The Guardian view on Andy Burnham’s first day: the right vision, but time is of the essence | Editorial

Outside Downing Street, Britain’s new prime minister struck the right notes. Now he and his cabinet need to be brave A 1970s adage attributed to the former Tory chancellor Reginald Maudling maintained that Britain was essentially a Conservative country that sometimes voted Labour. That was always a questionable assertion, given the defining postwar role of Labour in shaping a fairer social settlement. But the trauma of successive election victories by Margaret Thatcher from 1979 onwards meant…