“Things can only get better”. Did they? Perhaps, but it all seems a long time ago. D:Ream, the band behind New Labour’s election anthem is now best known for the former membership of Brian Cox, who currently presents programmes about physics on the BBC. The highly questionable 1990s dance track seems to belong in another age, along with Tony Blair’s impassioned defence of free market capitalism and wide-eyed devotion to the City of London. (If the last 13 years have taught us anything, it’s that Brian Cox is much more suited to a physics professorship and that an ec=onomy based so surely on the financial sector may not be the best strategy.)

But 1997 is still significant. Labour’s election campaign captured the public’s imagination in a way that no-one had seen for a generation. I remember it well. As a seven year old, I took my first slightly confused steps into political consciousness when our local MP visited my school and shook my hand. Impressed by this, I promptly announced to my visibly horrified Mum that I was a Conservative. But watching the results come in a few weeks later (now a staunch Labour supporter, having had the benefit of a lecture from my Dad about the minimum wage), I remember a real sense that something dramatic was happening; that it was exciting and that it was good.

The spirit of 1997 has been conspicuous in its absence ever since. Never, even at the height of the Cameron honeymoon have we seen the same level of hope and trust that things will truly “get better”. Even Cleggmania was arguably more about a rejection of the politics people were used to rather than a real endorsement of an alternative vision.   New Labour’s landslide victory represented something different. Blair and co succeeded so dramatically because they embodied a profound change in attitudes; a more compassionate, tolerant and liberal Britain. The vision of a country at ease with wealth and prosperity and where economic growth can be harnessed to promote social progress belonged in the hopes and aspirations of 1990s Britons.

But what about now? The challenge for Labour as it seeks to find a direction over the coming months is to create a vision for our age. If New Labour succeeded because it represented modernisation and renewal in 1997, where does 2010 lead us? The answer is certainly not a re-affirmation of the New Labour project, nor a wholesale return to the traditional Labour values of previous decades. It lies in the challenges and opportunities of the world in which we now live.

David Cameron has asked the right questions but has ultimately failed to convince enough people that he has the answers. His plan to empower communities to tackle a growing sense of social alienation simply looks like substituting volunteers for public services. He sounded positive early on about tackling climate change but has fallen far short of any comprehensive plan; it’s Labour who are best placed to offer a vision of a state-lead transformation to a low-carbon economy, with massive investment in renewable energy and green public transport. All three main parties have worked hard to find ways to fund personal care for the elderly but have paid pitiful attention to the impending funding crisis of our ageing population. Labour need to present a comprehensive vision for the future of older people in our society, surely a defining issue for the 2010s.

But it is the deficit which will present the central challenge for all political parties over the next five years. Instead of universal criticism of any move to make savings, Labour must seek to offer a coherent and comprehensive defence of the core public services which are under threat, while understanding the need for adaptation and modernisation. The party’s ability to agree on the role of the state in an age of austerity and to present a vision to the voting public will be of crucial importance in a return to power.

Labour have lost but they need not become losers. History is littered with defeated parties falling into infighting and indecision but again, inspiration lies in the story of the 1990s. Defeat in 1992 was difficult, yet it was revival not ruin which followed. Just as Brian Cox left a failing dance group to become a physics legend, Labour must find a new role. It’ll be different, maybe difficult… but the spirit is the same.