A northern mayor’s left-wing challenge to Labour

JAMIE DRISCOLL’s pitch mixes the nostalgic, the technocratic and the red-blooded. “Who remembers Curly Wurlys?” he asks. The fate of Britain’s public services, he says, recalls the shrinkflation that has reduced the chocolate bar of his childhood memory to just 21 grams. “Every government we get lets the rich get richer, while we get the Curly Wurly treatment.” His speech ranges from anecdotes of haggling with Treasury ministers to research on integrated transport systems. Then he adds: “What’s the bloody point of politicians who can’t think their own thoughts?”