... and it didn't end well.
"Manchesterism" - not to be confused with Manchester Liberalism - is intended to mean something easily grasped for political purposes: greater interventionism at the civic level. This is supposed, a priori, to have obvious benefits yielding excellent results. Well, maybe, sometimes. The ideal degree of devolution is as long as a piece of string: how many Scots feel their once vaunted education system, or the Welsh their vaunted health service, have benefitted from greater devolved control? Objectively, the results suggest otherwise. And the ludicrous Rebecca Long-Bailey's equally ludicrous 2019 Labour manifesto plans for ultra-devolution of the energy industry (down to the level of units of "around 200 households" owning their own local energy infrastructure) provide the reductio ad absurdum of
And there are reasons to think that Burnham's model isn't what it's thought to be: that he's basically encouraged commercial property development on a significant scale, which can't easily be replicated across the nations. A glance at the pages of every issue of Private Eye and its years-long revelations of naked, industrial-scale corruption on Teesside for the personal benefit of a very small number of individuals, shows that local devolved powers can end up being shockingly abused.
But there's another factor. Remember how Neville Chamberlain came to Westminster as the dynastic hereditary king of Birmingham, with municipalism in that other great city as his calling card. He didn't do so well in the corridors of Whitehall - or of Bad Godersberg and Munich (notwithstanding some recent revisionist versions of events there). Maybe in other nations there is a wothwhile tradition of fine presidents and prime ministers coming up the local government / Big City Mayoral route. But not around these parts.
Do we see any signs that Andy is up to the bigger job? Municipalism is not enough, Mr Burnham.
ND
The Aldermen of the old Manchester Corporation would have considered Burnham's achievements as pretty small beer.
ReplyDeleteI'd be more impressed by Bradfordism under Alderman Foodbotham, Perpetual Chairman of the Tramways and Fine Arts Committee.
ReplyDeleteHis success depends on who has around him, in Manchester most of the hard yards were done by Bernstein and Leese, Burnham was very much the face, and even then it wasn't without issue with the Clean Air farrago. It's only of late the signs have been removed.
ReplyDeleteHe's been caught out repeatedly when under pressure, as his previous tilts at leadership have shown, has little time for the details, which is where are the devils that can destroy him will reside, and which Streeting will be taking note of.
I cannot see him being taken seriously on the world stage, so maybe he'll do well here, and the supposed plan to pop Starmer in a different kind of FO than he usually gets told, might mitigate that.
Odds are not good he'll do well, and he's just another flavour of the Johnson/Starmer power-for-powers-sake brigade, so let's see. He's more personable and capable that Starmer, so maybe the honeymoon period will stretch to crimbo, but not much further I suspect.
The "Bee Network" requires massive subsidies, EV contracts were "awarded" to a company fronted by his wife, loans given out for commercial development with no due diligence.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the typical Leftist playbook to me...
No-one seems to mention his glorious tenure as a junior Minister when confronted by the Mid-Staffs NHS scandal. I presume it didn't cross his desk?
ReplyDeleteWho's old enough to remember Alderman Andy Cunningham, King of the North East and maestro of corruption? According to Wokeypedia:
ReplyDeleteAndrew Cunningham (8 June 1910 – 14 June 2010) was a political figure and union leader in North East England. Born in Durham, he was jailed for his role in the Poulson scandal of 1974. He lived most of his life in Chester-le-Street.
At the height of his career in 1971 he held the following positions:
Member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party
Chairman of the Chester-le-Street and the Northern Region Executive of the Labour Party
Head of the Northern District of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (NUGMW) (the biggest union in the north-east, succeeding John Yarwood MBE)
Alderman of Durham County Council
Member of the Chester-le-Street town council
Chairman of Durham Police Authority
Chairman of Newcastle Airport Consultative Committee
Member of the Northumbrian River Authority
Member of the Peterlee New Town Development Corporation
Member of the Tyneside Passenger Transport Authority
In student days I actually attended the trial for a couple of days at Leeds Crown Court.
DeleteBut some council corruption seems to have escaped justice, definitely easier in a "don't count votes, weigh them" area. Swansea comes to mind, and vast chunks of London of course.
Yes I remember Cunningham, a pal of T. Dan Smith and as bent as a nine-bob note. He managed to get one of the Tyne ferries named after his missus - the 'Freda Cunningham'; she was always breaking down (the ferry not the missus) and eventually had to be taken out of service.
ReplyDelete"Remember how Neville Chamberlain came to Westminster as the dynastic hereditary king of Birmingham, with municipalism in that other great city as his calling card."
ReplyDeleteI remember it well, Nick. Those were the days.
“These men,” said Mussolini, “are not made of the
Deletesame stuff as Francis Drake and the other magnificent
adventurers who created the Empire. They are after all
the tired sons of a long line of rich men.” …. Chamberlain’s eyes filled with tears as the train started moving and his countrymen started singing, “For he’s a jolly good fellow.” “What is this little song?” asked Mussolini….
Of course under today's system Drake would be more likely to be in prison ...
Oh Andy Burnham.
ReplyDeleteWhen diagnosing failures in complicated systems there are four main approaches. Poke and Hope and see what you find. Not usually successful, usually misses the point. Or Deep Bottom up analysis - usually unsuccessful, takes too long and gets lost in detail and fizzles out. Or get an experienced worker, get them to walk round it, smell it, feel it then go and have a cup of tea and a ponder. Often works, sometimes more than one try needed. Another approach is to isolate part of the system. Either stopping it or letting it free run.
The above assumes the system worked in the first place. A rash assumption with politics. A political system changes as you look and reacts to being looked at. Not often in a good way. Then political systems are slow acting, a change might not show its effects for a year or so. This is exploited by political operators.
Starmer is (was) as dull as ditchwater but for a politician seemed not too venal and in a way honest in his failure - I doubt anyone could do much with the UK setup as constituted. Not screwing it up completely is all we can hope for. And he faced the same problem as always - the system does not want to be mended, the system fights back. Not just the usual whine about 'the Blob' but 'the system' is biological, it reacts and changes and morphs to get its component parts their advantage. Remember Private Eye is freely available in the HoC library, the defects in the system are plain as day but no one wants to fix them.
This leaves Burnham with a poisoned chalice. Westminster will walk all over him, we can only hope he is kicked out fairly quickly. Then we can try the same old failures with the next one.