Potholes, bus fares and headphone dodgers: will Burnham’s strategy of ‘everyday fixes’ succeed?
Özet haber: Since Burnham took office Labour has prioritised small fixes to try to show voters it can make a genuine difference, with government insiders delighted at the public reaction
Since Burnham took office Labour has prioritised small fixes to try to show voters it can make a genuine difference, with government insiders delighted at the public reaction
In the first episode of Armando Iannucci’s political satire The Thick of It, the hapless minister Hugh Abbot is in the back of a taxi, frantically brainstorming for an on-the-hoof policy he can announce to the assembled national press.
“So you want something sexy and eye-catching, and that is free and universally popular and instantly applicable. No one can possibly object to it,” says the addled junior advisor Ollie Reeder. “Well, really, you should have said something before then, because I’ve got a file about that fucking thick of that back in the office.”
After a three-month micro-policy blitz from Downing Street, the question now being asked is: did Reeder pass said file onto the government’s battalion of special advisors? In the past week Andy Burnham has vowed to clamp down on social pariahs blaring out Tiktok videos on public transport, outlaw “rip-off” private car park fines and – on Thursday – fill in potholes in 7,000 miles of England’s roads.
Before that, as part of the focus on “everyday fixes”, the prime minister removed VAT from electricity bills, cap single bus fares across England at £2 and take action on “auto-renew” subscriptions. There’s also promises to crack down on pricey branded school uniforms, ban specious discounts, limit vape and betting shops and stop airlines charging families to sit together on planes. At this rate all minor annoyances in the UK will be eradicated by Christmas.
The idea is simple, says one policy advisor. “People expect the government to be able to do something about things which are unfair – big or small,” they said. “It sends a message that the government is on people’s side, its ready to act and it can genuinely make a difference.”
Government insiders say that the policies are not the product of standing around in a circle, throwing a stress ball and shouting out ideas. “There isn’t someone with a whiteboard brainstorming new bicycles for special constables,” says one, furthering the Thick of It comparison. Instead, the everyday fixes were a central policy strategy from Burnham’s first day in office. “We did this sort of thing under Keir too,” said another source. “But under Andy it’s a whole different thing, he’s put rocket boosters under it.”
In the first days of his premiership, Burnham tasked his close ally Louise Haigh, the first secretary of state, with establishing taskforces for three core areas – cost of living, public control, and place regeneration. One government source said: “There is a very intentional drumbeat of those because they do make a difference, but also it’s constantly showing people that we understand where those frustrations and where those low-level pressures are.”
Ideas are “kicked around” between the cost of living taskforce in the Cabinet Office and the policy unit in No 10, with all departments encouraged to feed in. “There’s a sort of filtering up process,” the source said. “It’s quite a sprawling sort of cross-government approach.”
