In three weeks large swathes of the country head back to the polls for local elections – and the election of new Mayors for six Combined Authorities.
These Mayors will have substantial powers, be responsible for very significant budgets, and exercise significant control over major conurbations outside London.
Yet the vast majority of the candidates are, with due respect to them, non-entities.
Andy Burnham, Labour’s candidate for Greater Manchester, and to a lesser extent Steve Rotheram, Labour’s candidate for the Liverpool City Region, are notable exceptions. But these two aside, I have never heard of any of the other candidates, and I’m pretty sure the vast majority of the electorate won’t have either.
Some may say this is the case in almost every local election. But in most local elections it doesn’t really matter too much because – if one is honest about it – most individual local authorities don’t have a great deal of power.
This isn’t the case with these new Mayors. They will have extensive powers and a large budget at their disposal.
It’s depressing, and not a little worrying, that such positions attract little interest from experienced politicians who might put themselves forward. Andy Burnham is the standout exception, but I suspect that had the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn not completely imploded, then he may not have put himself forward.
The truth is that for Andy Burnham, the only hope of holding a serious political position again, with real power, was by putting himself forward for the Mayoralty in Greater Manchester.
No doubt bus operators will be watching the Mayoral elections in Greater Manchester with keen interest, given that it’s the only one that plans to introduce bus franchising.
Andy Burnham must surely be a shoe-in, and anybody reading his contribution to the Second Reading debate on the Bus Services Bill can only conclude that he fully intends to proceed with bus franchising.
He talked about bus deregulation being a failure and moaned about the excessive profits of operators – all the usual stuff.
Technically, he said that he “might consider” using the franchising powers, which some may see as a glimmer of hope that he might not, but the plans drawn up by the Combined Authority officers are, as I understand it, quite well developed, so it would be surprising if he decided not to proceed with them.
Andy Burnham is a serious politician. Even although I don’t agree with his views on bus policy, I feel confident that he will exercise his considerable powers wisely.
I don’t have the same confidence with whoever may be elected in the other authorities, although as almost all of them are unknown to me, it may be a touch unfair to reach that conclusion. Whoever wins, I wish them all well.
