A red tide is rising in the North West

One of the country's leading political scientists gives us his take on Andy Burnham's victory and the rest of the local election results

Dear members — welcome back, we hope you had a lovely Bank Holiday. We certainly hope you had a more restful one than longtime Miller Rob Ford, who spent several days hunkered down in the BBC’s newsroom analysing the local election results. As well as being a committed Mill member and regular contributor to the Observer, Rob is also a professor of political science at the University of Manchester and the author (alongside Maria Sobolewska) of the brilliant Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics, which has pride of place in the newsroom library. 

Who better to give us an expert analysis of last week’s elections, now that the Greater Manchester mayoral race has been declared (Andy Burnham won, in case you missed that) and results are in across all the boroughs? This is Part Three of our election coverage (thanks for your lovely comments on Part Two), and then we promise to leave politics to one side for a month or two. Huge thanks to Rob for taking time out…