Analysis: why Andy Burnham's speech is not as radical as first meets the eye

How radical actually are Andy Burnham’s Labour Party Conference speech plans?

Since announcing his plans to return to Westminster, Andy Burnham has frequently claimed he wants to do politics differently.

This is a phrase that politicians of all stripes have uttered since time immemorial.

I’ve lost track of the times I heard Sir Keir Starmer pledge to bring about a “different kind of politics”, before he was dumped out of Downing Street.

In his first speech at Labour Party Conference as Prime Minister, Mr Burnham said “someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off” when it comes to tackling some of the country’s intractable problems.

And then came an array of headline grabbing announcements at surface level.

Greater public control of water companies.

Plans to change the pensions triple lock to fund a national care service.

A commission on electoral reform before putting proportional representation on the ballot paper at the next election.

Trying to find a consensus around a closer relationship with Europe, good luck, as they say, with that.

When Mr Burnham was starting to talk about Brexit, some excited hacks behind me thought he was about to announce plans for the UK to rejoin the EU.

But with this announcement, as with several others, there is not going to be any immediate change, and actually they are not as radical as they first appear.

Take the plans around Europe, it is going to be almost impossible to find any sort of consensus on that.

Many Red Wall Labour MPs will likely be furious about reopening that old wound.

Then look at the national care service. It’s a grand plan, and one that Labour actually put in their manifesto at the last election.

And what would people get? At-home care would be free, however any sort of bed and board would still need to be paid for.

It’s a good start to an issue which has dogged successive governments, but not perhaps as bold as many people assume.

And then there’s the announcement about the triple lock - which currently sees the state pension increase by inflation, earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is higher.

Mr Burnham’s new pensions double lock, or whatever you want to call it will see the state pension increase by inflation, 2.5 per cent and keep pace with earnings over the long term.

Spot the difference, because I can’t really.

There’s a risk that Mr Burnham takes a lot of flack for changing the triple lock, without making the radical changes that are potentially needed.

He could expend a lot of political capital for little actual change.