182 quotes found
""The poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he..." [Colonel Thomas Rainsborough, Putney Debates 1647] This is one Liberal Text. And it is more distinctive than may at first appear. It asserts the individual and the value of any individual - even the poorest He. But it asserts it without envy. It does not demand that the rich be made poor - nor even claim that the poor are more deserving than the rich. It demands equality in one thing only, the right to live one's own life."
"Our long-term objective is clear: to replace the Labour Party as the progressive wing of politics in this country."
"Neither the Government nor the local authorities make any wealth or have any money of their own. If we want them to spend more and more we have to pay. The remedy is in our hands. Stop running to them asking them to do this, that and everything under the sun - and demand instead that they stop doing and spending so much."
"In bygone days, commanders were taught that when in doubt, they should march their troops towards the sound of gunfire. I intend to march my troops towards the sound of gunfire."
"After listening to the debate on unemployment I can see a danger that Liberals lose to the Tories their claim to have new and sensible ideas and are left saying "Me too" to a Socialist conventional wisdom which is failing...The salient need of this country—to produce more and much more efficiently—hardly figured on the agenda."
"Why do I—the original advocate of realignment on the Left—object to the Lib-Lab pact? Precisely because I do not think it will lead to realignment. For one thing, the Gaitskellites have fled the field. The Labour Party looks and behaves more and more as the servants of the trade union leaders...When the election comes, either the Labour Party win—and if that happens they will say "Thank you very much" to us and go on with more collectivism—or they lose, and we shall be tarred with their failure...Don't let us become oysters to Carpenter Jim, however genuinely benevolent he may seem."
"The root objection to the pact is the nature of the Labour Party. It is not liberal. It is not becoming more liberal. The social democrats remain ineffective, or sneak off, after preaching equality to everyone else, to some of the highest-paid jobs open to the British. As a final spectacle of degradation, they are to be seen intimidating the Grunwick workers...The Labour Party remains without principle, clinging to office, paid by the trades unions, and with an anti-democratic Marxist wing. The pact, I fear, is having no effect on the nature of that party."
"10 per cent inflation is not heaven and the factors are all still there to push it up much further next year. Nor has the Government any policy adequate to deal with unemployment. It is not capitalism that is in crisis. It is Socialism that is in collapse. The faith has vanished. The principles are shattered. It won't do for Liberals merely to say they will put on the brakes. Even if you slow down the Gadarene swine, they will go over the precipice eventually."
"The state owned monopolies are among the greatest millstones round the neck of the economy...Liberals must stress at all times the virtues of the market, not only for efficiency but to enable the widest possible choice...Much of what Mrs Thatcher and Sir Keith Joseph say and do is in the mainstream of liberal philosophy."
"We should not delude ourselves into thinking that an incomes policy is other than a serious infringement of freedom...Nor have the Liberals explained how it is to be worked, and even if they had, it is certainly not a permanent answer to our economic troubles...At present, the Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance occasionally looks too much like a half-way house on the old road to state socialism. It will spend more than the Tories but rather less than Labour...Such compromises may win votes, but they will not improve the country."
"Now the employer is to be told that if the unions force him to pay exorbitant wages or go out of business if he tries to continue, he will be taxed. The unions will escape any punishment. The employer will not be allowed to increase employment by paying lower wages nor to attract good labour by paying higher wages. We shall have another huge department to supervise the whole operation...an incomes policy is minted in the thinking of 1945."
"The Liberal Party doesn't seem to know in its mind what to do about it—its ostensible view is that the mix of the mixed economy must be left as it is. This seems to be a slightly doubtful proposition...We have to reduce the public sector, the state-run sector, and hand it over to other bodies. The economy is probably unmanageable so long as the state attempts to do so much. The Liberals have not given nearly enough thought to the question of the bureaucracy of the state, what is suitable for the state to run...I personally agree with the SDP line, not with that of the Liberal unilateralists. I want to remain in NATO and I believe that a deterrent is essential and it promotes peace...I would not support unilateral disarmament either on moral or practical grounds."
"Good political leadership for me involves getting the big decisions right - however difficult, however controversial, however potentially divisive and then being able to take people with you. And that requires something else as well - being wise enough to know when it's time to listen."
"It can fairly be said of John Smith that he had all the virtues of a Scottish presbyterian, but none of the vices."
"We can all agree–it has already been a measure of the debate–that Saddam Hussein is an evil tyrant with no regard for the sanctity of human life, for either his own citizens or the people of other countries. We all agree that he is in flagrant breach of a series of UN resolutions, and in particular those relating to his duty to allow the inspection, and indeed participate in the destruction, of his weapons of mass destruction. We can also agree that he most certainly has chemical and biological weapons and is working towards a nuclear capability. The dossier contains confirmation of information that we either knew or most certainly should have been willing to assume."
"I have done my best to fulfil my responsibility to him and to the party in circumstances which were difficult for everyone … It has been an enormously difficult time and there have been huge conflicts of loyalty. We have to accept the sincerity of intention of people in what it was they tried to do."
"My priorities? The environment, the environment, the environment."
"Under my leadership the Liberal Democrats would not be making polite interjections from the sidelines, we would be hammering on the doors of power."
"It’s like a soap opera. It’s certainly an identity crisis. Gordon wants to be like Maggie, but he doesn’t want to be like Tony. Tony also wanted to be like Maggie, but Maggie only wanted to be like Ronnie. Now Dave, he wants to be like Tony, but he doesn’t want to be like William, or Iain, or Michael, and certainly not like Maggie either. Confused? You must be, but you can be clear on this: I don’t want to be like any of them."
"It has become clear that following the prime minister's decision not to hold an election, questions about leadership are getting in the way of further progress by the party. Accordingly I now submit my resignation as leader with immediate effect."
"I think he was shafted by a complete shower of shits."
"There can be no place in a 21st-century parliament for people with 15th-century titles upholding 19th-century prejudices."
"Bosnia is under my skin. It's the place you cannot leave behind. I was obsessed by the nightmare of it all; there was this sense of guilt, and an anger that has become something much deeper over these last years."
"I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth."
"My second job has been to try to use my power to create institutions of a modern state that could enter the European Union, and there was very little time. The door was closing, and I wanted to get Bosnia through before it shut."
"History teaches us these lessons for the interveners: leave your prejudices at home, keep your ambitions low, have enough resources to do the job, do not lose the golden hour, make security your first priority, involve the neighbours."
"I agree with Paddy Ashdown when he said everybody in Britain should have the chance to be a somebody. But only one family can provide the head of state. We Liberal Democrats believe in opportunity for all. We believe in fairness, common sense. We believe in referenda on major constitutional issues. We do not believe that people should be born to rule, or that they should put up and shut up about decisions that affect their everyday lives."
"Everyone knows that the Chinese regime is coming to an end. I just say to the people in China who are guilty of crimes of genocide, such as harvesting organs from Falun Gong prisoners—we know your names. We know what you're doing… and you will be punished. This is the world of 2006 and beyond. It is a world of human rights and democracy, and a world in which the CCP has no place."
"The House has noticed the Prime Minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from Stalin to Mr. Bean, creating chaos out of order, rather than order out of chaos."
"These masters of the universe must be tamed in the interests of the ordinary families whose jobs and livelihoods are being put at risk... The Tories won't say anything about the current crisis as they are completely in the pockets of the hedge funds."
"The big, looming, monetary issue is "quantitative easing": that is, printing money. What happens is that the government borrows from the Bank of England, not from the markets. It expands the money supply to keep the economy going and also to counter deflation without simultaneously increasing government debt. The attractions are obvious, as are the dangers. The Robert Mugabe school of economics provides a salutary warning about uncontrolled monetary expansion in generating hyper-inflation. The road to Harare is not as long as we might hope. Monetary easing may prove to be necessary but will have to be managed with great skill and care: Too little easing and the crisis drags on – as in Japan. If there is too much, the authorities face the messy task of mopping-up liquidity by issuing bonds which add to the burden of borrowing or else we lurch back from deflation to inflation. So interest rates may soon become yesterday's story."
"We're being held to ransom by these pinstripe Scargills..."
"We didn't break a promise. We made a commitment in our manifesto, we didn't win the election. We then entered into a coalition agreement, and it's the coalition agreement that is binding upon us and which I'm trying to honour,"
"I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win."
"The destruction of the British building society movement – or much of it – in the two decades after the late 1980s … was one of the great acts of economic vandalism in modern times. And the commercial banks largely abandoned locally based relationship banking in the decade before the recent financial crisis. There is now no institutional structure in place to offer countercyclical lending, particularly small and medium sized businesses, in place of the banks."
"[Regarding an EU referendum], it's a distraction. It's a serious distraction. We are recovering from the worst economic crisis for the best part of a century. The last thing we need now is massive levels of uncertainty in the business community."
"[London] is becoming a giant suction machine draining the life out of the rest of the country"
"We must fight for the British public to have a final say on the government's deal with a chance to stay in the EU if the deal is not good enough. To achieve this, we will need to work with like-minded people in other parties."
"Some of the brightest and most interesting people in British politics recently have been relatively old,"
"[I am] struck by the heavily Remain sentiment in colleges and schools, and the heavily Brexit mood of church-hall meetings packed with retired people"
"The old have comprehensively shafted the young"
"We haven't yet heard about 'Brexit jihadis' but there is an undercurrent of violence in the language which is troubling."
"Growing inequality is linked to poor economic performance, greater instability, more social tension, insecurity and unhappiness."
"We are the party of remain. We believe membership of the EU is in our country's interest."
"No-one has come up with a plausible explanation about how leaving [the EU] will make us better off than we are inside. Nobody has come up with a plausible explanation about how this process can be managed in a way that does not cause enormous cost and enormous damage."
"On his central point, the £350m a week, this is a lie. He knows it is a lie and endlessly repeating it does not make it the truth."
"I love slightly dangerous things. High energy, edgy things. I learned to ski when I was 63, which is a bit hazardous. But I go off once a year to the place where the Russian mafia assemble in the Alps, and go out on the slopes. I've got into red runs. One of my unfulfilled life ambitions is to do serious black runs. So, you know, a bit of danger, a bit of speed."
"In a Britain increasingly dominated by extremists and ideologues, I want us to fill the huge gap in the centre of British politics."
"There is another word for that - masochism. It isn't illegal. I am told some people pay good money to indulge in it. But unlike masochists, the Brexit ideologues usually envisage someone else bearing the pain. And that pain will mainly be felt by young people who overwhelmingly voted to Remain."
"nostalgia for a world where passports were blue, faces were white and the map was coloured imperial pink"
"[There is a] fundamental economic issue of whether any company which uses data from individuals to make money should pay the owner of that data for its use... The new oil is data. Data is the raw material which drives these firms and it is control of data which gives them an advantage over competitors"
"I think the interesting thing about Windrush is that perhaps for the first time the public opinion has been ahead of the politicians in seeing that there is a terrible injustice here and it should not be allowed to pass."
"The immediate preoccupation is to work with people in other parties to stop Brexit, but in the longer term there may well be realignment because of the deep splits in the parties and I want my party to be at the centre of it."
"Liberal democracy itself is under threat notably in the USA, in eastern Europe and perhaps here. Authoritarians and extremists of both right and left are on the march."
"I think it's very clear that people in Scotland, as in other parts of the United Kingdom, don't want Brexit to happen. They want to stop it and it can be stopped, and the best mechanism for stopping it is to have a people's vote. I think momentum is building up behind that and I'm trying to work with people in other parties to make sure it happens."
"Whether you see yourself as a liberal, social democrat, progressive, or centrist there is a home for you here, particularly as we fight Brexit together"
"We're absolutely solid that we need to vote against Brexit and stop it."
"Brexit is not inevitable - it can and it must be stopped,"
"We are absolutely solid that we need to vote against Brexit and stop it"
"Are we going to make a terrible mistake, leaving behind our influence in Europe's most successful peace project and the world's biggest marketplace?"
"We have long argued it is the right and logical thing to do for the people to have the final say on Brexit."
"[We should] go back to the people [with another referendum]"
"We need a proper referendum that will come to a resolution on the issue, with remain on the ballot paper."
"[Young people felt their future had been] taken away from them by a very narrow majority"
"I understand how angry people are on both sides. There are some angry Leavers and there are some very angry Remainers too, particularly young people who feel their future has been taken away from them on the basis of a very narrow majority, where a significant majority of the electorate did not vote and many young people did not get an opportunity to vote."
"I'm afraid the referendum resolved nothing and we do have to go back to the people and ask if what is now on offer is what they really voted for. We have got completely different views about what Brexit actually means. What has emerged over the last three years is that the prospectus on which the Leave vote was achieved was based on a tissue of lies to be frank."
"Brexit will make us poorer and risks breaking up our United Kingdom. We must stop it and we will."
"The House has noticed his remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from national treasure to Treasury poodle."
"We have to be careful of Vince Cable, he's extremely sharp and clever. In fact, he's almost as sharp and clever as he thinks he is."
"If the legislation is passed I will lead a grassroots campaign of civil disobedience to thwart the identity cards programme ... I, and I expect thousands of people like me, will simply refuse ever to register."
"We would support the government by not voting for a referendum [on the Lisbon treaty]. We would vote against a referendum on the treaty and vote in accordance with our long-held position that the real referendum that needs to be had is whether we stay in the EU or not."
"Maybe he one day - perhaps we will have to wait for his memoirs - could account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all, which is the illegal invasion of Iraq."
"We don't believe that the expansion of civil nuclear power is the great panacea the government makes it out to be. For a start, all the experts agree that where there is going to be an energy crunch between supply and increasing demand, will be around... 2016 or so. By the most optimistic scenarios from the government itself, there's no way they are going to have new nuclear come on stream until 2021, 2022. So it's just not even an answer."
"Human Rights Act are not, as some would have you believe, foreign impositions. These are British rights, drafted by British lawyers. Forged in the aftermath of the atrocities of the Second World War. Fought for by Winston Churchill. So let me say something really clear about the Human Rights Act. In fact I'll do it in words of one syllable: It is here to stay."
"Years of uncertainty caused by a future EU referendum would hit jobs and growth and this is not in the national interest"
"What people have dubbed the snooper's charter - I have to be clear with you, that's not going to happen."
"[I promise] real remedies for the way the world is today not dangerous fantasies about a bygone world that no longer exists. And that is why I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that we remain part of the European Union because that is how we protect the Britain we love."
"The home secretary and the Home Office – they can try to make the case as many times as they like but this idea, which was the idea of the heart of the snooper's charter, that every single website that you visit and every single website that anyone visits in this country is logged somewhere, that's just not going to happen while I'm in government."
"[Leaving the EU would be a] terrible thing for the British economy"
"In 2007 after a night of disappointing election results for our party in Edinburgh, Alex Cole Hamilton said this: if his defeat was part-payment for the ending of child detention, then he accepted it with all his heart. Those words revealed a selfless dignity which is very rare in politics but common amongst Liberal Democrats. If our losses today are part payment for every family that is more secure because of a job we helped to create, every person with depression who is treated with a compassion they deserve, every child who does a little better in school, every apprentice with a long and rewarding career to look forward to, every gay couple who know that their love is worth no less than anyone else’s and every pensioner with a little more freedom and dignity in retirement then I hope at least our losses can be endured with a little selfless dignity too."
"If I was a Brexit voter, I would feel increasingly betrayed that I voted in the belief that all these Brexiteers knew what they were doing"
"Whether we like it or not the single market, the biggest destination of our goods and services, is a market place of rules,"
"In politics, you live by the sword, and you die by the sword."
"If the people who ran Facebook were monsters, I wouldn’t have worked there."
"I agree with Nick."
"An officer candidate being interviewed for a posting on the British general staff was once asked to define the role of cavalry in modern warfare. He replied that it was to lend some color and dash to what would otherwise be a somewhat dreary and sordid occasion. Nick Clegg, the leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats, is the equivalent of the cavalry in the case of Thursday’s British general election. Until his eruption onto the scene, the muddy battlefield was a dull trench war between two heavily armored divisions, each of them wearily familiar with the tactics and strategy of the other."
"Years ago, when I toiled as a columnist for The Nation, Nick Clegg was my intern. (So, for that matter, was Edward Miliband, Gordon Brown’s minister for energy and climate change and brother of Brown’s most likely replacement, Foreign Secretary David Miliband.) I have done my best to trade on this mentoring relationship with power, to little avail. Clegg worked for me in the magazine’s New York offices while I was writing from Washington, so our direct contact was limited. What I chiefly remember, apart from his now-famous personal charm, was how “European” he was. His parentage was partly Dutch and partly Russian. He has since married a Spanish woman and has three children with Spanish names. And, of course, his party is the one most closely identified with the British aspiration to full British engagement in the European Union. This is the strength and the weakness of his position, and of his party."
"And what is the reaction of the British political class? Well the Lib Dems, still think that the Euro is a success! I don't quite think where Cleggy gets this from, I don't know. Perhaps he is considering an alternative career as a stand up comedian, once he's out of politics."
"[While deputy prime minister] He's there to serve a very important ceremonial function as David Cameron's lapdog-cum-prophylactic protection device for all the difficult things that David Cameron has to do that cheese off the rest of the ... [ending absent] He’s a kind of shield. He’s a lapdog who’s been skinned and turned into a shield to protect."
"We despise everything Tommy Robinson stands for. His values are not our values and they are not Wales' values."
"When it comes to a no-deal Brexit, we need to stop talking in terms of the hypothetical and theoretical, and start talking with candour about real and damaging consequences it would bring. It would be catastrophic."
"Boris was bang on about the threat of Brexit to the economy and the unity of the country - it is a shame he did not listen to his own warning."
"Deloitte might be unable to apply for Government contracts for six months, but other consultancy firms are queuing up for their Brexit pay day... it is the British people who are picking up the tab."
"This is yet another top Brexiteer leaving a sinking ship. It speaks volumes that UKIP's first elected MP is throwing his weight behind Theresa May, who has adopted UKIP's hard Brexit agenda to the letter."
"People should be able to judge Boris Johnson on his actions not his words, with the chance to reject a disastrous Brexit deal and stay in the EU."
"For the government to threaten to leave the EU with no deal, while boasting about not having a plan for that eventuality, is completely unacceptable."
"[the EU's document] demolishes another of the Leave campaign's fantastical claims - that Brexit would have no impact on the Irish border"
"[Brexit would have a] calamitous effect on our cherished public services"
"Government divisions over what Brexit means are stoking tensions. The government and its Brextremists must swallow their pride and do the right thing for Ireland and the UK. Leaving the EU does not have to mean leaving the single market and customs union."
"As each day goes by, it becomes clearer that the best deal for everyone is to stay in Europe. The people of the UK must be given a vote on the deal and an opportunity to exit from Brexit."
"The public will never forgive Labour if the frontbench lose their bottle on Brexit. The Liberal Democrats can guarantee we will fight for the people to have a final say on Brexit, including the option to remain, at every opportunity."
"[Liam Fox] failed to secure the substantial post-Brexit trade deals he promised"
"Of course there will always be uncertainties within climate science and the need for research to continue. But some sections of the press are giving an uncritical campaigning platform to individuals and lobby groups. This is not the serious science of challenging, checking and probing. This is destructive and loudly clamouring scepticism born of vested interest, nimbyism, publicity seeking contraversialism or sheer blinkered, dogmatic, political bloody-mindedness. This tendency will seize upon the normal expression of scientific uncertainty and portray it as proof that all climate change policy is hopelessly misguided. By selectively misreading the evidence, they seek to suggest that climate change has stopped so we can all relax and burn all the dirty fuel we want without a care. Those who argue against all the actions we are taking to reduce emissions, without any serious and viable alternative, are asking us to take a massive gamble with the planet our children will inherit, in the face of all the evidence, against overwhelming odds."
"This is a good decision by the European Parliament [to reduce the number of permits traded] and is an important step forward for climate change policy"
"I want other European countries to be more ambitious... We can go green and we can do it in a cheap way. The cost of renewables has been coming down significantly."
"Europe has sent a clear and firm message to the world that ambitious climate action is needed now"
"This morning only five countries in Europe had climate targets post 2020, now 28 countries do. It's good for consumers because we can decarbonise at the lowest possible cost using a diverse mix of technologies. And it's good for business as it provides the certainty they have been calling for to unlock billions in low carbon investment."
"There are more than a million British people living in Spain. There are hundreds of thousands of British people living in France. In fact there are tens of thousands of people living in almost every EU country and if we were to pull up the drawbridge on the English Channel, the truth is British people wouldn't be able to come and go because they'd take action against us."
"[Ending EU migration rules will] do nothing to reassure the hospitals that are already seeing record numbers of EU nurses leaving, or the companies struggling to recruit the staff they need"
"Since the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling - embarrassment. Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for Great Britain."
"To take police numbers in England and Wales to record lows when the terrorist threat to our country is rising is a dereliction of duty by the Conservatives."
"With Brexit the very best deal they can get is worse than what we've got now."
"We've already seen in the Windrush scandal how the Conservatives' hostile environment checks can destroy the lives of people who have every right to be in the UK. The government's chaotic approach to Brexit risks a repeat of that scandal for EU citizens."
"Membership of a terrorist group is a serious crime, as is encouraging or supporting terrorism, but Shamima Begum should face justice for those crimes in the UK."
"We need to become a political home to pro-EU liberal Tories and pro-EU liberal and social democrat Labour MPs and voters."
"This [ending EU migration rules] will hugely increase the damage cause by a no-deal Brexit"
"People want an end to this, and the only way you can stop Brexit in a democratic exercise like a general election is to say you would revoke."
"[On the election of Donald Trump on 5 November] This is a dark, dark day for people around the globe. The world's largest economy and most powerful military will be led by a dangerous, destructive demagogue."
"[It is a concern as to what Trump] will do to our economy and our national security, given his record of starting trade wars, undermining Nato, and emboldening tyrants like Putin."
"Fixing the UK's broken relationship with the EU is even more urgent than before [to] help protect ourselves from the damage Trump will do."
"If you think it is wrong to demonise immigrants, the young, the poor, foreigners, Brussels, the English, the Scots - join us."
"The EU offers our small businesses and tourism sector huge opportunities, I can't understand why anyone would want to shut those opportunities down"
"Given that Europe is the world's biggest market, will we be more prosperous if we remain or leave? Given that this is a dangerous and uncertain world, are we safer and more secure by staying alongside our closest friends and neighbours? Or turning our backs on them? Given the scale of international challenges of a global economy, climate change and the refugee crisis - are we better to face these together or alone? ... The answers to each of those questions is a no brainer. If you want a Britain that is prosperous, secure, a Britain that matters then you are voting to keep Britain in Europe."
"We should celebrate the positive future that is a European Union prepared to work together to tackle the great challenges facing the world"
"Leaving the EU would destroy young people's hopes of getting on the housing ladder"
"Leaving would mean fewer jobs, higher prices and lower pay, making deposits harder or impossible to build up. And it means higher mortgage payments making first time loans less affordable. First time buyers are better off in Europe and leaving would be a leap in the dark leaving young people worse off"
"This self-inflicted wound will be Cameron's legacy"
"For many millions of people, this was not just a vote about Europe. It was a howl of anger at politicians and institutions who they felt were out of touch and had let them down. The British people deserve the chance not to be stuck with the appalling consequences of a Leave campaign that stoked that anger with the lies of Farage, Johnson and Gove. The Liberal Democrats will fight the next election on a clear and unequivocal promise to restore British prosperity and [its] role in the world, with the United Kingdom in the European Union, not out."
"Given three-quarters of the young people of Britain voted to remain in Europe, they should be permitted, as far as possible, to remain in Europe"
"The EU referendum result could be hijacked by forces of racism, intolerance and hate"
"Plenty of my mates voted Leave, and I can tell you that the majority of those who did vote Leave are utterly appalled that Farage, Le Pen and their ilk now seek to claim the result as a victory for their hateful brand of intolerance, racism and insularity. Britain is better than that."
"People have been misled by lackadaisical politicians, playing games, who had campaigned for years to leave the EU - but hadn't bothered to come up with a plan about what to do if it actually happened"
"Voting for Britain's departure from the EU is not the same as voting for a destination"
"It seems completely wrong for an unelected prime minister to enforce a deal on the British people that neither the 52%, nor the 48% voted for. You might be somebody who voted wanting there to be a points' based [immigration] system. What are you going to do if the government forces something on you that doesn't address that? Likewise on tariffs, likewise on a whole range of issues. It would be totally wrong, however you voted on 23 June, for this government to enforce on the British people a plan that nobody signed up to - that would undermine democracy massively."
"The Liberal Democrats have a plan. We know what we want and we know where we want to take our country. When Theresa May does agree a deal with the EU, we want the people to decide."
"If we trusted the people to vote for our departure then we must trust the people to vote for our destination."
"We discussed whether Article 50 can be revoked, and my conclusion is that if there is the political will, it would be possible to do so."
"Aggressive. Nationalistic. Anti-Nato. Anti-EU. It is the post-war internationalist consensus unravelling in real time. Winston Churchill's vision for a world that achieves peace through trade, common values and shared endeavour evaporating before our eyes."
"[Labour has] voted through a hard Brexit and chosen to be neither fish nor fowl on the biggest issue to face our country for a generation."
"I'm somebody who challenges people in power - the EU, in government, in councils - but I am somebody who believes Britain is better off in the European Union."
"You should have your say on the Brexit deal in a referendum. And if you don't like the deal you should be able to reject it and choose to remain in Europe."
"I cannot imagine a deal that is better than the one we've got now."
"I do respect the outcome of the referendum and I, nevertheless, feel a sense of real concern that in this country if you stand by your principles, if you question whether Theresa May is making the right choices, and Jeremy Corbyn of course backed her in that, then you are dismissed as a saboteur or a Remoaner."
"This is an opportunity to stop May in her tracks in her zealous pursuit of a disastrous hard Brexit, to keep Britain in the single market, to have a decent opposition to stand up to a Conservative government moving from crisis to crisis"
"I don't believe that gay sex is a sin"
"It is entirely unacceptable that in 2019 women and girls are still paying more than men for basic products, such as razors and deodorant. Products marketed at women are on average considerably more expensive than those marketed at men. Often the only difference is the colour, yet this unfair price gap will have a significant financial impact on a woman over the course of her life. My bill would remove this outdated and sexist tax on women once and for all."
"[A UK Statistics Authority statement saying that claims that leaving the European Union could save Britain £350m a week are potentially misleading is] a damning indictment of the Leave campaign and yet another example of their desperate attempts to mislead people in this referendum campaign."
"I am frequently frustrated by the EU and will always argue the case for reform to make it more decentralised and more accountable, but when it comes to a decision about being in or out I am clear that we have to be in, making the case for reform rather than walking away."
"It would be ludicrous if the government, in what appears to be a zealous fixation on reducing migration at all costs, pulled us out of the EEA without due consideration of the security that these deals provide to British pensioners in Europe."
"The war on drugs has been a catastrophic failure... We criminalise thousands of people, blighting their careers ... When people buy cannabis from criminals, they have no idea what they are buying."
"I’ve been clear from the start that I will not look to frustrate the will of the people of this area. I did not vote with my party who opposed the triggering of Article 50 and I will fight to help get the best Brexit deal for Britain."
"Brexit is at the front of many people’s minds in this election, and my position is clear. Although I voted to Remain, I am a democrat and I accept the outcome of the referendum. Now that the people have voted to leave the EU, I will fight to make sure North Norfolk gets the best possible deal from negotiations – for local businesses, jobs, and public services."
"There is an overwhelming imperative to negotiate a good Brexit deal"
"I have deep criticisms of the EU and believe it needs fundamental reform to make it more dynamic, flexible and less centralised. But I felt and still feel that it’s better to fight for change from within. I voted remain but I am a democrat and I believe we have a duty to try to make Brexit work."
"I have always argued the case for Remain. But I would like Britain to be in a radically reformed European Union not to go back to the status quo we had before – that would not answer any of the concerns people had."
"I campaigned and voted for Remain but I did so without any great enthusiasm for the EU. I have always felt that my party loses its critical faculties when it comes to the EU."
"It is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done"
"Did he not appear to you to be a public man of no little courage, no little candour and no little ability."
"I could not in good conscience vote for a party that thinks protecting the most vulnerable people in society, those who are yet to be born, issues around euthanasia, other pro-life issues and indeed generally people who have a faith and want to practice it, I couldn't vote for a party that thinks that is somehow incompatible with the modern world."
"I had always said that when I could see the holes in the hands and feet of Jesus myself then I would consider believing. It was very much a standard line – I wouldn't take anything on belief, I wanted to see the evidence. On that hillside I looked up at the crucifix and Our Lord was there with the holes in his hands and his feet and in that instant – I wouldn’t say I believed, I wouldn’t say I decided to start believing – in that instant, I knew. I knew that I had been looking all these years without seeing Christ crucified. There he was in front of me and I then knew that God and Jesus Christ were true. My life has been upside down ever since. All my original views were turned upside down. It has cost me quite a few friendships and has probably cost me a political career but I cannot un-know what I now know."
"I continue to believe that the best opportunity we have to advance our socialist objectives lies in forging the closest possible links with our fellow socialists and trade unions across the Channel."
"We are seeing the increase of unemployment throughout the industrial world, and it is a problem for which we still have no real answer."
"There are other reasons to be worried. One is the increasingly anti-parliamentarian rhetoric in which Benn engages. When he speaks about the primacy of the activists, he virtually parrots Lenin. He speaks a language which despises the ordinary party worker, again Lenin-like. The supremacy of party and activist is a central Leninist tenet, and Shirley believes she has read more Lenin and Marx than Benn has. She thinks he does not really know what he is saying. Also, that he is to some extent being used by people much harder than he is: Maynard-type, Richardson-type, Militant sympathisers."
"There can be a Fascism of the Left as well as Fascism of the Right."
"We are going to fight to save the party and by God we think we can. We are going to start fighting for a Labour Party worthy of the name."
"David has had the idea that the voters to try and win are defecting Tories... I personally have always held that we must try to replace the Labour Party."
"There was a feeling of tremendous dedication in the air, a feeling that we didn't care what happened, this is the way we were going to vote, we were going to put our names on the line... I think it was the beginning of the ultimate split in the Labour Party into an SDP and a Labour Party, and that was, when I look back on it, really where it all began."
"Bill and I were much more of the Labour ethos than probably David or Roy were... It seemed much more a whole life that was going and I guess that we were more reluctant to face the fact that probably the Labour Party was by that time irrecoverable."
"Recently I was in Berwick Street, Soho, where I often work, when a man said to me outside a studio: "I'll never forgive you for what you did to our grammar schools." The man looked extremely respectable and I said to him: "What did you say?" And he said: "I'll never forgive you for what you did to our grammar schools, and neither will my wife." I was suddenly very irritated with him: "What are you talking about, you silly bugger, what have I done to grammar schools?" My aggression obviously startled him, for he looked at me rather more carefully, cleared his throat and said, "I do beg your pardon, I thought you were Shirley Williams," and he went off muttering."
"Shirley is, without doubt, the most reactionary person I know."
"Shirley is surrounded by a beatific light that shields her from the harm and criticism which would be heaped on ordinary people."
"I...thought it a good idea to run through my speech with her, which I did, and she said it was more or less all right... She merely asked for a change at the end where I referred to a possible revival of Liberal and Social Democratic Britain. She said, 'Couldn't you use small letters and leave out the "and" – "liberal social democratic Britain"?' Thinking that if Paris was worth a Mass, Shirley was certainly worth an 'and' (and a lower case) I decided to do so, after which we rang off on terms of great amity. She said she was sure we would all be together in six months or so."
"I have a big problem with asteroids [...] And so has the rest of the human race. Unless we do something to stop it, sooner or later an impact with an asteroid or a comet will lead to the end of most life on Earth."
"Asgardia, the world's first space nation. It's the world’s first truly functioning digital democracy. Every 15-year-old would love to say that they're chair of parliament for a space nation. By the age of 59, I am. I hope that wherever my grandfather is now, he'll look down and be proud of me trying to create a good politics for outer space."
"David T. C. Davies [then Conservative MP for Monmouth]: I hear what the hon. Lady is saying. May I bluntly ask her whether she would be happy sharing a changing room with somebody who was born male and had a male body?"
"Layla Moran: I believe that women are women, so if that person was a trans woman, I absolutely would. I just do not see the issue. As for whether they have a beard, which was one of the hon. Gentleman’s earlier comments, I dare say that some women have beards. There are all sorts of reasons why our bodies react differently to hormones. There are many forms of the human body. I see someone in their soul and as a person. I do not really care whether they have a male body."
"[A] woman is a gender, it is a way to self-identify and there are lots of genders. There is male and that is biological. There is female, which is also biological. A woman is a gender identity which is more akin to being a man. Those are the opposites and then there is also non-binary, which is people who don't identify with either."
"Trump has clearly not spoken to a single Palestinian about this plan. Gaza is our land. Palestine is our home. Peace cannot come at the cost of our country. I urge the UK and the whole international community to resist him. Recognise Palestine now, before it's too late."
"[On drug legalisation] I've actually never taken a drug in my life, or even drunk alcohol, but I still don’t sit here as the fun police. I very clearly believe people should be able to do what they want to do. It just wasn’t for me.""
"[On the 2026 Gorton and Denton by-election] I'll be totally honest, when I heard Andy Burnham wasn't being selected, I punched the air and I thought it's very probable we can win this. I wasn't complacent but I knew we could do it."
"Whether we're talking about the cost of living crisis, whether we're talking about the genocide in Gaza, or generally the feeling that they were voted in on one word, change - and they've not offered a whole lot of it. The Green Party are here, and we're ready to give them that change."
"[On standing as a parliamentary candidate] I have lived in London for more than 20 years. As soon as a by-election comes up in London, I would definitely consider it."