{"id":95233,"date":"2026-08-27T07:32:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=95233"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:32:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:32:52","slug":"burnham-another-failed-pm-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/08\/27\/burnham-another-failed-pm-in-the-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham: another failed PM in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"

A comment was posted on this blog this morning, which hinted that it did not believe Andy Burnham's suggestion that \u201cManchesterism is the end of neoliberalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

I responded that Burnham seems more like a member of the Manchester School of Liberalism.\u00a0<\/a>This school promoted what we would now call arch-neoliberalism.<\/p>\n

And what is clear is that Burnham is failing, very badly. Who knows when he actually has to face Parliament next week, as he is already crumbling.<\/p>\n

This morning we have:<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The usual backtracking, then.<\/p>\n

And then there is this:<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If he had not thought this through before reaching Number 10, he should never have got there.<\/p>\n

And he is wrong, of course, to equate trade unions with single private donors. That shows a distinct lack of analytical ability.<\/p>\n

And then there is this:<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Why is no decision imminent? How much more shit in the water is required before the interests of people who cannot survive without clean water come above those of hedge funds?<\/p>\n

And recall that he has not responded to calls from 100 or more Labour MPs for immediate reform of the parliamentary voting system.<\/p>\n

What is more, he has still said nothing about press reform in the light of its lynching of Jason Arday.<\/p>\n

I saw Burnham when he was first a minister.<\/p>\n

I saw him as. failed candidate for the leadership, twice.<\/p>\n

I thought he would fail badly this time.<\/p>\n

He already is.<\/p>\n

And why? Because you cannot be prime minister unless you know your own mind, why you hold your opinions and have the courage to deliver on their basis. He is possessed of none of those things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A comment was posted on this blog this morning, which hinted that it did not believe Andy Burnham’s suggestion that \u201cManchesterism is the end of
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,35,16,147,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-ethics","category-inequality","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95237,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95233\/revisions\/95237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}