Andy Burnham: What if He Wins?

First off, I hope that Labour get a bloody nose in the Makerfield bye election and Andy Burnham doesn't get in and Labour don't have the rebranding that the gullible may fall for.

But let's do the thought process: what if Burnham got in. What might he do to improve Labour's chances of winning against Reform or Restore at the next election?

 What would Burnham's policies be as PM?

One of the likely pushes of a Burnham government would be to Nationalise public transport. The success of Bee line in Manchester has already gained public support in that city. However, no on notes the cost of conversion from Private to Public ownership. Yes, the busses and trams might work a bit better and having a single transport entity makes moving from buses to trams seamless, but does the cost outweigh the benefit? Only time will tell. Of course users on see the benefits, especially if the service is subsidised with borrowed money. Like most socialist projects, it may all collapse in 5 years as borrowing costs rise beyond the ability to fund repayment from fares.

If the Bee line experiment is pushed to become a Nationwide experiment, let's hope there's enough good will in the markets to allow the borrowing to fund the enterprise. Also the large investment funds may get a bit upset at losing the profits from road and rail transport companies.

The second most likely nationalisation in Burnham's public-ownership-focussed brain would be the utility companies, especially the water companies. And it would be supported by the public. But...

The problem he has there is convincing the public to fund repair of the infrastructure caused by decades of lackluster investment by private owners. Why should the public pay? And if the public pays, how are they compensated by the companies that profited from the hideous profiteering by the owners of the utility companies whilst in their ownership?

Those are just two of the problems that Burnham could face if he tries the "Manchester Mayor" his term as PM. 

Notwithstanding the issues he faces from the declining revenue from tax, increased borrowing (and the pressure to borrow even more to fund re-nationalisation), increasing inequality, increasing social and cultural division, etc.

Whether Burham can see past the leftist ideology and identify the true causes of those issues, is another thing. Starmer is captured by ideology. I get the impression Burnham is (currently) a bit more free-flowing, but if he becomes PM would the party, the blob and donors constrain him? 

Hopefully it never comes to that and Burham loses the bye-election. 

Then we'll see Starmer revert to type and his true authoritarian nature will come out. I'm sure there will be a reshuffle like you've not seen before, with ever more obscure and ineffectual personalities put in positions of power, so as not to threaten Starner's premiership. Whether he gets to eradicate all his opponents from the cabinet remains to be seen.

But Starmer is like the step-dad from hell. He is determined to make you a better person (according to him) by force if necessary, up to the point of abuse. Let's just hope we can survive the next 3 years unscathed and whoever gets in can reverse the last 30 years of abusive government.

The Most Subtle "Fuck You" in Recent History.

Pork Sausages were served on a deportation flight leaving Ireland heading to Pakistan. 

The Irish really know how to say fuck you and don't come back in the nicest way possible. 

I'm Back.

You probably haven't noticed, but I am now back in the UK, after a bit of a break. 

Well, what a few weeks the UK has had. Starmer has been given a bloody nose in the local elections and refuses to accept the reality that the people reject his policies.

A bloody nose that was so predictable, Starmer tried to stop it by withholding local elections for swathes of the UK. It was only down to Reform taking the government to court that we were allowed to have the elections, a year later than originally planned.

Since that arsekicking last week, the Government have carried on with their unpopular policies. 

We had the Kings speech. Digital ID is still going ahead at huge expense, but it's not mandatory, except that you won't be able to do anything without it, so it will become defacto mandatory to have in order to drive a car, get benefits, etc. Also in the Kings speech is the scrapping of Jury trials. Hugely unpopular. 

Basically the message of the King's speech is less freedom, more government intervention and more money required in taxes to fund it all.

Then we had Starmer's speeches. The one regarding the loss of council seats in the local elections, and the one at the end of last week regarding the protests in London. 

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Labour MP Barry Gardiner, but Starmer is deaf. Deaf to the clamouring from the people for him to reverse course on pretty much all of his policies. 

Deaf to the fact the the Unite the Kingdom movement is not Far-Right, or anti-immigration, or racist. There were plenty of immigrants at the march, who love the UK and want it to stay the way it is. 

As opposed to the Pro-Palestinian march, that was again calling for the eradication of the Jewish state and by definition, the eradication of Jews. 

Anyone looking at Starmer doesn't see a leader. They see a puppet. A puppet controlled from somewhere else. He is not listening to the people. He is not dealing with their grievances ion the way a true leader would, instead he continues with policies the public didn't ask for. So who asked for them? 

That's the biggest question now of Starmer: who is pulling his strings, or the strings of the Labour party? 

Coming up, we have the bye election created specially to get Andy Burnham into Parliament. 

Let that sink in: a Labour MP, elected by his constituency to represent his constituents, has basically stuck two fingers up to them and said, "You MUST to elect Andy Burnham". Not because it benefits the voters in Makerfield, but because it benefits the Labour party. That's not democracy. 

That's the Lords and Nobles of the land telling the peasants to fall into line and elect the person they are being told to elect. 

That's almost the modern equivalent of the Rotten boroughs, expecting the voters to vote for you. Good luck with that. Anti-Labour sentiment is high, and I guess in a constituency that voted 65% for leaving the EU, it's a bit presumptuous to just expect Labour voters to cast their vote for a Remainer.