Andy Burnham's 'Tower of Babel' devolution promises keep everyone guessing

A GREAT cloud of confusion descended over Glasgow. It arrived with the Prime Minister. People sat silently in pubs and restaurants, suddenly struck by a profound inability to express themselves to their companions.

Fights broke out in suburban streets as neighbourly nods were misinterpreted as invitations to a square go. Andy Burnham’s fug of ambiguity follows him everywhere he goes and no one is immune. He brought it to Scotland on Friday when he attended the National Economic Council in Glasgow with John Swinney and Welsh FM Rhun ap Iorwerth.

He has a peculiar knack for obfuscation, does Burnham. The kindest word for it might be “diplomacy”. Statements from the First Minister and Prime Minister after their Clydeside summit contain the sort of constructive ambiguity that Henry Kissinger advocated.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham chairing a meeting of the National Economic Council in Glasgow (Image: Russell Cheyne/Press Association) Speaking after, Swinney said that he looked “forward to our governments jointly developing a plan to consider further devolution to Scotland,” adding that he and Burnham would “work constructively and collaboratively” to “devolve more powers from Westminster to Scotland”.

He must have met a different Burnham than the one who emerged from the meeting. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Burnham stuck to the Labour line that what we need is more power for local authorities and the Prime Minister called for greater devolution to Glasgow. READ MORE: John Swinney pledges to work with Andy Burnham on 'devolving powers' to Scotland Even more confusingly, the UK Government issued a release shutting down a second referendum – unsurprising – but not shutting down suggestions of devolving more powers to Holyrood .

That’s despite the Scottish Secretary telling the Commons on Wednesday that the PM’s devolution agenda would not “involve the transfer of power from one parliament to another”. Indeed, the Downing Street spokesperson on Friday promised a “policy sprint led by No10 North, involving officials from both governments” to take forward an agenda of “regional empowerment, reindustrialisation and achieving good growth in every postcode”.

Gee willikers, a “policy sprint?!" And there’s more: the PM’s spokesperson added that “outside” the policy time trial that Burnham has inaugurated, he had also committed that he would “review and respond to a range of issues raised by the First Minister”. Prime Minister Andy Burnham chairing a meeting of the National Economic Council in Glasgow (Image: Russell Cheyne/Press Association) I’m reminded of the myth of the Tower of Babel, the biblical story of how we all ended up speaking different languages.

Burnham’s words leading into Friday’s meeting – promising that there was “no limit to what we can achieve” – recall God’s damning assessment of the tower’s construction, that “nothing will be restrained from them”, his monoglot flock. Fearing the productive powers of people who can understand one another, God curses them to speak different languages, forcing them to abandon their heathenous ambition to reach heaven.

And thus spoke BURNHAM, who did confound the language of the Earth and bade them scattered upon the face of the Earth. Babbling away, everyone walked off happy as a clam and unclear what he’d actually been promised. You can get the Worst of Westminster delivered straight to your email inbox every Friday at 6pm for FREE by clicking here .