Final thoughts. What's the way forward for Labour? →

The Labour Party is in the middle of that act of self-immolation that always follows from a defeat at the polls.

The Blairites have come out and said let's return to New Labour. The right wingers have said the manifesto was too left wing. The Left that it was too right wing. And so it goes on and on.

Even worse, Labour is now going on an extended four month election for a leader which will result in even more navel gazing. 

Did nobody learn the lessons of 2010?

Then Labour spent six months electing Ed Miliband whilst the Tories and the Media quietly went about creating a new narrative: it wasn't the profligacy of the bankers that created the depression but Labour's profligacy on social spending. 

A narrative that cost them the election in 2015.

So far Chuka Umunna, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendell have thrown their hats into the ring. Not a list that's going to excite a plumber in Nuneaton. Or any other undecided voter.

All are from that class of career politicians that got Labour in trouble in the first place.

And whilst they are squabbling over who is going to lead the party, the Tories will be happily restricting freedom, rewarding their hedge fund backers, instituting more cuts to the NHS, Social Services, and Childcare, and constructing a new narrative about how 'they saved Britain'.

The one shining light in this maelstrom of incompetence is that, since the election, 30,000 people have joined the Labour Party. In them, lies hope for the future.

A future based on a party with a vision for the future based on community, caring and consideration for all. Regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual preference. A future where the entrenched unfairness of British society is replaced by a sense of equality, working together and giving, where people can aspire and achieve in their lives.

A return to what Labour stood for when it was founded in 1906. Not new or old Labour.

A return to the politics of hope. Not the politics of despair.

A return to the politics of the people. Not the people of politics.

A better Britain for all. Not for a few.