Andy's Prehistoric Adventures

I switched on the BBC News to catch up on the new Prime Minister's cabinet appointments, and up came Andy's Prehistoric Adventures. I presumed that Lorna Kuensberg had been re-employed to cast her cynicism on the events before I realised that I had dialled into CBeebies. Ed

Alas, the News was even worse, it was Robert Jenrick telling porkies about immigration, despite having been responsible for failing to make any progress as the responsible minister.  I had watched the transfer of power from Sir Keir Starmer to Andy Burnham earlier in the day. I welcomed the new PM's promise to work in collaboration across political parties and his instinctive commitment to devolving power to localities. The importance of place and less tribalism are vital ingredients for gaining pace and releasing the energy of the public and private sectors in step with each other. 

The responses from world leaders and the devolved governments within the UK were positive and welcoming. They expressed a desire to work collaboratively, unlike the immediate messages from Reform and the Conservatives, which called for an election and criticised policies that had not been announced. The cynical tone of the UK media seemed to be peeved that they had not been able to obtain leaks about new cabinet members and policies.

Most of the management of the transition has been well handled, apart from the hasty and populist announcement by Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, that digital identity will be abandoned. This will make it more difficult to manage immigration, voting reform and sharing information between health, police, education and social work. This could vastly improve our response to child abuse, community care and special education. Most of the other broad hints of new policies are addressing issues that have hindered progress and been the reason that Keir Starmer lost the support of the press, voters and Labour MPs. 

It is 3pm and still no announcements, we desperately need some disruption in the tax system and the pace of change. That will be largely driven by the new PM and the ministers who will have the responsibility for driving change.