Shock and awe from Andy Burnham at Labour Conference.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. It's what I predicted a month ago: https://lnkd.in/p/dakXfh_3

Devolution. A National Care Service. Water reform. A Great British Grid. A leasehold squeeze and empty homes brought back into use. A careful line on Europe, laying the groundwork for what we all know he thinks. And ElectoralRreform.

I got 7/9. 78%. A Grade.

The triple lock and the AI code I didn't call.

Pensions. From April 2030 the triple lock becomes a double lock: inflation or 2.5 per cent, whichever is higher. The earnings link goes, with a promise that the pension will "hold its value relative to wages over time", which is the get-out he will need in a good year for wages. Burnham was careful to say that the state pension rises every year. About time to break the lock. It was introduced in 2010 to take people out of pensioner poverty. It worked. Time to retire it.

The savings fund a 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞, free at the point of use, with no care charges and free nursing care for the elderly. It is the boldest thing any Prime Minister has said about social care since 2017, and unlike 2017 he has put the money next to it.

Water. Angela Eagle takes a strengthened Water Bill to Parliament, and the centrepiece is the repeal of Thatcher's ban on public ownership of water companies.

Energy. A Great British Grid, publicly owned, as a new branch of Great British Energy, built to challenge the private operators.

Housing. Leasehold reform in a Bill before Christmas. A "Your First Home" scheme to cut the deposit you need, aimed squarely at buyers without the bank of mum and dad. And action on empty homes and the worst private landlords, who will be warned to improve or lose control of the property to the state.

Europe. A UK-EU summit later this year, with immigration on the agenda.

AI. Britain takes the G20 presidency next year, and he will put AI at the centre of it and work towards a new global code.

Electoral reform. He wants every vote to count, and a review of whether our voting system is still fit for purpose.

What he didn't say is as telling as what he did. No Hillsborough Law or duty of candour, which have been his signature causes for fifteen years. No Lords reform; the constitutional argument was confined to the Commons. Nothing on the whip. And Net Zero was not so much dropped as entirely rebuilt: the environmental argument arrived as a publicly owned grid that brings bills down. Leaving him room to approve Jackdoor, etc.

Don't expect any of those to disappear. He has prioritised, not abandoned.

A rousing speech, emotional in places, a better balance of hope and realism than anything we heard from Starmer.

Predictable, then. Which is not a criticism.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝙼𝚊𝚗 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚃𝚊𝚗𝚔