Scotland needs 'Manchesterism' even if Andy Burnham fails as Prime Minister
Persuading the SNP to give Manchester-style powers to Scotland's cities could help kickstart the economy
Andy Burnham is a rare thing in our troubled times: a popular politician. Or at least he is in Manchester, as demonstrated by his convincing victory in the Makerfield by-election, a recent hotbed of support for Reform UK in the area.
As mayor, he found a way to make a difference to people’s lives and they repaid him with their trust and their votes. The question now is whether he can do something similar for the UK, a far, far bigger task.
In a speech short on detail, he talked about how his approach to politics as mayor had been “the exact opposite of the Westminster approach”, putting “place first, not party first”, “problem-solving, not point-scoring”, and thinking “long-term, not short-term”.
"A decade on, it’s incredible how much we’ve been able to achieve by working together instead of fighting against one another," he added. He even praised a Conservative work-placement scheme, saying they had "set ourselves the mission of finding one for every young person who wanted one".
Questions for Burnham
This is the kind of collaborative approach that The Scotsman has been urging our politicians to take for years. It was also heartening to hear him talk about economic growth as a priority, and greater decentralisation of power being a means to achieve it.
We do, however, have questions about his incoming government. Smart politicians generally set the right conditions for private businesses to prosper and then reap the rewards. Burnham's talk of "greater public control of essential services", including housing, energy and transport, raises the spectre of a left-wing government trying to do too much and ending up causing chaos.
READ MORE: Could Andy Burnham's devolution vision be the missing positive case to counter Scottish independence
His plans for more devolution prompted a warning from Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay that "Scots will be instinctively alarmed at the SNP government being handed even more control, given their astonishing record of failure".
But if Burnham's goal is to somehow persuade the SNP to abandon their centralising instincts and hand more power to Scotland's regions, we hope he succeeds.
It may not prove to be the UK's salvation, but "Manchesterism" sounds like a winning formula that Scotland's cities cannot afford to ignore.
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