The ruling party was last weekend advised to ensure that the agenda for change is not captured by its political opponents and to recapture its conservative values.British Labour Party MP David Lammy, warned ruling party faithful, that the trend that contributed to ending his party’s 13 years in power was a shift to the right by the electorate brought about by an era of tough times which kicked off the 21st century.“We lost many votes in southern England. And the tide that saw us leave power is the tide that continues to sweep across much of Europe,” said Mr. Lammy. “In tough times, it is always tempting to turn to the right.“And my message, in what I suspect is an election period, is ‘Bermuda, don’t make that mistake’. Think about the tough choices, but don’t make that mistake.”He said: “It is hugely important that progressives and those in the labour family never allow the others to own change. You must be the change agents. And this is a party that has always been for change and for progress.“That change agent that you must be must be deeper and firmer and bolder than it has been previously. That is how you win elections. Renew and go deeper. So now is the time to be bold and to grow the confidence of this community.”Citing a new era of global terrorism, climate change and the economic downturn, Mr. Lammy claimed that for the developed world Barack Obama’s election to the US presidency was “the only ray of sunshine”.The Tottenham MP also gave his analysis of some of the other reasons the British Labour Party lost power.Labour became disconnected from the people, he said. “Our manifesto read like the yellow pages. It was a list of policies, but they weren’t always connected. They didn’t tell a full story. They didn’t connect with where people were in their daily lives and that’s what we need to do.”And despite Labour’s successes in improving public services, voters are always future focused.“The electorate has a way of pocketing these things and looking for what’s next.”The party itself was to blame Labour had become “too like administrators or bureaucrats” he continued.“Sometimes you couldn’t discern between the civil servant and the politicians. So don’t forget the poetry of politics, the language that reaches into people’s souls as well as their minds because ideas and the ability to communicate do matter even in this media sound-bite age.” He said freedom had been the big notion of the 20th Century.”There was also some ideological advice to the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party, as he advised a recalibration from a liberal focus toward “small ‘c’ conservatism”.“And as we continued to talk about public services, we should have said more about public spirit. As we continued to rely on the state and supporting those who fell on hard times with welfare, we should have drawn on other parts of our tradition and talked more about self reliance and self help and community.“The Labour party is a Labour party for a reason. We are a party of work, we are a party of endeavour and we understand that work builds character.“That is why we as progressive labour people will not stand by during tough economic times and leave people to the ravishes of the market as the right would. We believe in social programmes and supporting people as best we can. That is the language that we lost sight of.”Mr. Lammy pushed the concept known to some as Blue Labour. While freedom had been the “big notion” of the 20th Century and fully embraced by Labour movements, the challenges of the times did not demand more freedom he told his audience.“When we look to the 21st Century and we look to my constituency and we think about the summer in Britain where we saw those young men burning their neighbours homes and their shops rioting into the night young men that look like me …. Is it more freedom that we need to remedy that problem?” he asked.“When I pick up your paper and I see incidents of gun and knife crime, is freedom the answer?” he asked.“When we think of those freedoms gained that took so long to struggle for we think of that voyage across the Atlantic from Africa and those poor men and women sometimes unable to make the journey thrown overboard during that terrible period of slavery. And my mother used to say ‘David live up to your ancestors prayers’.“It is not the freedom to loot, the freedom to burn, the freedom to knife, to freedom to run a gun. It is the freedom to work. So this is a period where we cherish those rights but let’s get to responsibility.”He continued: “Don’t let the Conservatives own the small c conservative mantra. That is as much a tradition of progressive labour parties as it is of theirs.“We need to get to it in terms of work, hard work resilience. Resilience because this is not a time when you can believe the world owes you something if you are not able to bring it yourself.”Mr. Lammy maintained that, historically, labour and progressive parties lost power when they could not get to grips with the five key issues of “Education. Employment. Aspiration. Community and Parenting.”But success depended on articulating the necessary partnerships, he said.“It’s not at all clear that government can parent, it’s not at all clear that government is the only agency of community.“Government can be ambitious and aspiring for its people and it should be, but there has to be other ingredients at play, culturally and socially, that are also ambitious and aspiring,” Mr. Lammy continued.“Of course, government plays an important role in relation to education and in relation to employment. But instantly you see a partnership and you think about the challenges that our economies face and you recognise that articulating that partnership, working across those areas is not easy but it has to be done.”He reminded his audience that labour and progressive parties started as movements, and it was important to maintain that even as government.“We are a movement in which we believe in the economics of Maynard Keynes. In these tough times where work is hard to come by, we challenge people and say step up to the plate and accept whatever work is put in front of you.“But we will see to providing that work and see to the social programmes that make that possible. We say it is not all about state it is also about public service and what you can do.”He continued: “I worry when some of my constituents come up to me and say Mr Lammy what have you done for us. And the first thing I say is what have you done for yourself?”But referencing widespread protests in London this summer and an ongoing global series of anti-capitalist protests, Mr Lammy also reminded his audience that the protesters’ instinct is “part of the Progressive family”.“It says something about the nature of our economy. And so I come back to that idea of freedom within the free market economy that has been the dominant theme of the 21st Century. Our parties were formed to civilise capitalism, not to abolish it, but to civilise it. And it still needs civilising.”Tottenham, which Mr Lammy represents was the first of urban districts in London to be hit by riots this summer.“In London, during those riots what we saw was a traditional concern of progressive centre left parties the working class. Except they weren’t working. Because the new working class is the workless poor and the working poor unable to make a living wage.”He said the British Labour Party has to “renew our ambition to civilise the ravages of capitalism, despite all the gains”.“And as we park for a moment our liberal traditions and recognise that there are other traditions that we need to draw upon because, actually this time it’s not about more rights, it’s about more responsibility.”Returning to the movement theme, Mr. Lammy said, to loud applause: “It is a movement that founded this party in 1963, I’m told in a garage. Just three people coming together.”“We must never forget that we are a movement for change. We are not just a political party. It is a movement for change for empowering people who lack power, for giving a sense of future and hope where there is none,” he said.“But as you know human nature is such that ‘me, myself and I’ is always easier than us. So we have to dig deeper.“We have to try harder. We have to be bolder, firmer. And I think that you will surpass our achievement of 13 years.”