Brave New World or Groundhog Day? Burnham revisits old ground in speech on social care

Right-wing media hostility helped sink his reform plans in 2010, but the new PM’s passionate speech suggests there is now clear political will for change

For campaigners perpetually disappointed by the failure of England’s political classes to fix England’s creaking adult social care system, the fear was that Andy Burnham’s long-trailed speech would be less Brave New World, more Groundhog Day.

Burnham acknowledged he had been here before. Back in 2010, as health and social care secretary, he unveiled extensive proposals to overhaul social care, only for them to collapse amid right-wing media hostility and furious political rows about “death taxes”.