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" 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. "

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" Good politics starts with empathy, proceeds to analysis, then sets out values and establishes the vision, before getting to the nitty-gritty of policy solutions. "

David Miliband

Empathy

Good

Politics

" 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. "

" 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

" 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. "

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

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

" History is information. Memory is part of your identity. "

" Communism was meant to be an alternative religion. "

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

" 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. "

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

" The test of leadership for David Cameron was actually to bring the British Conservative Party back in to the mainstream. "

" I've learnt that, sometimes, how others see you is not the same as how you see yourself. I've learnt about how you can be multitasking - and sometimes other people see that you're multitasking. And that's not very nice for them. "

" 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

" I was always brought up that if you can make a difference, you should, and if you don't it's a waste. So we'll see if I can make a difference. "

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

" 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. "

" Al Qaeda has no place in Pakistan. It's a threat to Pakistan. And there should be a convergence of interests between the Pakistani state and the West on security issues, but also on wider economic and social issues. "

" We keep the terrorist threat to the United Kingdom under very careful scrutiny. We think it's right to keep the public informed about the general threat level. "

" The biggest novelty of 2013 will be new leadership in China. Very little is known about the views of the new leaders - who will rule the country for ten years. But we do know they're the first generation of Chinese leaders who have spent the majority of their lives in a China 'opening up' to the rest of the world. "

" The wedding ring on my left hand was bought by my grandfather, Samuel Miliband, in Brussels in 1920. I never knew him, as he died when I was one. But his ring was kept by my aunt until it was placed on my finger by my wife Louise 32 years later. "

" My memories are of my dad taking me to football on Saturday mornings, and my mum taking me swimming. Those are the things I remember from my childhood, not sitting around the table debating capitalism and the profit squeeze. "

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

David Miliband

Think

Being

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

" John Major put the 'er' back into Conservative, David Cameron's put the 'Con' into Conservative - and Norman Lamont put the 'vat' into Conservative! "

" Today, Labour has a disruptive economic narrative - that Britain needs fundamental change in its market structure and culture to compete in the modern world. "

" 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. "

" I mean, Britain is a country of successful Muslim businesspeople, teachers and educators, journalists. So, we have to say very strongly that the two million plus Muslims in Britain, the vast bulk of them make a huge contribution to our society, and they actually make it the vibrant society it is. "

" 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. "