Why Andy Burnham will find it so tricky to unite Britain

Did you get to see the 2024 film Civil War, with its dystopian depiction of a present day USA in the midst of a violent meltdown?

What made it such an effective thriller was that it all seemed so frighteningly real. Although the two sides in that civil war were fictitious, it hit a raw nerve precisely because of the very obvious divides that scar modern day America.

But interestingly it was actually written and directed by a British film-maker, Alex Garland, and he expressed worries about his home country, as well as the US. In both countries, he told the Guardian, “there’s a lot to be very concerned about”.

He’s not alone. If you are an avid user of social media, you could almost believe that we are a nation disunited enough to have a full-on civil war of our own. And even away from the exaggerated adversarialism online, there are plenty of people worried that Britain is gripped by uncontrollable rage.

It’s a sense of discord that Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, seems to recognise. Since announcing his run for the Makerfield seat in May, he’s repeatedly urged Britons to forget about party labels or factional identities and instead unite around pride in their local area. “Place first, not party first”, is how he puts it.

And as he entered Downing Street on Monday, he called for a “new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity”.

But it’s worth asking: just how divided really is Britain?