Rosvanian wrote: ↑Sat Jul 18, 2026 7:42 pm
Andrew Neill was claiming that no prime minister in history has had less of a public mandate than Burnham.
I don't even know what that's supposed to mean.
What is a "
public" mandate?
Burnham's mandate is the same as Starmer's - the 2024 manifesto which the
public voted for. All manifestos are published i.e. made
public - there'd be no point in them otherwise.
So I'm guessing Neil is referencing that Burnham is entering No10 without winning a GE - exactly like most PMs.
In the last 50 years only Wilson, Thatcher, Blair and Starmer entered Downing Street thanks to the public's vote.
Just like Burnham, Callaghan, Major, Brown, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak were all made PM by their parties - all constitutionally fine because they had mandates from their manifestos which had been voted for by the
public.
David Cameron entered Downing Street because he had the backing of the LibDems, effectively Nick Clegg elected him - not the
public - which I reckon means he had less of a
public mandate than any other PM
despite having just won a General Election.
Neil understands all of this of course, he's hoping his readers (the
public) don't.
TLDR: Andrew Neil is a cunt.
- By Watchman
- By soulboy