This prompted me to go back and check the claim that "On current DWP forecasts, from the 2024 election until 2030, Labour will have increased working-age benefit spending by a further £51.6 bn/year." It appears to be equally fictional/spreadsheet error. Correct figure is maybe £36bn..

Pleased Badenoch has drawn a dividing line with Reform on what it means to be English: we need more politicians to stand up against the growing racism and anti-migrant feeling in politics. But her culture war attacks on DEI and 'identity politics' helped open that stable door.

It’s good that Badenoch has set out principles and values, as politicians need a lodestar if they are to maintain direction and not simply court headlines (such as a bullshit iron dome). Not so good: these are borrowed from Thatcher and are neither authentic nor rooted in our now

7/ But Burnham has a skill Thatcher lacked: the ability to bring the country together, including business and civil society, to tackle challenges govt can't solve alone eg ill-health, unemployment. In Manchester he modelled collaborative, preventative govt, a style No 10 needs.

6/ Ultimately only Burham can orchestrate the rest of govt through a clear vision and keep it on track, and it is only he who can exercise the leadership internationally to tackle the many challenges that might otherwise derail us entirely. He can learn from Thatcher in that respect..

5/ Starmer's No 10 was more than 3 times larger than Thatcher's, but was more it effective? Burnham is expanding it even further through No 10 North. To be effective as PM, he doesn't have to do everything himself: if he takes on too much he may fail to do what only he can do...

4/ Recent PMs have become too caught up in delivering daily announcements rather than running the country, and have become ever more prone to micromanagement, with more and more decisions being taken into No 10, slowing the rest of govt down...

3/ I worked closely with Thatcher at No 10 and saw how she governed, warts and all. Her secret was her strong sense of purpose and sharp focus on getting things done. In contrast, recent PMs have often preferred campaigning to governing, with Johnson first in class.

2/ Thatcher may be the last person he'd look to, as he seeks to overturn her legacy, but like him she inherited a country that looked ungovernable and she changed its direction completely, as he hopes to do. So how did she do it?

Me, in the FT. He might hate her but she had leadership qualities he will need to reverse her legacy. But he also needs to bring the country together to deliver his vision in ways she never could.

That said, making an ambitious speech is one thing, delivering on it is another, and he will need to avoid getting bogged down in the minutiae of govt and just feeding the daily news cycle if he is going to do so.

We've got so used to 'retail politics' - specific, small-scale promises to win votes - that it's a genuine shock to hear a PM talk about big ideas and set big aspirations for Britain, all spoken with genuine passion. And advocating for solidarity rather than stoking division.