Burnham has said that he joined the Labour Party at the age of 14 after having been "radicalised" by the miners' strike of 1984–85. Ideologically, he identifies as a socialist. In his 2010 leadership bid Burnham emphasised his philosophy of 'aspirational socialism', which he described as redistributive, collectivist and internationalist. He is a strong opponent of nationalism, which he called as an "ugly brand of politics". Burnham's politics have been described as soft left by a number of media outlets, including the "Financial Times", the "New Statesman" and "LabourList". Iain Martin in "The Times" described Burnham as a "former Blairite" and associated with New Labour.