Tony Blair's Bornemouth Speech

Then you've got these big worries – when's the health money really going to make a difference? Why are there still people sleeping in doorways? Can’t we turn round failing schools more quickly? How many of our pensioners will go cold this winter?

It's a big job. A lonely job. The red boxes really do come at you day and night, papers to read, decisions to make. Sometimes life and death decisions. Often decisions, after all the advice and the consultation, that only the Prime Minister can make.

So it's a pressure. But it's a privilege too. There is no greater privilege than serving your country. And there is no greater purpose than realising your potential.

I was lucky. A good education, a loving home, a great family, strong beliefs, a great Party in which to give them expression.

Everyone has talent. Everyone has something to offer. And this country needs everyone to make a contribution.

You'll see me on the TV, getting on and off planes, meeting Presidents and Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens.

It’s all part of the job. But the part that matters most to me is getting my sleeves rolled up and pushing through the changes to our country that will give to others by right, what I achieved by good fortune.

Let me read to you the words of someone else who thought ours was a moral purpose, and said this about the people in our Party.

"The men and women who are in it are not working for themselves; they know perfectly well that all they can do is but to create the beginning of a condition of things which will one day bring peace and happiness and freedom and a fuller life for those who are to come after us."

Our very first leader, Keir Hardie.

But 100 years ago, the circumstances of our birth and our political childhood was such we never realised our potential.

Born in separation from other progressive forces in British politics, out of the visceral need to represent the interests of an exploited workforce, our base, our appeal, our ideology was too narrow.