“A New Generation”

"Let the message go out; a new generation has taken charge of Labour." Thus Ed Miliband heralded the beginning of a new era and paved the foundations of a new path to power. It was a privilege to attend my first Labour Party Conference in September. It was a historic moment, where we rallied around our new leader and began the fightback against the regressive, ideological and draconian ConDem government. I believe Ed Miliband is the right man to lead our party back into government because he recognises the need for our party to change in order to win back votes, he understands the very real impact that the public spending cuts will have upon ordinary families and households and finally, as Neil Kinnock said, he has the ability to inspire, a quality that is desperately needed to bring about a new politics.

Robert F Kennedy once wrote: "Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth-not a time of life, but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of
courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease."

The new generation is not about age or ability or even style. The new generation is all about change. A political party is nothing if it constantly remains the same. A political party must be transformative all of the time. It must be radical, without being extreme, it must be understanding without being patronising, it must be uplifting without leaving anyone behind and most of all, it must be open to others, not a club, but a community.

If the Labour Party is to inspire Britain once again, it must be proud of its heritage, humble about its mistakes and ready to embrace itself as a radical movement for change acting for the 21st Century.

So I am very proud to be a member of the Labour Party as we enter our new era , an era where we as a party may recognise both the successes and the disappointments of the past but remain optimistic and hopeful about the future of our movement and our country as a whole.