It is conceivable that a radical constitution-changing manifesto could be ready to launch once Parliament returns, but constitutional change is best not pursued in haste. EU reform and Britain’s international commitments generally are issues that would be covered, but so would a radical reallocation of public service accountability, encompassing at least health and criminal justice, to local authorities or groups of local authorities. NHS reconfiguration is almost certainly needed, but can only work when tailored to individual localities, not simply by running numbers through an office in Whitehall. Tackling the causes of crime likewise is a major political issue requiring an attention to detail simply not possible at a national level. Schools and economic development are already nominally local issues, though you would not know it from press coverage, so should be included.

The whole question of participation in politics, particularly representation of women and minority ethnic communities, is also one that continues to elude solution. Lords reform and electoral reform are paths to addressing this. For these changes to be effective, supporting changes may be necessary in areas like broadcasting regulation. Manifesto commitments are the normal British way to constitutional change, particularly when they do not admit of simple yes/no choices, and probably the most powerful lever for loosening central government’s grip on all these issues.

From a party perspective, central financial and organisational support could be lavished on local parties for policy forums bringing together the range of local groups and media, feeding into the manifesto through the NPF process. It would be an intensive general election campaign, but spread over months rather than weeks, and not so intensive it leaves activists struggling to combine this with the rest of their busy lives; exactly the kind of election campaign to strengthen Labour’s claim to be the natural party of government.