That was what the Prime Minister pledged back at the end of July in his first week in office.
He said he would be seeking “common ground across party lines to tackle the big issues”.
This is very welcome.
Overhauling the way social care is managed was his example, and it was a good one.
It has seemed that every time a political party proposes to revise the way that social care provision is funded, opposition parties shout down the proposal.
This was true for the coalition government ‘Dilnot’ proposals in 2011, just as it was with Theresa May’s proposals, which were dubbed a ‘death tax’ by Labour.
As an opposition politician, I can identify these for what they were – opportunist mudslinging.
I heard during my summer tour about the impact that a failure to address social care at the national level is having on health provision in the NHS.
There is brilliant work going on in communities, including in Ottery St Mary and Sidmouth.
Yet system-wide problems need systemic fixes.
Ambulances queue outside acute hospitals like the RD&E and cannot be released to get to desperate people in pain, ultimately because we don’t have proper discharge of patients at the back door of those acute hospitals.
There is a line to walk between cooperating where we can, and challenging where we feel we must.
Of course, Burnham should not use a call for finding common ground as a way to silence dissent.
It is the duty of a constructive opposition to highlight shortcomings.
I have always been appalled at the idea of MPs as “lobby fodder”, who troop through the House of Commons lobby to support blindly the policies brought forward by the government of the day.
There really are MPs who act as stooges to their party leadership.
I will never be one such.
Ed Davey met with the Prime Minister at the end of July to discuss social care reform.
It is encouraging that the Casey Commission on adult social care has been brought forward so that it will report next year.
Ed says that he will meet with the PM again in the autumn to talk about this.
As an MP, I hear lots of people relating problems and the glacial pace of change can be frustrating.
I know that it is the easiest thing to turn this into anger and blame – particularly when dealing with ministers who are in positions to address the problem.
It is harder to seek common ground with our opponents, but there are times when it can be more productive.
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