By Liz S
From James Foster on X regarding the announcement of Andy Burnham doing a UK cost of living Tour this week:
“Why does @AndyBurnham need to tour the country to discover that the cost of living is too high, people are keeping less and less of their own money, high streets have been decimated, rents are through the roof, social housing is in desperately short supply, and inequality continues to grow?”
“None of this is a revelation. These problems have been documented relentlessly for years by official statistics, councils, charities, economists, researchers and, most importantly, the people living through them. On and on and on it goes”.
“Do we really need another politician touring the country to “listen” to people tell him what the data already makes abundantly clear? People don’t need another listening tour”
“They need action”.
“If you’re serious about tackling inequality, housing, declining living standards and the collapse of our high streets, the question isn’t what’s the problem? Because we already know. The question is: what are you actually going to do about it “?
Now James Foster lives in England and much of his observations in his above post are said by him in relation to the dire state within England, which is controlled by various UK governments, including Andy Burnham’s Labour party as the current UK government.
Though Scots have also been negatively impacted too , based on both the (too many) cruel decisions being made by various UK governments and also the lack of action via various UK governments as well, especially in respect to what has been a cost of living crisis since the time the Tory party were previously in charge of the UK State.
We all surely remember the time when Keir Starmer was once the Labour official opposition leader .
As the official opposition leader Starmer constantly decried the Tory UK government’s lack of effort and action upon the UK cost of living crisis.
Indeed Starmer declared that Labour would fix that crisis and so then ease the financial burden being suffered by the public within the UK, if a Labour government were elected in the next UK GE.
Yet hear we now are with a new Labour government since Labour won the GE in 2024, and now Labour are under a new leader/ PM , as the previous one was a total fraud and dud.
But what have they, Labour, really done that is truly significant in relation to the cost of living crisis ?
Well there has been nowt hugely significant that has truly helped ease the financial burdens being suffered by the (ordinary) people of their UK State.
Now Burnham’s tiny effort on ‘energy’ prices was more fanfare than substance , as he has only introduced “a temporary cut of VAT on household electricity bills from 5% to 0%, running for six months from October 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027″.
Not so much a real “breathing space” for us the public, more really where it seem that (way too) soon we will all be once again gasping for some respite from the high cost of living within their UK State.
The Guardian newspaper wrote of this that:
“Critics and analysts argue this is not a true solution to energy poverty because the savings are small and do not cover gas bills”.
Andy Burnham seems far more concerned with promoting his own brand in endless TikTok videos on social media (Style over substance) than being the serious leader (with serious solutions) that most voters need and want.
Of course this supposed UK ‘listening’ tour by Burnham is , I am sure, only dependent on what ‘Burnham himself wants to listen to and so then respond to’ , that means the chances are Andy Burnham will probably be tone deaf to what we in Scotland actually want and also to what we really need.
That’s because UK PM’s love to tell Scots what they think it is that we need and want (which is, via a majority of Scots , usually the opposite of our real needs and actual wants).
So when he is in Scotland , his (supposed) ‘UK cost of living ‘listening’ tour’, should be , for starters, about him doing something in changing as in reversing the situation where Scotland has some of the highest daily electricity standing charges in Great Britain.
I will not hold my breath on that being altered as a situation, as it seems that we Scots are not allowed to be seen to have something that people in some other UK areas (mainly in the South of England) currently have as a more positive situation (via UK governments).
I think this so called ‘King of the North’ will eventually be deposed , just as so many others in his same position have previously been dumped , as they too were eventually all seen as being useless aka Duds.
As so far all Burnham seems to be , as the new UK PM , is an even worse version of Starmer , one could even say that he is a (bad) continuity Starmer, though he is desperately pretending that he is somehow a change from the previous boss ,though his intended actions do resemble those of the old boss .
Let’s hope that his visit to Scotland is a tiny and so very fleeting part of his UK whistle – stop- tour (which let’s be honest is usually always the case with any UK PM coming up here to Scotland.)
Liz S
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Will Andy Pandy show some respect and also talk to our democratically elected Scottish Government to hear their views?
Will he fk.
John (not anonymous) Lawson
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What on earth is he doing? The implied idea was he was supposed to sort it out. ‘The Saviour’.The Labour Mafia have not got a clue. That is why they are going down the tubes.
All the majority of Scotland wants is Independence. No ties with the Westminster rabble. Disgusting unionist rabble.
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Meanwhile Wes Streeting smirks quietly in plain sight, singing to himself “🎵Time to go home, Time to go home, Andy is waving goodbye. Goodbye.🎵”
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Be kind to me, GoT fans…Kings in the North…Ned, Robb, Jon…then Queen Sansa. Let’s see…Keir,
DracarysBurn’em, Wes…then…Shabana, the Mad Queen…😱looks like it’s “Valar Morghulis” for me 💀LikeLike
Handy Barnum…
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One of the best responses on ‘X’ to James Foster’s post (and I think one of the most accurate) was this:
“Because he’s not really touring the country to discover where the real problems are as they have been well documented for years. He’s touring the country to build a base and position himself ahead of the next General Election”.
Yep. I agree.
This is yet just another Burnham PR exercise.
A smokescreen to deflect attention away from the mess that exists in their UK State that Burnham, like Starmer, just cannot fix.
Currently Burnham is coming up with ‘sticking plaster (non) solutions’ to give the impression that he is doing something , but what he is really doing is announcing short term temporary supposed fixes, when instead he should be looking to try to permanently rectify that which is wrong.
Like Brexit for example that will destroy Labour as it previously destroyed the Tories.
(Also climate change is somewhat crucial surely).
It is also very telling that , as yet, Burnham has not given the green (Ha) light to the controversial North Sea fossil fuel projects , that is Rosebank oil field and Jackdaw gas field.
Perhaps it is regarded as being a case of “now is not the time”.
For the announcement that is.
As with so many wildfires happening then it may be considered that far better timing of that announcement on allowing new drilling on these oil/Gas fields would be when the heatwave is finally over.
(A tactical and dishonest deed if that does indeed happen).
Trust me if they proceed with allowing new drilling on these North sea fossil fuel projects then Labour’s GB Energy will finally be seen to be (by more people) for what is really always was, a big fat Labour Con (another one).
The 2024 Labour manifesto stated this:
“Make Britain a clean energy superpower“
“The climate and nature crisis is the greatest long-term global challenge that we face. The clean energy transition represents a huge opportunity to generate growth, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and make Britain energy independent once again. That is why clean energy by 2030 is Labour’s second mission”.
You should read it (online) and then compare what they said they will do to what is actually happening now, especially if Burnham does indeed give the green (Ha) light to allowing new drilling on these new oil/gas fields.
(Burnham has been reported as intending to ‘water down’ climate policies. Like scrapping net-zero rules for large public procurement contracts).
I wonder also if when Burnham is on his UK ‘cost of living listening tour’ whether, when in Scotland, he will again block the media within Scotland.
I mean a PM not wanting to be questioned by the media is a tad dodgy is it not.
(The National stated that his excuse for not speaking to the media when recently in Scotland was because he stated that “he was short on time’ however The National also noted that just after he, Burnham, was seen ‘live’ on Sky having a pint with his new Chancellor john Healey”).
Burnham is Style over substance and he also seems a tad too smug .
(Pride comes before a fall, I hope so).
Then of course there is also the (false) nickname ‘King of the North’ , which I think he is basking in as a name that was created by the corrupt dominant English media. (and also being referred to by the house jock media up here in Scotland as well).
Ironically as a name/title it seems to exemplify/suggest how he (supposedly) will only fight for those people in the North of England, while the rest of the UK State will have what ?
The scraps (though not you Scotland).
Burnham is not the (new) saviour as the new (latest) UK PM nor is he the saviour of Labour as the new (latest) Labour leader.
The real (unsolvable) problems are the UK State and TBH also Labour as a political party.
Liz S
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Oil & Gas. Produce it or import it. That is the question? Until demand diminishes. It will with alternative fuel movement coming forward.
Scotland is in surplus in fuel and energy, but pays more. The energy companies want to charge Scotland less. Nearer the source and production. Westminster does not agree. Fuel and energy charges remain higher in Scotland because of Westminster duplicity. No parity,
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