I FIRST joined the Labour Party many years ago because I wanted to change the world for the better.

I am sure that the overwhelming majority of members could say the same, however recently they joined.

But I was quite surprised to discover that many of those people who joined in my era had given up any of their idealism, or enthusiasm, or even hope.

That must not be allowed happen to this generation. So much is being thrown at them — they are growing up with living standards worse than their parents, in the middle of a global pandemic and faced with the existential crisis of catastrophic climate change. Life expectancy, the best single measure of well-being, is falling.

We cannot treat any of these terrible attacks as naturally occurring phenomena.

It is no more inevitable that now 160,000 people in this country are dead from Covid, than it is to learn that government is considering lowering the pay threshold when workers must begin repaying student loans.

It is not inevitable that millions of people are seeing a fall in their living standards and it is not inevitable that the planet must face a catastrophe.

All of these are a reflection of policy choices — and this government makes the wrong choices on them all.

The fight against this government is not opposition for its own sake — although more opposition would undoubtedly be welcome to the voters who complain that it is hard to distinguish between the main political leaders.

The fight against this government is the fight for living standards, against the Covid carnage it has allowed, for free education, for action on the climate emergency and for peace. That is what is at stake.

It is also why the mantra of “now is not the time” to do anything progressive or that simply defends the interests of the majority should be completely derided and rejected.

The current set of government policies is leading us to disaster. It is no use waiting until we have gone over the cliff edge before advising a change of direction. The time to act is not just now, it is overdue.

It is within this perspective that we should examine the outcome of the Labour Party conference that has just ended and the Tory Party conference that is about to begin.

It should not be about the media soap opera of who is up and who is down in the Tory Party and still less which faction in Labour believes it is currently in the ascendant. It is about how we as a movement meet the very real and very serious challenges that face us.

To take one of the most serious of these challenges, compare the 160,000 British Covid deaths to an estimated 67,000 British civilian dead in the whole of World War II.

A minimum of four-and-half million people have died globally, while the Economist magazine (not a radical outlet keen to embarrass the government) estimates from excess deaths that the toll could be over 18 million globally. This is equivalent either to a major war or a global bloodbath.

Yet this government is not only letting British citizens die in huge numbers, it is also hoarding vaccines and blocking the vaccine patent waivers that would allows doses to be produced all over the world very cheaply.

So it was amazing to see that platform speakers at Labour conference barely mentioned Covid at all.

It was left to the delegates to raise the issue from the floor and unfortunately they were unsuccessful in getting their motions prioritised for debate.

This was a repeated pattern of this conference. Delegates were able to make a real contribution with high-level debates and were even successful in getting excellent resolutions adopted on a range of issues.

Particular highlights were:

The motion opposing British involvement in the new cold war Aukus pact, which nuclearises and accelerates the militarisation of the Pacific.

An extremely important motion passed in support of a socialist Green New Deal which is what is required to tackle the climate emergency.

A historic motion in support of Palestinian rights which commits Labour to action on this vital area.

Motions in support of £15-per-hour minimum wage.

My colleague Andy McDonald was quite right to resign as a matter of principle rather than accept instructions to argue against the motions.

I am sure Andy, too, entered political life in order to make a difference for the better.

Unlike many others, he does not change his principles like his tie, to suit the cameras.

The policy of a £15 minimum wage is extremely important and not only because it would have a dramatic benefit for the lowest-paid to offset what is now becoming a generalised cost-of-living crisis.

It is also directed towards the most exploited and the lowest-paid who have a cynicism about politics, which is often created by the misery of their living standards.

If we want fairness and decency, £15 an hour is exactly the right policy at the right time. It would instantly do more for levelling up than number of ministerial pledges.

Unfortunately, though, there was almost an immediate riposte from the current leadership of our party on each one of these policies, either rubbishing or disowning it, even when they had opposed it and lost in democratic debate.

We may have the policy ideas, the enthusiasm and (as the votes showed) a majority on our side, but the right wing has control over the party and is increasingly using it against the left.

Already they do not observe democracy in the party — and want to diminish it further. That is the central contradiction exposed by this conference.

Naturally, this does not mean we become despondent or demoralised. On the contrary. The issues confronting us are so serious, despondency is an unaffordable luxury. La lotta continua.

Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.