37. The Mersey Beat

Skylines, the CityMetric podcast

It's another metro mayor special: this time, we're off to Liverpool.Officially, of course, it's the Liverpool City Region. Unofficially, it'll probably end up being called Merseyside. It was nearly called the Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton & Wirral Combined Authority; there but by the grace of god. Anyway. Whatever it is, on 4 May, it's getting a metro mayor. Specifically, it's almost certain going to be Labour's Steve Rotheram.To talk about this not-particularly-close election, Jonn has dragged in two colleagues from the New Statesman's politics desk: Patrick Maguire, who himself hails from the Sefton; and Stephen Bush, who's just returned from a trip to the Wirral.They talk about how Rotheram is campaigning more like it's a marginal than a sure thing; how the other parties are responding; and how, in British local government, one-party states inevitably throw up other forms of opposition. They discuss the May government's attitude towards these new metro mayor posts created by its...

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