ANDY BURNHAM’S AMBITIOUS TEN-POINT PLAN TO FIX BRITAIN
Described as:
‘A PATH-BREAKING BOOK’ – Gordon Brown
‘HEARTFELT, AMBITIOUS’ – Brian Groom
‘A PROGRAMME OF OPTIMISM’ – Tribune
‘PERSUASIVE… A CLEAR PLAN’ – The Observer
Makerfield MP and Labour Party leadership candidate Andy Burnham outlines his ambitious plan to help fix Britain, along with the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram. They discuss the challenges and lessons learned throughout their lives, including how the Hillsborough disaster shaped them, their time in Westminster witnessing its systematic flaws, becoming Mayors up North and battling Boris Johnson during the Covid-19 pandemic, all whilst showing how they have led two of the country’s fastest growing city regions. Building on this, Andy and Steve offer a comprehensive ten-point plan that would completely rewire our country.
A timely discussion around Northern power and devolution, a razor-sharp analysis of the failed promises of ‘levelling up’ and an inspiring call for change, Head North outlines how we can spread political and economic power throughout the UK and push forward for a fairer future.
Described as:
‘A PATH-BREAKING BOOK’ – Gordon Brown
‘HEARTFELT, AMBITIOUS’ – Brian Groom
‘A PROGRAMME OF OPTIMISM’ – Tribune
‘PERSUASIVE… A CLEAR PLAN’ – The Observer
Makerfield MP and Labour Party leadership candidate Andy Burnham outlines his ambitious plan to help fix Britain, along with the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram. They discuss the challenges and lessons learned throughout their lives, including how the Hillsborough disaster shaped them, their time in Westminster witnessing its systematic flaws, becoming Mayors up North and battling Boris Johnson during the Covid-19 pandemic, all whilst showing how they have led two of the country’s fastest growing city regions. Building on this, Andy and Steve offer a comprehensive ten-point plan that would completely rewire our country.
A timely discussion around Northern power and devolution, a razor-sharp analysis of the failed promises of ‘levelling up’ and an inspiring call for change, Head North outlines how we can spread political and economic power throughout the UK and push forward for a fairer future.
Reviews
At once a fascinating insight into the squalid inner workings of Westminster politics and a programme of optimism for the complete overhaul to tackle Britain's social, economic and constitutional malaise, the book is one of the more thought-provoking to have emerged from British politics.
A compelling argument for regional devolution from two of its foremost practitioners.
Head North makes a passionate case for restructuring politics with the regions and regional devolution at the heart of a transformed political system that works for the many... Head North reads like a call to arms against the status quo.
Head North is not a classic, dry political tome. In many ways it's a love letter to the communities both Rotheram and Burnham grew up in, as well as the moving story of two mayors forged by their friendship across twin tragedies - the Hillsborough disaster, and the Manchester arena bombing.
A moving and fascinating look behind the scenes of our political system; the important story of two politicians from working class backgrounds, who set out to change lives and do the right thing.
This is a path-breaking book by two dynamic leaders working together to transform not just the north of England, but our view of what's possible in the north of England, and whose ideas on the future deserve all our attention.
Head North not only rails against the self-serving politics of the Westminster bubble but also delivers a 10-point plan to overhaul the entire political system. Britain's political malaise isn't just cultural or economic, argues Mr Burnham, it is structural. Constitutional change, he believes, is the only way to fix Britain's broken politics... It is this political conviction that explains why he is a popular - as opposed to a populist - politician. This is not the performative political posturing of Zack Polanski, the Green leader, on the Left, nor the rage-baiting antics of Nigel Farage on the Right.
Against the backdrop of devastating critiques of what deregulation and privatisation have done to some public services in both their patches and beyond, the two Labour leaders call for maximum devolution of powers in a federal political union.
It's powerful. This is humanity and politics brought together... And the result is no pie in the sky wishlist. The 10 points are practical ideas based on the inner workings of Britain's establishment... they provide something in short supply at the moment, hope. Large sections of Head North are rage-inducing, there's no doubt about that. But closing the final page, I felt more optimistic about the possibility of real change in Britain than I have for a long time.
The Hillsborough families know more than anyone that this country does not treat all people and all places equally. We also know our experience was not an exception: the same pattern of injustice keeps on repeating down the decades. The Head North Plan, with a Hillsborough Law at its heart, is the change our country needs.
Head North ultimately offers hope to the northern regions when it is most needed, and reminds us that those politicians who refuse to toe the party line are often those who history remembers most favourably.
Head North calls for a real levelling-up, as opposed to the recent hollow farce. Burnham and Rotheram make a strong case for a new, green industrial revolution.
A heartfelt, ambitious plea to tackle structural factors behind Britain's glaring regional inequalities from one of Northern England's most prominent political double-acts.
Radical proposals... the most moving parts of the book bring this project down to earth... It isn't even just about the north. It's a brutal reality of British state power that can befall us all... if the book has a singular achievement, it's that it makes a persuasive case for why a range of doorstep issues - especially those that speak to regional inequality - are in fact constitutional problems, and can't be addressed without revolutionising what is an overcentralised political system.