Kmflett's Blog

A banner currently on display at the People’s History Museum

Andy Burnham chose the People’s History Museum in Manchester to make a policy speech on 29th June.

Unlike most such speeches it did actually have some content, how radical or implementable it is will be discussed.

The choice of venue was significant. Manchester is full of venues where such an event can take place. Burnham however used an events hall at the People’s History Museum. The Museum is an important research archive for historians but its general exhibitions are of considerable interest not just for labour historians but for anyone interested in the history of the fight for democracy and equality.

One exhibit is the ‘donkey jacket’ that Michael Foot wore at the Cenotaph in 1981

Collections Display – People’s History Museum: The national museum of democracy

However much of his Blairite past Burnham still has, this is not a location where Blair would ever think about making a speech.

It does indicate, and its likely that Burnham learnt this during his Manchester years, location, theatre and style matter in politics. These are things which passed Starmer completely by.

E P Thompson wrote in Homage to Tom Maguire that the British socialist movement was formed not in London Head Offices but in ‘those shadowy parts known as the Provinces’. The Independent Labour Party was formed in Bradford in 1893, although shortly after it operated from Manchester. London was shunned.

How much of that history Burnham knows is another matter but what it does tell us, is whatever is to be made of his speech, if he is to make a difference for the better, it will require organised pressure from below from trade unions, communities and campaigns. There is a lot about that on display in the People’s History Museum.