You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. Sir Keir Starmer took former New York governor Mario Cuomo’s political maxim to the extreme: in office, his demeanour was downbeat, his speeches stultifying. Too often he looked like ex-Liverpool manager Arne Slot on a bad day at Anfield.

So here’s my five cents worth of advice to Andy Burnham as he prepares to be anointed Labour Party leader and prime minister. You barely campaigned for the top job. You can afford to ignore Governor Cuomo, the Hamlet-on-the-Hudson who never plucked up the courage to run for the White House.

It’s time for poetry.

Britain is desperately seeking some source of inspiration to revive animal spirits, the precondition for economic growth. Burnham, the cheerful chappie in a tight black T-shirt, has recognised that Labour’s whingeing about 14 years of Conservative misrule has run its course.

True, Britain is suffering from Long Brexit. Ten years after the EU referendum, GDP is down, perhaps between six and eight per cent; employment and investment are below par; and the productivity lag since the global financial crisis remains acute.

Donald Trump’s tariff offensive and his ill-judged war against Iran have massively increased uncertainty. The Ukraine war and the urgent need to boost UK defence spending in response to the Russian threat – highlighted by this week’s reports of drone incursions over US air bases in the UK – make the government’s task doubly daunting.

But to govern is to choose, and Burnham needs to make some hard choices. Gimmicks such as setting up Downing Street North........

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