Andy Burnham wants to drag the UK back to the 1970s, from union strangleholds to economic ruin, says Aaron Newbury.
Burnham has been having a good time. (Image: Getty)
Since storming into office fresh on the heels of the lacklustre and uninspiring Sir Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham has been hard at work. For him, the “important” work of filming TikToks and freezing bus fares began in earnest. But he has made statements that should send a shiver down all our spines. Our Andy has decided there is one decade we should all emulate.
The swinging sixties? No, no. Not for Andy. He wants to drag us back to the 1970s, a period well-known for rubbish piling up in the streets, rolling blackouts, and the infamous Winter of Discontent. Labour presumably found this dire decade something to look up to, thanks to the vice-like grip their mates in the trade unions held over our economy.
Before Mrs Thatcher liberated the country from the stranglehold of socialism, things must have been quite sweet if you were a Labour MP.
A quick stint as a union organiser and then – bish, bash, bosh – you got a safe seat in Parliament and a direct line into the Cabinet.
Truthfully, that career path hasn’t changed a huge amount for the myopic display of talent sitting on the front bench right now.
Few sane people can look back on the 1970s and think: “Yes, please, that’s what I want!” Enterprise was strangled, the economy was in ruins, and the individual choices of working people were entirely subverted by the power of union barons.
Yet looking back at a bleaker decade seems to be fast becoming the norm for Labour. Idolising misery and pretending that failure was somehow a good thing is something I have always found odd.
Labour seem to thrive on it. An endless competition over who had the most “normal” upbringing – their definition of “normal” being utterly miserable – and a pathological aversion to celebrating achievement or success are their absolute watchwords.
Perhaps that’s why “King in the North” Andy is so desperate to play up his working-class credentials, despite being a Cambridge graduate whose only real jobs have been in the Westminster bubble – with you and me constantly handed the bill.
It’s the classic socialist playbook: talk big on equality, ruin the economy, blame business, and hand the keys over to the strikers.
If Burnham gets his way, we won’t just be stepping back in time, we’ll be turned off at the main switch.