Exciting times as our party elects leader

This column appears in the Cardiff Post today.

In politics, you win some and you lose some — it's just the nature of things.

In the recent Welsh Assembly elections, it was a mixed bag for Labour, but now the election is over, we have to get on with things.

I'm looking forward to working hard to rebuild our support and I am much encouraged by the start Gordon Brown has made in his campaign to become Labour leader. Already, Labour has risen in the polls.

In my constituency of Cardiff North, we were very disappointed our candidate, Sophie Howe, was not successful in her bid to replace Sue Essex and to become an AM. After eight years in the Assembly, Sue decided to retire and we were delighted when Sophie was selected as candidate.

As a councillor for Whitchurch and Tongwynlais, she has worked incredibly hard for children and families and for our neighbourhoods — she has been committed, cheerful and diligent in all she did. With such an excellent candidate and with all the positive achievements of the Assembly, we felt she had a very good chance of winning the seat. Everyone worked incredibly hard oon the campaign right from the start and our hopes were high.

But, unfortunately, the mood was not with us and we now have to regroup and move onwards and upwards. Two other elections now face us — one for the leader of the Labour Party and one for deputy leader. I'm supporting Gordon for leader and Harriet for deputy leader as I think they would work together very well — I'm excited about the new era.

On May 1, I celebrated ten years of being MP for Cardiff North. It's been an enormous privilege to serve the people of the constituency and the time has flown by. We celebrated with a cake and balloons and I hope, at the next election, we'll again have something to celebrate.