Robert Peston

Or what do I mean?

When I say Brian, I mean the Messiah.

He's going to solve everything.

Maybe after the break, we could explore...

One of the most interesting and intriguing slogans I've ever heard from a politician.

He put out what was, I thought, actually quite a compelling initial campaign video a couple of days ago.

But the punchline is Manchesterism is the end of neoliberalism.

I mean, my God, they're going to be talking about that in the pubs of the Red Wall every night.

from now till the by-election actually takes place.

But we might want to examine after the break what we mean, what he means, certainly by Manchesterism and whether Manchesterism is the solution to all the UK's problems.

Yeah, well, I was out on the streets of North London last night celebrating Arsenal's return from the wilderness after 22 years.

I'm not sure that Manchesterism is going to play all that well in North London.

given what you might call regional rivalries.

But let's look at what that is supposed to be code for.

What Andy Burnham talks just an enormous amount about, actually weirdly in the way that Boris Johnson used to talk an enormous amount about, and it tells you something about the powers that mayors actually have, is buses.

right, the way that he has taken control of the bus network.

And what he has done, which is quite interesting, is he has control, but it is not conventional nationalization.

What Manchester does is it says, these are the networks, these are the prices that the bus operators have to charge.

You know, these are the timetables, but they don't actually own the buses, right?

The buses are still owned by private operators.