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" As education and employment secretary in 1997, I inherited hundreds of schools where the roofs leaked, the windows rattled, and they relied entirely on outside toilets. "

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" It would be dangerous territory if I wasn't practising what I preach which is to always accept responsibility, always accept the consequences of your actions. "

David Blunkett

Responsibility

Consequences

" Parents don't believe that lifting life-chances in one school means reducing them in another. "

" There are some really good experiments with the youth offending service, joining up youth offending teams with the youth justice board, and good local authority and primary care trusts working together. "

" We must look to an open, tolerant, inclusive England, which embraces the values of a Britain that still leads the world in terms of an open democracy, as well as an understanding of the needs for responsibilities and obligations to run alongside the affirmation of individual rights. "

" If I pleaded guilty to a mistake while I was home secretary, it wasn't that I didn't get tough - my God, I put immigration and security officials on French soil for the first time. "

" Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, in hosting the G20 summit and in the budget, must display the same boldness in tackling the instability at home that they do in promoting a worldwide answer to the global meltdown. "

" Politics is only worthwhile if you are doing what you believe, regardless of the slings and arrows. "

" I was affected by the harshness of government, the reality of 16-hour days, and the pressures of modern communications. "

" I grew up in one of the most deprived parts of Britain. I know the problems which inner-city children face. "

David Blunkett

Most

Face

" I've been fortunate when in government to have a car at my disposal, which takes away the nightmare of getting a taxi. "

" Privacy is a right, but as in any democratic society, it is not an absolute right. "

" Politics is about the participation and engagement of the wider citizenry - to miss that point would doom us to irrelevance. "

David Blunkett

Point

Miss

" But any perception of this application being speeded up requires me to take responsibility. "

David Blunkett

Perception

" To make sense of a world in which rapid change and globalisation create genuine insecurity, we need benchmarks by which we can judge our actions and their long-term impact. "

" Throughout my political life, I've not been a stranger to controversy. "

" Balancing the common good with the freedom and liberty to exercise that individuality has been and remains a challenge for those committed to democracy while understanding that the polis ensures our participation and therefore our citizenship. "

" Strengthening our identity is one way of reinforcing people's confidence and sense of citizenship and well-being. "

" In Sheffield, we need support from the community and for the community. We need integration with no loss of heritage, and a clear appreciation of what is and is not acceptable. "

" Speaking for the nation as a whole entails understanding and feeling the pain, as well as understanding the aspiration of the different cultural, social and political make-up of the nation. "

" We need to use all the resources at our disposal in order to prosper. We need more employment, and we need employment to be spread more fairly across society. "

David Blunkett

Society

Resources

" It is certainly true that as we grow older, our need for healthcare also grows. It is also true that those who have lived their lives in the most difficult circumstances and experienced the most exhausting and challenging work places need healthcare the most. "

" My job as Labour Home Secretary is to ensure people are prepared to listen to us when we take on our opponents across the political spectrum. "

David Blunkett

People

Political

" Much extremist activity falls short of directly inciting people to violence or other crimes and so is not caught by laws on incitement. Neither does the Public Order Act, used to protect groups of people from harassment, deal with the problem. "

" We need dynamic and thriving businesses and a skilled and adaptable labour force to produce competitiveness and prosperity. "

" In government, you are pressed by the security agencies. They come to you with very good information, and they say, 'You need to do something.' So you do need the breath of scepticism, not cynicism, breathing on them. "

" Yes, it will go through the disciplines that all puppies go through including house training and puppy walking, then at twelve month old it the training becomes a lot more rigorous which has to be done carefully otherwise you are in danger of stressing the dog. "

" We need to reaffirm that politics is not merely compatible with economic progress and development in the 21st century, but essential to it. "

" We need to build on what we know works - local oversight of schools to keep a check on performance, timely interventions in schools to support those at risk of failing, and partnerships between schools to help each one to improve. "

" I am totally in favour of reform - but it must be reform that changes the nature of British politics, not simply the makeup or operation of parliament. "

" The Home Office culture was one of being just above the problem, of hovering just out of reach of knowing what was going on on the ground, whether it was crime or immigration. "