Andy Burnham’s Northern Kingdom

Takimag A simple guide for confused Americans. TakiMag (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) Looking at British politics right now, this magazine’s American readership must be mightily puzzled. In Andy Burnham, the UK is about to get a new Prime Minister whose entire justification for leadership is that he hails from Manchester—the capital of “the North.” What, you may be asking, is “the North” (other than “that bit above the South”)? A central theme of this island’s politics is that there exists a yawning gap between England’s northern and southern halves. Northern England is poor, neglected, and failing, its plight symbolized by the post-industrial cities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Newcastle. Southern England, anchored by the gold-paved capital of London, is by contrast rich,