Survation poll where voters in the South and even those much farther North are saying: “Burnham doesn’t speak for us”.
In the southeast, the southwest, Yorks, The Humber, Scotland, and the northwest, there are huge swathes of people who think his coronation is illegitimate. Just one in three believes the King of the North (a phrase I’m sure his own people invented) has a legitimate claim to power. And more than half think he should call an election. He won’t of course, because he doesn’t have the guts. He’s waited too long for this moment – and he’s going to seize it even if it means dragging Britain back into the ’70s and bankrupting us as he goes.
But the only mandate he’s got is from the 24,000 people in Makerfield who voted for him, yet still he’s waltzing into No10 largely ignoring the mandate on which Labour was elected. So, it’s a case of: ‘To Hell with the will of the people – we’re gonna do what inexperienced old me thinks’.
And however much self-confidence Burnham might have, there’s no way he’s going to be able to do what he’s promised because there’s no damn money.
Yet still he’s banging on about re-nationalising water companies (Thames Water, which is on the verge of collapse, is likely to cost £100billion), about devolution, about a New No10 in the North, a new system of social care, and he says he’s going to make life more affordable for people who’ve been suffering. So, how much is all that going to cost? And let’s not forget he’s only been an MP for a month, yet as of today he assumes responsibility for a country with three trillion in debt.
And why didn’t we have his Cabinet before today? That’s a red flag on his infamous indecision if ever there was one. And what Britain doesn’t need right now is yet another indecisive leader.
And whatever rabble-rousing rhetoric he shoves at us about “bringing back hope” and “doing politics differently”, the fact is he’s just not ready to do anything.
Because running a local council in Manchester is a million miles away from running a country that’s on the brink of economic armageddon, that has no defence to speak of, and that has an out-of-control immigration problem (have you noticed he hasn’t once mentioned immigration?).
So, while he might have been a Superhero in Manchester, where his job was about giving money away, now every minute will be spent trying to generate billions to keep this country afloat. And I don’t think Mr Eyelash has the first clue how to do that.
I hope with every fibre of my being that I’m wrong. Because although I despise this Labour Government and what it’s done these last two disastrous years, I do love this country and I want it to thrive.
I don’t want to see it being dragged back to the ’70s by a crowd pleaser with no mandate, even less courage and who is so far out of his depth as to be terrifying.
My only hope is that because Burnham’s a Catholic, he follows the Ten Commandments, one of which is: “Thou shalt not lie.”
After two years of Starmer – who wouldn’t know the truth if he fell over it – NOT lying to us would get him off to a flying start!
