DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Who pays for PM's New Jerusalem?
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Adding to the litany of vacuous soundbites that has defined his short time in office (growth in every postcode, Britain needs a circuit breaker, I'm for us, etc), Andy Burnham came up with another corker on Tuesday.
Addressing his adoring party faithful at their annual conference in Liverpool, he said: 'Hope comes from honesty.' Well, up to a point, Prime Minister.
Yes, honesty is an admirable policy, even a radical one given the difficulty most politicians have in grasping the concept.
But whether it inspires hope depends entirely on the messenger.
The PM can honestly say the country is on its knees, but if people don't believe he is capable of raising it up again, they are far more likely to feel despair.
Confidence breeds hope, not sloganeering. Confidence in a better tomorrow. Confidence that the man steering the ship of state has a steady enough hand to avoid the reefs of recession and decline.
Mr Burnham has done little so far to suggest he is the skilled pilot we need in these turbulent times and this speech, though greeted euphorically in the hall, will scarcely have convinced the doubters.
There's no question he is an oratorical improvement on his incorrigibly wooden predecessor, a strong candidate for worst public speaker in political history.
The PM can honestly say the country is on its knees, but if people don't believe he is capable of raising it up again, they are far more likely to feel despair
The truth is that Middle England is about to be deluged with new tax rises, but 'Honest Andy' is too craven to admit it
By contrast, this PM's performance was slick, oozing everyman charm. He knew his audience, enthralling them with his Northern working-class boy made good life story.
He began by saying he would not be making a 'tub-thumping' speech, then went on to make one.
He spoke of aspiration, the Burnham family's values and his passion to mend our 'broken' country.
There was even a tear when he referred to his beloved and recently deceased father. It was either moving or cloying depending on one's cynicism quotient.
He pledged to reindustrialise, renationalise utilities, regulate and revitalise. More council homes (another one for Angela Rayner perhaps?), better rights for tenants, a second industrial revolution and a new national care service.
What he didn't mention was how this New Jerusalem would be paid for. Beyond making the pensions triple lock a double lock by ending the wages link, not a word.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, even that change wouldn't come close to funding the care service, let alone the rest of Mr Burnham's socialist ambitions.
The truth is that Middle England is about to be deluged with new tax rises, but 'Honest Andy' is too craven to admit it.
His leitmotif was that everything was better in the 1970s, before Margaret Thatcher's free-market revolution and when every major industry was in public ownership.
It's complete humbug, of course. The reason Mrs Thatcher was elected was that Labour and the overmighty unions had trashed the economy so badly that we ran out of money and had to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund.
Inflation peaked at 26.9 per cent, mortgage rates hit double figures and the top rate of income tax reached 83 per cent, rising to 98 per cent for investment income.
Those numbers are enough to bring tears to anyone's eye – and not tears of nostalgia. His allies praised Mr Burnham's speech as authentic. Others may say he's deluded.
What we know from painful experience is that when a Labour leader promises 'a new politics', it's time to count the spoons.
For all his lachrymose outpourings, it seems this one is no different.
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