The most important lesson of New Labour is this: Every time we made progress we did it by challenging the conventional wisdom.

We can only converse if we can speak the same language. So if we are going to build One Nation, we need to start with everyone in Britain knowing how to speak English.

I come from a generation that suffered school lessons in portacabins and crumbling hospitals. I tell you one thing, for the eighteen years they were in power the Tories did nothing to fix the roof when the sun was shining.

My beliefs will run through everything I do. My beliefs, my values are my anchor and when people try to drag me, as I know they will, it is to that sense of right and wrong, that sense of who I am and what I believe, to which I will always hold.

Over the next few days we want cities, towns and villages across the UK to send a message to Scotland: stay with us.

Congratulations to Barack Obama - great victory based on building fairer economy and optimism about what politics can achieve.

I suppose not everyone has a dad who wrote a book saying he didn't believe in the Parliamentary road to socialism.