Why do we do this to ourselves? I’ve been coming to conference to eat wilting sandwiches and drink warm wine for 19 years now. But the reason I’m here and the reason I am part of Labour has never changed.

I do this job, I’m part of this movement, because I believe somewhere in my community is a kid who could cure cancer if they have the opportunity to succeed.

Here in Manchester I’ll bet there’s someone who could improve carbon capture. In Exeter, the next graphene.

When you give people with a potential a pathway to achieve we all benefit.

And that’s what progressive politics at its best is about. Breaking down the barriers to talent so it can change the world for the good of all.

Scotland shows us it is possible to engage the public in politics. However nailbiting the campaign was, we should welcome the fact that when people care they contribute.

And – as Ed Miliband has said – we should hear the call for change this vote represents.

We cannot ignore the fact the majority of young people in Scotland voted yes last week.

In a world facing Isil, global economic insecurity and injustice, they felt the best way to regain control was to walk away from solidarity, not reboot it.

Never must we let go unchallenged the notion Alex Salmond is the only one who has a series of ideas worth devoting a life’s work to.

Or that somehow Nigel Farage or George Galloway have the preserve on identifying injustice.

We fight for office not just to change governments but to change lives – whether in Glasgow, Walthamstow, Cardiff or Witney.

We know we can only do that if each of us has the power to shape our own future – not just those with the money, connections or mindset to do it.

So whatever you think of the current generation of politicians making this happen isn’t a task for just us. And we can’t do it alone.

You will hear a lot of calls for constitutional change – why it does or doesn’t matter.

Judge each proposal first and foremost by whether it helps answer the why of politics – why will it improve our life chances – because only then can we do the how.

No one voted yes because there wasn’t another committee in parliament. Or because there weren’t more meetings in local government.

Let us start with asking how best to give people the rights they need and want to be in charge of their own lives.

Rights over their health, their schooling, their communities and yes their countries that mean they can directly shape their own, their families’ and their communities’ future.

And the responsibility to themselves and each other to make it happen.

Because disengagement isn’t just bad for our democracy. It’s bad for social justice. It locks people out and locks injustice in. And then we all miss out.

No change to achieve this must be off the table – whether in Scotland or England, our parliament, our town halls or our public services.

Because this isn’t just about policy, it is about how we do politics too.

The choice for our generation is not between ending poverty and inequality or reforming our political landscape.

The choice for our generation is how to remake the state to be the servant of our shared successes, not simply make more people be servants of the state.

We should not fear change for this purpose – we should provoke it.

The one place I know we can rely on for provocation is Progress – in your campaigning and your advocacy you show you understand that the world isn’t perfect. That politics isn’t perfect.

But you also understand that our passion for social justice demands we can’t sit on the sidelines waiting for it to be so.

We know it is the role of each of us to fight to make it better. And never give up hope that it can be.

Because the world isn’t ready and waiting. It’s ready and changing. How that happens, who benefits, who prospers – well that is up to you.

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Stella Creasy is member of parliament for Walthamstow