A week is a long time in politics. On Thursday May 5th I was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Copeland. By Thursday May 12th, I had spent my first week at Westminster and was just beginning to come to terms with the reality of representing Copeland in Parliament. I will do everything I can to repay the people of Copeland for investing their faith in me as their Member of Parliament.
As I first set foot into Portcullis House, the huge office complex that adjoins the Palace of Westminster and houses many MPs and their staff, I was seized upon by a group of doormen who courteously ushered me from room to room and informed me of my rights and responsibilities as a Member of Parliament.
What actually took hours seemed like minutes before I attended the Parliamentary Labour Party's induction for new MPs held by Government Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong. Hilary’s help and advice was both motivating and supportive and it is easy to understand why she is one of the most influential and respected Parliamentarians on the Labour benches.
Amongst the new cohort of Labour MPs are faces familiar to me. We are told that as a group we will come to share a special affinity, given that we were elected to the House at the same election, and there are already signs that this is true. They're an enthusiastic, committed, dedicated crowd of people with a determination to change Britain for the good and forever. I'm proud to be one of them.
Committee Room 14 is the venue of my first Parliamentary Labour Party meeting. When the meeting closes I am left in no doubt that I am where I want to be. The meeting is addressed by the Prime Minister. He welcomes the new recruits and remembers those who have not returned following the election campaign, before reminding us that the Tories have fewer seats now than Labour did during the dark days of 1983 and that had we been able to form a 67 seat majority Government following the 1992 election we would have been ecstatic. A senatorial Neil Kinnock nods sagely from an elevated vantage point at the rear of the room.
The Prime Minister then sets out the agenda for the remainder of his Premiership - this is nothing less than to embed a progressive social democratic consensus in Britain; and in so doing define the parameters of British politics for the 21st century. One of the ways in which this will be achieved is by Britain's leadership of the G8 at Gleneagles in Scotland this July, where the Prime Minister will advance efforts to stop climate change and achieve international social justice. In addition to all of this, he spells out his determination to enable a smooth transition for his successor in order that they may take the Labour Party to a fourth consecutive general election win.
Having electrified the PLP with his passion and commitment, the Prime Minister leaves the meeting to cheers, applause and table thumping. Had the TV crews shown a fraction of this passion and commitment during the election campaign, our healthy majority could well have been even greater.
I leave Committee Room 14 to find the assembled political hacks in the corridor outside - none predicted the reception Blair would receive and I wonder how many of them will accurately report this on tonight's broadcasts and in tomorrow's papers.
Jostling along the corridor I bump into Tony Cunningham, now a member of the Whips Office, who shepherds me into the chamber along with every other MP for the swearing in of the Speaker of the House. It has been a memorable day - and I feel at home.
Travelling back to Copeland in the evening, I draft a series of letters and lists of issues in need of progression if we are to continue the progress we have made under this government in Copeland since 1997. There is still much to do; but the work has already started.