At least Slippery Starmer waited until he was in power before he started to U-turn. But the King of Nothing, Andy Burnham, did TWO in just 24 hours this week and he's not even an MP yet. First this ardent Europhile, who last year said he wanted to re-join the EU, suddenly back peddled with the dexterity of a circus performer saying: "Oh no, oh dear, me no. What? Me? Back in the EU? Heavens no. I don't want to rejoin. At least not now. Maybe not ever..." Blah, blah, blah.
Then, in the second reverse ferret, he said he was going to stick to Rachel Reeves' borrowing rules which, of course, will have to be funded by tax rises. This came after the money markets took fright when Burnham hinted he was going to go on a big borrowing binge. Remember, he's the bloke who a few months ago was screaming that we shouldn't be in hock to the bond markets. But this week he's changed his tune on that as well, saying the bond markets cannot be ignored.
So, Burnham's quickly realising that being a PM is a lot harder than being Mayor of Manchester. He's learning that, when you open your big mouth, it has consequences. These U-turns have just branded him Starmer Mark Two in the eyes of the nation, and he hasn't even won the by-election yet - if he ever does. But it's good for us - and especially for the people of Makerfield - to see early on the kind of two-faced con-artist they're dealing with.
It's good that they see the bloke who's currently promising them the earth - even though he doesn't give a stuff about them and is using them to piggyback his way to Downing Street - will do anything, say anything, even sell his granny, to get into power.
It's good they see Burnham's a man who'll kick off his principles like they're dog dirt on his shoes to grab the bumper prize of PM. But I'm hoping the people of Makerfield are too smart to be hoodwinked by this chancer. This is a constituency where 65% of people voted Leave. It's the place where, in the recent local elections, Reform won every council ward in the constituency, so I'm pretty sure they're not going to swallow Burnham's self-aggrandising flannel.
You have to wonder at the sanity of Labour's ideologues who you'd think would have looked at those recent election results and asked themselves: "What are we doing wrong?" But No, they're all just ploughing on, racing even harder to the Left and not understanding that's precisely why they just got slaughtered. Those local elections weren't just a rejection of Starmer, but of a whole rotten political class that for two years has foisted its vile views down our throats while those of us who refused to swallow them were branded far-right reactionaries and racists.
And Burnham belongs to that stinking political class, only he's far harder-left than Starmer. He just hides it behind those brown doe eyes and the pretence he's a salt-of-the-earth Northerner who wants what's best for the British people - when what he really wants is what HE thinks is best for them. And the two things are very different.
And what is it with the loons inside Labour who are running round like headless chickens screaming "We must have Burnham. If Burnham was here everything would be OK"?
Well after day one of the big lummox's campaign, maybe they can see that it might not be. Never forget the people who voted to Leave the EU are well aware that those in government and the hierarchy of the Labour party see all of us who voted Brexit as "gammon" (old, middle-aged white folk who have reactionary far right views) whose "dumb" Brexit vote wrecked this country.
Burnham is one of the people who thinks that. Yet suddenly he's trying to convince the people of Makerfield that's not the case, that he's politically in tune with them and only has their best interests at heart, which is all guff. Because the only interests that matter to Andy Burnham are his own.
I'm sorry, but does the Labour Party - and the British public for that matter - not remember what Burnham was like in government? I do. He was weak, lacklustre and totally unremarkable. Do they not remember he twice stood as Party leader and was twice rejected, not just because he was a hopeless minister whose failed policies cost this country billions but because of his ministerial record.
When he was Health Secretary, he was accused of blocking the truth of the Mid Staffs scandal where 1,200 people died needlessly. HE was the one who rubber-stamped Mid-Staffs application to become an elite foundation trust - despite it already showing serious signs of failings which were seemingly ignored.
He also terrified the British people by exaggerating the effects of Swine flu in humans.
Have people forgotten his indecision over the grooming gangs? Have they forgotten that recently, as Mayor of Manchester, he spaffed £100million of taxpayers' money up the wall by green lighting a clean air system which was then abandoned. Why has all this been conveniently forgotten and suddenly he's Labour's saviour when the truth is he's as big a dud as Starmer only twice as dangerous?
And so, the good people of Makerfield, those people who have been left behind by previous governments, have a very big decision to make. The future of Britain is literally in their hands. Are they going to hand it over to the hard-left Burnham, who will turn our country into a Marxist state, who'll tax us to hell and back, who'll dole even more money out to the shirkers and the skivers, who'll let the unions run riot and who'll throw open Britain's borders to all comers?
Or are they going to vote for Reform and stop the Labour Party trying to fast track ITS chosen King into Downing Street without the say so of the British people. If they did, it would be the sweetest revenge on a party that was founded to take care of the working classes but has shafted them at every turn for the last two years.
As for the Tories, if they really care about Britain - and Kemi Badenoch says they do - they need to stand aside in Makerfield and let Reform have a clear run at it. Because if the Right doesn't unite, this country will fall prey to a nightmare coalition of the Greens and Labour and Andy Burnham will be leading that charge while simultaneously leading us back into the failing EU.
THAT must not be allowed to happen!
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