For a party of the left to win, people have to have believe that government, the state, can be on their side. When I was a young mother, Sure Start and tax credits weren't just a financial lifeline, they represented hope.
My family is just like most other families - we rise and fall on good and bad government policy. Politics affects us all.
When my children were little, I would chat with my husband or my mum friends about how we were superior parents to other people, or that so-and-so was lying about how their children slept through the night.
When your worldview is challenged, you'd be surprised how quickly you can find a way to dismiss reality.
Growing up with my father was like growing up with Jeremy Corbyn. He still hasn't rejoined the party; it's not left wing enough for him.
Ken Livingstone appears incapable of contrition. That is why he must be thrown out of the Labour party. He is so certain he is right about everything, he won't come close to change.
We've all got to discover the courage to ask the difficult questions about the future of our party and the future of the working-class communities who need a Labour government.
I think power will do anything to survive and one of its main techniques is the rule of exceptions. So it makes an exception out of people and we worship them, whether that's Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. These people become beatified beyond recognition.
I loathe and detest people who pretend they don't care what people think about them as if that is a virtue, when it is simply rude.
People just don't believe we'll deliver what we say we will. They don't believe we want to listen or to understand their lives. And they don't believe we are able to do much to make their lives better.
Ah, well, I do think the generation that came after me has changed. I think there is a growing sense that young women should like themselves a bit more.