If you skim through the domestic news headlines in British papers between 1996 and 2021, you will be reminded of the Blair years, the effects of the global economic crash, austerity, Brexit, pandemic, and the cost of living crisis. The pattern is very much rise and fall.
If you look very carefully, you will discover variations in the pattern. One of those variations is Manchester. For while we all obsessed about Westminster politics, the politicians and officials of Manchester worked hand in hand with civil society and the market and obsessed about what was right for local residents.
The remarkable story of Manchester’s exceptionalism is told this week by one of its architects, Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester Council for a quarter of a century. Working with his colleagues in the nine other boroughs that make up Greater Manchester, and supported by his officials, not least Chief Executive Sir Howard Bernstein, who features in the next episode, Richard oversaw economic success, urban regeneration and improvements in population health that bucked the U.K trends.
Devolution was a totem of the approach. Manchester assumed powers and duties from Westminster, and pushed democratic structures into neighbourhoods. As the podcast was being recorded, the current U.K. Government was preparing to publish plans to spread the Manchester model across the country.
Richard is a stickler for accuracy, and asked us to correct a few errors in the recording. The health legislation of 2002, is actually 2022. Richard was succeeded as leader of Manchester Council by Bev Craig. The Combined Authority of Greater Manchester never had a leader as such. Tony Lloyd became interim Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2015, and was succeeded by Andy Burnham in 2017.
The reflection on this episode comes from Jon Cruddas, former Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham. Jon will be back in a few weeks to talk about his latest book A Century of Labour.
Ratio Talks is available on Substack, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Get in touch with us any time by messaging us on the Substack, Ratio Talks is produced with the help of sound designer Nik Paget-Tomlinson.
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