Leading article: A new Prime Minister and an impressive break with the past

It has been a revolutionary week in British politics. The newly appointed Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander, made a striking speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Thursday evening. Mr Alexander told his audience: "We need to demonstrate by our word and our actions that: we are internationalist, not isolationist; multilateralist not unilateralist; active not passive; and driven by core values consistently applied, not special interests."

This sounded like a direct repudiation of almost everything the administration of George Bush has represented over the past seven years. And the location he chose to deliver these words only heightened that perception.

Related articles

• Brown brings forward Bush summit to scotch rumours of rift
• Mary Dejevsky: By George! Our Scottish PM has got everyone flying the Union flag
• Search the news archive for more stories

Mr Alexander also argued: "In the 20th century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century strength should be measured by what we can build together." This sounds very much like a rejection of Tony Blair's theory of "hard power"; the idea that military powers like Britain should be less shy of throwing their weight around.

We welcome almost every sentiment expressed in Mr Alexander's speech - and, more to the point, it is a fair bet that Gordon Brown, Mr Alexander's close ally, does too. Indeed, a similar commitment to multilateralism emerged from Mr Brown's meeting with the United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon in London this week.

Mr Brown clearly wishes to signal that the lessons of the disastrous invasion of Iraq have been learnt. The tide in America is turning in this direction too. The House of Representatives, with the support of many Republicans, has voted in favour of pulling most combat troops out of Iraq by next April (although President Bush has said he will veto it). In the light of this, it seems highly unlikely that Mr Brown will be the uncritical ally of the United States President that his predecessor was.

Another element of the Blairite legacy was unceremoniously ditched this week. It emerged at Prime Ministers' Questions that the plan to establish "supercasinos" in the UK will not go ahead. The Independent believes adults have a right to gamble without undue restrictions placed upon them by the state. However, there is no discernible public demand for these massive gambling emporiums and few people are sorry to see the plan ditched. It is also true that the political justification for them - that they would encourage regeneration - was always rather unconvincing.

In policy terms, this decision to ditch supercasinos is actually of marginal importance. But it was a masterstroke of political presentation. Mr Brown was praised by The Daily Mail in terms that that traditionally conservative newspaper has not used since the days of Margaret Thatcher. This is testament to the skill with which Mr Brown has gone about building a broad political alliance, belying his reputation as an incorrigibly tribal politician.

But this week was about much more than presentation. The Prime Minister's "summer statement", with its emphasis on building more housing, directly addressed another blind spot of the Blair era.

Mr Brown is, of course, enjoying his political honeymoon. And he will ultimately be judged on how he delivers. But it does seem somehow appropriate that this flurry of encouraging activity has coincided with the publication of Alastair Campbell's diaries, which unintentionally highlight the many deficiencies of Mr Brown's predecessor.

A few weeks ago we suggested that it might be time to resurrect the theme from Labour's 1997 election victory: "Things can only get better." In some ways they already have.