“If people in 1844 could form the co-operative movement… to lower the price of food, then why can’t we now…?”

This is an extract from Andy Burnham’s speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, in which he partially laid out his economic vision for Britain, focused on social democracy and cooperativism, or more specifically, “Manchesterism“.

Now, I’m not going to do a deep dive into Burnham’s achievements and drawbacks as Mayor, as I’m sure someone else can do a much better job than me on that. But what I do want to draw attention to is how Andy Burnham managed to introduce an idea, supported by a bastion of British liberalism and former Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond, much more effectively than we have for a long while: the transition from discussing power in terms of public and private ownership to social ownership.

Among other things, Grimond was a strong advocate for worker cooperatives and employee co-ownership, championing them as a sort of “third-way” between state socialism and unregulated free-market capitalism. And while the Liberal Democrats aren’t necessarily against these ideas, we have allowed our vocal support for them to fall by the wayside over the last few years. I, myself, like to talk a lot about the need for more cooperatives, mutuals and social enterprises in our society, so to hear Andy Burnham talk about the movement in such a positive light did bring a smile to my face, even more so that it seems he plans on making cooperativism a big part of his governing style.

With all that said, I have to ask: what about us? Aside from cooperatives, Burnham also spoke about the need for federalism, something we also believe in, and in his book “Head North”, he discusses the need for proportional representation and replacing the House of Lords with a Senate of Nations and Regions, not too dissimilar to our stance, either. Granted, he didn’t speak about these issues, which does raise the question as to whether he’s actually going to go through with them once in power, but it’s interesting nonetheless to notice the overlap between us and Burnham; there’s arguably more in common between us than there is between him and the current Labour Party.

So, with Andy Burnham all but set to become the next Prime Minister, there’s one thought that has been going around in my mind: are we going to see “Liberal/Liberal Democrat” ideas implemented in government, by a Prime Minister who is the leader of a party that has, on many occasions, been known for its social conservatism? Where does that leave us? No doubt we’ll support policies that make sense and be critical of those that don’t, but it does feel like all we’ll have left to claim as distinctly ours are social care, LGBT+ rights and Europe; all important causes, but not enough to feel like anything more than a large pressure group.

I don’t have the answer on this one. Maybe a coalition will form in the future between the Liberal Democrats and Burnham’s Labour; maybe he’ll turn out to be another leader who’s just managing decline; or maybe he’s a flash in the pan who will head back to his mayoralship if the going gets too tough.

* Jack Meredith is a member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and an active campaigner and canvasser with Swansea and Gower Liberal Democrats. His writing focuses on democratic reform, social justice, trade unionism, economic democracy, and the institutional foundations of effective government. He has written for the Fabians, Lib Dem Voice, Liberator, Nation Cymru, Bylines Cymru, and Centre Think Tank.