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The very first thing it’s good to know concerning the UK’s new prime minister is that he’s beforehand moonlighted as a DJ.
Okay: in all probability not the first factor you wanted to know. And positive: That DJ gig was for charity.
But it surely nonetheless tells you somewhat one thing about Andy Burnham, who in the present day grew to become the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years. He’s extensively seen as a pragmatic, affable, down-to-earth form of man — extra Zohran Mamdani than Keir Starmer.
Because the long-time former mayor of Manchester, the UK’s second-largest metropolis, Burnham gained adoration for his concentrate on enhancing public transit and inexpensive housing. His vocal advocacy for England’s post-industrial cities even earned him the nickname “The King of the North.”
Burnham’s first speech as prime minister, delivered (with out notes!) on Monday morning, doubled down on a few of these populist themes — together with the necessity to deliver down Britain’s price of dwelling and tackle homelessness.
Political observers don’t anticipate Burnham’s insurance policies to really differ all that a lot from these of Starmer, his predecessor. (They’re each members of Britain’s center-left Labour Occasion.) And the basic relationship between the UK and US can also be anticipated to remain a lot the identical.
Requested how he’d relate to President Donald Trump, Burnham mentioned: “I wish to suppose I’ve obtained some persona myself.” You may be the choose of that! There’s video of his 2022 DJ set.
Will Britain’s new PM reverse Brexit?
Name it a breturn or a brejoinder — it’s a tantalizing prospect for the bulk of Britons, who now both have soured on their nation’s 2016 vote to depart from the EU or by no means supported Brexit to start with.
However undoing Britain’s break with Europe could be a monumental endeavor. First, the federal government would doubtless want a transparent political mandate from British voters, both by a second referendum or a normal election the place a breturn figured closely.
Then the UK must negotiate its manner again into the bloc…and persuade all 27 member states to offer it one other go. Some might approve accession with parliamentary votes. However others, together with France, might require nationwide referendums of their very own.
“International locations have very totally different views of Britain,” one European observer advised Vox final month. “There are people who nonetheless suppose that the EU is best off with out Britain.”
- Do you know…that regardless of all of the proof on the contrary — license plates, hip-hop lyrics, and many others. — a minority of American peaches are literally grown within the nice state of Georgia?
- At the moment’s trivia: Nahuatl continues to be spoken by thousands and thousands of individuals in the present day. But it surely was additionally the first language of which former Mesoamerican civilization? (You could find this and different mind puzzles in Vox’s each day crossword. Search for the reply in tomorrow’s version.)
- Friday’s trivia: On Friday, my colleague Dylan Scott requested you for a Russian title which means “holy.” That will be Oleg, as in Oleg Cassini — the Russian rely turned designer who dressed Jackie Kennedy.
