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Stephen Castle of the NYT gives an objective look at Andy Burnham of the Greater Manchester area and Labour party leader. Burnham has said that Britain has been on the wrong path for 40 years and had the courage to prove this by leaving London for his home region of Greater Manchester in the North of England, after serving as chief secretary of The Treasury and Labour minister under Gordon Brown around the time of the financial crisis of 2009. After winning in Greater Manchester he served as Mayor of this important region of Britain second only to London in importance, which after the fall of the British Empire, has led to politics focusing entirely on London. His term as Mayor involved getting transportation out of the hands of the private companies and having the government run it efficiently for the people of Manchester. His term is viewed favorably for improving the economy of the region. Compared to the people Britain has turned out previously- Thatcher, Blair,  Brown, Cameron, Starmer, he has genuine experience running a region and tackling tough problems, which none of the other leaders had, that comes from his hard work for the people of Greater Manchester as head of the local government. He has the skills to bring people together around his vision for the Labour party, similar to that brought by Clement Attlee. At Lyrarc we looked at what  Britannica Encylopedia has to say about Attlee and found that Attlee spent his first 15 years in the difficult working class district of East London, similar to what Burnham has done by moving back to his home region in the north and quietly working to understand the people, their aspirations and how to make them come true. Attlee did this in 1945-51 (setting up the National Health Service NHS and Bank of England, other revered institutions) the way Franklin Roosevelt did in the 1930's to establish the modernization of New York government that he later applied to 51 states as president. This is the kind of task similar to Attlee and FDR that Burnham has the potential to accomplish for Britain. Like Attlee Burnham is self effacing with little sense of wanting public recognition, comfortable with who he is and where he is from. Like Attlee staying away from Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government in 1931, when it failed to find a clear path ahead for Britain, (Burnham concentrated on Manchester away from London), and decided to forge his own way forward with new ideas and being creative- as it was under Attlee that the British Empire was converted into the British Commonwealth of Nations. An enormous feat that has not been fully grasped and will one day be seen as an amazing achievement of the 20th century- India independent and  creating a modernized state the size of the US, European Union or China by 2040/2047. This is our assessment at Lyrarc of the potential Burnham could have for Britain- and possibly for the world again like Clement Attlee in 1945-1951. ...

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UK prime minister Starmer raises this question twice in parliament QA session about racist attitudes in Nigel Farage's Reform UK party.

“He’s still not condemned the language or taken action against one of his MP’s racist comments, refused to condemn them when asked last week. Reform is dragging our politics into a dark place. This Labour government stands for our patriotic British values of decency, tolerance and importantly, unity. So, it’s for Nigel Farage to explain.”

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Even with Brexit out of the way the Labour party has to worry that over 60% of people over the age of 65 years voted Conservative. The high percentage of older voters voting Conservative in ever larger numbers cannot make up for the young vote that Labour attracts with stands on climate change and other issues such as wages.

Older voters even in towns in the north of England, including pensioners are much better off and not that much different than traditional Conservative voters in their cultural attitudes. This will remain an obstacle for the Labour party in Britain after losses in three elections. After the NHS funding and infrastructure spending issues were neutralized by the Conservatives under Johnson, issues around cultural attitudes and patriotic sentiment play a big part particularly for older voters.

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Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is for negotiating a Brexit deal that protects workers interests. Most of the Labour party supporters and the rest of the leadership is for Remain and a second referendum. Corbyn's position could help Labour in some ways as it brings support from some Leave voters who are unhappy with the way the Conservative party has handled it. Corbyn's manner of straddling between his party's position and his own could help the Labour party in the election because of is unrelenting focus on working class interests and the Brexit mess created by the Conservative party's Cameron and Johnson. 

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Labour Party MP's are pushing for a confirmatory second referendum on Brexit. 203 Labour Party MP's including 110 MP's from constituencies that voted Leave in the referendum are supporting the call for second referendum. They are asking the Labour Party executive committee to use the European elections to present Labour's view that a second referendum was the way out of the crisis.

The letter from Labour MP's in this move says- "The public wants Brexit to be over, They are looking to the Labour Party to resolve this Brexit crisis.  The way to resolve this crisis is in a confirmatory ballot with the facts of the deal before the British people."

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Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party leaders, says he will root out antisemitsm, bigotry and racism from the party. He made a plea for unity and said he was determined to tackle any cases of discrimination. He told a Scottish Labour conference- "The only thing that can hold us back is if we turn our fire on each other rather than on the Tory government and the wealthy establishment interests they represent." For Labour to return to poser at Westminster it had to remain united.

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It all ends as expected. Another chapter in the Brexit saga ends with the mutiny in the Conservative Partyl, the resignation of Ms. Leadsom, the party's leader in the House of Commons. WIth most Conservative Party members abandoning the approach of Theresa May of putting unpopular Brexit deals to votes in parliament, the latest planned for June 7. Conservative Party members have already shown their support for Mr. Boris Johnson, who leads by a wide margin in a leadership contest. Johnson supports a no-deal Brexit and once said that would only mean a shortage of Mars chocolate bars. This faction in the Conservative Party including Jacob Rees-Moog believes that Brexit without a deal with the European Union will work. It opposes a customs union arrangement following Brexit. The only problem is that earlier votes have not shown a majority of members of parliament support no-deal Brexit because of fears about the British economy. The fall in the British pound exchange rate shows this is expected. This could mean fresh elections, yet both Conservatives and Labour Party face voter skepticism about their handling of Brexit and loss of support to Liberals in the case of labour and to the Brexit Party in the case of the Conservatives, leaving more uncertainty. Conservatives polled about 11% in advance of European Union elections in Britain, unheard of in modern British politics. ...

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Starmer's personal popularity has increased with the speech at the Labour Conference in Liverpool. The Labour party now has a lead of 16 percentage points over the Tories.

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The Guardian follows key speeches and developments at the Labour party conference in Liverpool. This comes as the Labour party leads the Conservatives in the MRP poll by 12 points 45 percentage points to 33 points. Labour is favored in its approach to the cost of living crisis and climate change. Keir Starmer is steadily closing the credibility gap created by previous Labour administrations on policy for families and workers and conviction which has given Boris Johnson and Liz Truss an advantage in the past. Mr. Biden has faced and overcome a similar problem created by Democratic administrations in the past of a lack of conviction to help families and workers in the US.

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Labour leader Keir Starmer tells the 1923 Labor Conference in Liverpool imagine what we could build  "if working people feel they belong and can contribute to Britain, if a whole country says we back your potential." He said of the Tories damage during 13 years of government, "their project will crash against the spirit of working people in this country." And he called the Labour party the builders, the healers- "But know this-what is broken can be repaired. What is ruined can be rebuilt. Woulds do heal." And he said "people are looking to us because they want our wounds to heal and we are the healers, people are looking to us because these challenges require a modern state and we are the modernizers, people are looking to us because they want to build a new Britain, and we are the builders."

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The Economist magazine expresses the view in this editorial that Britain is likely to shift to the "greatest extension of economic democratic rights that this country has ever seen" under Labour party because of what it calls the "grotesque"  uncertainty situation created by Brexit and years of austerity under the Conservatives, split in Conservatives under Theresa May. Britain is getting the debate of ideas that the referendum has led to and the possibilities for reshaping Britain under Labour after the "grotesque folly" of Brexit. 

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The Labour party takes the Rutherglen parliament seat from SNP with Labour's Michael Shanks winning twice the votes of the SNP candidate. Scotland can now lead the way to a Labour government. In his speech Keir Starmer, Labour's leader said he would put Scotland at the "heart of a Britain to last." Labour stands for working people across all these islands, "there is nothing more important." That Labour stands for an argument for Britain, an old partnership perhaps, but a flame now reignited to  face a modern flame of insecurity." On the Scottish nationalists and their party the SNP Starmer said- "Once again they will wave away the lessons of history, try to present nationalism as a bridge to the world. We have to remind them that it can barely provide a ferry to the Hebrides."

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All but the poorest pensioners are affected by the winter fuel payment cut in the UK that is planned by Labour's finance minister, Rachel Reeves. After losses in local elections to Nigel Farage's Reform party in May 2025, Labour party is considering restoring some of the cuts as Labor MP's protest these cuts.

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PM'S Questions UK Parliament, November 12 2025- on Labour and Reform UK performance on migration, governance and the economy. Keir Starmer answers questions from MP's in the British parliament. It comes as Conservatives shift to UK Reform and the Conservatives are at a new low in popularity, and the Labour Party revamps its migration policy so that it is closer to socialist prime minister Mette Frederiksen's policy in Denmark who has a successful policy to stop migrants and deport illegal migrants. Without this action by Labour to follow the US and Denmark it faces serious challenge from Reform UK in the north and east of England. 

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"Because of the pressure on public services that resentment (by public) is real"- Shabana Mohamed tears up old rules in asylums that put migrants before British neighborhoods. Under the old rules refugees were given 5 years of protection and allowed to bring their families, followed by possible permanent status. Now this is cut to 30 months and if the country is safe the person has to go back, Waiting time to be able to settle in Britain will be extended to 10 years. The system worked in Denmark cutting by 90% the flow of migrants. In 2025 100,000 claimed asylum inUK half of them coming in small boats.  The asylum people placed in hotels has resulted in an outcry from locals in many British towns who see a way of life of the British people being pressured by the migrants some from remote countries with different cultures and leading to lack of safety for women on the streets. In Denmark without these changes the labour working class party would have lost power to a movement like that of Nigel Farage Reform UK which wants to shut the door completely on migrants. Public patience appears to be gone. Similar situations have happened in Dutch politics and is happening in other countries including Germany and France. ...

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The local elections in Britain in 2019 show voter dissatisfaction with the mainparties. Both Conservatives and he Labour party each took 28% share of the vote. The big winners were the centrist Liberal Democrats with 19% of the vote. The Greens party also was a winner in the vote. About 8400 seats were up for election in this vote. Conservative party lost 1300 seats. The Labour Party disappointed because it was expected to win more seats as Conservatives did well in the last election in 2015, by winning 81 seats. The Liberal Dems and the Greens won 850 seats between them.  The stridently pro-Brexit Nigel Farage Independence Party did not put up candidates and a anti-Brexit party called ChangeUK also did not have candidates. Both will field candidates in the European elections causing the main parties to lose even more of their support that has dropped to 28%. This means Labour party leaders Corbyn and McDonnell might continue negotiations with Theresa May on Brexit plan. But as Rachel Sylvester reports in The Times today with May lacking support from her Conservative Party, her tenure as prime minister uncertain, there is little incentive for Labour leaders to go against the wishes of a majority of Labour MP's, voters, and members who are against Brexit. Corbyn also want to focus coming elections on austerity not Brexit. So this is not on Labour's agenda. Sylvester says a confirmatory referendum is looking like the only way out of the mess.    ...

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Wellstone's unique contribution comes from his effort to work with rural poor and poor white farmers in the tradition of Minnesota Farmers Labor Party. This part of rural roots for the Democratic party since FDR and from the  time of Woodrow Wilson in 1900 was lost by 1980. After 1990 the Republican party set up roots in rural America that continued into the Obama period when the emergence of internet and tech companies as part of Democrats distracted and led to the loss of rural support in addition to the loss of union workers support. Tim Walz is from a rural small town America and bring the Democrats closer to their roots.  Paul Wellstone was  Senator from Minnesota in 1990 from the tradition of Farmers Labor Party in the state, and the period of FDR that followed the Great Depression and continued right into the 1960's with John F. Kennedy. He was for local community organizing during all periods not just campaigns, and public policy. He was educated at UNC and was a professor of political science at Carleton College from 1969 to his election as Senator in 1990.  He died in a plane accident in 2002 during an effort to run for a third term in the Senate.  ...

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Britain's Labor Party leader makes a speech favoring strong Britain- EU relations in an effort to attract support from pro-EU Conservatives in parliament and bring about early elections. Corbyn says he favors Britain's membership in the EU customs union putting pressure on prime minister Theresa May who favors Britain leaving the EU customs union so it can strike free trade deals on its own. A thin majority in parliament for Theresa May means this issue could lead to a parliamentary defeat and early elections.  The other facet of this is that the delicate peace process in Northern Ireland could be upset by having a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland which is part of the European Union. Irish peace process and the views of the Republic of Ireland and of Scotland would be respected with the Corbyn approach. Other benefits are keeping good trade relations with the EU intact because 44% of Britain's exports go to the EU and 50% of Britain's imports are from the EU. ...

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The constructive influence of John McDonnell in the Labor Party. McDonnell played a part in running the Greater London Council and understands what it takes to run an administration. He sees the dissension in the Labor Party as a distraction from the very real task of offering an alternative to the fracturing in the Conservative Party over soft or hard Brexit. 

Labor Party still has about 40% support edging out the Conservatives and can be seen as ready to form the next government, says the Economist magazine.  What is important is Corbyn's continued ability to compromise to bring together different elements in the party and focus on big initiatives.

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A young socialist leader in the Sanders campaign effort asks what it is about aging socialist leaders Jeremy Corbyn, 68 years, in the UK, and Bernie Sanders, 75 years, that makes them popular with young people. She says both leaders stood up consistently for decades on issues important to ordinary working class people, when Labor under Blair and Democrats under Clinton abandoned their base to a point when one political expert could say Democrats  were the "second most enthusiastic capitalist party" in the U.S. She says under Blair Clause IV was rewritten. That clause committed the Labor party in Britain to "common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange." Under Corbyn, with support from young people, Labor received 40% of the vote. The party was reenergized on issues important to students such as making higher education accessible to all. A similar situation happened with Sanders in the U.S., who received more of the young people's vote in 2016 primaries than Trump and Clinton combined. ...

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University fees in Britain are set at 9250 pounds a year and millions of people have tens of thousands of student debt. The student loan book in Britain is already at 120 billion pounds and it weighs in heavily on young people starting life after college affecting the quality of life. 

The Green party says it will cost 40 billion pounds for waiver of recoverable student debt over 5 years. The Labour Party in Britain is looking at following the Green Party's support of writing off the student debt. Labour has said it will abolish student fees. Labour party's McDowell says the system was designed so that much of the student debt would remain unpaid and it is time to clear this and take this burden off the shoulders of young people. 

This would also give the economy a boost as young people are better able to afford basics such as housing, food and services after this is lifted.

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More answers on more questions by readers, this time from the Guardian.

How does Britain get out of this mess- finding a deal acceptable to all, the Tories right wing, Labour party, and the EU, which isn't likely any time soon. Extending Article 50 beyond March 29, only adds a few months.

Is the UK going insane asked one reader. The answer from the Guardian- yes.

 

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The Guardian's analysis of what the Sunak austerity budget means for the Labour party, as it prepares alternative policies for growth and a better standard of living for the British people. Can failed Tory policies, favoring certain interests, still lead to dismal results for Labour, asks The Guardian.

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Sure Start is a child education program for the early years to provide community centres and services to children started in 1998 under Labor prime minister Gordon Brown and later reduced in funding by the Tories. Efforts to revive the program under Labor party with high degree of child poverty in Britain. Results of the program show children improved in later grades in their learning ability and educational level proficiency. Children from low income households and mothers could benefit from such programs in the US and UK. This is part of an overall effort under Starmer in the UK as Labor returns to government with an expected majority and as Biden continues efforts to raise levels of educational opportunity for children in the US.