It’s times like these that Labour governments were invented for

At his party conference last year, David Cameron declared our country was in a global race. He said it meant “an hour of reckoning for countries like ours. Sink or swim. Do or decline”. With a flourish he added that it was a duty and an honour to deal with the challenge.

He was right.

Like it or not, we are in a global race. To continue to compete on the world stage, and keep Britain Great, we need to work as a team. A team with a renewed sense of national purpose. The spirit that kept this country resilient through the wars, and saw Labour build one million new homes between 1945 and 1950, is the spirit that we need to harness now.

One of the questions we will be asking this week is: as we compete in this global race, what kind of team do we want to be?

To me, there is a simple answer. We should live in a kinder, fairer but more entrepreneurial country.

For more than one hundred years, the people who have influenced and built our movement have created institutions to deliver these goals. From the co-operators who became food retailers to the housing associations – and from the credit unions to the inventors of a system of health care free at point of delivery – many in our movement have played their part. State and non-state actors have worked hard to construct new and enduring institutions, out of the need to improve the lives of the many, often in defiance of the interests of the few.

Many of these entities were profoundly entrepreneurial. Yet when you look at some of our most powerful commercial, civic and state institutions today, I get a sense that they’re not helping the people they were created to serve and they’re certainly not helping support our team in the global race.

Few people believe that privatised rail, with its slothful train operating companies, has the best interests of passengers at heart. I don’t know anyone who thinks the energy retailers really care about their customers, many of whom are struggling with prices that have risen higher than wages for 38 out of the last 39 months. Do we really think that our neighbours will know the name of their postie in ten years time if Royal Mail is sold off to the Hedge Funds and sovereign wealth funds?

It’s a Labour government, with the core belief that an enabling state can renew the national purpose of our country, that can get us through the dog days of this fragile economic recovery, falling living standards and reducing opportunities for all but the most privileged.

When I first joined the party, back when I was 15, I saw how it brought people together, and got people talking, as we campaigned for the beliefs we shared. When you join Labour, you’re still joining a movement that stretches beyond the narrow definition of political party and I want us to do more – as a team – to work with others who share our values. I’m impressed by the work of Maurice Glasman, pulling together faith and community groups to use their power to improve the lives of those around them. Meanwhile the nascent Bank of Salford venture is a great example of Unions collaborating with other organisations, to try to provide an alternative source of finance, and get Wonga off Salford’s estates.

This week we will discuss how to support the institutions of the future that will help build a kinder, fairer more prosperous Britain.

And it’s our renewed national purpose that is more important than any internal tensions that occasionally afflict democratic institutions like our own. The stakes are too high for Labour to be distracted from total concentration on our programme for 2015 and beyond.

In many senses, and I don’t say this glibly, it’s times like these that Labour governments were invented for.

And the only thing in our way is the battalion of vested interests who don’t want to see Ed in Number 10 leading a majority Labour government.

The daily tensions of politics cannot be allowed to distract us from our shared cause. As Britain competes on the global stage, let’s focus on how – together – we can build a kinder, fairer, more prosperous future for all.