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" I abhor anything that constitutes torture. Water-boarding, it's perfectly clear to me it is torture. I never supported extraordinary rendition to torture, always said that Guantanamo should be closed. There is no clash of ideals and pragmatism there. "

David Miliband

Always

Extraordinary

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" Successful economies in the modern world are not sheepish about the power and responsibility of the state. "

" I do not speak Hebrew, but I understand that it has no word for 'history.' The closest word for it is memory. "

" In Britain, the centrally prescribed welfare to work system short-changes the young unemployed. Transport, housing and education are over centralised. "

" One of the things about the modern world is that the public and the private - which is not the same as the public and the personal - but the public and the private... it's very, very much harder than it used to be to have things that are private and things that are public. "

" The whole of government needs to contribute to the shared goal of restructuring the British economy. But that means taking on the myth that the Treasury either knows best or can run it all. It just doesn't. "

" I can't admit to myself that the creation of a Palestinian state won't happen. What I know is that with each passing year it gets more and more difficult to happen, not least because there is more and more bloodshed, generation upon generation. "

" The biggest opportunity in 2013 is in Africa. It has seven out of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. In Nigeria alone there are 100 million people with mobile phones. In total, 300 million Africans - five times the population of Britain - are in the middle class. "

" We know there can be no justice in the Middle East without a Palestinian state. But there can be no security in the Middle East without a Palestinian state. "

" You know, you only get to live life once, so there are two things that that yields. One is that there's no point in crying over spilt milk, but secondly you hate wasting time, energy, and whatever talent you've got. "

" The American idea that everyone graduates high school at 18 is a good one. "

" People feel politics isn't about their lives. "

" The problems that the world faces - from nuclear proliferation to climate change - can't be tackled by the West alone. They need a coalition of not just West and East, but they need a coalition of Christian and Jew and Muslim. "

" I don't think I've ever been accused of being faddish. I'm more Marks & Spencer than Ted Baker. "

David Miliband

Think

Being

" Foreign policy is inseparable from domestic policy now. Is terrorism foreign policy or domestic policy? It's both. It's the same with crime, with the economy, climate change. "

" One thing that I feel very, very strongly is that we talk about Islamic countries, Islamic people, Islamic leaders, as either moderates or extremists. It's almost like there are only two categories of Muslims. And actually, that doesn't show respect. It shows lack of understanding of the diversity of Muslim thought. "

" In the end, human history is made up of all our decisions. "

" But for me, my personal relations, my personal family relations, are very important, and we've always tried to make sure that the public and the private are kept separate. "

David Miliband

Always

Personal

" What is the big political issue for Britain at the moment? Without wishing to sound portentous, it is about whether we can build a social democratic settlement, whether we can lay the political and cultural foundations for the next several years. "

" I've committed myself to serve my constituents in South Shields and I have committed myself to British politics. "

" And the truth is, those who are terrorists only have to succeed once, and those of us who are trying to build an inclusive society have to succeed every time. "

" One of the jewels in the crown of Labour's time in office was the rescue of the National Health Service. As the Commonwealth Fund, the London School of Economics and the Nuffield Foundation have all shown, health reforms as well as additional investment were essential to improved outcomes, especially for poorer patients. "

" Israelis and Palestinians are suspicious of each other and of promises from outside. But the need for a negotiated solution between the parties should not stymie international clarity and consensus about the endgame in terms of borders and other issues. "

" The 1970s - I was ten in 1975 - were a bad decade in all sorts of ways but the middle class had comfortable assumptions about the prospects for its children. The middle class was smaller then; it was a much less competitive Britain, less meritocratic. "

" I think the wonderment of seeing my two sons developing makes me incredibly optimistic about human potential. It makes you think: 'My goodness. It's a miracle that's going on here. What could the human race do together?' "

David Miliband

Together

You

" The big risk to British lives in 2013 is in Afghanistan. Our troops, diplomats and aid workers have made a big contribution there. But while there is an end date for Western engagement, 2014, there isn't a proper end game. "

" Communism was meant to be an alternative religion. "

" The two biggest threats to international security in 2013 are Iran getting a nuclear weapon, and Iran being bombed to stop it getting a nuclear weapon. Both would precipitate a long and dangerous conflict in an already unstable Middle East. Both would be a disaster. "

" Everything about my politics has been about the future. "

" The real danger to Britain is a foreign policy that is isolationist in Europe and therefore weak in the rest of the world. "

" My advice is very simple: if you can win a small battle, it gives you confidence in the political process to take on bigger battles, and so it is very much a bottom-up grass-roots way of doing politics. "