Andy Burnham faces decisive tests on immigration and welfare reform, with the fate of his Government hinging on the outcome. On immigration, he must stand with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in her drive to extend the time foreign nationals must wait before being granted Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).
At present, the waiting period is five years, and once ILR is granted, the recipient is entitled to the full array of welfare benefits. Mahmood wants to raise the waiting time to 15 years, arguing that the current generous conditions act as a draw for freeloaders.
Cabinet opposition to the ILR extension
Her proposal has provoked outrage within her party, with Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh openly condemning the policy. This makes it all the more important that Burnham backs his embattled Home Secretary to the hilt.
The other vital change is to encourage more people into jobs. The option favoured by Burnham and Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden is the provision of more support and training rather than the withdrawal of benefits. However, there is a danger that the new work programme will be all carrot and no stick, thereby increasing welfare costs, which this year will be an unsustainable £333 billion.
Burnham's record under scrutiny
Burnham's record in this area is not impressive. He lost the leadership in 2015 to Jeremy Corbyn, partly because he sat on the fence over welfare reform. Anyone who cares about Britain avoiding bankruptcy must hope that he now has more steel in his spine.
In a separate item, the claim that a 1977 market research survey found most people fear public speaking more than death is an urban myth, based on a misinterpretation of the data. The author recalls an exception on Nicky Campbell's 5 Live phone-in, where a teenage girl confessed her mind had "gone blank" during a debate on the labour market. Winston Churchill also experienced a mind blank in the Commons in 1904 and never spoke extempore again without copious notes.
Architecture and other observations
It is exactly 50 years since the National Theatre at the South Bank Centre in London was opened. Designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, it was hailed as a brutalist masterpiece by metropolitan sophisticates, but most of the public loathed it, and Prince Charles described it as resembling a nuclear power station. This week, the James Stirling Prize, the most prestigious award in British architecture, went to a Croydon housing development, which looks rather like a multi-storey car park.
A contributor to an online discussion about the future of the BBC advocates that the broadcaster should become a "prescription" service, prompting a question about whether that is a soporific, emetic, or diuretic.
