In a little over a year, someone will finally be elected the Boris of the North - whether people in Greater Manchester like it or not.

That someone will arguably become the most powerful civic leader in the country and certainly the most powerful outside of London.

But despite George Osborne’s enthusiasm, around here not everybody is singing from his hymn sheet.

The queue of Labour candidates is... well, at two, hardly a queue. And there seem to be few others waiting in the wings, with many of those tipped at one time seemingly having lost interest.

Virtually no names are emanating from other parties either.

And now Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese - the co-architect of Devo Manc - has stirred the pot, blogging in a scathing flourish that he would rather be having a pint down his Crumpsall local than be mayor.

Ouch.

So why IS there so little interest in the top job?

1. Because Labour are complacent

Greater Manchester is a Labour area, by and large. Or at least that’s what the electoral map suggests.

Many within both the local and national party probably think there is little to worry about in a region regarded as such a heartland.

But that might be short-sighted.

For a start this election process is not the same as the first-past-the-post system that repeatedly returns so many Labour MPs to Westminster.

Although Labour did get comfortably more votes than the Tories across the region last May, there have been local elections in the not-too-distant past when the Conservatives got more - and bearing in mind that next year there are no local elections, Labour will be relying heavily on getting their vote out.

That’s not to suggest the Tories are likely to win next year.

But the odds are perhaps not quite as long as Labour might think. Even if they win in 2017, a bad - or even just uninspirational - first term could see Greater Manchester’s version of Ken supplanted by a Boris in 2020.

2. Because it costs so much

This is going to be a problem for anyone trying to stand on a party ticket, but particularly for Labour.

For hopefuls - of which there are so far only Tony Lloyd and Ivan Lewis - the selection process won’t come cheap, because it covers such a big area.

Labour has thousands of party members across Greater Manchester and all of them will need to be leafleted and lobbied in time for the internal selection, expected towards the end of this summer.

It costs money to get round all those people, some of whom may not have really heard of you - and if they have, possibly don’t like what they have heard.

Within Labour there is a general belief that police commissioner Tony Lloyd has already got much of the trade union support sewn up, a deciding factor in many a Labour selection contest.

His - currently only - rival, Ivan Lewis, is widely rumoured to have been actively fundraising since last year and to have established a sizeable warchest in advance of the battle, which he launched in earnest a few weeks ago.

In other words, any other Labour figure eyeing up the position has got about four months to get enough money together to face them down.

And that’s quite a task.

3. Because politicians prefer Westminster

MPs may publicly embrace the devolution agenda, but that’s easy enough to do from the comfort of the Westminster bubble’s tearooms.

“MPs are obsessed with Westminster,” notes one local councillor, pointing out most still see their real career prospects as being in SW1 rather than somewhere further north.

Names such as Lucy Powell and Lisa Nandy - both young, both female, both on the Labour frontbench - have been bandied about as possibilities.

While neither has actively ruled herself out, one source said Ms Powell does not appear remotely interested, while her colleague over in Wigan - tipped by many as a future party leader - also appears to be resisting advances.

That’s despite, as one senior local Labour figure points out, the parliamentary party being mired in so much internal warfare it often barely functions, potentially dooming itself to Westminster opposition for years to come.

And it’s not just Labour, either. Baroness Susan Williams, former leader of Trafford council, was at one time regarded as a highly credible potential Tory candidate - until she was given a place in the Lords and a junior ministerial position. Then things went quiet.

Other than Ivan Lewis, so far no MPs look willing to walk the walk on devolution.

4. Because everyone is distracted

(Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The looming internal selection processes for this race are currently massively overshadowed by other things.

If politicians across Greater Manchester are concentrating on anything, it’s probably the local elections and the EU referendum rather than the mayoralty.

Brexit will continue to dominate the political agenda well into the summer and beyond, providing a significant distraction from next year’s looming vote.

There will still be time for independent candidates to emerge from the woodwork well after the referendum furore has died down, of course. But for political hopefuls, the moment will probably have passed.

Next year’s vote will come around soon enough. Nevertheless for the time being it is far from being a top priority for politicians around here, despite the profile of the position.

5. Because of this

(Image: Matt Ratcliffe)

Remember this? It’s an image that still stings many Labour members.

One of the biggest sources of Labour uneasiness about the mayoral race is the sense that this project is now George Osborne’s baby: and that whoever wins for them will have to get into bed with the enemy.

Many Labour sorts - especially the grassroots membership - see the mayor an imposition from a hated Conservative Chancellor.

While their own leaders drew up the various demands for devolution, they didn’t particularly want an elected mayor, when as far as they were concerned the system was working perfectly ok.

Equally there was no referendum either.

And when Labour politicians have to go out on the doorstep to tell voters what a terrible man George Osborne is, this photo makes life all the more difficult.

So there remains an underlying antipathy towards the position - as well as an ongoing suspicion of the project as a whole, which has generally been run by a very small number of senior politicians with little input from those lower down the pecking order.

6. Because it is an unknown quantity...

(Image: Getty)

Despite Manchester’s history as the cradle of political revolution and radicalism, there seems to be little appetite for a leap into the unknown.

That’s partly because nobody really knows how the mayoral thing is going to work.

Will government actually pay any attention to the new voice of the north?

And will the victor really be able to get anything done - when a tight coterie of council chiefs will be trying to push their own agendas through, as they are free to do at the moment?

So far that uncertainty seems to have translated into a ‘watch and wait’ policy for politicos. Let someone else come in and do the first few years, test the water, then maybe go for it in 2020, they think.

This could be a dangerous strategy for moderate political parties, though.

There is a tangible anger among voters across the Western world. If mainstream politicians fail to take this seriously, who knows who could be waiting in the wings.

7...and will need imagination

Even Greater Manchester as an entity is still not a very tangible thing, never mind its mayor. For most of us it just functions as a title for our police force and tram network.

So it’s much easier to envisage London being run by one uniquely powerful leader.

We are not used to seeing a big Boris-style personality on TV representing Greater Manchester.

We don’t have a city hall in the way the capital does, a focal point for that new system of politics.

(Not that I’m suggesting we build a massive civic palace on the banks of the Irwell - I really, really promise I’m not.)

But as a result, this blank slate could look as much like a risk as much as an opportunity to anyone sizing it up - and that might put them off.

Yet that’s why it will take someone with imagination to fill in the blanks.

The position, given that we’ve now got it, needs someone who wants to define what Greater Manchester and its mayor actually mean, to show what can be done, to come up with some ideas.

Ken Livingstone had the Oyster Card, for example. Boris has his Boris bikes.

(Just don’t mention the congestion charge. Or that massively expensive bridge Boris hasn’t built yet.)