Politicians From Scotland

"No one can possess what we call good judgement, which is about the same thing as an instinct for recognizing Reasonable Probabilities, whose mind is not trained to follow truth. And in many of the most important things of life. Reasonable Probabilities are our only guides."

"The removal from among us of a public man of exceptional capacity and marked personality still in the prime of life, is at any time a tragedy. The sense of loss on personal and public grounds, and the inevitable diminution of the effective influence which at all times so essentially depends on the winning personality of the individual, are keen and real."

"We are living in troubled times. None can see far into the future, or can pretend to guess what new order, social, political or economic, may emerge for the world in the next few years. At such a time individuals, communities, nations, and all mankind are in desperate need of the virtues of courage, self-confidence, mutual trust and understanding, which alone can lead the peoples of the world to build again what has been shattered, and bind themselves together more strongly in a spirit of unity, brotherhood and goodwill."

"Lord Belhaven...did protest in his own name and in name of all these who shall adhere to him that this act is no valid security to the church of Scotland as it is now established by law in case of an incorporating union, and that the church of Scotland can have no real and solid security by any manner of union by which the Claim of Right is unhinged, our parliament incorporated and our distinct sovereignty and independency intirely abolished."

"I think I see our ancient mother Caledonia, like Caesar, sitting in the midst of our senate, ruefully looking round about her, covering herself with her royal garment, attending the fatal blow, and breathing out her last with an ‘Et tu quoque mi fili.’"

"A man has been convicted in a UK court of making a joke that was deemed "grossly offensive". If you don't believe in a person's right to say things that you might find "grossly offensive", then you don't believe in Freedom of Speech."

"For the system to actually disregard such things means that your actions no longer matter - they decide what your context and intent is. For any comedians making jokes in Britain, I'd be very, very worried about your future because - the context and intent - apparently they don't matter anymore"

"I'd like to see tougher enforcement against Gypsie Travellers."

"Capitalism may hold the working class subjection by the strength of its might and power, but capitalism will never do it with the willing consent and acquiescence of that working class. Always and under all circumstance, will there be found fresh voices, growing not only in volume, but in numbers, raised to protest against this enslavement, and the rigour of the oppression will determine always the vigour of the protest."

"The working-class, generally, is slowly beginning to realise, the true value of solidarity and are gradually becoming aware of the fact that their interests, whether they be railwaymen, dockers, engineers, or miners, are indissolubly wrapped up with one another, and that they stand or fall as a class."

"He attended the Anti-Imperialist Conference at Brussels, having come straight from mass agitation at the docks in various ports. Within a few days after the Brussels Conference comes the news of his death. He thus died in harness, a good comrade, an energetic fighter—living, working and fighting under the banner of the Communist International. He will not be forgotten, nor will his work cease, for it was a part of the struggle of the working class for freedom."

"Written right across every page of human history is the declaration that no people can be free so long as the private ownership of the means of production and distribution endures."

"The tragedy of the War is now to be followed by the greater tragedy of peace. The ostensible plea for the War as a struggle for the freedom of small nations now becomes clear as a War of Imperialism. The War for the so-called democratisation of Germany has now turned into a War for the crushing of the rising working class of Europe."

"Our comrades in Russia are stretching out their arms, beseeching assistance, and this way lies real assistance. They are standing upright in the full dignity and strength of their newly-won freedom, imploring us to rise from our knees and stand erect, side by side with them and shoulder to shoulder—forming the only League of Nations capable of preventing war and ensuring peace: the League of International Working-Class Solidarity, bound and knit together by the bond of comradeship, and not commercial and profit-seeking interest."

"They may crush us, but they will never crush our principles; rather will they by crushing us intensify the determination of those who come after us to follow on in our steps, undaunted and courageous until the dawn of the great day when “All shall be better than well.”"

"The hour is rapidly arriving when every man and woman of our class will have to make a great decision. We shall have to choose whether capitalism with all its attendant miseries and horrors is to remain enthroned here in Britain, or whether we intend to be free indeed. We shall have to choose whether we really believe in the application of the right of self-determination for all nations, or whether, for generations yet to come, we prefer to remain the tools of Imperialism, and the slaves of profit."

"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."

"I'm proud to have been the first woman to have led the Liberal Democrats. I'm even more proud that I will not be the last. One of the realities of smashing glass ceilings is that a lot of broken glass comes down on your head."

"Even my five-year-old knows that if you do something wrong you have to say sorry"

"The truth is you can't plan for no deal. Planning for no deal is like planning to burn your house down."

"We still want to have a People's Vote. We've been arguing for that for the last three-and-a-half years - [to put] the Brexit deal to the public in a referendum. [But] when we have an election, if we haven't had a People's Vote, people will be looking to resolve the issue of Brexit, and there are so many people in this country who are so sick of hearing about it. They want to get on with their lives and want the government to get on with making their lives better."

"The first task is clear. We must stop Brexit. There is no Brexit that will be good for our country."

"Boris Johnson has finally got his hands on the keys to Number 10, but he has shown time and time again that he isn't fit to be the prime minister of our country. Whether it is throwing people under the bus or writing a lie on the side of one: Britain deserves better than Boris Johnson."

"Instead of despairing at the world, let’s roll up our sleeves and change it."

"Planning for no deal, it's like saying you're going to plan for your house to burn down. You might get contents insurance, you're still going to lose all your stuff."

"The Liberal Democrats are crystal clear. We want to stop Brexit... If a Liberal Democrat majority government is elected, then we should revoke Article 50 and I think it's about being straightforward and honest with the British public about that."

"I will do whatever it takes to stop Brexit"

"I think it’s important that we challenge the idea that women who have babies are not fit for work and don’t have value. There is massive pregnancy discrimination, in parliament and right across society."

"There is no mandate for that (an independence referendum). The SNP have put forward this idea of indyref2 at subsequent elections and they have lost seats and lost votes. So I am confident that this is not what people in Scotland want. People in Scotland want to have Scotland in the UK and the UK in the EU, and that's what the Liberal Democrats are arguing for. And that's what as leader of the Liberal Democrats I'm going to do everything in my power to deliver."

"It may infuriate Nicola Sturgeon, but it seems that JK Rowling's political judgment is superior: the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill will be Sturgeon's poll tax. Sturgeon is not in control of this. She allied herself with zealots, ignored public anxieties, denied biology, produced a bill that most can see is deeply flawed, rejected sensible amendments such as barring sex offenders from self-identification, and cannot hide from the people that predatory males, if the bill becomes law, can manipulate it to invade women’s safe spaces. The recent rapist case will not be the only one that will haunt her."

"In many parts of the world, politicians can no longer claim that they do not have the social mandate for taking the climate crisis seriously: citizens are clearly calling for a strong government response, with high levels of public concern about climate change and wide-ranging support for policies to cut emissions. In recognition of this, some senior politicians have actively encouraged citizen activism that pushes them to do more, for example Angela Merkel when she was Chancellor asking young Germans to 'pile on the pressure', and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledging that 'our feet do need to be held to the fire'."

"The Liberal Democrats would like to have a referendum on the major issue of whether we are in or out of Europe"

"Today will go down in history as a dark one indeed for UK democracy."

"Shutting down parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit - which will do untold and lasting damage to the country against the wishes of MPs - is not democracy, it is dictatorship."

"We've backed a second EU referendum, which gives people the opportunity to stop Brexit in its tracks and reverse the decision that was taken. I would also support a General Election, which would give people the opportunity to do that. And of course I want to give Scotland the opportunity of choosing our own future through independence through which we can try to fashion a future that has Scotland as part of the European Union and broader international community."

"There was this assumption that I took a hard-nosed decision to prioritise a career over children. Women should not be judged for the reasons they have or don't have children."

"While disappointed by it, I respect ruling of @UKSupremeCourt – it doesn't make law, only interprets it. A law that doesn't allow Scotland to choose our own future without Westminster consent exposes as myth any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership & makes case for Indy. Scottish democracy will not be denied. Today’s ruling blocks one route to Scotland’s voice being heard on independence – but in a democracy our voice cannot and will not be silenced."

"So if this was just a question of my ability or my resilience to get through the latest period of pressure I wouldn’t be standing here today, but it's not. This decision comes from a deeper and longer-term assessment. I know it may seem sudden, but I have been wrestling with it, albeit with oscillating levels of intensity for some weeks. Essentially, I've been trying to answer two questions: is carrying on right for me? And more importantly, is me carrying on right for the country, for my party and for the independence cause I have devoted my life to?"

"For years, Sturgeon’s personal power has masked any fissures in her party, leaving them unaddressed and widening. Her reliance on a tight circle of advisers, and the premium placed on loyalty from elected representatives, leaves her trapped in an echo chamber. With no possibility of an alternative party reaching government, the SNP is deprived of the democratic check of strong opposition. Charities and lobbyists, dependent on the party and the government for funding and contracts, tell Sturgeon what she wants to hear—even if public opinion is not with her. Inside the SNP, none of her ministers has anything approaching her public profile."

"Nicola Sturgeon’s Scotland: A place where an equalities officer feels free to declare in public how much he wants to beat up non-compliant women."

"I'm happy to work with anybody, male or female, to try to stop Brexit"

"[The SNP will] work with anybody at Westminster to try to stop Brexit, and avert the catastrophe of a no-deal Brexit."

"I'm against any form of Brexit, I want to stop Brexit, but in particular a no-deal Brexit I think will be catastrophic for our economy, society, for a long time to come"

"I first wrote to my MP when I was about 10. I always wanted to make a difference."

"Scotland’s 62% vote to remain in the EU counted for nothing. Far from being an equal partner at Westminster, Scotland’s voice is listened to only if it chimes with that of the UK majority; if it does not, we are outvoted and ignored."

"Independence is not about the isolationism that characterises Brexit."

"The President of the United States telling elected politicians – or any other Americans for that matter – to ‘go back’ to other countries is not OK, and diplomatic politeness should not stop us saying so, loudly and clearly."

"We will do all we can to fight for our place in Europe, and to stop Brexit altogether."

"I believe both Scotland and the UK should stay in the EU. Scotland benefits from being part of the EU, and the EU benefits from having Scotland a part of it. No SNP parliamentarian has expressed a desire to campaign for the out campaign - though they are not prevented from doing so. I am determined to make the positive case for continued membership in a reformed EU."

"I have opposed Trident and nuclear weapons for all of my political life - I even joined CND before becoming a member of the SNP."