Andy Burnham says he wants to work with John Swinney - will this actually ever happen?
We are used to a combative relationship between the UK and Scottish governments here in Scotland.
For years, this seemed to be the default position, particularly during the years of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP government in Holyrood and a Conservative government in Westminster.
The previous Conservative government down south seemed to treat the Scotland Office as a way of stifling the SNP at every turn. They even once took steps to block legislation passed in Scotland from gaining royal assent.
Intergovernmental relations were very much at an all time low.
There had been hopes this would improve after the Labour government was elected in 2024. However, it seems the lingering distrust between the two has remained.
First Minister John Swinney, for example, has been vocally critical of Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, even going so far as to suggest the relationship with him in post is almost as strained as it was under the Conservatives.
But there are once again hopes for a reset under the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
This is a comfortable area for the Prime Minister, having spoken at length about English devolution since taking office. Yet often he has seemed to flounder when it comes to Scotland-specific issues - this was his chance to prove otherwise.
He actually said very little about what his ideas for Scottish devolution might actually look like. For example, he said he wants to consider devolving some DWP powers like employability down to local communities. When asked for further detail, he simply said he would “insist on a localised model”.
Despite the lack of detail on that front, there was one clear message from his speech - he wants to work with the Scottish Government.
The main gist of his speech on Friday was extending a public offer to Mr Swinney and the SNP to work together. He repeatedly said that while there are many things the two men do not agree on, there are plenty of other issues where they can find common ground.
Mr Swinney has previously said he wants to work with other parties. In Holyrood, he needs to given he does not command an outright majority, so he needs to rely on other parties to get legislation and budgets passed.
Yet that does not always seem to work in practice - during the weekly first minister’s questions in the Scottish Parliament, he remains in a defensive position, more than happy to have a go at the other parties.
So we turn to whether or not Mr Burnham and Mr Swinney can find common ground on devolution.
The big stumbling block will probably be the fact Mr Swinney thinks there are chinks in the PM’s armour when it comes to Mr Burnham’s approach to independence. We have seen that several times in the past few weeks between the two men.
It is difficult to imagine the two of them getting on well and actually working together to make things better for Scots - but I wait to be proved wrong on that front.