Am I a chin-scratching intellectual?
“I hope you’re doing more than scratching your chin on this lovely bank holiday weekend,” came the first joshing message on Sunday. Others followed suit. My friends were teasing me after I had appeared in a walk-on role in an excellent profile of Andy Burnham published by the online Manchester newspaper the Mill. I was described by the author, Joshi Herrmann, as a representative of the “chin-scratching, intellectual end of the British commentariat”. Much as I would love to dispute this unflattering designation, I fear Joshi has me bang to rights. My wife certainly thinks so.
The essence of his piece was that there is no such thing as Burnhamism and all attempts to discover it – mine included – have been a fool’s errand. In fact, Herrmann argues that it was my profile of the mayor of Greater Manchester in this magazine that prompted others to spend so much time trying to discover the essence of his political ideology. I had sent the media on “a wild-goose chase for a political programme that doesn’t exist”.
The political project Burnham described to me was something he called “Manchesterism”, which combines greater public control over the basics of life – from public transport to housing – with foreign investment of the sort that has fuelled Manchester’s skyscraper boom. Burnham said this programme was “business-friendly socialism”, which is a neat, almost Blair-style triangulation.
Herrmann’s piece is an important intervention in the battle for control of the Labour Party. It provides both rigorous and fair reporting of Burnham’s time as mayor, as well as insightful reflections on his character. Burnham will have to take the Mill’s criticism seriously if he wants to become prime minister and succeed in the role. The demands of Downing Street are qualitatively different from any mayoralty – ask Boris Johnson. A prime minister needs to apply his judgement, act decisively, accept unpopularity and combine statesmanship with backroom politicking of the sort Keir Starmer has sometimes struggled with. Manchesterism – empty or not – will not suffice.
If there is to be a Prime Minister Andy Burnham, he will need a broader and deeper analysis of why Britain has been failing for so long. He will have to look seriously at our energy dependence, planning complexities, fiscal vulnerability and paltry growth rates. Above all, he will have to address the endemic failures of the British state, which I look into in this week’s cover story. The Mill article was right to point out that my profile of Burnham was too focused on the search for an ideology – and not enough on what Burnham has and has not done in Manchester. But I am afraid at the New Statesman there is a degree to which we are also almost constitutionally chin-strokey about ideas, not least because they hold real power over our national life, its history and culture. In that spirit, I urge you to read Joshi Herrmann’s own ideas in this week’s magazine, in which he expands on these and other themes.
It has already been interesting to read the letters from readers on Burnham. Colin Richard from Spark Bridge in Cumbria got in touch to praise last week’s cover featuring the mayor astride the Houses of Parliament above the headline, “Definitely, Maybe?”, but wondered whether it was too presumptuous. “The voters may have different ideas,” he pointed out. Indeed so (hence the “Maybe?”). But Colin’s point remains. As Theresa May discovered to her cost in 2017, voters do not have to answer the question politicians ask them. They can decide to change the question – and therefore the answer. Patrick O’Brien, of Aberystwyth, meanwhile, wonders whether Burnham would feel bound to Keir Starmer’s manifesto. “Presumably not,” he adds. “Yet if he didn’t endorse it, he would have no mandate to govern.” This point is actively being debated by those close to Burnham and the other aspiring Labour leadership candidates.
A more encouraging piece of self-reflection to finish. Our cover story from Gordon Brown on the activities of the former Prince Andrew has proved hugely significant. On 22 May, Thames Valley Police announced that its investigation into the former royal’s behaviour has been extended to cover allegations of sexual misconduct, just as Brown set out so convincingly that it should. He deserves huge credit for this public interest journalism and we are proud to have worked so closely with him to publish it. Much of the credit on our side goes to Pippa Bailey, our executive editor. Now, back to my chin stroking.
[Further reading: What Britain won’t face]
