Yet some people are unhappy. Some of them being those people whose services Burnham dispensed with upon entering Downing Street. Starmer got his best press in years as all the tabloids splashed with his relaxed "leaving drinks" at a North London boozer. Putting a brave face on failure, in other words. Others wasted no time briefing their media mates that they're upset and will exact a blood price for being robbed of their ministerial birth rights. Out of the gate first was the recently defenestrated Darren Jones, who criticised Burnham's energy VAT cut as coming from his digital ID card plan ... which was unfunded anyway. What was supposed to be a gotcha moment made Jones look spiteful. And incompetent, seeing as he revealed the project he was managing was but a wing and a prayer.
It's worth noting that there was little to no bellyaching of this character when Starmer made Cabinet an almost entirely right wing affair, purposely carving out those who then had Burnham sympathies. A move that, scant weeks later, caused our former Prime Minister a ripple of embarrassment. Nor is the discontent of the disgruntled likely to make much head way in the medium term. None of them are particularly appealing, have heavily relied on others to do the factionalising for them, and of those among them who engineered Starmer's rise did so not through cunning or manoeuvre but by bare-faced lying.
And why would they want to rock the boat anyway? 379 MPs (95%) of the PLP nominated Burnham as their candidate. Whether motivated by values/policy, career aspirations, or a desire to keep their seat, that's not much for out-of-favour people to work with. Second, we might have had a comms reset. There are new and returning faces around the cabinet table, but politically what Burnham has done has taken Labour back to where the government was before Angela Rayner resigned and Starmer carried out his right wing reshuffle. Yes, he's appointed a couple of Campaign Group MPs to very junior roles, but this is hardly making Leon Trotsky the head of the red army. This is also a government that's just handed the execrable Ian Austin a job. What then is there to be miserable about? Are they upset at the continuity on foreign policy? The continuity on bashing immigration? The continuity of blaming young people for the lack of jobs? I doubt it. The only difference between them and Burnham's team are bruised, overweening egoism, a Blairite fetish for ID cards, and woefully underdeveloped media skills.
This isn't to say opposition won't start emerging in the PLP as disappointment/disillusionment sets in. But what with the policy and agenda and personnel decisions announced so far, a big announcement on sorting out adult/elderly care due this week, a summer tour of Jeremy Corbyn-style public rallies, a welcome and overdue spotlight on Reform's murky finances, and MPs heading off on their holibobs, there's no one around for the out-of-sorts right to listen. And no differences worth stoking a row about. And thanks to their leading positions in the ancien regime, when dissent becomes fashionable again who are going to look at the likes of Steve Reed, Rachel Reeves, and David Lammy and say "Yes! These guys are the answer!"
6 comments:
When Tory PM, Harold Macmillan was asked what had gone wrong with his scandal-rocked Tory government, he simply said "events dear boy, events". And so it will be for the utter chancer, Andy Burnham. Burnham has already shown that he will stick ti austerity, betrayed the Waspi women, continue to support the Gaza genocide, the Ukraine war, and the Iran war, and his idea of "reindustrialisation" turns out to mean ever more drone and missile factories across the UK - all targets for Russian retaliation strikes.
Numerous respected economic experts on the impact of the coming huge Strait of Hormuz closure caused ,oil shortages, and key byproducts shortages, including global fertilizer supplies, say that before the end of 2026, the global energy crisis will spark a huge financial crisis and food crisis, and economic slump on the scale of the 1929 Great Crash. Burnham and his Blairite handlers will have no idea at all how to handle such a crisis. They are all manipulative political pygmys, without any ideas except how to posture with "jam tomorrow" soundbites and ruthlessly maintain the status quo. The status quo will be over by year end, and this Burnham con trick will be soon forgotten.
If you don't think Andy Burnham will advance the class struggle you're possibly not understanding social democracy correctly from a Marxist viewpoint.
Haha :D
I wonder if Mason can think of *any* ways in which Starmer actually did that. Or is that an utterance he'd rather forget?
The change in leadership of Labour seems very much like an elite game without popular participation. The remaining membership have had no input. It is a change without mass participation with MPs reacting to falling polls and losses of councillors and trying to work out what is the minimum they can do to turn things around and give them a chance of remaining in post in 2029.
Who knows whether Mr Burnham's priorities are what the members want. They have not been asked to comment or debate policies - nor will they - and they may just be relieved at a slight turn of the polls.
We shall see whether it lasts or whether the MPs will need to look for their Sunak to replace the charisma on Burnham if/when things go wrong.
Well, the "Burnham bounce" may be hard to see in national numbers yet but he's certainly got a vote of confidence from the Manchester area. It's a breath of fresh air watching the bigots and anti-woke nearly-deads having a meltdown about it online.
The big problem he has, of course - alongside his cabinet's stench of continuity allegiance to all the same Israeli and US horrors, behind the scenes - is that all those northerners voting for him now will expect him to actually deliver something. And he hasn't got the fiscal headroom for any bribes at all.
So the question of relatively cheap wins is going to be paramount to his success... And cheap wins necessarily lie along the social political axis.
There are at least three obvious ones available:
1. Attack fox hunting again. The easiest win that any modern Labour govt ever has on the table.
2. Bulldoze legalisation of assisted dying through the Lords. Also carries a promise of economic dividends, and the opposition will surely be clustered around religious and traditionalist organisations whose members lean strongly rightwards (and therefore would be biased against labour anyway).
3. Aggressively roll back the recent attacks on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. Guaranteed to sway back a big chunk of the urban progressives who would otherwise be voting Green, while antagonising mainly voters who would never vote Labour anyway. In the case of immigration, it also offers the possibility of wins on the economic axis for addressing the social care emergency.
Employment Rights Act?
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