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Anthony McIntyre ⚽Jay was In England with his mates watching Manchester City continue to breathe down the neck of Arsenal so didn't make this game.

Myself and Paddy walked over. He had things to do, didn't take the car, leaving us free to stop for one on the way to the game and maybe more than one after it. One led to another, causing us to be slightly late for the kickoff, but we didn't miss much. Paddy reckoned that if after the game we make our way home pub by pub the journey seems shorter. By the time I reached my front door I found myself in agreement with him.

In all, we hit four pubs on the night.

Derry was the opposition at Sullivan and Lambe so we were interested to see what reception former Drogs favourite Darragh Markey would receive. Drogs fans are not known for their generosity to former stars who return as opponents. We arrived a few minutes late so if there were any boos or jeers we missed them. When he was substituted in the second half a few of the home support on our side of the ground applauded him. So, so it seems he is not regarded as an out of favour prodigal son. 

Sitting in the bar just before kick off I expressed my view that Drogheda would find it tough going but for Paddy, Derry had not been serving up top of the table performances, so he predicted a Drogs win. The stats appeared to be with him. Derry had come to Louth having won a mere two of their previous eleven league games, and had only beaten the Drogs once in eight previous outings.  

As we settled into the game it soon dawned on us that the Drogs were going to assume their usual defensive posture despite showing what they could do at Tolka Park when they took a more assertive stance and rattled in four. While Derry seemed to have most of the play in the first forty five they failed to turn it into any real dominance, up front seeming lacklustre and toothless. 

The second half opened up promising for the visitors, with Tally in the Drogheda goal forced to make a double block before Derry dozed off again. A penalty, sweetly struck home by Ryan Brennan, again wearing the captain's armband, aroused them out of their slumber. A rasping shot from one of the Candy Stripe subs smashed against the bar. The effort deserved a goal - and a great one it would have been - but it wasn't Derry's night. 

While the Drogs just about won I fear for them. Losing to Waterford on Monday - the first victory for The Blues this season - on the heels of losing to Bohemians has placed the claret and blue in a precarious position. I seriously feel they face relegation. They currently sit one above the relegation zone but with uninspiring performances it is by no means certain that Sligo will not overtake them, leaving them to slog it out in the play offs. In their current form, they cannot be assured of the type of convincing victory secured against Bray Wanderers last time around.  That came on the back of a cup win six days earlier, meaning they were buoyed up. Hard to see that type of exuberance this season. 

Tomorrow night's home meeting with arch derby rivals Dundalk is a game the Drogs need to win if they are to inspire confidence amongst their fans that fingernails will not be bitten down to the quick come November. 

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

Drogs ⚽ Derry ⚽ Just About

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ As many readers and contributors to TPQ will probably be aware I have written several articles expressing concern for our planet as a few greedy capitalist profit mongering bastards continue their activities, putting their profits before the wellbeing of our home. 

Many of these activities which are detrimental to the Planet Earth such as more airplanes in the air, an increase in space exploration, are openly encouraged by world governments. We are witnessing what can only be described as accelerated climate change, meaning the actions of the global capitalist class are having a severe effect on the planet and the climate with changes happening on an almost yearly basis! I say this partly through my socialism and partly because I happen to live here just like the rest of the human race.

Global constitutional political leaders speak with what native Americans called a “forked tongue,” speaking with double meanings or, in plain language, telling lies. One moment they are encouraging the rest of us, those stupid enough to listen and believe them, to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’ and in the next sentence they are glorifying the vandalising antics of people like Elon Musk and Richard Branson along with other members of the space cowboy club. In the Twenty-Six-Counties we regularly hear politicians tell us how to help save the planet with some meaningless scheme, like paying for plastic carriers, while the next minute recommending another runway at Dublin Airport. When the CEO of Ryan Air, Michael O’Leary, demands the passenger cap be lifted on the number of passengers passing through Dublin Airport he gets his way. An increase in passengers means an increase in airplanes and the pollution they bring. All hypocrites every one of them. From New York to London, from Moscow to Dublin to Tokyo they are all a waste of space as they set about being seen to be concerned and doing something about climate change while all the while protecting the profits of the capitalist class. Every now and again we get an honest person: a rarity, granted, but they do exist!

One such man is British naturalist, David Attenborough, who turned 100 years of age on Friday 8th May 2026. Attenborough has been and continues to be a brilliant man in his field and has been one of the few to speak of protecting our planet, and meaning it. David Attenborough first came to prominence in 1954 when he produced and narrated Zoo Quest broadcast by the BBC between December 1954 and May 1963. Since he hosted Zoo Quest, his career has spanned eight decades (including the fifties) and programmes which include Natural World, Wildlife on One, Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Frozen Planet have proved very popular. 

On many of his programmes David Attenborough has stressed the fragility of our planet and the need to conserve and look after the place which provides us all with a home, Planet Earth. Instead of heeding this advice the capitalist class totally ignore it and continue making huge profits irrespective of the damage they are causing to the planet. Then they come up with looney ideas about finding another planet to live on after they finally hammer the last nail into Earth's coffin. While they look for another planet for a few of the mega rich to relocate and in all likelihood start the whole rotten process over again they are causing more and more damage to the atmosphere by constantly travelling through it. If they do find another planet, and it is a huge if, only a few thousand of the world’s richest and their chosen political lackeys will be allowed to make the journey. The rest of us will be left on a ball of overheating pollution to exist on. Attenborough tends to keep out of geopolitics but in its generic sense he says a lot politically which should be listened to. Politics generically speaking covers every aspect of life because the subject covers much more than party politics, parliamentary and non-parliamentary politics, but all walks of life including, even especially, the future of Planet Earth.

Many political decisions taken to protect the reservoir in which the capitalist predatory fish swim and are taken to increase these brigands profits are also damaging to our planet. Though David Attenborough stays clear of outright criticism on these decisions he condemns them between the lines. It is not so much what he says but perhaps what he does not. Most of these political decisions are a farce and if not so serious laughable, for example, telling people to buy expensive electric cars to help protect the planet then giving the go ahead for more air transport to land at the already fuel emitting and planetary damaging airports. How do they keep a straight face?

Irrespective of what these parliamentary semi-imbeciles decide the international bourgeoisie and groups like the Bilderberg Organisation will do as they please anyway. For this reason these groups prefer right-wing governments to those with any left-wing credentials. Right-wing politics and corporatism, where countries are governed as a company, are preferred by the bourgeoisie and they keep such ideologies in their armoury in case, as was the case in Chile 1973, socialism is democratically voted for, when the electorate voted the wrong way against bourgeois interests. International capitalism appears to care very little for our planet probably because they believe their own bullshit about living elsewhere on another planet. Maybe this is the case, maybe not, but one thing is for sure when this planet finally calls time on us the bourgeoisie will perish with the rest of us as will their billions and science fiction ideas about living elsewhere will not save the greedy minority! If as much money was to be invested in sensible planet preservation schemes as are spent on these barmy ideas, we may have a fighting chance.

On one of his programmes dedicated to preserving our planet David Attenborough quite categorically stated regards looking after the planet; “Many individuals are doing what they can” to help our planet but “real success can only come about if we change our societies, our economics, and our politics”. This observation by the centenarian is spot on especially economics and economies geared solely to the profits of the few. The rest of us are blindly led to believe this economy belongs to all of us. It does not! When governments speak of the economy they speak of the wealthy and only the profits amassed by these planet damaging parasites. Attenborough continued; “surely we have a responsibility to future generations to leave behind a planet which is healthy, which is habitable for all species”. 

These responsibilities we are not honouring and not only the capitalist class but the rest of us for blindly going along with their polluting and damaging schemes. When Musk launches another space programme many of us, instead of being appalled, look on in stupid wonder at this great man who is burning our houses down! Leaving Musk and Branson aside in Brazil the tropical rainforests are being cut down to make space for developments at an alarming rate. The loss of the trees not only denies the natural fauna their habitat but also removes another chunk of the planet’s lungs. Without plant life, particularly trees, the human race and other mammals will be unable to breath. This should be of major concern to all of us, but is it? 

David Attenborough has seen many changes in the natural world, many not nice, since he presented Zoo Quest all those years ago. He has given over the years countless warnings about the fragility of Planet Earth very few of which have been seriously heeded. He is now 100 years old and with a lifetime dedication behind him should be listened to now more than ever before. His knowledge in this field is second to none and if he says our planet is in a perilous condition he should be taken very, very seriously. 

I remember watching him some months ago when his centenary was approaching and he looked very much at ease, much younger than his years, as he accepted his time was probably “almost up”. He still spoke, and, I hope, will continue to speak calmly about the planet he loves and the biodiversity, including humans, which share earth as home. 

Only one species, and a minority of them at that, are hell bent on global destruction accelerating the normal climatic changes which have occurred over the millions of years of Earth's existence so they now come at an unstoppable pace. Maybe there is still time with a complete change of direction away from profit, profit, profit moving the emphasis to preservation, preservation, preservation. 

David Attenborough maintains it “may not yet be too late” with a change in economic and political direction with the way we conduct ourselves in general changing accordingly. This direction of travel must begin now, right now, but will it? It is time David Attenborough and those who follow in his wake, other naturalists, be listened to and advice followed before the planet calls ‘last orders at the bar.’
     
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

David Attenborough At 100

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Seventy Eight

 

A Morning Thought @ 3152

Jim Duffy ✍ The media should stop interviewing and covering Graham Linehan. 

The issue is Not his views. I may profoundly disagree with most of his views, but I will defend his right to express them in a free society. The issue is that in his interviews he is increasingly coming across as unhinged, not rational, and showing signs of serious mental health issues. That can happen to campaigners on all sides of debates. People believe in causes so absolutely, and encounter such hostility that they become quite disturbed, irrational and show signs of a mental health crisis.

The media in the past would avoid covering some people here they showed increasing evidence of psychological disturbance, or alcoholism, or something that meant they lacked normal self-control - and were often not able to handle media exposure.
 
British politician Lord George-Brown, one-time British Foreign Secretary, was an extreme alcoholic. The media increasingly did not cover him as he was often not in control, unaware of what he was saying, and often could not cope with the pressures of coverage. Editors chose not to exploit a sick man for headlines.
 
The media struggled in knowing how cover Lib-Dem leader Charles Kennedy. Kennedy was brilliant, but a raging alcoholic. They did not know how to cover someone who was simultaneously leader of a party and in a dangerous state mentally and physically due to his alcoholism.
 
In Ireland, journalists struggled with covering Noel Browne in his latter years, as his worst characteristics (paranoia, a determination to get revenge, the breakdown in coverage) overwhelmed his many best characteristics. In 1990, furious that Labour had picked Mary Robinson and not him to become its presidential candidate, he began a vitriolic campaign against Robinson in press releases and letters to the editor. Much of what his said was provably untrue and heavily defamatory so could not be published. Journalists decided not to cover his behaviour at all - concluding rightly that he was not mentally well and covering it could make his situation worse.
 
I can think of a prominent journalist turned right wing campaigner who increasingly demonstrated serious mental health issues - so much so that their own family pleaded with them to get treatment. The media stopped covering that person. They were not being censored for the their views, as others with those views were being covered. It was that pretty much everyone realised that individual was not mentally OK, and needed psychological help, not press exposure.
 
I have listened to a few of Graham's interviews. I disagreed with much of what he said, but that is not the issue. I would be perfectly OK hearing someone else saying those things, and being challenged on them. However Graham Linehan is clearly not mentally well (I say this as someone with my own mental health issues). He has suffered the loss of his own wife, family and career over his behaviour, and both sides on the issues he pushes can be vicious and brutal. He appears to be in a bad psychological state. He clearly is not able to handle the stress.

As such he needs help, not media exposure or more attacks. The real fear is that in his vulnerable state he may end up driven to the ultimate act many with mental health issues try when they feel they cannot cope any more.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

How A Serious Media Should Handle Graham Linehan

Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières ★ Written by Amira Hass

The Romani Holocaust survivor painted boots, barbed wire, smoke and smiling soldiers. As the daughter of survivors, the images felt horrifyingly familiar.

Stojka painted metaphorical fire and people flying through flames. In Gaza, a world has vanished in smart bombs and foolish bombings. Credit : Rainer Jensen / DPA / AFP

The paintings and drawings of artist, activist, writer, lyricist and Holocaust survivor Ceija Stojka are currently on display at The Drawing Center in New York City.

Comprising more than 60 works, the exhibition « Ceija Stojka : Making Visible » is gripping from the moment your eyes fall upon it. Surprising, yet familiar. Each piece on its own, and all of them together. From the figurative to the expressive and almost abstract, the paintings convey the horror Stojka experienced as a child : the boundless cruelty and power she faced, the beauty of nature desecrated and corrupted by that evil, and the erasure of every living person.

I am a daughter of survivors. Every painting and drawing by Stojka told me something about my parents that I had never asked them, or had forgotten, or suppressed.

To view more paintings by Ceija Stojka click here

Continue @ ESSF.

'Auschwitz Is Only Sleeping’ 🪶What Ceija Stojka’s Art Told Me About Gaza

Seamus Kearney 🎤 'I know the path i ought to go,
I follow fearlessly.
Inquiring not what deeper woe,
Stern duty stores for me'. Emily Bronte.

After holding a commemoration Mass for Michael in late June 2003 in a packed Saint Oliver Plunkett Church, Lenadoon, West Belfast, I noticed Michael's Company OC sitting in one of the pews at the back. When I approached him he smiled and said,  ' You done well big lad. If something like this had have happened to me, I would want a brother like you to find out what happened and to never give up.' I replied that my journey in finding the truth about Michael was really just beginning and assured him that I was' fit for battle '. We parted company with a handshake.

When I attended my next meeting with the strategic' think tank' of former comrades in August 2003, we discussed whether to accept the outcome of the 16 month long IRA investigation into Michael's execution, in light of what Brendan Hughes had told me. One of those at the meeting pointed out that Michael may have been cleared but the people who had interrogated him were British agents, therefore by default ' the whole waterhole had been poisoned'. He went on to state that not only was the Internal Security Unit ( ISU) compromised but also those on the periphery of the ISU as well. 

A second member of my team agreed and suggested I withdraw from any further meetings with the IRA leadership. I already knew things weren't sitting right with Michael's case and repeatedly told the two IRA personnel that, but felt I was being stonewalled to some degree. However, I finally told the team that i would go along with the 'sanitised version' concerning Michael because my Mother wasn't going to live forever and I wanted to give her closure and peace of mind before she died. That was my reasoning for my alignment to the IRA 's version of events surrounding Michael, whether right or wrong. 

In one of my many conversations with my Mother I specifically recall her reflecting on her life and being left a widow with four children. She said:

I never brought Michael into the world for anyone to take him away from me for no apparent reason. But I can now go to my grave knowing that my son' s good name and honour has been restored. 

My Mother died brokenhearted nonetheless on 26th May 2010. Thankfully, I was with her when she died and the promise I made to her back in early 1986, to go back in time and find out what had happened to her son, was still unfulfilled even though she was unaware of that fact. Therefore, i resolved to carry on and to fulfil a promise made, so called yet again on spiritual forces to come to my aid. And in the fullness of time they arrived.
 
The final meeting with the IRA leadership took place in September 2003 at an undisclosed location. The two senior IRA investigating officers informed me that an agreed text between the Kearney family and the IRA' s Army Council, (joint Army / Family statement), was ready for public release. They also added that this would be the final meeting and if I had any further questions then they would attempt to answer them.

In response i asked them 2 simple questions:

  1. Was Freddie Scappaticci, one of the men who had interrogated my brother, a British agent?
  2. Was Volunteer Michael Kearney executed for compromising the Short Strand bombs in March 1979?

Their reply was terse. In relation to Freddie Scappaticci they said 'the man is innocent until proven guilty' and 'Michael Kearney was not executed in relation to the Short Strand bombs'.

I immediately interjected and told them that Freddie Scappaticci was a British military officer and not IRA personnel and secondly Michael was executed in relation to the Short Strand bombs. A Mexican stand off ensued and the atmosphere changed dramatically for a moment, before the final meeting was drawn to a close.

Subsequently, the 'sanitised version' of events went ahead and the 'joint Army / Family' statement was released through the local press, as I planned phase 2 of the operation to clear my brother's name fully and expose the British agents lurking in the undergrowth.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XIX

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Seventy Seven

 

A Morning Thought @ 3151

Gary Robertson ⚽ It may have, if you’re living on the moon or have been trekking through the Amazon, escaped your attention, but on Saturday Celtic won their 56th title, five in a row or if you like their 13th of the last 14th.
 
It’s been a mad season for sure particularly when you consider that since October Celtic have been top of the table for twelve whole minutes but these were the minutes that mattered. Indeed, until Daizen Maeda scored in the 86th minute (more VAR controversy as every inch was analysed to try and keep the title heading to Tynecastle) were Celtic finally top of the league and looking down on the rest. The joy Maeda displayed, the emotion said it all. He’s never lost that hunger, that desire, and he clearly loves Celtic FC. If he does leave in the summer (which seems to be the general consensus among Celtic fans) then he leaves with our blessing, wishing him well and with no bitter taste in our mouths. Daizen Maeda has written himself into the lore of Celtic and in a time when someone can be called a legend for creating a new sandwich we have what traditionalists would call a “real legend” of the club right here. In years to come his name will be mentioned alongside the Lisbon Lions, Henrik Larsson and Jock Stein.
 
Of course there was controversy, after all there needs to be, for the media and something for the fans of less fortunate clubs to moan about.

It began against Motherwell. At 2-2 and Hearts steamrollering Falkirk, it looked like the title was 99.9% in the hands of Hearts.
 
It’ll come as no surprise to readers of this column that I for one agreed with the decision.
 
The decision in question being to award Celtic a penalty for a handball.
 
I’ve heard all the conspiracy theories including Celtic pay VAR to make decisions in their favour and all the usual paranoia that comes crawling out of the sewer every time Celtic get a controversial winner.
The meltdown in the media led by McCoist, Boyd and Lineker was incomparable to anything we’ve seen in the Scottish game for some time - indeed as I watched West Ham capitulate to Newcastle United on Sunday it was brought up yet again - talks of conspiracy of backhanders, bribery and corruption along with the usual anti-Irish, anti-Catholic crap that floods the pages of social media in a tsunami of word vomit, it was there for all to see.
 
It wasn’t the decision that angered the rabid hordes of losers looking to deflect from their own clubs' failings but who got the decision.
 
As I’ve said before there’s an ever widening sectarian divide in Scotland and it’s shameful.
 
I too have let my emotions at times get the better of me but my words and actions whilst wrong aren’t requiring referees and their young children to be placed under 24hr surveillance by Police Scotland.
 
A nineteen year old lad was arrested in connection with the leaking online of John Beaton's family's details, and I for one hope they make an example out of him to show others that this behaviour won’t be tolerated.
 
It was much to Don Robertson's credit that he agreed to take charge of what was the title decider on Saturday.
 
A match again overshadowed with controversy as after Osmand scored in the last minute of stoppage time to secure the title for the Bhoys in green a few hundred over exuberant fans took to the pitch and in the melee that ensued the media were quick to pick up on “reports of violence toward Hearts players.” This was then downgraded to “reports of intimidation toward Hearts players” til eventual radio silence as videos began to circulate of Celtic fans being punched and assaulted by Hearts players and one fan having his phone knocked from his hand and stamped on repeatedly by a Hearts player (they’re easy to find on YouTube). Indeed, listening to callers mention it on Clyde etc and hearing them say “we have to be careful with these allegations caller” whilst only hours before hinting to the world that shadowy figures in balaclavas run VAR in Scotland smacks somewhat of hypocrisy. Never mind though it’s Celtic and next year will be just the same. These small clubs doing all the shouting should perhaps put more effort into winning a trophy than talking about their rivals. It must be awful when all you have is conspiracy theories to fill your trophy rooms with.
 
This Saturday (May 23rd) brings with it the Scottish Cup final, a match with more implications than first appear and for one day every fan of The Rangers will be praying for a Celtic victory.
 
Why? you may ask well let me explain
 
A victory for Celtic would see The Rangers enter the Europa League at third qualifying round and in the event of messing that up they’d still qualify for a Conference league play off and a chance to remain in Europe.
 
A victory for Dunfermline and The Rangers would be forced to play three qualifiers for the Conference league (starting in July) and defeat in any of those and it’s a season without European football for The Rangers.
 
Considering their business model is built on qualifying and or competing in Europe's premier competition and or its close cousin (the Europa league) a Dunfermline victory would throw a huge spanner in the works and give The Rangers a financial headache they don’t need.
 
As well as suffering financially this would mean a squad reshuffle and players needing to be sold to bring in lesser value players to fill these holes.
 
Rangers fans might like to shout from the rooftops that they’re the richest club in Scotland but Financial Fair Play matters, and given the history of the previous Rangers I suspect they won’t want to be caught in another monetary scandal.
 
So you see ex-Celtic manager Neil Lennon against current Celtic manager Martin O’Neill in a match knowing a victory for one side helps Rangers, a victory for the other hinders them. What could possibly go wrong?
 
The match itself kicks off at 3pm and I’m fairly sure it’ll be available somewhere, BBC Scotland, Premier Sports etc.
 
After missing out on promotion Lennon's men will be up for this and I don’t believe it’s as clear cut as you’d think.
 
Before that though we have the Premiership playoff final between Partick Thistle and St Mirren - first leg is on Thursday the second the Monday after the cup final.

Congratulations to Edinburgh City who retained their SPFL status in League Two by squeezing past Brora Rangers and Hamilton who retained their League One status in an enthralling 7 goal thriller v Clyde.

Til next time …. Enjoy the summer break. Now bring on the World Cup …

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

Twelve Mins Of Magic Martin

Europe Says ★ Recommended by Christy Walsh.

Protesters backed by Sinn Fein have occupied the Duke of Devonshire’s bookshop, after claims that sheep farmers on his historic Irish estate faced rent increases of about 900 per cent.

The disturbance at Heywood Hill, in Mayfair, central London, could be catalogued under history, politics, the Easter Rising, aristocracy and economics. It was directed towards the shop’s owner, Peregrine Cavendish, 81, the 12th Duke of Devonshire, who has a 3,237-hectare estate at Lismore, Co Waterford, in the south east of Ireland.

Sheep farmers in the rugged Knockmealdown Mountains claim that some of their rents are being increased from €520 (£454) per hectare to €5,200.

Thomas Fitzgerald, who traces his family’s involvement in sheep farming in the Knockmealdowns to the 1600s, told The Journal: 

We’re getting nowhere with it and we want to negotiate on it, so the lads then in London asked what could they do. They knew the duke has a bookshop in London so they did a sit-in protest to draw attention to it, to say to the duke that this is not just a local story.

He said that a “small number” of the protesters hailed from Lismore . . . 

Continue @ Europe Says.

Protesters Occupy Mayfair Bookshop Over Irish Land-Rent Increases

Barry Gilheany ✍ At the time of writing, the writ for the by-election in the Greater Manchester seat of Makerfield created by the resignation last week of the sitting Labour MP Josh Simons has yet to be moved in the House of Commons. 

But it is a racing certainty that the Labour candidate will be Andy Burnham, the current Mayor of Greater Manchester and former New Labour Cabinet minister. Having been cleared to run by the Labour leadership who had blocked his candidacy for the Gorton and Denton by-election in March in which Labour came an ignominious third behind Reform UK and the Green Party victor Hannah ‘the Plumber’ Spencer, he will be formally endorsed (if he is the sole Labour contender) by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) this Thursday. He will fight a Reform UK candidate who will be emboldened by his party’s clean sweep of the local council seats that were up for contestation in the elections of 7 May and by the promise by his party leader Nigel Farage to throw everything at this election. 

Should the ‘King of the North’ emerge victorious in this contest, he is widely expected to launch a bid for the leadership of the Labour Party and therefore the occupancy of 10 Downing Street as the seventh Prime Minister the UK will have had in the last decade. To many in the Labour movement who despair of the lack of direction and communicative competence of the government of the incumbent PM Sir Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham is the saviour; the knight in glistening armour who can prevent Labour from hurtling towards an extinction event at the next general election and the appalling vista of Nigel Farage becoming PM.

The Makerfield by-election will most likely be held during a major international football tournament, the World Cup, just as the EU referendum in June 2016 was held during the European Championships. Britain’s relationship with the European Union has suddenly been thrust into the contest with the declaration by another potential Labour leadership candidate Wes Streeting, who resigned as Health Secretary last week with a stinging rebuke to Starmer over his government’s lack of direction, that Britain should eventually rejoin the European Union as Brexit had been a total disaster. 

Expect the nativist nationalist fuelled Reform bile about a potential betrayal of the will of the British people over the outcome of the 2016 plebiscite, never mind that the form of Brexit the electorate was asked to vote for was never clarified and that on every available metric, Brexit has been of negative consequence for the UK. Expect also ear-splitting dog whistles about immigration and the “small boats invasion” despite the white working class monochromal demographic of Makerfield and the absence (to my knowledge) of migrant accommodation facilities in the constituency. 

Do not rule out, cynical exploitation of those young working-class girls failed by local authority social service departments in the midst of the Grooming Gangs scandals which affected towns in the North West such as Rochdale and Oldham and on Burnham’s head, Reform will pin blame. It must be emphasised that on his election as Mayor in 2017, he initiated a review of historic child sex exploitation allegations in Manchester and Rochdale and later extended it to Oldham. In January 2025, he backed calls for a national public inquiry with limited scope but with the power to summon evidence.

So the Makerfield by-election looks to be one of the most consequential by-elections in British history. It has the potential to be Brexit 2.0; a prefiguration of Britain’s Trump 2.0 moment in the General Election when another leading Western leading democracy falls into the clutches of the populist far or Alt-Right when Reform UK finds itself in a position to form a government of 25% of the total vote (following on from the election of President Le Pen or Bardella in the French election of 2027 and/or the ascent of AfD into the government of Germany). 

It conjures up for Remainers the traumatic images on the red-shirted Vote Leave celebrations in Sunderland after it declared Out on the night of June 23, 2016, which set the pattern for the rest of the night, the stunned horror on the faces on the losing side and the triumphal Perma smirk on the visage of Farage. And that’s before we get onto the wave of hate crimes perpetrated on EU nationals, immigrants, and people of colour in the aftermath of the result. But it could be the moment that the tide turns definitively in the direction of progressives with a mandate for real change to the stagnant economy and sclerotic structures of the British state including the manifest unfairness of the First-Past-The-Post voting system and the concentration of decision making in Westminster and Whitehall.

For if his pronouncements at the Investment Summit of the North yesterday anything are to go by, then Andy Burnham is the Change candidate. Few if any Labour heavyweights these days have delivered such a coruscating denunciation of the effects of deindustrialisation on the North of England in the 1980s and the consequent hollowing out of civic and community life. He made a clarion call for change at the top of the Labour Party voicing the privately and publicly expressed opinions of many Labour members, activists, and elected representatives that the leadership is headed in the wrong direction - if indeed there is any direction of travel apart from muddling through to the next crisis.

His achievements as Mayor of Greater of Manchester represent a template for radical change on a national scale. The provision of affordable and accessible public transport through the Bee network of buses; the integration of health, well-being and social care facilities through the Live Well Service; the creation of the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate or MBacc as an alternative to university qualifications in collaboration with local and prospective businesses which he aims to be fully operational by 2030 and his aims to end the housing crisis in Greater Manchester by 2038 though  focusing on affordable housing solutions exemplify the best in municipal socialism. His securing of funds for Northern communities to alleviate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 earned him the title “King of the North” by the media. His presiding over a less restrictive regime of counter pandemic measures than national arrangements drew praise from Conservative MPs across Greater Manchester. Through working with other Mayors of differing party and ideological orientations. Andy Burnham embodies a pluralistic approach to politics which should bridge the notorious factionalism within the Labour Party.

For some Labour grandees, Wes Streeting’s call for the UK to rejoin the EU is an unwelcome intervention. Andy Burnham’s has started that he is not prepared to rerun the arguments of a decade ago, perhaps a sage course of action but the B word will be resurrected by his putative Reform opponent in the by-election. However, it has a constant elephantine presence within the Labour Party. Starmer’s red line pledges in the General Election on no return to the Single Market, Customs Union and European Court of Justice have the imprimatur of the departed Morgan MacSweeney’s Blue Labour strategy of winning back the ‘hero voters;’ the supposedly socially conservative and mainly older voters in the “Red Wall” who voted Brexit. But for those of the liberal left within Labour and without, it is arguably the biggest turn off in that it alienates the younger, professional and NGO elements of the Labour coalition. It is a sign of the return of the discussion of ideas within Labour which is so essential for its future direction and survival. The tardiness of the Starmer administration to address the effects of Brexit and to reopen any serious engagement with EU relationships is for many, symptomatic of its reluctance to take risks.

Assuming that that the pathway to Andy Burnham’s candidature in the Makerfield by-election is already a done deal, his central dilemma is to align himself more closely with the wider Labour membership, which is overwhelmingly pro-EU or voters in Makerfield, 65% of whom voted to leave in 2016 and who returned a clean slate of Reform councillors earlier this month. As a former MP for the neighbouring constituency of Leigh; he will emphasise his personal connections to and friendships in the area. He has eschewed any desire to reopen the debate and divisions of 2016 and his pitch to Labour voters that he is a real “Change” candidate; that what has gone before is insufficient and that the old ways of doing things within Labour and within national governance are redundant. At the moment, Labour is in a state of temporary stasis with the leader determined to stay put; a position which to even his loyal supporters looks increasingly untenable. One of Burnham’s allies has told the Guardian that they “would give Andy a 45% chance of winning – maybe a bit more than that.”[1] He will go into the contest defending a Labour majority of 5,539 and the entry of a Green candidate into the fray (against the advice of the former Green leader Caroline Lucas) will likely take voters from him unless progressives “game” the contest to the last vote to ensure Burnham gets over the line.

Should he not and should there be no serious challenger to Starmer, it will be après nous, le deluge.

References

[1] Kiran Stacey: 'Burnham facing ‘perilous’ race in crunch byelection. Battle for Makerfield set to be dominated by immigration and Brexit'.' The Guardian 18 May 2026 p.1 

⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.

Back To The Future, Present And Past 🪶 The Makerfield By-Election And The Survival Of The Labour Party . . . And Maybe The British State

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