Despatch: Andy Burnham is overrated

Andy Burnham is heading for a leadership bid, and he's arrived with a big idea: Manchesterism. Apparently a form of business-friendly socialism, it's built on borrowing, backed by the Manchester skyline, and presented as a credible alternative to both austerity and the hard left. There is just one problem: it doesn't add up.

Mani Basharzad of the Institute of Economic Affairs argues that the Manchester model rests on borrowing that bond markets are already pricing with suspicion, a council that is among the most indebted in the country, and a breezy confidence that infrastructure debt is categorically different from any other kind. (It isn't.) Then there is the welfare question: Burnham has shown no appetite for restraint. And the wealth taxes he has quietly signalled would do to capital what rent controls do to housing.

The deepest problem is one of logic. Burnham wants growth and expanded welfare. He wants business confidence and more borrowing. He wants reform and the preservation of every existing structure. As Ludwig von Mises observed, you cannot split the difference between the government and the market. There is no third solution – only planned chaos.

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