Politicians from London

"Before this campaign started, it was said that I was facing political oblivion, my career in tatters, apparently never to be part of political life again. Well they underestimated Hartlepool and they underestimated me, because I am a fighter and not a quitter!My political opponents can have their pound of flesh, and they do, but they will not eat into of my beliefs, what I stand for and have done in politics. That is the inner steel in me."

"Bashar [al-Assad] is an intelligent and cultured individual who, having lived and studied in London, wanted to show off his perfect English (unfortunately I did not meet his English wife); but also because, like so many leaders of his type and generation, he is looking for a fresh paradigm for his country that will rescue it from economic backwardness without plunging it into political chaos. Hu Jintao, visiting London this week from China, could tell an identical story."

"No serious challenge on the Left exists to Third Way thinking anywhere in the world. This is hardly surprising as globalisation punishes hard any country that tries to run its economy by ignoring the realities of the market or prudent public finances. In this strictly narrow sense, and in the urgent need to remove rigidities and incorporate flexibility in capital, product and labour markets, we are all "Thatcherite" now."

"Apart from the fact that I am not actually Jewish, I wear my father's parentage with pride."

"In 2004 when as a Labour government, we were not only welcoming people to come into this country to work, we were sending out search parties for people and encouraging them, in some cases, to take up work in this country."

"[On Jeremy Corbyn's then Labour leadership] I work every single day, in some small way, to try to move forward the end of his tenure in office. I work every day — an email, a phone call, a meeting with Labour MPs. I try and galvanise them. Every day I do something to rescue the Labour Party from his leadership."

"The [Labour] party has lost its efficacy for many in these places [...] We are in an era of much weaker party loyalty and affiliation than ever before. They [voters] are casting around for a different sort of politics, less hidebound by tradition, old emblems, sentimentality, and for a more transactional, efficacious approach ... They are not so much left behind; it's Labour that is being left behind."

"We look out of date, with too little to say about the contemporary world [...] The truth is we talk endlessly about the 'same old Tories', what the voters are talking about is the 'same old Labour'. We've got to wake up to that. For many voters, there is a simple question: what is the point of voting Labour?"

"I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell [...] I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women. [...] I’m not going to go into this. It's an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off. OK?"

"As you will have seen my position as Ambassador to the United States has come to an end. Being Ambassador here has been the privilege of my life, and Reinaldo's. I could not have wished for a better welcome by you all, a better introduction to the job or better support while here. Your professionalism has been superb, more so than I have experienced in any public role. For this I thank you from the bottom of my heart. The circumstances surrounding the announcement today are ones which I deeply regret. I continue to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein twenty years ago and the plight of his victims. I have no alternative to accepting the Prime Minister's decision and will leave a position in which I have been so incredibly honoured to serve."

"Britain’s interests and those of other liberal democracies lie in how we harness the power of the US to continue safeguarding the principles – if not always the letter – of the UN Charter. This will mean accepting that Trump’s decisive approach when faced with real-world situations is preferable to the hand-wringing and analysis paralysis that has characterised some previous US administrations or, indeed, the deadlock and prevarication that so often characterise the UN and the EU respectively."

"[On his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein] Possibly some people will think because I am a gay man... I wasn't attuned to what was going on. I don't really accept that. I think the issue is that because I was a gay man in his circle I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life. The only people that were there were the housekeepers, never were there any young women or girls, or people that he was preying on or engaging with in that sort of ghastly predatory way that we subsequently found out he was doing."

"The Lord Mandelson, denied the opportunity to become Foreign Secretary by the sad combination of a Prime Minister too weak to remove his Foreign Secretary and, equally, a Foreign Secretary too weak to challenge the Prime Minister, has gone around instead collecting titles and even whole Departments to add to his name. His title now adds up to, "The right hon. the Baron Mandelson of Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham, First Secretary of State, Lord President of the Privy Council and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills". It would be no surprise to wake up in the morning and find that he had become an archbishop! That is exactly what happened with Cardinal Wolsey."

"If Peter Mandelson has an historical parallel, it is Robespierre, the architect of the Terror. Without his zeal and cool passion for the right of the French people, the ancien regime would almost certainly have reasserted itself in some way. His defence of the ideals of the revolution was absolute and unmoving. It won him no friends, and eventually swallowed him. It would be a tragedy for Labour if it were to do the same to the architect of its own revolution."

"I've only just arrived but already I can feel there’s real buzz around Washington right now [...] You can sense that there's a new leader. He's a true one-off, a pioneer in business, in politics. Many people love him. Others love to hate him. But to us, he's just ... Peter."

"Starmer may have thought he was playing chess. Turns out it was Russian roulette."

"Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will."

"I present you with a Key : I have not heard of the like yet framed, since it pleased God to bring that mighty continent of America to light. Others of my countrymen have often, and excellently, and lately, written of the country, and none that I know beyond the goodness and worth of it. This Key respects the native language of it, and happily may unlock some rarities concerning the natives themselves, not yet discovered."

"The natives are very exact and punctual in the bounds of their lands, belonging to this or that prince or people, even to a river, brook, &c. And I have known them make bargain and sale amongst themselves for a small piece or quantity of ground ; notwithstanding a sinful opinion amongst many, that christians have right to heathen's land."

"I was persuaded and am, that God's way is first to turn a soul from its idols, both of heart, worship, and conversation, before it is capable of worship to the true and living God... the two first principles and foundations of true religion, or worship of the true God in Christ, are repentance from dead works, and faith towards God, before the doctrine of baptism or washing, and the laying on of hands, which contain the ordinances and practices of worship; the want of which I conceive is the bane of millions of souls in England and all other nations professing to be Christian nations, who are brought by public authority to baptism and fellowship with God in ordinances of worship, before the saving work of repentance and a true turning to God."

"Men's consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained. And whenever men have attempted any thing by this violent course, whether openly or by secret means, the issue has been pernicious, and the cause of great and wonderful innovations in the principallest and mightiest kingdoms and countries..."

"All civil states with their officers of justice in their respective constitutions and administrations are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual or Christian state and worship."

"God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls."

"A civil sword (as woeful experience in all ages has proved) is so far from bringing or helping forward an opposite in religion to repentance that magistrates sin grievously against the work of God and blood of souls by such proceedings... Religion cannot be true which needs such instruments of violence to uphold it so."

"God needeth not the help of a material sword of steel to assist the sword of the Spirit in the affairs of conscience."

"The God of Peace, the God of Truth will shortly seal this truth, and confirm this witness, and make it evident to the whole world, that the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace. Amen."

"No man ever did, nor ever shall, truly go forth to convert the nations, nor to prophesy in the present state of witnesses against Antichrist, but by the gracious inspiration and instigation of the Holy Spirit of God. … I know no other True Sender, but the most Holy Spirit."

"'Tis true, those glorious first ministeriall gifts are ceased, and that's or should be the lamentation of all Saints... Yet I humbly conceive that without those gifts, it is no ground of imitation, and of going forth to Teach and Baptise the Nations, for, the Apostles themselves did not attempt that mighty enterprise, but waited at Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended on them, and inabled them for that mighty work."

"The civil state of the nations, being merely and essentially civil, cannot (Christianly) be called "Christian states," after the pattern of that holy and typical land of Canaan, which I have proved at large in the Bloudy Tenent to be a nonesuch and an unparalleled figure of the spiritual state of the church of Christ Jesus, dispersed yet gathered to Him in all nations. The civil sword (therefore) cannot (rightfully) act either in restraining the souls of the people from worship, etc., or in constraining them to worship, considering that there is not a tittle in the New Testament of Christ Jesus that commits the forming or reforming of His spouse and church to the civil and worldly powers..."

"I observe the great and wonderful mistake, both our own and our fathers, as to the civil powers of this world, acting in spiritual matters. I have read … the last will and testament of the Lord Jesus over many times, and yet I cannot find by one tittle of that testament that if He had been pleased to have accepted of a temporal crown and government that ever He would have put forth the least finger of temporal or civil power in the matters of His spiritual affairs and Kingdom. Hence must it lamentably be against the testimony of Christ Jesus for the civil state to impose upon the souls of the people a religion, a worship, a ministry, oaths (in religious and civil affairs), tithes, times, days, marryings, and buryings in holy ground..."

"The first grand design of Christ Jesus is to destroy and consume His mortal enemy antichrist. This must be done by the breath of His mouth in His prophets and witnesses. Now, the nations of the world have impiously stopped this heavenly breath and stifled the Lord Jesus in His servants. Now, it shall please the civil state to remove the state bars set up to resist the holy spirit of God in His servants (whom yet finally to resist is not in all the powers of the world), I humbly conceive that the civil state has made a fair progress in promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Opinions offensive are of two sorts: some savoring of impiety, and some of incivility. Against the first, Christ Jesus never called for the sword of steel to help the sword of the spirit, that two-edged sword that comes out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus... The second sort, to wit, opinions of incivility, doubtless the opinions as well as practices are the proper object of the civil sword..."

"Although the loose will be more loose (yet) possibly being at more liberty they may be put upon consideration and choice of ways of life and peace, yet, however, it is infinitely better that the profane and loose be unmasked than to be muffled up under the veil and hood of traditional hypocrisy, which turns and dulls the very edge of all conscience either toward God or man."

"Such parents or children as aim at the gain and preferment of religion do often mistake gain and gold for godliness, godbelly for the true God, and some false for the true Lord Jesus."

"The civil state is bound before God to take off that bond and yoke of soul oppression, and to proclaim free and impartial liberty to all the people of the three nations to choose and maintain what worship and ministry their souls and consciences are persuaded of; which act, as it will prove an act of mercy and righteousness to the enslaved nations, so is it of a binding force to engage the whole and every interest and conscience to preserve the common freedom and peace; however, an act most suiting with the piety and Christianity of the Holy Testament of Christ Jesus."

"The civil state is humbly to be implored to provide in their high wisdom for the security of all the respective consciences, in their respective meetings, assemblings, worshipings, preachings, disputings, etc., and that civil peace and the beauty of civility and humanity be maintained among the chief opposers and dissenters."

"There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."

"At once maddeningly original and disarmingly humane, Roger Williams championed Native American rights, church-state separation, and an independent judiciary when each was considered rank heresy."

""The most fascinating figure of America's formative seventeenth century," Roger Williams has now gained general acceptance as a symbol of a critical turning point in American thought and institutions. He was the first American to advocate and activate complete freedom of conscience, dissociation of church and state, and genuine political democracy. From his first few weeks in America he openly raised the banner of "rigid Separatism." In one year in Salem he converted the town into a stronghold of radical Separatism and threw the entire Bay Colony into an uproar. Banished for his views, after being declared guilty of "a frontal assault on the foundations of the Bay system," he escaped just as he was to be deported to England. He settled in Providence with thirteen other householders and in one year formed the first genuine democracy, as well as the first church-divorced and conscience-free community in modern history. Williams felt that government is the natural way provided by God to cope with the corrupt nature of man. But since government could not be trusted to know which religion is true, he considered the best hope for true religion the protection of the freedom of all religion, along with non-religion, from the state."

"Williams' life and major works — the 1643 bestseller A Key Into the Language of America and the 1644 treatise The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution — inspire nothing less than awe. Williams showed up in Massachusetts in 1631 and immediately mixed it up with the theocrats there, staking controversial positions on hotly debated questions such as the presence of a disturbingly papal cross on the flag of England. Two of his arguments would earn him exile: He insisted that the colonists had robbed the local Indians of their property (he called it "an unjust usurpation upon others' possessions") and, even worse, that civil magistrates had no business enforcing religious laws (lest "the wilderness of the world" engulf "the garden of the church")."

"The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, released the same year as his friend John Milton's defense of the free press, Areopagitica, argued for "soul liberty" for all people, "paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or anti-christian." Such ideas were far ahead of their time — perhaps even our time... Williams' ideas infused the charters of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other colonies with protections for religious freedom. And his notions of a fully secular state found their way into the writings of John Locke, who would have a seminal influence on Jefferson, Madison, and other Founders. One wishes that America had taken even more from Williams and what Gaustad calls his "bequest...of liberty, responsibility, and civility.""

"The English... justified their grabbing of Indian land by claiming that these simple folk did not really believe in property rights. On the contrary, Williams observed, "the Natives are very exact and punctual in the bounds of their Lands, belonging to this or that Prince or People," even bargaining among themselves for a small piece of ground."

"Roger Williams... successfully vindicated the right of private judgement in matters of conscience, and effected a moral and political revolution in all governments of the civilized world."

"I would like to create a speedier and more efficient system. Careers and reputations are at stake, and it would be good to be able to inject a sense of calm and transparency into procedures."

"Everyone was muttering about Bill Clinton's philanderings before he came to visit, but once he walked into the room none of the women - or men - could get enough of him. He rather ignored me: my hair wasn't big enough."

"I'm now a committed silver surfer."

"I'm fed up with this Scottish waving of nationalism when it suits them. Alright, they're devolved, but I think they did this just to show the rest of us oh, that we are independent, we make our own decisions, and it's been very embarrassing for the rest of us. And it started me thinking along these lines, if Scotland wants to be independent, OK, be my guest, go ahead, do what you want and [Applause] please take back with you all the Scottish politicians - there's so many of them - you know - starting with Blair and Brown and Campbell, take them all back, and off you go, and go off on your own, because actually, we're all subsidising them I think, by way of benefits and all sorts of reasons, and if they want to show how independent they are, OK, thank you and goodbye."

"The state of the country at present is perhaps the most alarming that it is possible to conceive. The rapid progress of the French arms, and the wide diffusion of French principles, has given to a republican party here such strength and spirit that there is, in my opinion, nothing mischievous and desperate which may not be apprehended from them."

"[W]hen I see their treatment of Savoy, of Geneva, and in their present threatening of Holland, a system of impudent, savage and profligate warfare, equal to the most tyrannous enterprizes of the most despotic governments—I cannot any longer wish that the Powers of Europe should sit tamely with their hands before them without endeavouring to throw some stop in the way of an insolence and implacability of ambition which is no less dangerous to every other country, than it is irreconcilable with the duty, the policy, and the repeated profession of France."

"As to this Country—though I am not so enthusiastically attached to the beauties of its constitution, and still less so determinedly blind to its defects, as to believe it unimproveable—yet I do think it by much the best practical Government that the world has ever seen—that of America perhaps excepted, and of that indeed it is not quite fair yet to form a decided opinion—I do think it almost impossible to begin improving now, without a risque of being hurried beyond all limits of prudence and happiness, and I do feel such a horror of the 1st. and 2nd. of Septr., and such a distrust of impossibility of erecting and preserving a purer form of Government among a refined, that is to say a corrupt, people, that I cannot but hold it to be the duty of myself and of every other man, according to their respective ability and opportunity, to resist by every honest and prudent exertion any attempt that may be made to assimilate the state of this country in theory or in practice to that of France. And I would resign therefore for the present any propensity that I might entertain to reform—for the sake of securing the existence of the State, till such time as it may set about reforming itself without danger of total confusion."

"I am as ready as any man to allow, that the French are enthusiastically animated, be it how it may, to a state of absolute insanity. I desire no better proof of their being mad, than to see them hugging themselves in a system of slavery so gross and grinding as their present, and calling at the same time aloud upon all Europe to admire and envy their freedom. But before their plea of madness can be admitted as conclusive against our right to be at war with them, gentlemen would do well to recollect that of madness there are several kinds. If theirs had been a harmless idiot lunacy, which had contented itself with playing its tricks, and practising its fooleries at home; with dressing up strumpets in oak leaves, and inventing nicknames for the calendar, I should have been far from desiring to interrupt their innocent amusements; we might have looked on with hearty contempt, indeed, but with a contempt not wholly unmixed with commiseration."

"But if theirs be a madness of a different kind, a moody mischievous insanity,—if not contented with tearing and wounding themselves, they proceed to exert their unnatural strength for the annoyance of their neighbours,—if not satisfied with weaving straws, and wearing fetters at home, they attempt to carry their systems and their slavery abroad, and to impose them on the nations of Europe it becomes necessary then, that those nations should be roused to resistance. Such a disposition must, for the safety and peace of the world, be repelled, and, if possible, eradicated."

"WE avow ourselves to be partial to the COUNTRY in which we live, notwithstanding the daily panegyricks which we read and hear on the superior virtues and endowments of its rival and hostile neighbours. We are prejudiced in favour of her Establishments, civil and religious; though without claiming for either that ideal perfection, which modern philosophy professes to discover in the more luminous systems which are arising on all sides of us."

"[T]here is one way of considering what is advantageous to this country, to which I confess I am very partial; and the rather, perhaps, because it does not fall in with the new and fashionable philosophy of the day. I know it is a doctrine of that large and liberal system of ethics which has of late been introduced into the world, and which has superseded all the narrow prejudices of the ancient school,—that we are to consider not so much what is good for our country, as what is good for the human race; that we are all children of one large family;—and I know not what other fancies and philanthropics, which I must take shame to myself for not being able to comprehend. I, for my part, still conceive it to be the paramount duty of a British member of parliament, to consider what is good for Great Britain."

"I do not envy that man's feelings, who can behold the sufferings of Switzerland, and who derives from that sight no idea of what is meant by the deliverance of Europe. I do not envy the feelings of that man, who can look without emotion at Italy,—plundered, insulted, trampled upon, exhausted, covered with ridicule, and horror, and devastation;—who can look at all this, and be at a loss to guess what is meant by the deliverance of Europe? As little do I envy the feelings of that man, who can view the peoples of the Netherlands driven into insurrection, and struggling for their freedom against the heavy hand of a merciless tyranny, without entertaining any suspicion of what may be the sense of the word deliverance. Does such a man contemplate Holland groaning under arbitrary oppressions and exactions? Does he turn his eyes to Spain trembling at the nod of a foreign master? And does the word deliverance still sound unintelligibly in his ear? Has he heard of the rescue and salvation of Naples, by the appearance and the triumphs of the British fleet? Does he know that the monarchy of Naples maintains its existence at the sword's point? And is his understanding, and his heart, still impenetrable to the sense and meaning of the deliverance of Europe?"

"[I]n God's name, Sir, let us look about us! Let us consider the state of the world as it is, not as we fancy it ought to be! Let us not seek to hide from our own eyes, or to diminish in the eyes of those who look to our deliberations for information, the real, imminent, and awful danger which threatens us, from the overgrown power, the insolent spirit, and still more, the implacable hatred of our natural rivals and enemies! Let us not amuse ourselves with vain notions, that our greatness and our happiness, as a nation, are capable of being separated. It is no such thing. The choice is not in our power. We have...no refuge in littleness. We must maintain ourselves what we are, or cease to have a political existence worth preserving."

"Away with the cant of "measures, not men!" the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along! No, Sir, if the comparison must be made, if the distinction must be taken, men are every thing, measures comparatively nothing. I speak, Sir, of times of difficulty and danger; of times when systems are shaken, when precedents and general rules of conduct fail. Then it is, that not to this or that measure, however prudently devised, however blameless in execution, but to the energy and character of individuals, a state must be indebted for its salvation. Then it is that kingdoms rise or fall in proportion as they are upheld, not by well-meant endeavours (laudable though they may be), but by commanding, over-awing talents; by able men."

"Look at France, and see what we have to cope with, and consider what has made her what she is? A man. You will tell me that she was great, and powerful, and formidable, before the date of Buonaparte's government; that he found in her great physical and moral resources: that he had but to turn them to account. True, and he did so. Compare the situation in which he found France with that to which he has raised her. I am no panegyrist of Buonaparte; but I cannot shut my eyes to the superiority of his talents, to the amazing ascendant of his genius. Tell me not of his measures, and his policy. It is his genius, his character, that keeps the world in awe. Sir, to meet, to check, to curb, to stand up against him, we want arms of the same kind. I am far from objecting to the large military establishments which are proposed to you. I vote for them with all my heart. But for the purpose of coping with Buonaparte, one great commanding spirit is worth them all."

"We are hated throughout Europe and that hate must be cured by fear."

"I am aware that, in examining any proposition, the object or tendency of which is to introduce change of any description in the constitutions of human society, there are two general considerations, clashing very much with each other, which naturally present themselves to every reflecting mind. The one, the most extensive, perhaps the most popular, is the dread of innovation; the other, the expediency of timely reformation or concession. In reconciling these opposite and conflicting principles, and in assigning to each its due weight in human affairs, consists almost the whole art of practical policy."

"The deed is done, the nail is driven, Spanish America is free; and if we do not mismanage our affairs sadly, she is English."

"I said that it was my object to make his Majesty comfortable and happy, by placing him at the head of Europe, instead of being reckoned fifth in a great confederacy. That the circumstances which gave rise to that confederacy, and justified and held it together were gone by; and that the King of England could not have hung upon it longer without losing all importance, even in the eyes of the other members of it, and without incurring the odium of all other nations; nay, that his share of odium would be greater than that of the four continental Sovereigns; because they, being more or less arbitrary, might be considered as labouring in their vocation, but that the continuance of England as a subordinate part of such a league, would have been considered as depriving them of their natural protection, and would be resented accordingly."

"I said that I was aware that the King had been afraid that the steps taken with respect to Spanish America would involve us in a war; that I was perfectly confident that they would not if taken in time... Sir W. K. said that the King had certainly entertained that fear, but was now perfectly satisfied that his fears had been unfounded; that he (Sir W. K.) was certain that, on the contrary, the fear of England was a predominant feeling with the continental Governments. I said that I hoped so; that that was the state to which I had wished to bring things, and that I trusted his Majesty must feel better pleased, upon reflection, to be the object of such fear, than of cajolery and contempt."

"I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old."

"I can prove anything by statistics except the truth."

"Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, sir."

"I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first."

"So down thy hill, romantic Ashbourn, glides The Derby dilly, carrying three INSIDES."

"And finds, with keen, discriminating sight, Black ’s not so black,—nor white so very white."

"Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe, Bold I can meet,—perhaps may turn his blow! But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, Save, save, oh save me from the candid friend!"

"No, here ’s to the pilot that weathered the storm!"

"The right hon. gentleman knows what the introduction of a great name does in debate, how important is its effect, and occasionally how electrical. He never refers to any author who is not great, and sometimes who is not loved—Canning, for example. That is a name never to be mentioned, I am sure, in the House of Commons without emotion. We all admire his genius; we all, at least most of us, deplore his untimely end; and we all sympathize with him in his fierce struggle with supreme prejudice and sublime mediocrity, with inveterate foes and with—"candid friends." The right hon. gentleman may be sure that a quotation from such an authority will always tell. Some lines, for example, upon friendship, written by Mr. Canning, and quoted by the right hon. gentleman! The theme, the poet, the speaker—what a felicitous combination! Its effect in debate must be overwhelming; and I am sure, were it addressed to me, all that would remain for me would be thus publicly to congratulate the right hon. gentleman, not only on his ready memory, but on his courageous conscience."

"He had much more in common with Pitt than any one else about him, and his love for Pitt was quite filial, and Pitt's feeling for him was more that of a father, than a mere political leader. I am sure that from the first, Pitt marked Canning out as his political heir, and had, in addition, the warmest personal regard for him."

"Mr. Canning, an old representative of Liverpool, whom I rejoice to say my father brought to Liverpool, emancipated this country from its servitude to the Holy Alliance; and for so doing he was more detested by the upper classes of this country than any man has been during the present century."

"Who e'er ye are, all hail! – whether the skill Of youthful CANNING guides the ranc'rous quill; With powers mechanic far above his age, Adapts the paragraph and fills the page; Measures the column, mends what e'er's amiss, Rejects THAT letter, and accepts of THIS;"

"The reception they have met with has been of the most enthusiastic description. One instance alone will suffice for the Fact. You, Sir, are styled even in the Senate, by all the Officers of State, the Redeemer of Chile."

"[I]f I might be allowed to express in one sentence the principle which I think ought to guide an English Minister, I would adopt the expression of Canning, and say that with every British Minister the interests of England ought to be the shibboleth of his policy."

"He was the greatest orator of the age after the deaths of Pitt and Fox. He was a dynamite statesman of infinite courage and resource."

"The real key to Canning's policy is that, though emotional on the surface, it was intellectual in its aims and design. It was, in truth, "a system of policy" profoundly matured in time of enforced idleness, fortified by knowledge of history and international law, and practically applied to the conditions of the time. And these principles, he considered, were sufficient for the time being. Their nature may be indicated in a few words: no Areopagus, non-intervention; no European police system; every nation for itself, and God for us all; balance of power; respect for facts, not for abstract theories; respect for treaty rights, but caution in extending them. Provided it is sovereign and observes diplomatic obligations, a republic is as good a member of the comity of nations as a monarchy. "England not Europe"; "Our foreign policy cannot be conducted against the will of the nation"; "Europe's domain extends to the shores of the Atlantic, England's begins there." England's function is "to hold the balance between the conflicting principles of democracy and despotism," to mediate between two hemispheres, and to bring the New World (pace Monroe) into connection with the Old."

"I have seen the Mississippi. That is muddy water. I have seen the Saint Lawrence. That is clear water. But the Thames is liquid history."

"Maybe I was naive, but I thought the whole point of being an MP was to scrutinise legislation and improve it."

"Is it a bad thing to have MPs voting for what they think is right? Isn't that Parliament working well?"

"Nagging is the repetition of unpalatable truths."

"Japan was provoked into attacking the Americans at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history ever to say that America was forced into the war. Everyone knows where American sympathies were. It is incorrect to say that America was truly neutral even before America came into the war on an all-out basis."

"Capital punishment [could] serve as a deterrent. I do not think we have enough deterrents in this country for criminals – let’s not forget that murders, rapists and criminals of that nature choose to commit the crimes that they commit."

"While my actions were meant with the best of intentions, my actions also fell below the standards of transparency and openness that I have promoted and advocated. I offer a fulsome apology to you and to the government for what has happened and offer my resignation."

"There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal."

"We must seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity offered by the end of free movement"

"I want them [criminals] to literally feel terror at the thought of committing offences."

"The Conservative Party is the party of law and order. Full stop. The defence of our nation, defence of our streets and law and order are at the heart of our values."

"Modern policing must of course be visible policing and that means community policing, localised policing and having police visibility that police officers are empowered to do their jobs. For too long we’ve had our police forces, police officers tied up with regulation and bureaucracy. I want them to feel free to get on and do their jobs, I want them to know that we will support them."

"I'm sorry if people feel that there have been failings."

"What happened to these children remains one of the biggest stains on our country’s conscience."

"It's a stronger strain of the virus in the sense that it's more transmittable, it's a bouncy virus."

"[H]ow can a handful of Members of Parliament in a committee, you know, really be that objective in light of some of the individual comments that have been made. I don’t want to name people but, you know, it is a fact, the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability ... I think there is a culture of collusion quite frankly involved here."

"He [Boris Johnson] led the world in supporting Ukraine and defending our values, he got Brexit done, and he secured successes for the Conservative Party not seen since Margaret Thatcher. Boris is a political titan whose legacy will stand the test of time."

"Being a person of colour does not automatically make you an authority on all forms of racism. We write to you as Black Asian and Ethnic Minority Labour MPs to highlight our dismay at the way you used your heritage and experiences of racism to gaslight the very real racism faced by Black people and communities across the UK."

"[In the late 1960s] When I was here as a very young person, people would not have had any problem about saying to your face certain words that we now consider to be offensive. It was much more pervasive, that sort of attitude. You couldn't even get on a bus without somehow encountering something that made you recoil...Things appear to have transformed [but] then we have new rules about detention of refugees and asylum-seekers that are so mean they seem to me to be almost criminal. And these are argued for and protected by the government. This doesn't seem to me to be a big advance to the way earlier people were treated....The curious thing, of course, is the person presiding over this is herself somebody who would have come here, or her parents would have come here, to confront those attitudes themselves."

"["What would he say to her if she were here now?"] I would say, "Maybe a little more compassion might not be a bad thing." But I don’t want to get into a dialogue with Priti Patel, really."

"I felt a creeping anxiety that campaigners are being used, forced to play a bit part in Priti Patel’s nightmare vision of an ever more polarised, ever more angry nation. She proposes a vile policy, so people shout at her. She tries to do something illegal and judges oppose her. She characterises opponents as a mob and we sit down in the road. No wonder some of us feel as if we are being forced to fulfil a direction set by the government. It provides the plot, we are just the reaction shot. The government is pushing those who care about refugees – or about other, no less urgent issues – into a position of permanent protest."

"Superficially, he is a black man. He went to Eton, I think; he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through, the top schools in the country. If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn't know he is black."