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Tag: Andy Burnham

  • Morning Star Editorial: Why Burnham needs pressing on the Palantir problem

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-burnham-needs-pressing-palantir-problem

     NHS staff blockade the entrance to NHS England’s headquarters in central London demanding the cancellation of its contract with Palantir, which supplies advanced technology to Israel’s military, April 3, 2024

    ANDY BURNHAM is not “minded” to grant contracts to CIA-linked tech firm Palantir, we learn from Westminster briefings this week.

    The Makerfield MP’s impending coronation leaves us in a strange transitional period where his reported preferences are the stuff of gossip, rather than policies being demanded as the price of support. He has delivered a pitch to the nation of sorts: but no questions were taken, and pinning the PM-to-be down is much harder in the absence of a leadership contest.

    …

    [T]reating Burnham’s premiership as a foregone conclusion allows him to be troublingly vague.

    His allies can reassure the left that he isn’t keen on Palantir, citing his record as Manchester mayor in which role he never awarded it a contract; he himself avoids any specific commitments either on future contracts or — significantly — existing ones.

    …

    Thiel is a plutocrat as sinister as Elon Musk, with whom he shares an upbringing in apartheid South Africa: an advocate of “post-democracy,” arguing that democracy is incompatible with human (by which he largely means corporate) freedom and, also like Musk, pitching his own tech companies as future mechanisms of rule.

    Palantir’s facilitation of horrific racist policing methods in the US, and still more horrific war crimes by the Israeli military, is well known but cancelling its contracts is not simply a question of ethics.

    We have to question the idea that companies as powerful as this provide services on a politically neutral basis, given their founders are explicitly hostile to public services as such.

    …

    It’s good that Burnham is not “minded” to favour Palantir, but a comprehensive rejection of outsourcing policies which now threaten democracy itself is what’s required.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-burnham-needs-pressing-palantir-problem

    dizzy: Reading the whole Editorial is recommended.

    There are competing narratives on Burnham’s approach to Palantir. Apart from or possibly above anything else, reports that Palantir’s system has apalling performance even after optimisation should be adequate and sufficient to abandon Palantir in the NHS.

    Labour leadership hopeful Wes Streeting – who recently resigned as health secretary – has said that Palantir is “absolutely critical to the future of the NHS.”

    But a briefing prepared for NHS England senior leaders in February said that Palantir’s NHS platform is eight to ten times slower at analysing data than the current NHS tool in use.

    “Processing time is reported as taking 4-5 minutes compared to 30 seconds [in the current system]” the briefing states, even after making “optimisation” changes to speed it up.

  • Greens urge Burnham to cut energy bills before winter

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/greens-urge-burnham-cut-energy-bills-winter

     Andy Burnham delivers a speech at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, to pledge to give Britain the “circuit-breaker it needs” while unveiling his plans for devolution and the economy, June 29, 2026

    THE Green Party called on prospective prime minister Andy Burnham yesterday to cut energy bills by £150 before winter by shifting policy costs off household electricity bills and onto general taxation.

    Zack Polanski’s party said a wealth tax should partly fund policies including the warm homes discount, which are currently funded through electricity bills and account for nearly 10 per cent of domestic electricity charges.

    Ofgem’s price cap rose by 13 per cent yesterday to £1,862 a year for the average household, with forecasters expecting prices to remain high this winter.

    Cornwall Insight predicted a typical household would face a bill of £1,849 from October.

    After Chancellor Rachel Reeves moved some policy costs onto general taxation in November’s budget, the Greens urged Mr Burnham and his new chancellor to do the same for the remaining five policies funded through bills, saving around £120 a year on average.

    Removing energy debt servicing costs from bills could save a further £35 a year.

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/greens-urge-burnham-cut-energy-bills-winter

    Andy Burnham says that he doesn't have any answers.
    Andy Burnham says that he doesn’t have any answers.

  • Morning Star Editorial: Burnham’s promise of ‘change’ will be judged on what comes next

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/burnhams-promise-change-will-be-judged-what-comes-next

     Andy Burnham delivers a speech at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, to pledge to give Britain the “circuit-breaker it needs” whilst unveiling his plans for devolution and the economy, June 29, 2026

    …

    The lack of detail justifies caution for the left. “Greater public control” stops short of renationalisation of core sectors, a minimum requirement to stop the fleecing of the British people, water pollution and the protection of vested interests in fossil fuels.  

    Reindustrialisation will not happen by osmosis, nor will it be possible to deliver without a national industrial strategy and substantial public investment.  

    Regeneration dependent on the “public/private partnership” redolent of the Blair/Brown governments is likely to deliver the same PFI rip-off currently impoverishing the NHS and education. The power that Burnham wishes to devolve will be largely in the hands of directly elected mayors who will have the power to over-rule local authorities with minimal scrutiny or accountability between elections. In turn these mayors will be vulnerable to corporate lobbying, especially from a construction sector which has driven large-scale council estate and town centre demolition and redevelopment in the face of huge community opposition.

    While the implied devolution of the “Whitehall machine” to local government may be a good thing, what will it mean for civil servants and quango employees, thousands of whose jobs may be redeployed around the country?

    …

    A new programme to build council homes at scale while welcomed needs to answer how it will be delivered given the lack of design and build expertise in local authorities and over-reliance on large-scale private developers who are entirely profit-driven. Will the emphasis shift from demolition to refurbishment and retrofitting the existing stock and empty homes to bring them back into use?  

    The trade union movement and wider left must now pile on the pressure to ensure the lack of detail is not some devilish portent, but a promise of an end to neoliberalism as the first step to socialist renewal.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/burnhams-promise-change-will-be-judged-what-comes-next

  • Sultana says ‘good riddance’ to Starmer

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sultana-says-good-riddance-starmer

    Your Party MP Zarah Sultana speaks at a demonstration organised by CND, Stop the War, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain and Friends of Al-Aqsa, in London to call for an end to Iran war, March 2026

    YOUR Party MP Zarah Sultana said “good riddance” to the departing Keir Starmer today.

    The Coventry South MP, suspended from Labour by Sir Keir for challenging the two-child benefit cap, said that “history will judge Keir Starmer as a man who lied his way to the top of the Labour Party.”

    She accused him of using that power to evoke Enoch Powell with his “island of strangers” speech, keeping children in poverty, attacking disabled people, scapegoating refugees, stripping back civil liberties, and handing our public services to Palantir.

    “A man who gave the top diplomatic job to the ‘best pal’ of a convicted paedophile, said Israel has the right to cut off water and electricity to Gaza, rolled out the red carpet for Israeli war criminals, and kept the weapons flowing to the Israeli military as it committed genocide. Good riddance,” she added.

    Green Party leader Zack Polanski called for “a bold change of direction” after Sir Keir’s departure.

    He said: “Starmer lost the confidence of the country because of his abject failure to challenge the power and wealth of an Establishment which has taken for themselves while leaving the vast majority in a cost-of-living crisis.

    “We are still waiting to see which version of Andy Burnham is going to show up in Downing Street. While he has talked about a change of course, the early indications are not encouraging and suggest more of the same with better communication skills.

    “The time for half measures and sticking plasters is long gone — Burnham must be bold or he will be bust.”

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sultana-says-good-riddance-starmer

    I hope that the Morning Star will excuse me republishing the full article.

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
    Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
    Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.

  • “Wrong in numerous important respects”: What PR firm privately told Josh Simons

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    dizzy: Josh Simons was the MP for Makerfield who gave it up so that Andy Burnham could contest it. Makerfield was considered a safe [ed: Labour] seat and awarded to Simmons as payback for his work as director, following Morgan McSweeney, of the Labour Together group. Labour Together – since rebranded as ThinkLabour – employed dishonest and evil tactics to have Keir Starmer installed as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Having been handed the seat of Makersfield, Andy Burnham is able to contest the leadership of the Labour Party. The cynical might regard it as a convenient stitch-up [ed: stitched-up, manipulated part of a larger plan]. I expect no meaningful change.

    https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/wrong-in-numerous-important-respects-josh-simons-apco-legal-letter

    Revealed: APCO legal letter warned Simons to cease making “misleading statements” about PR firm’s “incredibly useful” dossier on journalists investigating Labour Together.

    By Peter Geoghegan and Khadija Sharife

    Josh Simons has had a good couple of weeks. The former Cabinet Office minister – forced to resign over his role in hiring a PR firm to investigate journalists critical of Labour Together – is now being praised for standing aside as Makerfield MP to clear the path for Andy Burnham.

    Simons is reportedly “across everything” in Burnham’s campaign and is hotly tipped for a top role in any future administration led by the Greater Manchester Mayor. There’s even talk of a seat in the House of Lords.

    But not everyone is so enamoured with Simons.

    Democracy for Sale can report that days after Simons resigned from the Cabinet Office – following revelations in this newsletter – he received a legal letter on behalf of the PR firm he had paid more than £30,000 to investigate journalists reporting on Labour Together’s undeclared political donations.

    In the lawyer’s letter, reported here for the first time and reproduced below, APCO Worldwide privately accused Simons of making “misleading statements” about his role in the scandal and of changing his story in ways that were “wrong in numerous important respects” – and even of suggesting APCO could do more work for Labour Together.

    …

    APCO did not just dispute Simons’ February 11 statement. His version of events, it said, had “evolved” in the two weeks before his resignation – in ways that were “inconsistent with the facts”.

    In his resignation letter to Keir Starmer on February 28, Simons said he “did not know” that the Sunday Times’s Harry Yorke and Henry Dyer of the Guardian had been targeted by APCO, and that once he saw the “reprehensible material” about Pogrund “I took immediate action and removed it.”

    APCO flatly rejected this. “No such indication was given to APCO. You did not raise a complaint or objection to the work product delivered. On the contrary, you described it as ‘incredibly useful’ and stated a desire to continue to work with APCO. Your statement ‘What happened subsequently was wrong’ in your resignation letter is inconsistent with your statements to APCO and actions at the time.”

    …

    Recommended: See the original article at https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/wrong-in-numerous-important-respects-josh-simons-apco-legal-letter

    SUBSTACK: DEMOCRACY FOR SALE

    ‘Labour Together broke the law’

    Labour Together PR firm tried to destroy crucial evidence

    BREAKING: Starmer’s inner circle knew about APCO’s Labour Together investigation

    Revealed: Government accused of ‘conflict of interest’ over journalist smear inquiry

    McSweeney goes – but ​​Josh Simons in the frame over targeting journalists