A lot of people have wondered what this policy review is all about and particularly the timing of it. Blair is going out, Brown is coming in. There has been a lot of debate about whether now is the right time to map out a new policy agenda and whether it means anything.

It's worth remembering that this process started six months ago, last October, just after Blair survived the so-called Brown "coup" attempt and the Prime Minister needed to show that he had things to do.

One idea was to launch this policy review, which has stretched right across Government. Today's is the just the first of six papers that the Government is expected to publish in the coming weeks on issues such as the environment and security.

Last week Downing Street mounted a frantic attempt to drum up media interest in it, an attempt which has been quite successful, largely because of some of the consumer-friendly policy ideas.

This concept of "personalised public services" for instance, is very much the new buzz word and I think it will make for the next stage of new Labour's public service reforms.

But the question remains, what will Gordon Brown do with this, presuming that he takes over as Prime Minister in the summer?

It is well known that the Chancellor was not happy when the policy review was announced, believing that the timing was poorly chosen and would conflict with his own takeover and the moment when he would be wanting to make his own mark as leader, fleshing out his own ideas.

But as time has gone on, his attitude has changed and I think the Blair camp would say that the Chancellor has become increasingly constructive, taking part in meetings and addressing ministers over the contents of the review. Today he played quite a large and enthusiastic part in what was a major launch and certainly seems keen to be identified with this concept of personalised services, where Britain's public services are in the hands of consumers as well as the Government.

He waited until Mr Blair had spoken, then Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, then Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, and then largely repeated what they had said. To us it was a pretty obvious attempt to be identified with the reforming, new Labour side of the party, an attempt to reassure middle England that he will maintain the Blairite agenda.

And today's document was choc-a-bloc with consumer-friendly, specific policy ideas — all of them hypothetical, none of them costed — which will be available to him in the future. None of them are binding, so his hands are free, and I think we will see him cherry-pick from this the ideas that he wants to put into practice.

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