Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" To punish MPs because of the distance they live from London - those with fast train journeys quite close to London as well as those at some distance from both the capital or an appropriate airport - is perverse, but also dangerous to democracy. "

Related Quotes:

" 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

" My integrity had been called into question; I was being called a liar, and I am not a liar. And I just think it is time that we stop viewing public figures as fair game. "

" Judy, we think that since the 11th of September, 2001, we've faced a similar heightened threat level. And we've been enhancing both the exchange of intelligence and security information and the assessment of that information, because that's the crucial element. "

" 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. "

" When I first came into parliament, there was, on average, a by-election every three months - due not to MPs bailing out, but because of the death rate. "

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

" Nothing is more important for young people than enhancing their life chances, liberating their potential and encouraging their contribution to a globally competitive and modern economy. "

David Blunkett

People

Potential

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

" 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. "

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

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

David Blunkett

Judges

Expensive

" 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. "

" I have never tried to fiddle my role as leader of the city of Sheffield, as an MP or as a minister. "

" The government wants to be able to attack extremism and hatred wherever it occurs. "

" 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.' "

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

" 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. "

" By confirming the importance of politics and politicians in Britain, we can build from the bottom up and begin to reverse the worrying anti-politics trend, which will empower the elite technocrats and leave defenceless the man or woman in the street with a mere vote to cast. "

" At this very moment in time there will be people making, breaking relationships, regretting deeply what they've done, and causing hurt, but that is a fact of life, and if we weren't full of emotion, we'd be automatons, and I don't think people want us to be that. "

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

David Blunkett

Point

Miss

" I didn't come into politics to have to deal with the issue of clandestine entry, illegal working, or an asylum system that allows a free run for right-wing bigots. "

" 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. "

" Back in 2003, when I was home secretary, I introduced the victim surcharge on offenders to substantially expand the support available and, I hoped, the protection of witnesses who were brave enough to come forward. "

" It is feasible for someone who comes from a privileged background to understand the privilege they have had and to use the formal political arena in a way that would disperse power and engage with people in their own lives. "

" 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. "

" 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 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. "

" 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. "

" I'm a great aficionado of history. I was deeply affected by seeing the disintegration of any chance of democracy coping with fascism in the Weimar republic, where woolly-minded, well-meaning liberalism actually allowed the forces of darkness to use democracy, to exploit democracy, to overturn democracy. "

" 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