At the start of summer, in the pillared room in 10 Downing Street, Andy Burnham looked out at his new special advisers, the few dozen political officials tasked with driving hundreds of thousands of civil servants to deliver his government's agenda. Some had been with him in Manchester or Makerfield. Others had spent the past few months trying everything to prevent his hostile takeover of Sir Keir Starmer's government - and the new prime minister showed he was aware of it, going out of his way to praise those who had stayed on, for their efforts in the preceding years.
At that meeting, Burnham's team mapped out four key moments in the coming months. First, the return to Parliament in September, when Burnham and other leading ministers would make their first statements to MPs. Second, Labour's annual conference at the end of September - Burnham's first as leader.
Third, the Budget, taking place on 28 October. And fourth, the 10-year plan for Britain which Burnham intends to unveil in November. As MPs prepare to leave Parliament on Tuesday for almost a month and party conference season gets underway, the first phase of that route map is almost complete - enough for figures at all levels of the Labour Party to begin answering some questions about the shape of this new government.
Most importantly, perhaps, how new actually is it? Does Burnham represent continuity or change? That question is especially relevant because those Labour MPs who pushed for Sir Keir to be replaced always fell into two broad camps: those who wanted a change of style and emphasis but continuity in policy, and those who wanted a major shift in policy.
Both groups saw what they wanted in Burnham. Going by the words of the new prime minister himself, he represents a profound break with the past, and not only the immediate past. In his first speech as Labour leader in July, Burnham described his ascendancy as "the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years".
That is the timeframe he has returned to again and again, signalling not just a desire to reverse issues he believes stem from the Thatcher era but also to break with aspects of the Labour governments since then, including his immediate predecessor's. Some in government are already quietly questioning, though, whether the ambition of that rhetoric can be squared with the early signals emerging from the Treasury under the new Chancellor John Healey. In interviews over recent weeks, and especially in his first major speech on Monday, Healey has said he will stick to Rachel Reeves's commitments not to increase the main rates of income tax, national insurance and VAT, as well as her rules on government borrowing.
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