The U.K.\u2019s center of gravity is shifting. It\u2019s hard to say yet whether this is a permanent recalibration or even a substantial one, but the arrival of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has moved the country\u2019s focus northward.<\/p>\n
A former mayor of Manchester \u2014 Britain\u2019s second or third city depending on how you count it \u2014 Burnham has put devolution at the heart of his narrative, promising a \u201csmaller and strategic\u201d central state. It may sound prosaic but he sees romance in local government. His origin story saw him win national power only by first escaping Westminster, a gambit that helps him connect with the common people in a way that other mainstream politicians can\u2019t. It\u2019s all very Game of Thrones. Burnham\u2019s nickname was \u201cKing of the North\u201d during his near decade running Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n
The ruler he usurped, Labour Party colleague Keir Starmer, lacked an inspiring vision and couldn\u2019t explain why he wanted power. Burnham\u2019s mission is clearer: Devolution will deliver growth by letting communities fuel local economies. Decentralization will finally address the problem (if you see it as one) of an overmighty London. The U.K.\u2019s capital generates more than 23% of its gross domestic product and acts as the nation\u2019s political, financial, cultural and transport nexus. Its productivity is far greater than other regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.K.\u2019s center of gravity is shifting. It\u2019s hard to say yet whether this is a permanent recalibration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[7786,94,31,27,1074,1998],"class_list":["post-107918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-andy-burnham","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour-party","tag-london","tag-manchester","tag-u-k"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117131681940671687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}