Politics
The House | Manchesterism won’t survive the painful trade-offs unless it gets citizens on board
Andy Burnham takes a selfie with Labour MPs (Alamy)
4 min read
The battle of ideas over Britain’s political economy is genuinely refreshing. Manchesterism, which the King of the North is set to carry into Downing Street, sits at the forefront.
But economic reform ideas are just the first hurdle and there are many more hurdles ahead: fiscal constraints, geopolitical instability, the artificial intelligence transition, demographic pressure. Each brings painful trade-offs, which demands political craftsmanship.
So the real question is not whether Manchesterism makes sense on paper. It is whether it has a politics to match its ambition.
Manchesterism has a storm ahead
The politics is already tightening. Commitments to the triple lock and manifesto tax promises are narrowing Andy Burnham’s room for manoeuvre. Without a strategy to manage trade-offs, every new ambition risks hitting a red line. Can Manchesterism persuade a country not just to hope for change, but to endure it?
And then there is the state. Public control of utilities is a grand ambition for the capacity of the British state. But the rhetoric of economic transformation has to face the institutional reality: a weak centre, an unwieldy stakeholder state and a powerful Treasury with an instinctive caution.
Look no further than HS2 for a warning. And why should this time be different? A new economic compact has to answer that.
We have seen this before
Britain is not ‘ungovernable’. It has dealt with worse in the past and it can do again.
After the 1930s destitution and a world war, Clement Attlee and William Beveridge overhauled fiscal orthodoxy and rebuilt the institutional landscape. After the 1970s stagflation and industrial disruption, Margaret Thatcher let unemployment rise over three million to forge a new consensus. The lady was not for turning.
Whatever one thinks of those economic visions, they shared something essential: a political project around a willingness to tolerate short-term pain, and not just economic reform, but shifting communities, culture, and the very meaning of citizenship.
When Keir Starmer warned that “things will get worse before they get better”, the public heard the pain but not the purpose. “Mission-driven government” promised a new governing philosophy, but failed to materialise.
The lesson? Telling people that change will be hard and branding it as “missions” isn’t enough. You have to convince them that change is worth it and build transformational institutions. For that, citizens need to be embedded in the change. We at Demos call it the “Citizen Economy”. It’s built on the idea that people aren’t simply units of consumption or production in the economy, they are moral agents rooted in communities, with the power to accelerate or put the breaks on progress.
We need a Citizen Economy
The new leadership should start by redesigning how economic policy is made around this new assumption. We need to rewire the state’s core frameworks to ‘think citizen’, from the Treasury’s Green Book to council procurement systems. We need to connect institutions with citizens, from regional authorities to the British Business Bank. We also need to engage the public directly in economic choices.
The next task is reshaping the foundations of the economy – targeting opportunities where the role of citizens has been overlooked. This means tackling the social drivers of rising NEET numbers – be it the low social status in apprenticeships or lack of social capital. It means building citizens’ consent for falls in short-term consumption to raise investment in national renewal. It means confronting difficult questions – be it the unsustainable triple lock and welfare bill or outdated council tax – through a new fiscal contract grounded in shared values.
Can Manchesterism survive?
Britain is becoming richer in economic ideas, but short of the political strategies to sustain them. The Citizen Economy offers a way through: an economic compact in which citizens’ relationships, consent, and contribution is no longer overlooked. It is central to the New Deal between citizen and the state that is needed to reverse the ‘democratic doom loop’.
Because if citizens are not part of the project, they will become its constraint.
Dan Goss is lead researcher at the cross-party think tank, Demos
lead imageDr Sarah Ingham is the author of The Military Covenant: its impact on civil-military relations in Britain.
“Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”
Thanks to a mega-decibel boom-box, Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation speech on Monday morning failed to bring to mind any of Shakespeare’s majestic reflections on the transition of power: it was less Coriolanus, more Carry on Cleo.
For the fourth time in four years the Downing Street lectern can be likened to a scaffold, signalling the death of Prime Ministerial authority. But what should have been a solemn national moment became farcical, down to that Prat in the Hat, Steve Bray.
The fanatical Remainer has been sounding off in Whitehall and around party conference venues at a gunfire decibel-level for the best part of a decade. He imposed himself on London’s Clubland when a Boris Johnson portrait was unveiled.
Rejoiners have been only too happy to indulge their pet jester’s antics. Things Can Only Get Better at full volume when Rishi Sunak called a General Election in 2024? What larks!
The joke wasn’t quite so funny for Labour on Monday as Sir Keir’s announcement was accompanied by Beethoven’s Ode to Joy belting out across SW1 – and into ears around the world.
It is unthinkable that, with their sense of national pride, historic moments in France or the United States could be similarly marred by a monomaniac. But here in Britain, we must suck it up, buttercup.
Who said irony is dead? A human rights lawyer, Sir Keir was in no position to object. Buffoon Bray’s right to breach our peace has been legally tested and ruled to be protected in law under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, linked to the right to protest.
On Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch wrote to Met Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley asking why the Force had not appealed the court’s finding in favour of Bray.
Alas, by not acting, the Met is making clear whose side it is on. Similarly, Gaza march protestors in London got away with chanting “Israel is a terror state, kill all Jews.” Instead of arresting them for incitement, police officers preferred to turn a deaf ear.
The Human Rights Convention was drafted in 1950, shortly after Britain’s collective national endeavour of fighting total war.
The Conservative Party is committed to leaving the ECHR, as Rowley was reminded. Bray is providing another reason for doing so. It is time to sweep away British legislation based on an antiquated Convention that no longer serves Britain as it is now, rather than how the world was back in the 1950s.
Today, the closest most will get to combat is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. In our Insta era of influencers and selfies, it is unthinkable there could be political resignations over NHS dentures as there were in 1951. Today, who under 30 wanting Love Island-contestant teeth would trouble an NHS dentist?
Since PM Starmer’s ousting, commentators have asked whether Britain is ungovernable. With the 10th anniversary of the referendum, inevitably many blame Brexit for the political turbulence. But few are reflecting on whether out-sourcing policymaking to Brussels damaged Britain’s ability to think for itself. Spoon-fed by Eurocrats for decades, instead of asking what works, the British state has grown fat, lazy and useless.
By raising the rights of the individual over the collective, human rights legislation is now actively undermining Britain as much as fish discos, unaccountable quangos and a £270 million, 350,000-page planning application.
On Monday, the logical conclusion was reached. One person’s narcissism superseded others’ focus on a moment of political significance – which could also have an impact on the global financial markets. The turnover in No.10 is already bewildering this country’s friends and allies: throw in the jowly jester’s Yakety Sax soundtrack (the Benny Hill Show theme) and it’s no wonder bond traders have taken fright at Basket Case Britain.
Perhaps Monday’s unamusing opera buffa was loud enough to awaken some doubts among supporters of the ECHR, a charter which makes it almost impossible to deport the 43,806 detected arrivals who came to Britain via illegal routes in the 12 months to March 2026.
The illegal migrants, the Gaza marchers and the Prat in the Hat are quick to claim their rights to gatecrash this country, to disrupt London week in, week out and to impose their views on the rest of us. Me. Me. Me. It really is all about them and, probably, their social media posts. They are exempt from any balancing responsibility to Britain, their fellow citizens or to the greater good.
Britain’s unwritten social contract relies on the state maintaining good order in the public realm. “O Freunde, Nicht Diese Töne!” (“Oh Friends, Not These Sounds!”), as Beethoven wrote in Ode to Joy. But Monday illustrates that human rights protect the discordant individual rather than the silent majority.
While President Donald Trump himself hasn’t attended a game yet during the World Cup, the rest of his administration has turned out in force at all three U.S. games so far.
Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is at the game in Inglewood. Zeldin has clashed with California officials over issues ranging from endangered species protections to clean-air rules, while also bidding to address Mexico-California cross-border sewage pollution.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who has at times served as a conduit between the White House and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the fraught attempt by the U.S. to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, is also in attendance at SoFi Stadium. Driscoll, who is close to Vice President JD Vance, has previously been referred to by Trump as his “drone guy.“
Also in LA tonight: Richard Grenell, who was Trump’s combative envoy to Germany during the president’s first term.
Grenell, who allies pushed for a top job in the second Trump administration, ultimately missed out on a Cabinet-level role, instead being appointed special presidential envoy for special missions of the United States.
Here are the likely 2028 presidential hopefuls who have attended a World Cup game so far:
- Shapiro: 2 matches
- Newsom: 1 match
- Harris: 1 match
- Rubio: 1 match
And… according to at least one Democratic strategist, that approach may not be half bad.
Matt Bennett, of the center-left think tank Third Way, told POLITICO more prospective 2028 candidates should embrace the World Cup.
“The World Cup is fun and inspiring, with heroics, heartwarming storylines, and gritty underdogs. The US team is kicking ass. And Trump is ignoring it,” Bennett said. “Democrats should own it all – go to games, watch them in bars with fans, brag about our team, hang out with the Scots. Show the country that we’re normal, patriotic, and fun-loving.”
SEATTLE — In late May, Greg Moriarty formally presented his credentials to President Donald Trump as Australia’s man in Washington. But it wasn’t until mid-June that Moriarty encountered one of the U.S. officials he most needed to meet: Energy Secretary Chris Wright, whose department plays a key role in critical-minerals deals between the two countries.
Moriarty’s encounter with Wright did not take place at the Energy Department’s headquarters just off the National Mall in Washington, or at any of its many facilities around the country. Rather the men met at Lumen Field in Seattle, at last Friday’s crucial World Cup match between their countries, where Wright led the U.S. delegation — an auspicious occasion for an envoy to make connections in a new post.
“The United States is a very sports-mad country, so is Australia, so [it’s] a great opportunity to get to know them on a different level, because you might touch on one or two items of business,” Moriarty said in an interview. “But it’s generally just so that you can both enjoy the spectacle and the connection that we both have through sports.”
Moriarty also introduced himself to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a figure of particular fascination in Australia given that country’s embrace of harsh Covid-era lockdowns, as well as members of Congress in attendance. Moriarty, a former defense secretary and national security adviser, will work to keep Washington’s foreign-policy establishment focused on the Indo-Pacific in a year when its attention has drifted alternately to the Arctic, Caribbean and Persian Gulf.
“The United States is a superpower. It clearly has global commitments and global responsibilities,” said Moriarty. “But Australia, we think that the United States’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific is very solid.”
In Seattle, however, business was front of mind for Moriarty, who finds himself fighting a new 12.5 percent tariff that the Trump administration has imposed on countries accused of not doing enough to prevent slave labor in their supply chains. At the waterfront Edgewater Hotel, Moriarty joined corporate leaders — including Microsoft’s Australian-raised Deputy General Counsel Antony Cook, who has taken a leading role in the company’s approach to AI regulation, and Mikaël Limapalaër of heavyweight pension fund Australian Super — to discuss the future of the bilateral trade relationship.
Moriarty is unusual among Australia’s ambassadors to Washington for not having been a politician — his immediate predecessor, Kevin Rudd, previously served as the country’s prime minister — but he already shows a deft instinct for intertwining economic ties, military alliances and cultural affinity. At one point, he linked a coming National Football League game in Melbourne to the arrival of nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS security partnership.
“We’re really keen to sort of see how we can use American football to grow an audience in Australia, that will again be really good for the business connections and the people-to-people connections,” said Moriarty.
“Australia will be ready to host the first rotation of U.S. submarines by the end of next year, and we’re hoping that all the Americans who come down to and live down in Western Australia bring their own love of football.”
OTTAWA — Mark Carney may be Canada’s loudest booster at the World Cup, but some of his countrymen fear he may be hurting more than helping — because he always does when it comes to sports.
In March 2025, the new prime minister joined the Edmonton Oilers for a pre-game skate. That night the Oilers fell to the Winnipeg Jets, followed by a wave of injuries on the team. Former Oiler and “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast host Ryan Whitney took to X: “The Carney Curse is real for Edmonton. What the hell just happened. Guy is on the ice with the Oil this morning and now everyone is injured.”
Now some Canadians are worried that their prime minister has brought the “Carney Curse” to the World Cup, blaming him for Canada’s defeat against Switzerland on Wednesday. His country’s only only goal coincided with a moment that Carney left his box seat at Vancouver’s BC Place.
For a brief, glorious moment last week, the Ottawa fishbowl wondered if the curse had been broken. Carney skipped Canada’s World Cup opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina. But then, after days of anxious whispers over whether he’d jinx the squad, the prime minister witnessed Canada thrash Qatar. If Canada had beaten or tied the Swiss, the team could’ve played as many as two elimination games in Vancouver. With the loss, they fell to runner-up — and a knockout-round game in Los Angeles against South Africa on Sunday.
Canada’s men’s soccer team joins an ever-growing list of inadvertent “victims” of prime-ministerial fanhood, including: the Toronto Blue Jays, who lost the World Series after Carney visited the team; the Canadian women’s rugby team, for whom he traveled to the United Kingdom to cheer on at the World Cup last summer; and the Montreal Canadiens, whom he dubbed “Canada’s team” during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The most high-profile team to miss out on the 2026 World Cup, Italy, is picking a new crop of officials to revamp its discredited soccer association — as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s allies failed in their bid to take more control over the body.
Veteran sports official Giovanni Malagò, a former president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) for more than a decade, overcame opposition from Italy’s right-wing government to become the new president of the Italian soccer association (FIGC) earlier this week.
Malagò’s key challenge is to mend ties with Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi, with whom he has clashed in the past and who publicly questioned Malagò’s soccer credentials. Until the very last minute, Meloni’s government tried to block Malagò from clinching the FIGC’s top job — but ultimately failed.
In a soccer-mad country where the sport carries outsized cultural weight, Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup turned into a proxy battle over governance, reforms, investment and the Meloni administration’s willingness to extend political influence into independent institutions.
Frustrated Italian soccer fans, who have seen their country miss out on qualifying for the last three World Cups, just want Malagò to pick Italy’s new head coach.
The favorites for the job are Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte — two soccer grandees who both previously coached the Italian national team. Another soccer legend, former AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini, is being touted for a new job as a bridge between the FIGC and the players, according to Italian media.
But that’s not the only item sitting in Malagò’s in-tray.
Italy must nominate five stadiums capable of hosting matches at Euro 2032, which it will co-organize with Turkey, by an October deadline. That’s potentially problematic given that Europe’s governing body, UEFA, warned that Italy could lose its role as co-organizer unless it upgrades its dilapidated soccer infrastructure.
This host-city mayor visited a “fan festival” in her city’s Fairmount Park, where a combined 250,000 attendees have gathered thus far to watch matches.
That’s Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker inaugurating the Lemon Hill festival site early in the tournament. The city is hosting Curaçao and Côte d’Ivoire at Lincoln Financial Field today.
If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ve run across the deluge of videos from World Cup tourists celebrating the wonders of the United States. The top Republican in Congress is taking these visual love letters as a validation of his party’s agenda.
“Thanks to social media, we’re seeing a lot of these; this has been encouraging to see the visitors appreciate what we have,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday. “Dutch travelers are in Buc-ees; German players took a midnight trip to the Waffle House. They’re the greatest thing you’ve ever seen. English fans are roaming the Everglades. Japanese tourists marveling over free chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant in Texas.”
Johnson did not really contend with an undercurrent of these videos — that visitors were expecting something far different, and far less alluring, in their American travels — as he cited them in his election-season messaging about “the socialist takeover of the Democrat Party.”
“What a split screen we’re seeing right now. We’re triumphantly hosting the World Cup games all around the country, and we’re seeing people from different countries come and get a little taste of America, a little taste of freedom, of our culture and our society. And they appreciate it so much more than these socialists running for Congress,” he continued. “Sadly, many of these Democrat candidates and their voters just don’t have the same zeal and affection for America.”
Although few of these latter-day de Tocquevilles cite politics as they marvel at America’s bounty — including Freddy, the footloose German fan who has been invited to the White House — Johnson cited their enthusiasm as endorsement of his policy agenda.
“They’re seeing for themselves the genius of America’s system,” the speaker said. “A system that rewards risk takers and entrepreneurs and job creators and innovators, and people who create jobs for others and expand the economy and opportunity and broaden the pathway out of poverty for more people. That’s what the Republicans stand for.”
Kurdistan is not a member of FIFA, resigned instead to the Confederation of Independent Football Associations, whose biennial CONIFA World Football Cup pits non-sovereign states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions against one another.
But the world’s approximately 40 million Kurds — often called one of the largest ethnic groups without their own nation-state — may have already been today’s big winners.
The Italy-based site Asia News has reported there are nine players of Kurdish extraction at the World Cup, spread across four teams, including Iran, Iraq and Switzerland. But it is German forward Deniz Undav who has attracted the most attention, for both his on-field prowess and eagerness to assert his Kurdish identity at every turn.
The son of a Kurdish-Yazidi family that migrated to Germany to Turkey after the country’s 1980 coup d’état, Undav is tied with Lionel Messi for the most goal contributions in the tournament and will have the chance to add to three-goal, two-assist tally today against Ecuador. Undav has celebrated his goals, including a stoppage-time winner against Côte d’Ivoire, with a traditional Kurdish govend dance. (Our corporate cousins at Bild detailed the origins of Undav’s celebration with his club team, VfB Stuttgart.)
Even if Undav doesn’t come off the bench again for Germany, many Kurds already have something to celebrate: the surprise early elimination of Turkey, whose government they consider an enemy both inside its own borders and beyond. Kurdish social-media feeds have become cheering sections for whichever team is facing off against Turkey, which will face the United States today in a match that has become meaningless for both sides.
“What a great way to start the day—waking up and finding out that Turkey lost the match,” an account named @Kurdistan_C wrote on X early Saturday. “Congratulations to the people of Paraguay on their team’s win against Turkey.”
It is unclear when Kurdistan’s actual team will take the pitch next. The Kurdistan Football Association was suspended by CONIFA after it failed to follow through on plans to host the World Football Cup in 2024. One has not been scheduled since.
“At the moment, Kurdistan FA are excluded from all international football inside CONIFA and have no opportunity to promote and celebrate the beauty and greatness of its people,” the organization announced in September 2024.
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