This episode of The Rest is Politics looks at the early days of Andy Burnham's premiership, with the hosts weighing his communication style against the substance of his policy agenda. Much of the conversation centres on vocational education: Burnham's push to raise the status of technical training, comparisons with Germany and Switzerland's apprenticeship systems, and how a 2004 review by Mike Tomlinson anticipated many of the same ideas. The hosts link this to Alan Milburn's ongoing review of the roughly one million young people not in education, employment or training, and debate whether Britain should model itself more closely on Switzerland's vocational system, where a majority of students take a non-academic route into skilled, well-paid work.
The discussion then turns to adult social care, tracing Burnham's long-standing interest in the issue back to his time as health secretary and drawing parallels with Theresa May's failed 2017 reform attempt. The hosts consider whether Burnham's large parliamentary majority gives him a rare chance to succeed where previous governments have not, and touch on devolution, subsidiarity, and lessons from Liverpool's cultural regeneration. The episode closes with a discussion of the wildfires sweeping France, Spain and Scotland, including the scale of evacuations near Bordeaux, and questions about land management and climate change.
Unemployment
Key points from the discussion
The points they raised, and the official data behind them.
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The hosts said there have been 22 separate reviews of social care in England without reform being implemented.
~7:22Context
Social care reform in England has been the subject of numerous government-commissioned reviews since the early 2000s, addressing how to fund long-term care for elderly and disabled adults. Despite widespread agreement that the system needs reform, previous attempts, including the Dilnot Commission and Theresa May's 2017 manifesto proposal, have failed to result in lasting policy change.
The hosts referenced the Alan Milburn agenda highlighting around a million young people who are not in education, employment or training, known as NEET.
~8:15NEET refers to young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training.
Official figure
1mJan-Mar 2026 · Office for National Statistics · Labour Force SurveyExplore the board →Charted aboveContext
Alan Milburn, a former Labour cabinet minister, has been conducting a review into the scale and causes of youth disengagement from education, work and training. NEET rates are tracked officially in the UK and used as an indicator of youth labour market exclusion. Milburn's analysis was described as the first part of a two-stage review, with policy solutions expected in autumn.
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The hosts discussed that around 85% of jobs in Britain, particularly for non-graduates, are outside the high-tech, frontier sectors that dominate policy conversation on vocational training.
~21:19 The hosts said something like 60% of Swiss students go into vocational tracks rather than academic university routes.
~22:00Context
Switzerland operates a widely cited dual vocational education and training system, in which students combine company-based apprenticeships with classroom study across a very wide range of occupations, from healthcare to hospitality to finance. The system is often referenced internationally as a model for pairing vocational status with strong pay and career progression.
The hosts cited news reporting that around 250,000 people were evacuated due to wildfires near Bordeaux in France.
~49:07Context
Wildfires spread across parts of southwestern France near Bordeaux, prompting large-scale evacuations, alongside similar fires affecting Spain, Scotland, England and Canada in the same period. Such events have prompted debate over the role of rising temperatures and land and forest management practices in worsening wildfire severity.