Andy Burnham must feel the burden of the sobriquet with which he has been saddled: King of the North. It is recognised as a joky reference to Game of Thrones, even though in that series and the novels by George R.R. Martin that inspired it, the title is King in the North.
The North has a reputation for being stern and hard, with moorlands and mountains and a harsh climate; a wall across the land protects it from alien dangers even further north. The people of the North stand out by their accents. All this is also true of Martin’s fantasy land.
There is in addition a King-beyond-the-Wall (John Swinney?). On the television, Robb Stark, King in the North, marches south but is betrayed and killed, and with him are slaughtered most of the Northmen in the South.
If you prefer the so-called real world, there is a historical King of the North from Ulster, Domnall mac Áeda Muindeirg (died 804), chief of the Cenél Conaill or ‘kindred of Conall’, a branch of the Northern Uí Néill, who were descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, and ruled In Fochla and In Tuaiscert – both meaning the North. This history is far more complicated than Game of Thrones and certainly harder to pronounce.
Of course, if you’re a fan of the grime revival, you will recognise the title King of the North as being borne by Aaron Davies, alias Bugzy Malone, the Mancunian rapper who released an EP, King of the North, in 2017. Perhaps its track ‘I’m the King of the North’ could become a campaign song for Mr Burnham: ‘Like it or lump it, fuck what you thought/ They come out in the thousands just to support.’
More worryingly, there is the apocalyptic Book of Daniel in the Bible. ‘The king of the north shall come,’ it says, ‘and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand.’ It seems too that there will be trouble with the Chancellor: ‘Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed.’ These kings can prove expensive.
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