Being a relatively young thing, I've only really been an active member of the Labour party through the good times.  So when some of my more experienced colleagues told me there were some areas and some types of people that will always be Labour, I believed them.

When everyone guffawed at the idea of Boris Johnson as a serious candidate for Mayor, I believed them.  Because I believed that of all places in the world, London would never elect someone like him.

It always struck me as slightly odd when I saw young, obnoxious, Tory boy councillors asking questions about young people not in education, employment or training.  Like most other Labour members, I sneered at David Cameron's environmental stunts, because we all knew we were there first, a good 20 years ago.

Over the last year, I've probably spent more time dealing with internal disputes in my own CLP than I have campaigning.  We believed we were 'safe,' so we could afford the luxury of fighting each other. 

The biggest change we have to make, I think, is to accept that we no longer have a divine right to rule over urban centres in Britain, and we can no longer expect people to just assume we are always the party that cares more.  We have to stop being automatically offended and frustrated when people question our commitment to social justice.  We have to earn our reputation back.

And, because I've only ever been a Labour party member when times were good, and it has been difficult to get traction on any new idea that doesn't go with the current policy inertia, I now find I'm quite excited.  Because, my gut feeling is that we will all be much better Labour politicians if we actually have to prove ourselves to the public on a regular basis.  If we can't do that- if we can't demonstrate that we are more plugged in to local communties and have the better ideas- then we don't deserve to hold power anyway.