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" It's not just parliament that requires radical modernisation. It's our democratic processes. "

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" 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. "

" I am nothing if not a loyalist. After 46 years in the Labour party, I've grown weary of the cry: 'If only we had a new, shining, revamped leader, all would be well.' "

" If you have a sense of irony or humour, you're usually cut down, as you're usually distorted or misinterpreted. So it does lead to us being slightly more dour and staid and predictable than would otherwise be the case, which I personally find quite frustrating - because if you don't laugh occasionally in my job, you cry most of the time. "

" We've got to get back to old-fashioned politics that's in touch with the people we seek to represent and to avoid self-inflicted wounds. "

" Being home secretary involves having to face some of the worst of human behaviour and challenges of modern society. "

" We have a media that presents every politician as being as bad as the next. There is no distinguishing between one good idea or another; no explanation of why constitutional change should be uppermost in the minds of the people I represent. "

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

" 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. "

" Crucially, I'd like to thank Labour party members up and down the country for sticking with us. For their active citizenship, their willingness to engage in our democracy, and for being there at the cutting edge of making our democracy work. "

" If surveillance infiltrates our homes and personal relationships, that is a gross breach of our human and civil rights. "

" In today's world, learning has become the key to economic prosperity, social cohesion and personal fulfillment. We can no longer afford to educate the few to think, and the many to do. "

" In primary schools, I set two main objectives - to cut infant class sizes and improve literacy and numeracy. "

" As home secretary, I gained a reputation for being 'tough'; less concerned with liberty than with public protection. "

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

" I don't like prolonged, highly expensive commissions, especially if they are chaired by judges. We seem to have overwhelming faith in judges. "

" Being an MP is not a desperately hard life, like going down the pit or working in the steelworks - with which I am all too familiar, having been brought up in the city of Sheffield; and it certainly isn't badly paid compared with any of my constituents. "

" Without the political parties and the volunteering work of their members day in, day out, we would have a very different sort of politics and society. "

" 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. "

" I'm in favour of a sensible development of response units and their deployment in any circumstance where there may be a risk to the officers themselves or the neighbourhood they're in. I'm not in favour of a blanket arming of the police. "

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

" In the U.K., we have always been an open, trading nation, enriched by our global links. Contemporary patterns of migration extend this tradition. "

" And we think that our citizens and yours would be very angry if they thought that we hadn't taken every possible step for prevention and then for joint action in the likelihood of those who threaten our lives and our well- being, taking action at the same time. "

" Children whose parents return to study do much better at school. Offenders who persist with studies are much less likely to reoffend. The national mental health strategy recognises the important role adult learning can play for people recovering from mental illness. "

" Where asylum is used as a route to economic migration, it can cause deep resentment in the host community. "

" I love the walk although my security team weren't too sure to begin with but I was anxious to be able to lead a near normal life. Whilst walking I do get the chance to meet people and keep in touch. "

" As a former home secretary, I have access to and knowledge of the workings of the system in a way that individuals unfamiliar with the courts can never hope to have. "

" In an ageing society, it makes sense to support older adults to develop new skills, prolonging their working lives. "

" I am not a parliamentarian. I am a politician. Some MPs leave and are itching to get back. I don't feel that. This is just a work environment. "

" Being a Labour home secretary in the 21st century means fighting a constant battle against both extreme Right and Left. "

" 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. "