Looking to the future...

We had the first meeting of Inverclyde Constituency Labour Party last night since the General Election.

While naturally disappointed at losing the election, members drew comfort from the fantastic results we had across Scotland, including in Inverclyde where David Cairns was re-elected with an increased majority.

We nevertheless recognise the challenges that lie ahead.

We need to ensure that we are an effective opposition to the coalition government at Westminster and under our new leadership win back voters in those areas of England where we lost seats to the Tories.

We need to begin our campaign now to win next year's Scottish Parliament elections and ensure that as the biggest party we have the opportunity to form an administration.

We have to use the Scottish Parliament campaign as a launch pad for the 2012 Council elections, where we aim to retain control of the Council.

Despite our overwhelming victory in Inverclyde on 6 May, we cannot afford to be complacent.

We will need to work very hard over the next two years if we are to win these elections.

A pleasing aspect from the General Election is that we have recruited a number of new members who want to play their part in convincing local voters of the importance of electing a Labour MSP and Labour Councillors.

Shortly after I joined the Labour Party in 1983 we suffered a crushing defeat at that year's General Election. The mood in the party at that time was quite despondent as we knew from the scale of the defeat that it would be a long time before we would be back in power, and so it proved.

In 2010 I believe we have reason to be a bit more optimistic about what lies ahead.