Up next in 10
James O'Brien reacts as Andy Burnham pledges to tackle Britain's social care crisis.
Setting out his initial plans from a care home in Enfield, the Prime Minister said that "in an ideal world" he "would not want anybody to have to sell their home to pay for care", branding it a "horrendous" experience.
It comes as Burnham insisted that social care in England had become "as unfair as American healthcare".
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0:00
So, Louise Casey's report, review into social care to be expedited
0:04
to be hurried up, to be catalyzed, to be brought forward. A resurrection of the programme that Andy Burnham had sought to put in place
0:13
in the final year of Gordon Brown's government. You know, there's a parallel universe, isn't there
0:18
Where Gordon Brown won the election in 2010. Austerity never happened, and Andy Burnham quite possibly
0:24
would have introduced the National Care Service for England, which would have seen free personal care for people with the highest needs
0:30
move more towards care free for people when they need it. That was abandoned immediately after the 2010 election
0:39
Osborne's razor, again, if you're wondering what Osborne's razor is, it is the growing sense that whenever you're looking at something in this country
0:47
that's gone really, really wrong, the trail of breadcrumbs will lead back to George Osborne
0:56
who continues of course to lead a life utterly unaffected by his epic failure um and then you've
1:02
got the cross party talks i just thought i think ed davie will have a heck of a lot to say of
1:07
interest in this area not least because of him and his wife and his broader family and indeed uh
1:14
social care network caring for his son um he is going to attend the meeting by zoom kemi badenock
1:20
busy. I'm not quite sure how she'd process this sort of invitation. I mean, say what you like
1:26
about Cammy Bader not. She doesn't exactly come across as a team player, does she? She's sacking
1:32
her own team at the moment for supporting policies that they campaigned on during the last general
1:36
election. I'll say that again, because I'm not sure she's noticed. She's telling people like
1:41
Grant Shapps, for example, don't do the joke, I'll do the joke if I think it's time for the joke
1:47
but she's telling people like Grant Shapps, I'll do the joke, and Michael Green and Corrine Stockheath
1:52
that he can't run as a Conservative candidate because he still supports net zero
1:59
which was the party's position until she became leader. So theoretically, she should sack herself for having supported net zero
2:07
prior to becoming party leader. But anyway, not exactly a team player, so she's processing at the moment
2:14
So we're all going to pull together on this one. We're going to... It's a bit like a war cabinet
2:20
I'm fascinated by war cabinets, because you, like me, have lived in a world of febrile politics
2:27
wherein it's almost impossible to imagine all the major... Imagine picking a cabinet that involved the best candidates from every party
2:36
You know, you'd have a couple of Tories in there, you'd have most of the current Labour cabinet
2:40
you'd have Ed Davey in there, 30p Lee Anderson he'd be there, probably Chancellor
2:46
with his economics he could turn he could almost turn water into wine I think
2:51
but it's so anathema to us isn't it? And yet that's kind
2:57
of what he's talking, I think it might be a little bit cynical, the cross party bit
3:00
not least because Cammy Baden seems to be incapable of doing anything that doesn involve sniping and point scoring apart from the final PMQs for Keir Starmer which is going to end up being the exception that proved the rule
3:17
But it was more than that as a speech, wasn't it? It was the answer to the unexpected question about assisted dying was really strong, because he answered it
3:28
he talked about palliative care being such a crucial constituent of that conversation that
3:35
you cannot really come out in favor or against assisted dying until you're confident that nobody
3:41
is ever going to do it because they're worried about the quality of care that they'll get when
3:45
they are terminally ill he touched on quite a lot of other things regarding uh the near rather than
3:54
the distant future and he spoke very movingly about his own father and he spoke very persuasively
4:00
about the failure of 22 previous reviews to deliver but optimism doesn't butter any parsnips
4:08
convincing oratorical performances do not butter parsnips i wonder whether we actually deserve a
4:17
moment just to reflect on what it feels like to watch a prime minister who is palpably human
4:21
apparently empathetic and capable of communicating in a way that doesn't make him sound like a robot
4:27
A court jester. I don't know how to describe Liz Truss. A city boy like Rishi Sunak
4:37
Or how do you describe Liz Truss in that context? So you're going back
4:41
Keir Starmer robot. Boris Johnson court jester. Rishi Sunak city boy. Liz Truss
4:49
I don't know. But anyway, do we take a moment to reflect upon what it feels like
4:54
to listen to somebody answering questions, trying to answer questions, being honest
4:59
A wet lettuce. A wet lettuce? No, not really. It doesn't work. So phone lines are open for that
5:04
03-45-606-0973. What did you think of what you just heard? And if you didn't listen to it
5:10
you can listen to other people describing it and responding to it. I'm not going to bend over backwards to accommodate your decisions this morning
5:18
the rest of us were listening to the Prime Minister deliver his first major speech
5:22
on a major policy issue as Prime Minister. It's a moment of national import
5:26
Whatever your political loyalties, whatever your political fealties, it matters. And he is addressing an issue
5:32
that in many ways is tailor-made for him because, number one, it really matters
5:37
Number two, he's got history on this front. And number three, if he gets it right
5:42
it will be the most extraordinary electoral boost heading into the next general election
5:48
And here's the thing, and I'll do it now, I'll get it out there, here's the thing about Andy Burnham
5:52
that I can't quite believe I believe. Right? I think he's... I'm going to say this out loud
6:03
and you're going to hang it around my neck for the next three years and possibly make me regret it But I think he means it when he talks about it was interesting that he singled out the Mail and the Telegraph He talks a lot like we do about
6:20
how hard it is to have even vaguely sensible or honest conversations in a country where discourse
6:25
is defined by incredibly bent and biased right-wing media. He singled out the Mail and the Telegraph
6:32
by name. He thanked migrant workers for looking after his dad. That's a huge shift from where Keir Starmer
6:42
appeared to have taken the Labour Party. He seems to me to be determined to fix social care
6:51
because it will make this country a better place to be. He does not seem to me to be determined to fix social care
7:01
because he thinks it's an election winner. And this is a very personal position
7:06
I've explored it a bit in print today and it's the conversation that I'm having most with myself in my own head
7:14
is trying to work out what it is about him that feels different. So, for example, the stuff about working class culture and pubs
7:21
that you educated me on towards the end of last week and made me realise that just because pubs are shutting
7:26
And just because they feel like a much less significant part of local communities doesn't mean that they're not still a significant part of a local community
7:36
And if you were in Makerfield during that by-election and you were being treated to all of the poison being poured into your ears, it was a perfect constituency for Farage because it's got hardly any immigration and the residents are all quite old
7:49
so that is exactly the kind of constituency that farage historically flourishes in
7:56
where you can tell old people to be frightened of people that they don't know and it didn't work
8:02
and i was trying to work out why it didn't work and the reason why it didn't work is because
8:06
people feel that they've lost something right they feel something's changed and it has
8:12
and it's changed for economic reasons it's changed for technological reasons it's changed for all
8:17
sorts of reasons it has their life as jonathan powell explained during a brilliant clip with um
8:23
not not jonathan powell what's his name the guy that was in the footlights with enoch powell
8:27
there's a guy that did the opera directing um it will come to me in a minute jonathan miller
8:33
a brilliant historical clip with enoch powell where enoch powell is talking about change and
8:38
jonathan miller just says yeah of course things are changing but if people like you keep telling
8:42
everybody that they're changing for the worse because there's so many black and brown faces
8:46
around or there's more black and brown faces around then you poison everything timeless timeless
8:52
little exchange on a tv chat show i may play it to you before i go home today because it's that good
8:57
and so what burnham did in makerfield is he he acknowledged that people are feeling a sense of
9:04
loss and a deep sense of change and he didn't blame it all on immigrants or migration he just
9:11
acknowledged it and said he was going to try to fix it and by doing that he parks his tanks on Nigel Farage lawn But he does so by the way for the avoidance of doubt that a metaphor I not suggesting for
9:23
a moment that anybody should park a tank on Nigel Farage's lawn. Can I make that absolutely clear
9:29
before they report me to the police? When I say parking tanks on lawns, I'm using a well-established
9:36
figure of speech, an oratorical trope to decide, or rather to describe an act of political
9:44
engagement. So when Andy Burnham parked his tanks on Nigel Farage's lawn by giving people
9:50
an explanation for their feelings that did not involve generating hatred or attacking
9:56
minorities, he did so accidentally. He wasn't thinking, how do I spike Nigel Farage's guns
10:03
Can I make it absolutely clear that I'm not suggesting for a minute that Nigel Farage carries guns around
10:08
Even when he says he's going to, he doesn't mean it. No guns. So please, don't report me to the police
10:14
When Andy Burnham says that he is understanding and recognising people's problems
10:21
he's not doing it to park tanks on Farage's lawn or to spike Farage's guns
10:26
He's doing it because he's listening to people and he's trying to address them. I truly think this is true
10:31
I'm a human being like you. I just have this job, right? And I have a propensity to hope
10:38
And it has been dashed a lot in recent years and it will probably be dashed again
10:42
But right now I'm taking it. I'm taking it. A lot of people in Manchester tell me
10:47
that they saw this during the pandemic from Andy Burnham. He is doing things
10:51
and it's almost impossible to understand this. He is doing things to make this country a better place to be
11:00
he's not doing things to make the opposition look bad or to undermine their rhetoric of hatred that's
11:09
going to happen as a side effect that's going to be like a bonus if you care about such things
11:15
but when he addresses social care he understands he has to recognize the importance of foreign
11:20
workers because it is frankly insane not to whether you're a Tory a Labour or a Lib Dem or
11:29
a reformer UK. It is frankly insane not to recognise the role that foreign workers play
11:35
in upholding our social care system. So he does that because he knows it to be true
11:42
He's not making a point about immigration. He's making a point about human beings and
11:46
social care. And that's what he's done today. He's laid out a platform, a programme for
11:55
change because he genuinely... I can't believe I'm saying this. I'm actually quite cynical, right
12:03
He really wants to make this country a better place to be. And I can't remember the last politician
12:08
that I really thought that about. Or let me rephrase that. I can't remember the last Prime Minister
12:13
that I really thought that about. So, what did you think of that
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