The Right Dishonourable

Andy Burnham seems likely to pick up a second term as Greater Manchester mayor when voters go to the polls in May, following his widespread acclaim as ‘King of the North’ during lockdown. His team will be further reassured by the struggles of Nick Buckley, running as candidate for Reform UK, previously the Brexit Party.

Last summer Buckley caught national attention after he lost his charity job for publicly criticising the Black Lives Matter movement. The founder of Mancunian Way, which aims to help young people, reclaimed his role after some kerfuffle. But there’s one platform he’s not returned to.

Marchamont got his London election booklet in the post last week, listing the candidates for the mayoral and assembly elections. Unlike general elections, where such lists are hard to come by, London tells every voter who is up for election.

One less democratic aspect is the £10,000 fee charged to mayoral candidates to submit a ‘mini-manifesto’, effectively a one-page advert. This is on top of the £10,000 deposit that candidates must put down just to stand in the election. These elections are open to everyone, just like the Ritz.

Marchamont recently stumbled across an obscure corner of the BBC website: Equality Matters. Although tricky to find from the main menu, the section’s stories appear in the likes of Google News, looking like any other BBC article.

These stories pose as objective features, but read as if the authors are laundering their own opinions. Headlines include “The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use”, “Why getting a name right matters”, and “Why it’s hard for people of colour to be themselves at work”.