Big on aspiration, now for delivery

Whereas in former speeches he would reiterate the word "socialist", it was conspicuously absent yesterday; instead the word "British" or "Britishness" featured 71 times. His emphasis on "aspiration" plays with both Tory and Labour voters.

As for his declaration that: "I reach out to all those who work hard and play by the rules, who believe in strong families and a patriotic Britain ... who want to defend and advance British values", it could have been voiced unblushingly by his new friend, Margaret Thatcher.

But after the rhetoric, the reality. In the cold light of the following day it is worth asking quite how his commitments are to be delivered, how his promises are to be funded.

It is one thing to say that "no one who sells drugs to our children or uses guns has the right to stay in our country" - quite another to put into effect, as the Home Office debacle about tracking foreign entrants with a criminal record made dismally clear.

Indeed, most gun-toting, drug-dealing gangsters are products of British society - is deportation on the cards? Where?

As for his aspirations to deliver personalised learning schemes or finally to eliminate child poverty - how are they squared with ever tighter constraints on public spending?

Mr Brown presides over a Labour government that has held power for a decade. The challenges he referred to are hardly new; indeed some of the problems, like obtaining access to a GP, are chiefly of the Government's making. Many of his prescriptions for the NHS are long familiar - like his commitment to matrons.

He promises "deep-cleaning" hospitals to combat infection. Yet, as Dr Mark Porter points out in this paper today, while clean wards are important, infections are largely imported into hospitals by people - nurses, doctors, patients, visitors. A Draconian hand-cleaning policy for everyone who enters an NHS ward would do more good than any other measure to combat infection.

Today is Alan Johnson's day as Health Secretary. He not only talks about deep cleaning hospitals, he articulates proposals to treat suspected breast cancer more quickly, expand colon cancer screening, offer all adults "personalised" health checks and boost patient power. All admirable aspirations. But as with Mr Brown, what matters is not aspiration but delivery.