“All hail the King of The North!”
I don’t know about you, but I’m old enough to remember when Andy Burnham wore a suit and tie to work rather than a crown.
Very smart he was. He was part of the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments.
I can’t recall him changing the world too much before heading up the M6 to become the Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017.
But now, in Adidas trainers and a pair of baggy-bottomed jeans, he’s the answer to all our prayers. Apparently, we should just ask ‘northerners’ – we’re told he’s their ‘King.’
Now, I know a few northerners, I happen to be one myself, but I’ve never met one who regards Andy Burnham as their monarch.
That’s despite that thing he does – which I again don’t recall the first time around, and I’m sure he thinks endears himself to voters – where he refers folksily to people as ‘Lad’.
Because of course ‘by ‘eck’ that’s how we all speak ‘tha knows’. (Two can play at that game.) But if you listen to our never-endingly credulous and immature political and media class, he’s a hero to everyone in the North of England because he’s got a few buses to run on time in Manchester.
Forgive me if I sound a bit churlish about his achievements. I’m sure he means well – despite the fact he cares so much for the people of his adopted home city that he’s prepared to dash back down to Westminster after getting one whiff of Downing Street in his nostrils. It’s not his fault; it’s a generational thing in our politics.
Burnham’s ham-fisted attempt to stand in the latest by-election, and ultimately challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the top job, has exposed huge cracks in the Labour Party. But it’s also reminded me of how generations of politicians and the parties they represent have treated the north of England. As I said, I’m from the North with family in County Durham and West Yorkshire.
We already have millions of real Kings and Queens of the North. Where's the political class worthy of them? – Mick Booker | Getty Images
Two huge areas are under-loved by governments, apart from the odd occasion of patronising the people who live there when it suits them.
I grew up in north-east England in the early 1980s. Great people everywhere – but some tough times all around.It wasn’t always Get Carter-style grim, but the winds of industrial change became a storm, and it wasn’t just the fog on the Tyne that was blown away.
Livelihoods and communities across the region felt its blast. Coal mining, shipbuilding, steelworks, textile manufacturing; all sectors were devastated, bringing an upsurge in unemployment to towns and cities across the North.
Though many areas are now far more prosperous, the knock-on effects of that time on family life are still felt in many parts of the region today.
The villages that once had thriving mines or factories at the heart of them still live with the traumatic effects.Crime, drug dependency, and unemployment still rife.
Too much of the North is still battling that legacy. The North described in Sam Fender’s ‘Leave Fast or Stay Forever’ – still exists. It’s a song that spells out the dilemma, unfortunately still relevant, where young people face the choice of getting out for a better life or staying close to home and family, but taking their chances among limited opportunities.
I had to move south in my early twenties to find opportunities in my line of work – though I’d much rather have stayed close to home, close to family. I’m sure there's plenty of people like me. No King or Queen has come up with a solution to that as far as I can see.
But the real Kings and Queens up north aren’t politicians – they are the people. Not so much cartoon northerners like Andy Burnham – someone more like a character rejected from a Noel Gallagher Oasis b-side lyric writing session for being ‘too on the nose.’No, it’s the silent heroes, those we don’t see on TV and social media scoring points off their political opponents.
It’s the people who have chosen to live in and stay and fight for their communities because they know they matter and are key to a bright future.
They are the people like the couple I know – too modest and humble to be named here – who have fostered scores of children from broken homes in those battle-scarred mining communities and given them a home…and some hope. As a nation, we all hope for better days.
I’ve been at GB News for just over four years and can see how things can get better if we, the people, stand together. I’ve seen how the power of community - the community that is The People’s Channel, made up of viewers and listeners from across Britain, not just the North - feels disregarded by the establishment political and media class.
They are growing tired of 'here today, gone tomorrow' MPs working for what's best for themselves rather than the people who voted them in.
It’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen between now and 2029. What we don’t need is another politician seeing Number 10 – or any seat across the country - as their throne.
We already have millions of real Kings and Queens of the North - and the South, East and West, for that matter. What we need now is a political class worthy of them.