- Check against delivery -

Can I start by saying what a privilege it is to have the chance to speak at Spring Conference and to speak as the person co-ordinating work on the party's long-term policy-making which will lead to your next manifesto.

I'm also pleased to meet so many delegates and members of the party at Spring Conference.

My argument today is that the challenges we face and the spirit of the times means that our beliefs were not only right for the years since 1997, they are right for now and the coming years too.

But if we are to turn our ideas into victory, there are some things we need to do between now and the next manifesto. And that's what I want to talk about today.

First, we have to show what our beliefs have delivered and are delivering.

Party members, Cabinet, MPs, councillors: we have to go out and tell people what a Labour government is delivering.

Remember John Prescott and the five pledges and the pledge card.

Let me be honest, I'm no John Prescott but think of that way that John made us focus on the five pledges.

We need the same determination to get out there and explain to people what we are delivering and will deliver.

The shortest waiting times in the history of the NHS

Half of all GPs with out of hours access

Neighbourhood policing in every area

700,000 additional homes by 2010

600 more children's centres in 2008 on the way to 3,500 Children's centres by 2010

Children's centres that would never have been built under a Tory government.

Not happening by accident but because of our values-our belief in standing up for all and our understanding of the role of government in enhancing people's choices not reducing them.

Second, though, we know the promises we have kept will not be enough at the next election.

We need to show how our ideas and beliefs can speak to the challenges people face in their lives today and in their future.

The challenge of globalisation-the movement of companies and people---creates people who gain and people who lose out. People who do well in the global market, people who may lose their jobs or see their wages fall as unskilled work goes elsewhere.

There are two very different philosophies: one says government should be indifferent, get out of the way and leave people to fend for themselves and ours says globalisation makes the role of government more not less important in ensuring the benefits and burdens are fairly shared.

And in this era, we will only tackle the challenges of inequality if we understand that to make progress, you need a government that is willing to invest in the early years, education, universities.

And migration is also part of the challenge of globalisation so we need to talk about it and we do so in a Labour way as we have been doing.

Celebrating the contribution of diversity and immigration, which we see here in Birmingham. Building a sense that there is fairness, Labour values, in our system-which is what Jacqui Smith and Liam Byrne were doing last week and ensuring that we enforce minimum standards at the workplace and that means also, dealing with the issue of agency workers.

But our founding principle of equality must today go beyond people's chances to do well in their job; it's also about their life outside work.

Ten years ago we talked about the challenge of balancing work and looking after kids. Today it's not simply about the pressures of caring for your kids and working that is worrying people but people feeling squeezed between work, kids and looking after their elderly relatives.

That's why the issues of social care and carers needs to be a priority in the years to come; the welfare state responding to the new needs our country faces.

And just as we have the cross generational challenge of an aging population, so too the issue of climate change ---which needs to be seen not as an add-on but as a central part of everything we do.

As I said to a student in Yorkshire last week, you'll definitely be around to see if we meet our 2050 targets on climate change ---and he replied, you may not be, but you're in a position to make sure we do.

So there are economic challenges, challenges to the quality of life, challenges on climate change and challenges also in the way we do politics.

Even ten years ago, people were more willing to trust in the expert, or the politician. No longer. They want their voice heard.

And that's the way we stop scepticism-a good thing---becoming cynicism----a bad thing ---by giving people voice.

So we need to meet the challenge of genuinely spreading political power and taking equality seriously in this way.

This isn't some abstract constitutional debate; it's about accountability, including to local government.

And it's also about my constituents who don't feel they have enough direct say over the things that matter to them: the quality of their neighbourhood, policing, bus services.

So we need to meet these and other future challenges we face. We need to show how our beliefs and ideas can help meet them and we need to show how our values differ from our opponents.

The Tories have found a new way of trying to show they care about social justice: by talking about the voluntary sector.

As the voluntary sector minister, I see the role it plays in making our society more just and fair, through building community, campaigning for change and helping to deliver public services.

But for the Tories it's about something else: using the voluntary sector as an excuse not to adequately fund public services.

Of course, the Tories always deny that is their intention.

But the man in charge of the Tory manifesto, Oliver Letwin has let the cat out of the bag.

Remember him, he's the man who promised £35bn of cuts at the 2001 general election.

And recently he said the voluntary sector can provide services "more cheaply" than the public sector. Nobody in the voluntary sector believes that or wants that.

And that is the Tories' hidden agenda: pretending to care about social justice when really they haven't changed.

Any so-called progressive agenda from the Tories will always be half-hearted, skin-deep and cut-price and it is our duty to expose it.

And one other thing is important in the time ahead: the sense of idealism that we have.

We are the idealists in politics today. Idealistic about tackling unequal life chances, abolishing child poverty, building better public services, protecting our planet and fulfilling our obligations to the world.

And the reason we should have the confidence about the kind of society we can build in the future is because of what we have achieved since 1997.

Not simply the achievements we can all name, but the achievement of changing the terms of debate.

You see it in politics. Even if their instincts are the same as they ever were, the Tories can no longer say they don't care about poverty, they don't care about public services, they don't care about international development.

And why has it happened. Because of what you -and a Labour government---have done to change the fabric of our country.

And the different spirit of the age is not just in Westminster and Whitehall, it reaches into the lives of people.

If I had told you ten years ago, when we didn't even have a minimum wage that some companies at Canary Wharf would pay the London living wage at its offices, you wouldn't have believed me.

If I had told you ten years ago, that the sixth biggest coffee supplier in Britain would be a fair-trade social enterprise called Café Direct, you wouldn't have believed me.

And if I had told that kids in my constituency were asking me about wind turbines and alternative energy, you wouldn't have believed me.

So the mood of the nation, particularly young people, is for progressive not reactionary politics.

The challenges of the time are for progressive not reactionary politics.

And that is the Labour opportunity: to strengthen the coalition of forces which enables us to put our ideas into practice.

And I urge everyone in this party to seize the progressive opportunity

Campaigning in the local elections in May

Going out and recruiting new members to our party.

And together creating the ideas and policies for a manifesto not just to win, but to be proud of and build the kind of country we want to see.