Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Andy’s on manoeuvres. Firebrand’s a bit of a stretch. Occasionally heated Andy Burnham.

Occasionally warm, usually tepid.

It's easy to look like a firebrand when you represent only one area and you're sticking it to Westminster. When you aspire to run Westminster, that's not really an option.

I am all for embracing Brexit if that means pragmatically getting on with the situation in which we all find ourselves.

It's the "...and make it work" implication that I'm struggling with. If the people who negotiated it are stumped, I'm not sure what more I can bring to the party.

You make a Norway Brexit work instead of a Belarus Brexit if that’s where Burnham is going. I doubt he knows.

I get that, no point in embracing Brexit if Britain doesn’t exist

He said the time for rejoining the EU had "gone" and that keeping Scotland inside the Union was now a priority https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit ... it-7967260

He won't make a play for Westminster any time soon - he's just won a mayoral seat after all and it'd look bad for him to abandon that - but make no mistake, there's mischief afoot.

Hard to say how I think he'd do. He's a bit of a windsock is the problem and I worry he'd get tripped up on that. On the other hand he's been able to keep his nose clean in Manchester whilst still getting "political experience"

He's already pledged to serve a full second term as mayor. But when questioned on any further leadership ambitions by - I think - the BBC, he said that having already stood before, it wouldn't make sense to say that he wouldn't necessarily run again in future.

It’s only 3 years isn’t it?

mattomac wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 2:11 pm It’s only 3 years isn’t it?

Indeed, assuming GE2023 doesn't become a thing.

Some of the Greater Manchester MP's - Graham Stringer and Tony Lloyd come to mind as examples - will be getting a bit long in the tooth by the next election, so that would probably be Burnham's best opportunity.

If Burnham wants me to "embrace Brexit", he's first going to have to explain to me what he considers are the main benefits of Brexit.

"Andy Burnham urges UK to 'embrace' Brexit as 'new reality'"

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit ... it-7967260

He’s right that Brexit’s a reality but where’s Burnham going with this? Wherever the ambulance takes him, I presume.
I’ll await his proposals for a super-duper Labour Brexit. Which will be ill-conceived moth eaten proposals for closed market procurement. And what else; import controls and Trabants?

It probably involves saying "Preston" a lot. Let's phone up John Mann. He seemed to know.

That guy is a regeneration expert. Be interested to hear more from him on this point. I noticed Burnham get his arse kicked by rail experts who pointed out that the problem in Greater Manchester wasn't profiteering Northern Rail but too many trains going though the core. Burnham unconvincingly said he was "representing what people were saying" or something.
F

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 8:52 pm It probably involves saying "Preston" a lot. Let's phone up John Mann. He seemed to know.

Forgotten Mann's mind boggling electric car making nirvana argument but be surprised if we hear it again. Caroline Flint's 'plan' to revive the steel industry through guaranteed state contracts is going to need a lot of domestic steel to create an economy of scale. Why not create new towns of modernist steel council houses overseen by Jonathan Meades? The Bauhaus Brexit.

Youngian wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 11:43 am

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 8:52 pm It probably involves saying "Preston" a lot. Let's phone up John Mann. He seemed to know.

Forgotten Mann's mind boggling electric car making nirvana argument but be surprised if we hear it again. Caroline Flint's 'plan' to revive the steel industry through guaranteed state contracts is going to need a lot of domestic steel to create an economy of scale. Why not create new towns of modernist steel council houses overseen by Jonathan Meades? The Bauhaus Brexit.

Great idea. New homes where we have shortages.

As long as none of them get built in or near "Remania", however bad the housing shortages are there. That's not the Brexit the real people voted for.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caves-Steel-Ro ... 619&sr=8-1

The future?

I for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

Boiler wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 5:39 pm I for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

The Spaffbot is quite funny, bit I'm not at all keen on the Raabot or the Govebot, they have the feel of Skynet about them.

I'm getting a bit fed up by this constant sticking it to London. Different places are different, Andy. Where's our South Herefordshire Metrolink? See how that works? Prices depend on things like capacity- Jez ran on cutting season tickets in 2019, which would have been great for people getting on at the first few stops, less good for later stops.

And Manchester to Newton-le-Willows (about which I know nothing, except that Colin Welland came from there) is 20 miles. Try travelling 20 miles out of London on the train- that won't be particularly cheap. Plus, I understand that the return fare N-le-W (as I'm sure locals don't call it) to Manchester is only 10p more- maybe take that issue up?

One thing where I think everyone can agree is that buses outside London are nothing like as good as they could, fairly easily be. This is the thing to concentrate on.

Yeah, let's have some sort of rural bus services like we had up until the mid 80s. You can worry about train fares when the trains actually go where people want, or, at least when you can get off at the nearest station and not have to drive or pay for a taxi cos there ain't no public transport. I can show you villages within a 30-minute bike ride of Biggleswade station where, if you haven't got a car you're screwed, because they haven't seen a bus since about 1986.