Growth in every postcode and hope in every heart are Andy Burnham visions left blurry by the White House orange maniac, but the Prime Minister needs fresh answers when the electorate is in no mood for excuses.
Donald Trump’s deranged war secretary Pete Hegseth proclaiming ahead of the PM’s first meeting this week with a President wrecking our economy that Europe must end an Iran war the US started signalled no meeting of minds.
Which is why Burnham either walks the bold talk by raising taxes on the wealthy to improve living standards and public services for the majority or soaring oil prices and inflation will choke household finances and growth.
Nor was Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson touring the TV and radio studios to blame Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card for Burnham or Chancellor John Healey in the Budget on October 28.
Labour MPs tell me Burnham’s earned them doorstep hearings in heartlands and the slamming of doors in faces during the Starmer era is over. To sustain that, never mind win back lost voters, folk must feel the Labour government is on their side.
Half of that is exploding fantasy windfalls of Kemi Badenoch dangling a £9billion gift for the country’s richest 5% should Inheritance Tax be scrapped, the Tory leader intent on something-for-nothing wealthfare. Even the Lib Dems are playing the same game, wealthier households benefiting most from a floated 10p Fuel Duty cut.
Reform policies routinely featherbed moneybags like Farage, rather than working-class voters whom the twisting elite pose as championing but, as ever, migrant-bashing racism is the party’s currency.
The other half is demonstrating Labour remains the best bet for Britain by delivering a shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people.
Nobody believes that will be easy or trigger attacks from the likes of plastic patriot Jim Ratcliffe, a flipper who displayed his true colours by backing Brexit, collecting a knighthood then jumping ship to Monaco to avoid paying his fair dues to Britain.
But the hard choice is to be bold, radical, or risk the country losing faith and lurching to the hard right. Over to you, Andy.
Giving Reform red card for failure over racism
Sunderland are a vibrant, diverse, multicultural team of migrant footballers from around the world playing in Europe for the first time since 1973 so who in the city wouldn’t show racism the red card?
Reform council numbskulls is the dispiriting answer after hard-right tinpot politicians feeding on division and hostility withdrew support for the official Show Racism the Red Card group’s Wear Red Day on Friday, October 16.
Talk about scoring own goals when the club itself so enthusiastically embraces the initiative and the likes of Robin Roefs, left, Nordi Mukiele, Granit Xhaka and Brian Brobbey coming over here to make our saves, put in our tackles, play our passes and (I wish more often) score our goals is fantastic for Mackems and the area.
My worry is these reactionary councillors might next want us out of the Europa League, declaring Sunderland must never be run by an unelected foreign Uefa.
Hounded Piddington chef Rachel Marsh requiring protection from intolerant neighbours and far-right bullies is puncturing the jolly “Passport to Pimlico” vibe.
She too opposes using an old Army camp to process asylum seekers but her crime in their eyes was to voice unease on Newsnight to the wider weaponisation of hostility to people wanting to start a fresh life in Britain.
That New Zealand-born Marsh, who married a son of Windrush parents, was forced to meet police to discuss her safety because she’s worried about racism is shaming. Those villagers embracing masked black shirts should think again or they’ll destroy their own cause.
“Given that their aim is to protect women and children,” she observed, “it is quite ironic that they are using aggression like this towards me for speaking up against racism.”
Ginger Foreign Office heart-throb Stewart Wood loved telling us about being mistaken in Westminster tube station by Japanese tourists for Ed Sheeran and pestered into posing for selfies.
My 20p says the Labour peer will grimace during future retellings of that crazy moment after the superstar singer cowardly failed to stand up for rapper Macklemore axed from a US tour after shouting: “Free Palestine” at a gig. Silence over the Gaza genocide is complicity.
Nobody seriously believes Macklemore would’ve been dropped for speaking against war crimes in Sudan or yelling “Free Ukraine”. Sheeran’s subsequent “my heart is broken” inadequate half-apology smacked of self-pity.
Going up
Joe Fortune is unlikely ever to be a household name but I hear only good things about the organisational finesse of a Labour incoming General Secretary who impressed MPs as head of the allied Co-operative Party.
Going down
Embarrassing dad Ed Davey has his work cut out silencing doubters at the Lib Dem jamboree in Brighton when two years after delivering the party’s most seats since 1923 his critics fear it’s slipping backwards and voters aren’t hearing what they stand for. Dressing up isn’t enough.
Speaker’s corner
“I have been physically assaulted going home from work, and followed and verbally abused right outside Parliament.” London Black MP Dawn Butler’s chilling account of political abuse is why a Nigel Farage forever claiming he’s the most endangered politician should discipline sidekicks like Zia Yusuf forever inciting hatred.
