I am cautiously optimistic about our new leader. For one thing, the fact that Mr Burnham went to Cambridge not Oxford, did not study PPE, is not a lawyer and did not grow up in Surrey makes him something of a diversity hire among our more recent UK prime ministers.
This gives us hope. It is a near-universal law of problem-solving that you cannot think your way out of problems using the same mindset that created them in the first place.
Occasional catastrophes cause much less annoyance than frequent peeves
One tip. Government needs a marketing function. Rather than explaining itself to the public, it has endlessly sought to cadge publicity by ingratiating itself with the news media. As all journalists since Watergate are largely motivated by discrediting those in power, this is hopeless. Burnham should learn from the Trump playbook and start insulting journalists. Then bypass the press altogether using social media or even paid advertising. (The government spends less on advertising than Specsavers and B&Q combined.)
Imagine if you wanted to launch the new V10, 8.3 litre Dodge Viper and the only spokesman you could usewas Greta Thunberg. This is pretty much the position in which modern politicians find themselves: trying to communicate via the mouthpiece of someone who dislikes you. Remember, modern journalists are no longer contented, well-watered members of the Establishment but bitter, over-educated people who made a really bad career choice in the early 2000s.
