May 22, 2026

The One Million Mayors of Manchesterism feat. Dan Davies

Dan Davies, friend of the show and author of The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind, joins us to discuss Burnhamism. Or maybe Manchesterism? It’s got to be an ism. It’s got to be the perfect mixture of disapproving of the problem and declaring any solution… Simply out of bounds.

Get the Unaccountability Machine here!

Check the announcement at the start of the episode for info on the protest in favour of trans rights! It's on Saturday 23rd May at 11 am in Parliament Square!

RILEY ALERT Check out No Gods, No Mayors here!

HUSSEIN ALERT Check out 10k Posts here!

MILO ALERT Check out Milo's tour dates here:
https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/liveshows

NATE ALERT Lions Led By Donkeys will be performing live in London on 29th May and you can get tickets here! Also, Nate's band Second Homes has just released their debut album, which includes the song used in this episode’s outro, and you can stream it for free here!

Comments (45)

M
Man2quilla · June 2, 2026

"Cybernetics" is such an awesome name for a field that isn't what it sounds like to a layman

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Petrorenminbi · June 2, 2026

So Everton is the Cleveland Browns of the EPL?

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Man2quilla · June 2, 2026

I loved Dan's appearance in Ben Mckenzie's new documentary!

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tabula_rosa69 · May 27, 2026

its so funny listening to the politicians from the country that I hold up as the example of the world's most governable people on earth (even japan rioted for years to prevent an airport from being built), all complain about how the country is impossible to govern. i want to go back in time and make every king and general in british history have to witness what their state has turned into now

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tabula_rosa69 · May 27, 2026

britain is an open-air museum to the 40K fantasy version of britain that exists in the heads of their ruling & media class, and having to interact with the real britain that exists is an unending source of shooting full-body pain for them

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jamin · May 26, 2026

Yes! Ban all the tech. I'm rooting for that guy now. I hope he has fun. I also think it would probably pass with the current state of the voting public.

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RP · May 26, 2026

Bandera TX is my hometown!

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scara b · May 26, 2026

I just noticed the steroid-olympics actually went off and they sucked lol lol https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/enhance-games-beef-steroid-free-22275118.php

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TV_Walkman · May 25, 2026

i miss milo

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Asa Wagner · May 25, 2026

Riley exposed as a fake Cube fan smdh

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Oliver Cant · May 25, 2026

Love to have Game Workshop as a load bearing part of the UK Economy.

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Focaccia Predator · May 25, 2026

Leto Burnham II covering himself in scampi to become one with the ancestral North

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Josep C. · May 25, 2026

Necrontyr mentioned! Grumpy, old skeletons, previously had an empire.. Yep, that's the British spirit there.

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Nick · May 24, 2026

I welcome the Cicatrix Maledictum, and I encourage it to grow further...

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Tom Hauptman · May 23, 2026

I'll never forgive him for a myriad of reasons but Aaron Sorkin nailed it when he wrote: "We come to occupy a moral safe house where everyone's to blame, so no one's guilty."

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Cory Gipson · May 23, 2026

Wow, never thought that a town in my metro area would get a TF segment. Bandera is indeed deeply chudded. It has a fucking Trump store.

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RipleyInSpace · May 23, 2026

"I'Z IZ JOHN HEALEY AND I'Z LUV KRUMPIN' GITZ! Which is why we're pleased to announce, in partnership with James Winkshomp, the new Stompa surface-to-air missile."

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Tim Jacobs · May 23, 2026

Cheadle mentioned!

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James Rule · May 23, 2026

I know more about Dune than Manchester, so I'm not sure if I have any jokes on this. Using the house atomics to blast a hole connecting them to the London Underground? Is that a thing?

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A Shade In Shades · May 23, 2026

"Tell me about the canals of your homeland, Usul"

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Carley They/Themsen · May 23, 2026

Solidarity from Liverpool with the protectors in London today 🏳️‍⚧️✊️ stay safe, give 'em hell

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Joshua Fitzpatrick · May 23, 2026

You know Reform are on team orks

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Jerzy · May 23, 2026

perhaps the problem with cameras in bandera texas was that they were supposed to put them on poles

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Horse Badorties · May 27, 2026

It's a roller

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Tom Bellas · May 23, 2026

Ooph Reilly it's the "Bletcher's Gland" that allows a Spave Marine to spit acid...Wouldn't bring it up but you this is 40k fandom you know what you got into. Although seriously I want to see you take the third chair or at least guest on Robert Evan's and Joe Kasabian's upcoming 40K podcast it wouldn't be complete without you!

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Wawawawa · May 26, 2026

Robert and Joe are making a 40k podcast???

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George Toner · May 23, 2026

Ork'ere St'armour worships two gods perfectly bipartisanly: the god of dithering decline, and the god of declining dithering One says there's nothing they can do while letting the country fall apart, the other helps others tear the country apart while saying there's nothing they can do

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twice · May 23, 2026

more texas towns had statues of confederate soliders, but the number of towns that had statues of lenin is higher than Riley believes: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2286

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etienne · May 23, 2026

Andy Burnham: we're taking Manchester from La Hacienda to Paradise Garage

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Vanessa P · May 22, 2026

Ah I see the episode is already outdated because the Green candidate has now withdrawn after it was found that he seems to think the Golders Green ambulance burnings were a false flag! I love to see the competence and media-savviness of the agents of organised social democracy in the United Kingdom

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Tovfly · May 23, 2026

it feels like *everyone* is like this now. Unless you're extremely online and extremely paying attention, normal people just get swept up in whatever the algorithm tells them to. It's like those people that believe the last convincing argument they heard, but it's otherwise normal people.

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Andrew Davis · May 22, 2026

I thought the hosts were being harsh on the Manchester mayor until I found out he was a Toffee. Bin him, and the guest too I suppose.

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Daniel Davies · May 22, 2026

Kopites are gobshites, good sir?

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Sarah · May 22, 2026

I need the Riley warhammer podcast.

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Andrew Davis · May 22, 2026

His interview style of "keeping the mic away from the guest" would make some number of people happy when it was done to Matt Ward.

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Cat Mara · May 22, 2026

To Hussein’s point, there’s a whole book that could be written about the British Establishment’s repeated fucking of the local computer industry going right back to the 50s. The Lyons Electronic Office was the first use of computers in business, while the US were still using them mostly to model fallout patterns from nuclear strikes– it ended up being nationalised as part of ICL, then sold for parts to Fujitsu. Ferranti, the company that built the custom chips in British micros of the 80s like the BBC and Spectrum, were allowed to go bankrupt after buying a company that turned out to be a CIA front (!) When the consoles took over in the 80s/90s, a lot of successful British games companies went to the wall because they couldn’t secure the necessary capital to make cartridges… any British politician that opens their mouth about how great the country is for tech investment should have a boot inserted in them with force

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George Toner · May 23, 2026

When I teach the East Asian Tigers' rise in the 1970s-80s too much of the material focuses on how 'well' these countries with (virtually) no natural resources did to invest and plan in certain (emergent) sectors. (Imperial) Japan literally killed tens of millions to get the kind of (oil and coal) resources that Britain just decided it didn't want to use (in the national interest) If you'd tried to tell Keynes, Turing, or Tolkien in 1945 that in fifty years' time English children would be playing with Japanese electronic computing machines and Britain was not making any I think they would believe you. Don't get me wrong, they'd be disappointed, but they would understand what had been holding the country back. Or rather, who and why

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Cat Mara · May 22, 2026

Has Skegness considered lagoon?

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Gil the Gilded Dragon · May 22, 2026

Fellers. If you are tired of bad governance like... you are aware you can just send someone to the Island Avalon (Mamdani's Big Apple) & get your once & future King to return. Suuuure Jeff Overminwi might have gotten some things wrong. Pretty sure Arthur Paendrag is just a bear that tips drag queens really well.

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Tudsworth · May 22, 2026

I love how "Graham the Storm" has became a proper noun like he's one of Sonic the Hedgehog's friends.

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ACC · May 23, 2026

I've missed the origin of Graham The Storm. He just appeared last week and I have no context for what he is

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Vanessa P · May 22, 2026

Given the established precedent of everybody who has ever attempted to ascend beyond Mayorspace I'm excited to see how this goes regardless

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Vanessa P · May 22, 2026

is it bad that i'm kind of rooting for the reform candidate to win the byelection. obviously having another screeching fascist in parliament isn't great but it's one seat out of hundreds and I do feel it'd be worth it to see that smug cunt Burnham get his face kicked in after acting like he's the anointed saviour of the nation

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Vanessa P · May 22, 2026

also I want to witness the triumphant return of Ed Miliband because it'd be funnier

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kaninchen ZERO · May 22, 2026

manchesterismo