Letter: Andy Burnham appears to have a plan - he has passed the Ed Miliband test and avoided a serious early mistake
A letter from John Gemmell:
Andy Burnham has some exciting ideas - re-industrialisation and regeneration, powerful elected mayors speaking for England and beyond, fairer behaviour from the public utilities, getting young people into work or training.
But I worried about him as prime minister because I thought he was too close to Ed Miliband and would appoint him chancellor of the exchequer.
He has listened to concerns and put Mr Miliband in a department with less potential to destroy jobs. I wish Miliband happy, long spells abroad as foreign secretary.
I see him as a one-dimensional North London politician whose political insight can be wildly overestimated. He was correct to push for net zero as energy secretary. But timing and balance is key.
It was disingenuous, for example, of Miliband and Keir Starmer to claim that further North Sea oil and gas drilling would not reduce electricity bills.
The point was always that modestly increased North Sea production would boost jobs, revenue and national resilience, and indeed the extra revenue could even be used to reduce bills. That approach, in a limited way, may be a small part of Andy Burnham's new plan.
Former defence secretary John Healey, who resigned from Keir Starmer's government on principle over the lack of investment in his department, is now chancellor - a significant and constructive development.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood stays in place. She has hinted to her less focused Labour colleagues that, if the government does not succeed, something very different will come along to replace it.
She was alluding to Reform UK. Happily, she now continues with her immigration reforms.
We should reflect on this remarkable political moment. All that is needed to give hope for a change in our country's direction, despite our financial constraints, is just one sound, purposeful individual in Number 10, plus a little good fortune.
Unlike every prime minister since Gordon Brown, Mr Burnham appears to have a comprehensive plan and intends to communicate and implement it.
He knows that this is Labour's last chance. Stand by, it's all going to get rather intense, and so it should.
John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire