Politicians, as we know, love a metaphor. But do they have to be so literal? No sooner had the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, announced that he wanted to run for parliament than … Look! Out he popped from his house on Friday morning in jogging gear, because he’s full of energy and on the right track and hitting the ground running and … oh, do keep up.
What is it that persuades a 56-year-old man who is leading every news bulletin in Britain and knows there is a throng of photographers outside to put on some terrible shorts and a 1979-80 Everton strip and expose his paunch and Lancashire tan to the world?
