Burnham is acting like he’s mayor of everywhere – that’s not devolving power to local communities | Simon Jenkins
The new PM’s localism agenda doesn’t stop the UK being one of the most centralised countries in Europe. Can you imagine Meloni in charge of social care or Macron discussing buses? Was this a joke? Andy Burnham claimed on coming to office to be a localist. Not for the new prime minister the hotspots of the capital, of posh Downing Street and Whitehall. His were the squares of Manchester and the pavements of Wigan. The centre was the enemy of local democracy. Yet his first week in office has been
The new PM’s localism agenda doesn’t stop the UK being one of the most centralised countries in Europe. Can you imagine Meloni in charge of social care or Macron discussing buses?
Was this a joke? Andy Burnham claimed on coming to office to be a localist. Not for the new prime minister the hotspots of the capital, of posh Downing Street and Whitehall. His were the squares of Manchester and the pavements of Wigan. The centre was the enemy of local democracy.
Yet his first week in office has been consumed by one gratuitous intervention in local government after another. He gatecrashed a Westminster rough-sleeping centre and proclaimed a policy to end homelessness. He then decided to cap local bus fares, cut local pub business rates and build more social houses. For good measure, he would create a new national care service.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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