Pest control

​A Manchester MP, Andrew Gywnne it seems is standing down for health reasons. Thus attention is newly focused on Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester (nick-named the ‘King of The North’) to see whether he will throw his hat into the ring to fight the by-election. Will Labour’s hierarchy (Morgan McSweeney) allow this? Do they want the possibility of the King of the North gaining a parliamentary seat and thus being in a position to challenge our leader? My suspicion is that any rumpus about denying Burnham a place on the shortlist for the by-election candidacy will be somewhat shorter than the consequences of allowing a clear challenger to Starmer stalking the backbenches. A few protests about a stitch up will quickly fade. To stop the Burnham bandwagon gathering pace the party hierarchy (Morgan McSweeney) needs to advise everyone very early on that the shortlist will be women only or reserved for BAME candidates or indeed as is so common these days, parachutists from Starmer’s gang of cronies on the National Executive Committee.  I will watch with interest to see how the party’s brain boxes (Morgan McSweeney) deal with this one.
 
By the way, I am not sure that Manchester is really ‘North’ per se. More North West. Old divisions die hard. Ask any Leeds fan.