Three cheers for three reforms: of the civil service, of Ministers and of one that this Government tends to avoid – of public services.
The new Chancellor should stick to the basics of cutting taxes, spending more on education and rebalancing growth outside of London.
Funding an ‘apprenticeship with a heart’ could help broaden access to overseas service whilst getting more money to the front line.
Even in an age of austerity, government has plenty of power and assets, which it could on a small-scale, experimental basis transfer to the control of community groups.
We need to renew that belief, that self-belief, and that optimism – about people, about society, about freedom and about human life – more than ever.
In that sense, his speech could easily have been given by a much more fitting figure for the Ditchley Foundation: Tony Blair.