There are retailers successfully combining conventional and online retail, like Argos or John Lewis.

More and more department stores are acting as the shop window for a range of retailers now, using space more efficiently to recreate the feel of the local market, creating new market opportunities for the small and the niche.

Shopping in the future can become an experience where conventional retailers can complement the success of online retailing. Government needs to work in partnership with the sector to help make this a reality.

With Tory privatisations in the past we've seen how service users can end up losing out and getting a raw deal.

We need to see many more people starting businesses and becoming their own boss, but the squeezed middle exists as much within this group as in the population at large as rising costs are hitting small businesses - who after all are consumers too.

We are determined to work in partnership with business not only towards our goal of full employment, but for more secure jobs for working people so they can get on and meet their aspirations.

Some people welcome the flexibility of a zero-hours contract. But their growth is symptomatic of a wider issue - increasing job insecurity and falling living standards in David Cameron's Britain.

We want to see more sources of alternative finance, from innovations in factoring such as MarketInvoice or in peer-to-peer lending such as Funding Circle which Labour local authorities are now using to support and invest in local businesses.

I've never bought the argument that people are apathetic about politics.

Why not let the main parties wither? Because I know of no better vehicle than the political party to enable those with common values to come together and reach a position on issues that can then be offered up as a choice of programmes for voters.

Political parties - which too often operate like closed circles - must open up.

Though I am probably guilty of indulging in excessive tribalism myself at times, I try to put partisanship to one side where appropriate.

As the world has changed through globalisation and technology, it has left many feeling left behind.

We are a great country with huge potential.

We will not try to out-Ukip Ukip. Labour is not going to offer false solutions, such as leaving Europe.

Labour is the party of internationalism and openness.

We must stop looking to the past and focus on ensuring everyone has a stake in the future.

To be clear, aiming to reduce the national debt in the long term and running small surpluses when the economy is operating close to full capacity is what I mean when I talk about seeking to 'balance the books' - a sensible approach.

When a Conservative government is presiding over unfair cuts to tax credits, chaos in the NHS and an unnecessary and ideological attack on trade union rights, it is natural that many in the Labour party should be sceptical of Tory talk on devolution - sceptical, even of government deals with Labour-led local authorities.

This country needs nothing less than wholesale federalisation. The reasons are threefold: economic, democratic and cultural.

We are all proud to be British. But we also feel more local and regional allegiances.

Sometimes it requires national impetus to deliver real change.

Some will say it isn't the government's job to manage who people meet and interact with, but there is clearly a lot it can and should do. It should offer communities much more support to manage demographic and cultural change, including investment in public services and additional housing stock in our migration hotspots.

Our differences needn't divide us, but unity takes work.

Daily we see how demographic change and uncertainty about what it means to be British is exploited by those with their own agenda; those who employ divisive rhetoric, engage in scapegoating and do nothing to tackle root causes of the insecurities people face.

I want to make sure that all GPs, not only in my constituency but across the U.K., help to raise awareness of the increased risk of prostate cancer in black men and have the knowledge to initiate these important conversations with the community.

Believe it or not, we all share the same values in the Labour party, but there will always be differences of opinion on policy - that is in the nature of the broad-church political parties we have under our flawed first-past-the-post electoral system.

Green growth is one vehicle through which technology, globalisation and environmental challenges can be turned from obstacles to solutions for problems related to growth, jobs and competitiveness.

You cannot duck the difficult issues in the middle of an election campaign.

The argument in Labour around full membership of the single market is about whether it can be squared with delivering the desire of many of our voters to gain greater control over immigration. This is a proper concern - Labour must stand for those who voted leave every bit as much as we represent those who voted remain.

Leaving the single market, making communities poorer and more alienated, is not the way to deal with public concerns about immigration, most of which comes from outside the E.U.

Work is the way we contribute to society, part of a reciprocal social contract - the giving of our effort and our taking when in need - that holds our society together. We work, we build our society, and we share in its prosperity.

Back in the 1980s parts of our country were devastated by de-industrialisation. This wave of globalisation and the first fruits of technological innovation destroyed industrial jobs or exported them to low-wage economies. The loss of work had a devastating impact.

We must never forget the value of work because without it people are denied a sense of dignity and of community.

When you lose work, the meaning and purpose of life are taken away from you, and isolation can set in.

Being outside the customs union would mean masses of new red tape, a desperate scramble for trade agreements and the re-emergence of a border in Ireland.

Having common European standards has not only boosted prosperity here and across the continent, it is undoubtedly the best way of managing the challenges posed by globalisation.

Whether it is clamping down on tax avoidance by multinationals, setting ambitious targets for tackling climate change, or reforming the posted workers' directive to better protect migrant workers, European countries are working together to get things done.

I worked in the Square Mile for three and half years at an international City law firm.

We do not just strive for a society in which every person has the opportunity to reach their full potential (all parties lay claim to that); we want to build a society in which whatever talents people have, they are rewarded with a comfortable standard of living when they apply them.

Undoubtedly Obama's multi-ethnic heritage is part of his appeal. There is something in his background that we can all relate to and grab hold of.

If the tax loop holes that allow tax avoidance were shut down, it would go some way to sorting out our finances, would it not?

I have a confession to make: I am a Labour parliamentary candidate but like and get on with some of the Conservative persuasion.

I think the first person to call me 'Britain's Obama' was Martin Bright at the New Statesman. Harriet Harman made the comparison once at a conference; it was very flattering but it made me cringe slightly.

My stock answer when people ask 'Are you Britain's Barack Obama?' is 'I'm quite happy being Streatham's Chuka Umunna,' and I really mean that.

Comparing every black male politician on the scene to Obama is a bit lazy - just because I'm from a similar background and profession, it's such an easy comparison to make. It's also quite annoying being viewed through the prism of someone else's personality and identity, rather than your own.

I've had a lot of good media and the Obama comparison has definitely been part of the reason for some of that.

Despite Labour's achievements in government, we were too often seen as champions for global capital markets, which worked for bankers but did not seem to be delivering for the rest of Britain.

Banks provide payment systems, core deposit and lending facilities that enable us to manage our day to day affairs.

Future prosperity will be built on private sector growth.