\n
\n Then there was the silence. Incoming PMs do not name their ministers before they take office, but there had never been such little information. Burnham\u2019s team kept its preparation watertight (early delivery on his promise of an end to a pernicious culture of briefing). The time it took to announce a cabinet, however, suggested friction. <\/p>\n Then there was the speech<\/a>. Nothing new, but with a thematic coherence that betrays someone who has spent a long time thinking about it. There were political earworms. A \u201cNumber 10 in the North\u201d, and \u201ca more preventative state\u201d. There was also a pledge from the curative state: the end of rough sleeping<\/a>. Though there may have been the professing of \u201chope\u201d, there was also the eschewing of references to spouses and children; an emotive hallmark of this political age.<\/p>\n There were the firsts. As prime minister Burnham is the first lifelong Catholic<\/a>. The first of the Labour and Co-operative Party<\/a> (a sister party of Labour). The first with a degree in English Literature (to listen to Starmer and Burnham is to hear the difference between studying law and studying verse).<\/p>\n There are also the firsts-for-a-while. The first prime minister from a north-west constituency since Harold Wilson; the first Cambridge alumnus prime minister since Stanley Baldwin in 1937.<\/p>\n There was the wait. This was Burnham\u2019s third attempt to be Labour leader. Generally, politicians improve with age (up to a ceiling, though one rarely reached in modern British politics). Burnham first tried to become leader of the Labour party in 2010. He now has 16 years more experience and is, one might assume, a more capable politician. Devolution made him. <\/p>\n There was the hiring, and the firing. \u201cThe first essential for a prime minister,\u201d said William Gladstone, prime minister four times in the 19th century, \u201cis to be a good butcher\u201d. There was concern that a politician so pleasant and pleasing as Burnham might also be somewhat squeamish. In the event, the blood stains in the Downing Street carpet may take some time to remove<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former chancellor Rachel Reeves was reportedly offered a diminished cabinet role<\/a>, and declined. But given the grounds for the change of regime, the change of regime needed to be seen. That meant not only a new prime minister, but a new deputy prime minister and chancellor.<\/p>\n The choice of John Healey neatly neutralises two key issues for the government: defence spending (Healey resigned<\/a> from Starmer\u2019s government over this issue), and the markets (Healey is not Ed Miliband). The likely consequence of an increase in defence spending will have been welcomed both by Nato partners and Ukraine\u2019s beleaguered people.<\/p>\n Miliband\u2019s promotion to foreign secretary indicates that, not for the first time, most plum jobs have been used as a consolation prize. Such generosity matters less when a prime minster is their own foreign secretary (a trend broken recently only by Rishi Sunak who outsourced foreign policy to David Cameron). But Burnham is avowedly a domestic \u201ccost-of-living\u201d premier. As chancellor Miliband would have threatened to dominate domestic politics; he will now mostly be out of the country.<\/p>\n Pat McFadden continuing as work and pensions secretary may pique the left with his aversion to inflated welfare spending<\/a>, though it will reassure more. In contrast, Yvette Cooper\u2019s dizzying collection of cabinet posts \u2013 health is her fifth \u2013 does little to slow the churn in British politics.<\/p>\n The \u201cvibes PM\u201d started suitably enough: capping bus fares, removing VAT from electricity bills, flirting with raising tax thresholds; popping up in Bath<\/a> to show that he knows where it is. He also had his first day at Number 10 North<\/a>, in Manchester.<\/p>\n The prime minister attended the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, taking the opportunity to meet the Scottish first minister and deny him another independence referendum. Burnham\u2019s deeply felt devolution feels to some an English affair. He may need to show some love to the Council of the Nations and Regions<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n
\n Read more:
\n No lectern and the promise of a \u2018new model\u2019 \u2013\u00a0what we can learn from Andy Burnham\u2019s speech<\/a>
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/em>\n<\/p>\n
\nMaking the cut<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/288030\/count.gif\")
<\/p>\n