What people want from Mr Blair is not more polished rhetoric about the future but practical solutions to the problems of the present.

We've been seen for a long time as a party which hasn't been very open to gay people. That's wrong.

For the most part our grassroots members are serious, nice, tolerant people.

Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.

We should be the natural home for the millions of Britons of immigrant origin. But we're not. Because too often we've sounded like people who wish they hadn't come here at all.

Considering the injury problems we have had, I am very pleased with this team. Most people don't realize it, but we recruited a member of the track team (Monique Bassett) to help us out.