Manchesterism

The new buzzword recently being cited in the media in recent weeks is ‘Manchesterism’ when referring to recent Mayor of Manchester and now Prime Minister Andy Burnham. However, very few people realise that that original meaning of the word harks back to the 19th century and Richard Cobden who was a liberal party politician, one of the chief architects behind the repeal of the corn laws and a prominent advocate of free trade. In this article, I aim to set out the difference between Burnham’s new Manchesterism and Cobden’s original and I will argue that Cobden’s version trumps Burnham’s. The…