We waited 500 editions for this speech

Blow after blow pointed to a depressing possibility: that the political corner this nation painted itself into with David Cameron’s reprehensible decision to stage the Brexit referendum was inescapable. 

Leader after leader, following the shameful, truculent exit of Cameron, gave weight to this possibility. The hubris of May, the malfeasance of Johnson, the idiot-arson of Truss, the inadequacy of Sunak and then – perhaps most disappointingly of all given the expectation he arrived with – the shambling of Starmer.

Time after time, the only logical endpoint to this procession of failure was a populist government led by the Brexit shapeshifter himself, Nigel Farage. 

It had a dismal sense of inevitability; a self-cursed nation trapped within a circle of its own drawing. Yesterday, in Liverpool, the spell was broken. 

The Labour Party conference speech Burnham delivered was, arguably, the most consequential speech given by any party leader to a conference in our lifetimes. As has been said often enough already, it was more of a manifesto than a speech. And no doubt the coming months and years will be fraught with argument over the (literal) price to pay for such sweeping ambition.

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But: If what you wanted was what this magazine has argued for in these past 500 editions – ideas, a destination, a positive vision of Britain’s place in the world and, crucially, brazen honesty about the consequences of that referendum ten years ago – then here it was. 

Our first 500 editions occupied the space of ten years; from 2016 to 2026. Our next 500 will take us to 2036. What the world looks like by then is impossible to even guess at. The velocity of change in our lives feels at times utterly out of control. With the advent of AI, this may be a literal truth.

We can say this with certainty, though; as of this morning there is a viable, attractive alternative to the seeming inevitability of Faragist populism in this nation. That is a good thing.

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It may even be the case that one of those next 500 edition front covers will be what we call in the trade a “wipe-out” – a cover celebrating the United Kingdom’s new seat at the European Union table. We will be making that case with the same intensity and thought, spurred on with renewed enthusiasm, as we have for the past ten years. 

We will, together, be navigating challenging terrain. Britain may not be out of the woods just yet. But, at last, we have a prime minister with a map and a torch. 

Matt Kelly is founder and editor-in-chief of The New World