I joined this party because it was a party of conscience, of vision and of clear direction. When I talk about conscience, I mean a sense of fairness, justice and morality. We were the party who cared about those who needed caring about in society. We weren't the party that stole from the pockets of those whose pockets we were supposed to be lining with the proceeds of economic prosperity. It's not just the 10p tax row that has gotten my back up; it's difficult to tell from our leaders what we believe in anyomore. Blair's vision has gone, with his exit went his direction. What has changed in the 12 months or so that Gordon has had the premiership, nothing. He promised us something different and has failed to deliver. Oh, it's true, the first few months were fine, but that was for the most part, people enjoying the honeymoon period after what they saw as a tired Blair. Gordy lampoons the Tories week in and week out for being "all style and no substance" but we're slowly going the same way. The man, once an economic powerhouse has become a damp squib, and lamentably now needs to be shown the door.

Maybe the Party needs an electoral defeat in 2010 to put its house in order, so to speak. Nothing is guranteed to make our leaders wake up and smell the roses like an electoral smack in the mouth. We need to recognise that to succeed for the future we need to focus on three key maxims, Progress, Change and Action. Many people have called for a "turn to the left" and fewer for a "turn to the right", but for me for the key is progression. We should be standing on a platform of progressive reforms, recognising that it isn't the 1970s and Bennite style Socialism isn't going to work. Giddens' mantras of "social justice" and "equality of opportunity" are words that shouldn't just be bandied around as powerful pieces of political rhetoric but are words that must be enacted.

Taxation should be reformed properly and progressively, recognising that ordinary people are earning more nowadays, these people should be taken out of the top rate of tax, and the lowest earners taken out of tax altogether. Those who have benefitted most from our economic buoyancy should give something back, a proper level of tax on the super rich to properly address the grave inequalities existing in Britain today. We need to get more money in the pay packets of ordinary folk, the minimum wage needs augmenting, reflecting the increasing cost of living, personal tax allowances too; we should be letting people know that we are on there side. Council tax is a regressive tax that needs reforming and annual increases need to be capped. I want better local services for everyone, but it needs to reflect ability to pay and not hit those on low and fixed incomes, the vulnerable people like pensioners.

We need proper regulation on businesses to ensure that consumers get a fair deal. Is it genuinely fair for Shell and BP to report record profits in the many hundreds of millions when hard working people are struggling to fill up at the pump?
 
The notions of the "common good" need to come back into our vernacular, we need to encourage businesses to realise that they have responsibilities to their stakeholders. We need to make sure that everyone can own their own home, this is a fundamental right denied to many today. It's all well and good making a couple of hundred million pounds available but it doesn't go far enough. First time buyers need proper help and we must deliver. The clue is in our name, we are the Labour Party- the party of the working man, not the party of capital and billionaires. We need to be representing and safeguarding the needs of the people that need our help.

This is the direction we need to adopt under a new leadership. The so called "Primrose Hill" gang of the Milibands, the Purnells, the Burnhams, the Alexanders, the Byrnes of the party, need to stop thinking of themselves as "Blairites" and "Brownites", reconcile any differences they might have had and step up. These people are bright, young and charismatic with broad appeal, I see David Miliband as the next Blair, not in policy terms, but as the person capable of changing our Party with decisive action like Blair did in 1997. He needs to step up to the plate, recognise that he is the future, that we, the party are behind him, and that he is the man best equipped to lead our party into another successful administration back with the principles that we all share. We need to balance the accurate portrayal of our principles with electability, we need to capture the hearts and minds of those people that count, ordinary people and then we will be a party that we can justifiably be proud of again. People need to know what we stand for once again, and that we will deliver for them, because that is our responsibility, because that is what we belive to be just.

Progress, Change, Action: 3 words that will define our success in the future. If we can deliver those three things, united behind a new leader, we will succeed, otherwise we will fail. That is the bleak truth that we now face.

Progress, Change, Action
Michael Brown