YP sets out manifesto as editor calls for honesty to return to politics
The Yorkshire Post has presented its manifesto for the county — as the two men battling to win next week turned to the paper’s readers to drum up votes.
The Post set out its 10 priorities for the new prime minister in its final Saturday edition before the country goes to the polls on Thursday.
It urged the new government to ‘roll the pitch for success’ for businesses, provide a sense of urgency to address the climate crisis, and to devolve decision-making and funding to regional leaders to help grow the economy.
The Post also called on the next Government to break down the cost of living crisis into ‘discernible categories’ so that ‘direct and meaningful action’ can be taken by junior ministers.
Education, energy, farming, health and transport are also all covered by the Post.
In the same paper, Sir Keir Starmer and current PM Rishi Sunak pitched their policies to readers, with the Labour leader saying he had a plan to ‘get us out of the hole the Tories have dug’ while the PM said the Tories are the only party who will put financial security for families first.
Editor James Mitchinson, explaining why the paper had published a manifesto, drew on his own experience of taking over the Yorkshire Post when describing to readers the sort of leader the country needs now.
He wrote: “Almost a decade ago, now, I was asked if I would be prepared to uproot my family from the community my wife and I can both call our childhood homes, in order for me to take up the reins of The Yorkshire Post — Yorkshire’s National Newspaper.
“I recall poring over the pages, contemplating my move: this was once a newspaper with power and influence. Enough power and influence to take down a monarch. A titan of the regional and national press, with a reputation for quality and a track record for fearlessness.
“And, yet: I remember thinking to myself that it wasn’t, from where I was sitting at least, bearing the hallmarks of a proud, fearless, objective, go-getting organ of repute. Had it and the team lost confidence?
“I set about assembling the team I knew I needed. People I could trust. People who cared about others as much as the job at hand. I kept hold of great people, promoted unrealised potential, recruited expertise and talent I knew we needed and empowered the newsroom to have faith in their talents and capabilities and to pursue and experiment with their own passions and ideas.
“And the reason I share this with you is this: the next leader of this country will be faced with uncanny parallels when it comes to restoring the trust of the electorate and the reputation of the nation.
“In the run-up to polling day, leadership and character preside over policy and pledges. At this juncture, people aren’t even looking for a compelling, convincing leader behind whom they can rally and alongside whose convictions they are willing to stand. The people I meet and speak to would be happy with an Honest John.
“Steady. Trustworthy. Safe. Predictable. Someone to steer British politics away from the Siren calls on the Whitehall rocks where scandals, lies, law-breaking, rule-bending, pork-barrelling and gambling threaten to skewer not just self-centred, greedily-entitled MPs but the country’s reputation too.
“Should Sir Keir Starmer triumph over Rishi Sunak at this General Election, it will not be because he set out an irresistible smorgasbord of campaign morsels. It will be because this Government’s energy, pizzazz, talent, luck and leadership ran out. And they only have themselves to blame for that.”
