Get your news delivered straight to you by 7am - sign up to our new Morning Mail newsletter for FREESee more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy DAILY MAIL COMMENT Published: 00:24 BST, 30 May 2026 | Updated: 01:02 BST, 30 May 2026
In an essay published yesterday, Andy Burnham gave us his prospectus for government. If he becomes prime minister, he wants to take us back to the 1970s.His central message is that ‘neoliberalism’ has failed this country and what we need is more nationalisation, more state intervention and more market regulation.The self-styled King of the North describes his political philosophy as ‘business-friendly socialism’ (an oxymoron if ever there was one) and argues that growth can only be delivered through ‘strong public control’.He presents all this as a ‘new script’, but in fact it’s a very old one and was tested to destruction in the Wilson/Callaghan years. The result was that Britain became the Sick Man of Europe. Truculent, over-powerful unions, moribund nationalised industries, endless strikes, failed prices and incomes policies, and income tax of up to 83 per cent, rising to 98 per cent on ‘unearned’ income such as share and savings dividends.Inflation peaked at 27 per cent, the pound crashed and we had to beg the IMF for a loan to keep going. The nightmare came to a head with the 1979 ‘winter of discontent’, when the nation ground to a complete halt.Then came Margaret Thatcher, still the Left’s greatest bete noire. Her free-market remedies for the country’s ills were painful but essential. The socialists had finally run out of other people’s money.To be fair, Mr Burnham says he wants to reduce inequality, and he could achieve that: his economic policies would make us all equally poor. Andy Burnham launched his by-election campaign at the Stubshaw Cross Community and Sports Club in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester on May 22, 2026See the whole storyThe sight of an armed policeman kicking an already tasered suspect in the head is not one we want or expect to see in the UK. It’s especially troubling when the officer is white and the suspect Asian.So, after CCTV footage was released of PC Zachary Marsden kicking Mohammed Fahir Amaaz on the floor at Manchester airport, accusations of police brutality and racism flew.However, a very different story emerged when extended footage showed Amaaz had earlier launched a frenzied attack on two female PCs, one of whom suffered a broken nose. He was convicted of assaulting the women officers but yesterday acquitted of assault on PC Marsden after the jury failed to reach a verdict following a retrial.PC Marsden remains under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct over allegations of having used excessive force. It is to be hoped he will be dealt with leniently.His reaction may have been strong, but it was also instinctive. He believed his colleagues and the public were in danger from an extremely violent and unpredictable man. The race-relations industry wants to pillory the officer further, but it’s vital we look after those who risk their own safety to protect us. Amaaz, on the other hand, deserves to be sentenced using the full force of the law.The fault for this affray was entirely his. He should be taken off the streets for the longest possible time. His ethnicity – and that of PC Marsden – is irrelevant. CCTV shows Amaaz swinging a punch at Manchester Airport - hitting PC Lydia Ward in the noseAfter a Russian drone struck a building in Romania, Sir Keir Starmer said the UK stands shoulder to shoulder with our Nato ally against Vladimir Putin’s aggression. His words would carry more weight if he chose to commit to the UK’s ten-year Defence Investment Plan, now around a year overdue. Keeping the nation safe costs money. Empty words and promises will not do.
