At some stage in this steamy, unforgiving summer, a meeting will take place of two Kings – and the divisions that characterise modern Britain will be made flesh.
When, as looks certain, Andy Burnham – the styled King of the North – goes to Buckingham Palace to receive his official invitation to become Prime Minister from the actual King of England, it promises to be a culture clash, of some dimension, between North and South, elected and inherited power, informality and formality, Uniqlo and ermine; between the working class and the aristocracy.
When Burnham accedes to power, he will become the first Prime Minister since Robert Peel in 1841 to come from the North-west of England: the original engine of the nation’s industrial wealth, the UK’s third largest regional economy, and still responsible for 13 per cent of the country’s GDP. And yet, no Prime Minister in 185 years. Only four Prime Ministers have ever come from the North of England. Harold Wilson was the last one – he left office in 1976.
So, for those of us who have felt unrepresented – even just geographically and culturally – for the past 50 years, Andy Burnham – whether or not he has a firm grasp on the detail of the fiscal rules, or if he is too left wing, or too Blairite, or if he is more style than substance (all of which are about to be tested) – is good news.
Turns out the two Kings have a bit of previous which works as a perfect illustration of the north/south divide that may ultimately prove their bond.
I’m specifically, and incongruously, talking about 250 tonnes of waste dumped illegally close to a residential area in Bickerstaff, near Wigan. More than a third of this huge, toxic, rat-infested site referred to in the House of Lords as “the most dangerous illegal dump in England” is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, King Charles’s private estate, whose property portfolio is valued at £687m. In answer to urgent calls to remove the site, the Duchy has said that it is prepared to give its (inherited) land back to Wigan Council, thereby absolving themselves of responsibility for the site, and handing over the clean-up costs to the taxpayer.
As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham told Channel 4 earlier this year: “I don’t think that is an acceptable response. There are ancient laws in force in this part of the world where people die without a will and that money goes to the Duchy. Well, how about using some of that money for a purpose that would really benefit our communities? I won’t accept that as an answer from the Duchy.”
He pointed to the speed with which a similar site in Kidlington in Oxfordshire was cleaned up. “Why does it end up like this in the North, but is cleaned up in the South?” Burnham asked, rhetorically. “We can’t have a country where people are treated in different ways, where people here [Wigan] are treated as second-class citizens.”
So there you have it, a politician evoking the North-South divide, using the rhetoric of the haves and have-nots, prepared to gamble his political capital on a row with the Sovereign (even though he was careful not to make it personal). If you come from the North – or indeed any less affluent part of the country where there is a sense that national politics doesn’t work for you – it must feel quite refreshing.
For the real King, Burnham clearly presents a challenge. But Charles also has an historic opportunity to show that the monarch can work successfully with a PM who inhabits a completely different part of the social and political landscape (rather in the way his late mother did with Wilson).
The truth is, however, that the two men have a central notion in common. Both are professional embodiments of a certain idea that England doesn’t end at Watford. For 50 years, Charles – through his Prince’s Trust – has helped regenerate precisely the kind of post-industrial towns Burnham has spent a political career representing.
Each of them is keen to be regarded as “a man of the people” rather than a creature of a privileged class; never happier than being pictured in a hard hat, cutting a ribbon at a regeneration site. Expect an agreement over Bickerstaff to come soon.
More than that: this partnership has the chance to create some political stability. Two men in the nascent stage of their jobs can recognise that this, even more than England winning the World Cup, is what the country needs.
Charles, who is this week opening his private tax return to public inspection, has thus far been pretty sure-footed in terms of PR at a difficult time for the Royal Family. He now has the chance to demonstrate real leadership in the form of Establishment support, which Burnham vitally needs.
And these two Kings have a complementary ambition, too: Burnham wants the optics of a King who listens to the north. Charles wants the optics of a north that doesn’t resent him. It could be a match made in Makerfield.
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