In 20 days, Britain will have a new prime minister and a new way of running the country. Gordon Brown is signalling a revolution in Downing Street. He is making clear he is prepared to trust the professionals.

The appointments he is announcing of key personnel in Downing Street show that after a quarter of a century of being in the dog-house, the professional administrators of the state will no longer be seen as obstacles to good government in the style of Margaret Thatcher or as "scars on my back", in one of Tony Blair's more self-pitying tropes.