The Great North summit sounds like it should have been a peace conference attended by Peter the Great. Instead, it is actually a talking shop attended by Andy Burnham. Its logo is, appropriately, an arrow in the act of a U-turn.
It was there that Burnham had come today to fire the starting pistol on his campaign to march on London. It happened on the same day that it was announced that Josh Simons had officially resigned the seat of Makerfield, thus paving the way for Burnham’s return. This meant that Burnham spent much of his speech shoehorning references into his speech about places in his would-be constituency while also trying to put forward a national plan for his premiership.
Much of Burnham’s appeal seems to lie in a) the fact that he has big doey eyes – like a cartoon drawn by a Japanese pervert and b) that he is not Sir Keir Starmer. That this is considered enough to have a serious go at running the country says a lot about the state we are in. And make no mistake, that is Burnham’s aim. He’s not standing because he cares about Makerfield or because he misses the fruit cake(s) in the House of Commons tearoom.
You could tell that said eyes were on a bigger prize due to his forced chummy demeanour in his Great North speech. There is the air of the wannabe cool uncle about Burnham, the ‘midlife crisis’ bomber jacket beloved by centrist dads everywhere, a lame joke about his running shorts giving just the right scintilla of grossness too.
