“We need to change politics, and we need to do it now!” Andy Burnham announced, to loud applause. Well, we need to do it in three weeks, anyway. Britain is currently in a weird penumbra period. Keir Starmer has resigned as Labour leader and yet continues as prime minister, announcing defence plans and anything else he can push out the door. There is only one candidate to replace him, yet we have to sit through nearly a month of Labour just checking that no one else wants the job. It’s a fitting end to Starmer’s time in office that it involves sticking rigidly to a procedure that serves no purpose.
In the meantime those of us anxious for what the future will hold can pore over Burnham’s speech in Manchester on Monday. The location was a conscious choice: for decades there have been accusations that Britain is too London-centric. Burnham proposes to fix that by making it Manchester-centric, which will be a huge relief to everyone in Newcastle.