“So, Dan, what do you think of Andy Burnham?”
I’ve been putting off this question with friends until finishing Head North and, finally, the day has come!
I’ve written and rewritten this blog numerous times. There’s a lot to say. I want to comment on the book; I want to answer the Burnham question; I want to go on long rants about Thatcher. But, alas, every time I stopped and looked at the word count, I had to reel myself back in.
So, here it is – before I have to cut down another few thousand words – my best, most concise attempt at a book-Burnham commentary (sorry, Steve – nobody’s asked me) with the occasional jab at the Tories for good measure.
Head North: A rare opportunity
Head North is half memoir, half manifesto, written by two authors, whose sections are differentiated by the barely distinguishable bold typesetting – occasionally italics when they’re both speaking – and jumps between perspectives every couple of paragraphs. In short, it’s all over the place and a pain in the arse to follow. Let’s pray this format never catches on.
If you power through the format, however, Head North presents a great opportunity.
Written in 2024, Head North allows us to dive into the mind of somebody who – we now know – would become the most powerful man in Britain. Burnham has the biggest opportunity he’s ever going to get to deliver on his vision. I remember reading Torsten Bell’s Great Britain? a few years ago thinking there are some good ideas here, let’s hope he delivers. But since becoming MP, Bell has achieved only a minor fraction of the sweeping economic and tax blueprint he set out. My hope for Burnham is greater – he’s the big man; the top dog.
Part one: Memoir
Burnham and Rotheram – mayors of Manchester and Liverpool respectively – spend the first half of this book talking about what shaped their politics and the second half putting forward their ten priorities for change.
This first half was helpful. Despite being Northern, left-leaning and increasingly interested in politics each year, I’m embarrassed to say I knew very little about Andy Burnham’s back story before the wheels of his premiership started turning. It was nice to read the stories that gave Burnham his motivations and political drive.
He’s a bloke many will relate to; he watches football; he grew up listening to the Smiths, dressing like a tit and sneaking into the Hacienda; he goes to the pub and was born into no real privilege. He seems to genuinely care about the community he lives and works in and he understands his constituents. Possibly my favourite quote of the book, referring to when John Prescott punched a protester:
My fears of a backlash did not materialise – not in Leigh at least. In ex-mining, rugby-league-loving Leigh, the local electorate quickly decided John was well within his rights to throw his left jab.
He mentions Hillsborough a lot – Rotheram was actually at the Hillsborough game while Burnham was attending the other semi final (Everton) in 1989 – and getting justice for the families of those who were lied to for decades seems to have weighed heavily on him.
He uses ‘the devil incarnate’ in the same sentence as Margaret Thatcher. In fact, much of Burnham’s moral and political compass, it would seem, is tuned from the wake of the devastation Mags left behind in the eighties – particularly in the North.
I think many of today’s problems can be traced back to the eighties and her [Margaret Thatcher] divisive ideology. It was the time when the mantra that the market is the answer to everything became firmly planted in the mindset of Britain’s political class. It has remained there ever since – to our country’s cost.
Our inheritance from the Thatcher era is a problematic one. It has left the essentials of life; – water, energy, transport – in private hands and the British public paying higher prices for them; a-race-to-the-bottom labour market with people’s job security and protections whittled away; and, most seriously, a deep-routed housing crisis.
He talks about the increasing polarisation of the country following the decline of the seventies and eighties. England feels like two countries, with the North constantly being left behind as London sucks up a disproportionate amount of investment, opportunity and talent – exacerbating things further. I can relate to this. I moved to London from the North purely for the employment opportunities, infrastructure and lifestyle. It’s got everything a young and ambitious graduate wants. It didn’t have to be that way – I’d have probably stayed up North if there was more happening.
It was our first taste of an indisputable reality; that not every life in our country is equal and some are worth much more than others.
He’s not quick to blame individuals, though – well, except when Thatcher put the country on a car boot sale, obviously. Rather, he thinks many of the problems the country faces today are the product of a broken system and a Wesminster that “rewards loyalists and mavericks”.
On the one hand, I always felt the privilege of the position and came across some incredible, public-spirited people in the civil service. On the other, the more I came to understand the system of government within which they and I had to work, the less I liked it.
A big source of his frustration is how power and policy is centralised in London, leaving little opportunity to fix things locally. The Green Book (something I’d never heard of), for example, pretty much guarantees that most investment projects in the North won’t get the green light. His ambition for a better, more equal country lies in fixing this broken system, which forms the second half of the book – the manifesto.
While a Labour man, he’s not afraid to call out his own party, and has more than one tale of them pissing him off. One that stuck with me is when Labour buried his impassioned speech to remain during the EU referendum campaign in favour of their own agenda. I don’t think I’ll ever get over what a complete disaster that referendum was for the UK, and stories like this really grind my gears.
Part two: Manifesto
If Burnham and Rotheram’s first half is the set-up, the second half is the pay-off. They make it simple – a ten-point plan for a better country.
So, let’s not overcomplicate this. I’ll just list each point and add my own thoughts. Before you unravel each comment, however, have a think; is this a good idea? Will it lead to material benefit? Is it just a political indulgence?
1. A written constitution
The UK is one of only five countries without a written constitution. Burnham and Rotheram argue this archaic, feudalistic national mindset is why regional inequality is guaranteed. They want a written constitution which would include a German Grundgesetz-style law guaranteeing equal living standards between UK regions.
Ironically, Britain was one of the countries that introduced this in Germany in the first place, and Germany benefits from a fairer distribution of wealth and power as a result.
A written constitution sounds sensible to me, as does this particular inclusion, but it’s hard to be fully on board until we see everything that would be in it. At this point, nobody can say if a written constitution is a fix or just an expensive distraction.
Three stars – need more detail.
2. A basic law
Basically to establish a set of fundamental principles that government cannot casually ignore, including a stronger framework of rights, accountability and constitutional protection. Burnham and Rotheram are particularly concerned with the relationship between the individual and the state, i.e. what citizens should be entitled to expect from government, and what government should not be able to do to them.
Sensible as this sounds in principle, I’m going to have to ask my lawyer friends to translate this for me vs. the laws we currently have today.
Two stars for making me feel stupid.
3. Voting reform; including proportional representation
If Burnham gets PR through as Prime Minister, he’ll have done more to protect Britain from populism than any other politician in history. Most of the country does not want harmful politics to prevail, but if the preference of the reasonable is divided too many ways, harmful politicians stand a chance. That needs to be fixed.
Good luck though, Andy. ‘The turkeys won’t vote for Christmas’, as Alistair Campbell eloquently put it.
Five stars for effort.
4. Reform or removal of the whip system
Ah, yes. That thing that stops our representative democracy functioning as a representative democracy. Let’s get rid of it.
I’m completely with the authors on this one. There’s a special place in hell for the whip. If you want to represent your constituents, you should vote in their interest. If there is a conflict between your party line and the interests of your constituents, you are representing the wrong party.
Five stars – anybody who disagrees should be whipped on principle.
5. A senate
I only ever hear the word senate when discussing US politics or Star Wars. Neither of those fill me with optimism for a senate of our own, but I suspect that’s through association.
That said, the House of Lords is a middle finger to democracy, so I’m all up for replacing the second chamber with something – you know – democratic.
We need to fix the image, though. I propose a new name to distance ourselves from that weird cult drama. And Star Wars.
Four stars. Five, if we get to call it The Public House AKA The Pub.
6. Full devolution
Stop running Britain as though every important decision has to be made in London. Given the German and Nordic examples they cited, I’m grand with this. It could introduce a system of experimentation where successes can be rolled out nationally. I expect (hope) there’s more substance to this than the current Number 10 North approach – it grabs a headline – sure – but doesn’t actually devolve any power or create any new jobs.
Four stars.
7. Equal paths in education
Vocational education shouldn’t be treated as what happens to people who aren’t capable of university. Absolutely.
However, a lot of potential opportunity is locked away from the UK. Britain’s industrial and manufacturing sectors have been obliterated through decades of outsourcing and sell-offs. If we’re going to give equal priority to technical roles, there needs to be better technical opportunities. I went to university for practical reasons – knowledge work is simply easier to come by for a better salary in this country. We need to find a way to attract technical jobs back to the UK and stimulate demand.
Secondly, equal paths in education needs to start earlier. Private schools are divisive – as are grammar schools – but religious schools need to go first. Nobody’s access to education should be affected by the ideology a person’s parents happen to project upon their impressionable children.
Four stars. Five if it includes equal paths in secondary schools.
8. Grenfell law
Establish stronger duties and accountability around building safety and public protection, with responsibility ultimately resting with identifiable people and institutions rather than disappearing into a bureaucratic chain.
Don’t put profit before human safety. Don’t hide behind a faceless organisation when it all goes wrong.
Don’t be a dick, basically. Five stars.
9. Hillsborough law
People should legally be required to tell the truth. Mind-blowing!
Legal representation should not favour the rich. Slow down, cowboy. I’m getting a brain haemorrhage with all these sensible suggestions. I doubt this kind of logic will go down well with the elite, though.
Five stars for application of common sense.
10. Net zero to reindustrialise the North
Bring back (green) industry to the UK – especially the North. Fine, as long as this isn’t used as political leverage to invest in non-green (or slightly-green, or greenish, or greenwash) initiatives for the sake of economic productivity.
This is the only item in the book that looks at a really big picture issue – global warming – albeit through the lens of getting jobs back in the North of England.
Three stars; because I don’t trust any climate initiative set out by a politician until I see actions and results. I’ll upgrade to twenty stars if this can stimulate industry while staying within the UK’s 2050 commitments. Sod it, you can have all the stars.
The Prime Minister’s problem
A lot of this ‘plan’ sounds sensible, doesn’t it? And now Burnham is the big cheese with a huge parliamentary majority, surely the wheels will turn to make progress?
Assuming Burnham still stands by these ten points today, I see some problems.
Two really big ones.
The first problem: the public. Nobody in the UK, save maybe the good people of Makerfield, voted for this. This hypothetical manifesto for a better country looks nothing like the Labour manifesto put to voters in 2024 when neither author was running for MP. For Burnham to now start building his own agenda as Prime Minister may not go down too well with the public and media.
The second problem: Parliament. Burnham and Rotheram hold no punches in calling out the broken, elitist system. They want to tear down Westminster and build it for the better. This includes their own party. Honestly, there were parts in the book where I questioned why Burnham was even representing Labour. Will his own party support PR? Will his own party abolish the whip? Will the House of Lords approve its own destruction? Does it even need to? I have no idea…
I have always found more support among lay members and the wider public than I have ever received from the high-ups in the labour movement.
Oh dear.
Final thoughts
Honestly, I like the man and like what he’s doing – mostly. He seems like a decent enough bloke with a sensible enough agenda. His priorities and values align with what I think the country needs. He has moral substance – a scarcity in today’s politics.
That said, I’ve read enough memoirs to know they’re often as much about how the author wants to be portrayed rather than reality, and I’ve read enough manifestos to know it’s the actions, not the words, that count. But I see no red flags here.
Scratch that, actually. There’s one red flag – a complete absence of actual fiscal and monetary policy. You can rebuild the establishment, but we still need tax receipts and budget allocations. I’m going to assume that’s outside the scope of the book.
Oh, another one. He hasn’t had much to say about big-picture, international issues. Russia-Ukraine. Palestine. The Tangerine Toddler. Iran. China. AI. But again, that was never the scope of this book. This book was about showing us who we’re dealing with, identifying what’s wrong with the country and putting forward some practical ideas to fix it, with a Northern lens. But it will be his continued approach on those big, gnarly domestic and foreign issues, too, that I reserve final judgement – as will many in the UK, I expect.
So I guess only time will tell. He inherits a massive – albeit highly fragile – parliamentary majority, but is going to have to piss off a lot of people to make progress against his agenda.
Best of luck, mate.
