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Burnham’s speech on Manchesterism
Andy Burnham, the likely next leader of the Labour Party made a speech on Monday 29th June, from the People’s History Museum in Salford. I have linked to the Sky News video of the speech. I have captured the transcript and posted it on my wiki.
Is that it? Moving part of No 10 to Manchester. What is he moving and how will that change things? We should note that this has already been tried once, when Sunak, then PM, moved part of the Treasury to Darlington. Devolution needs more than relocating civil servants from London. The proposal is an oblique criticism of Starmer’s failure to act on the Brown Commission report which proposed both a limited devolution in England and a legal entrenchment of local government rights. In my article, “ New Britain, New Britcon”, (or on Medium), I argued that such plans would fail unless funded and funded in such a way that the axiom that poor areas need more services, and generate lower tax revenues is addressed. Devolution for a progressive government needs both money and a means of equitable sharing.
Many will ask “why Manchester?” It is the second economic centre in Britain but is it the best place to locate a flagship to devolution. Having said that, he namechecks other parts of the UK, including even London but it just leaves me asking the question, “Does location of the Civil Service really make a difference?”, surely it…
