Top 100 David Blunkett Quotes
#1. Changes to parliamentary procedure won't transform the lives of the people whom I represent. Decentralising, devolving decision-making and renewing civil society will.
David Blunkett
#2. When I'm in London I do have the convenience of being close to St James Park which is also good for me because it gives me an excuse to get out and get some much needed exercise!
David Blunkett
#3. For six and a half years, I had responsibility for leading the Labour party policy on education and delivering on our promise of improved opportunities for all our children.
David Blunkett
#4. We need a government which, yes, guarantees basic standards in public services, but which also steps in to protect people's wellbeing as they take part in our consumer democracy - particularly online.
David Blunkett
#5. By confirming the importance of politics and politicians in Britain, we can build from the bottom up and begin to reverse the worrying anti-politics trend, which will empower the elite technocrats and leave defenceless the man or woman in the street with a mere vote to cast.
David Blunkett
#6. The democratic state can sometimes abuse its power as much as those who seek to destroy it abuse fundamental rights and democratic practices.
David Blunkett
#7. Simple numbers of people of a particular age tell us nothing about the condition of their health, the environment in which they live, and the support systems they can afford to pay for.
David Blunkett
#8. If, in the name of liberty, we allow individuals to act in a way that damages the wellbeing of the whole, it will inevitably mean the breakdown of mutuality, thereby changing the very nature of our society.
David Blunkett
#9. I love the walk although my security team weren't too sure to begin with but I was anxious to be able to lead a near normal life. Whilst walking I do get the chance to meet people and keep in touch.
David Blunkett
#10. We need to build on what we know works - local oversight of schools to keep a check on performance, timely interventions in schools to support those at risk of failing, and partnerships between schools to help each one to improve.
David Blunkett
#11. When it comes to those who are accused and their right to defend themselves, it is perfectly reasonable to expect relevant evidence to be made public, and I am in favour of open justice.
David Blunkett
#12. Strengthening our identity is one way of reinforcing people's confidence and sense of citizenship and well-being.
David Blunkett
#13. Balancing the common good with the freedom and liberty to exercise that individuality has been and remains a challenge for those committed to democracy while understanding that the polis ensures our participation and therefore our citizenship.
David Blunkett
#14. If I pleaded guilty to a mistake while I was home secretary, it wasn't that I didn't get tough - my God, I put immigration and security officials on French soil for the first time.
David Blunkett
#15. At school, I was brought up on revolting food - sausages, sausages and Spam - but at home, I had the most wonderful sponge puddings, which I don't indulge in very often now.
David Blunkett
#16. Parents don't believe that lifting life-chances in one school means reducing them in another.
David Blunkett
#18. Solidarity and interdependence, a sense of worth, a pride and hope in the future: these are positive gains for those who believe in progressive politics and the beneficial role of government, rather than a detriment.
David Blunkett
#19. I am totally in favour of reform - but it must be reform that changes the nature of British politics, not simply the makeup or operation of parliament.
David Blunkett
#20. How to strike the right balance between our privacy and our expectation that the state will protect us and facilitate our freedom is one of the most difficult challenges facing us all.
David Blunkett
#21. Faith in technocrats over politicians is not a trend from which Britain is exempt.
David Blunkett
#22. And we think that our citizens and yours would be very angry if they thought that we hadn't taken every possible step for prevention and then for joint action in the likelihood of those who threaten our lives and our well- being, taking action at the same time.
David Blunkett
#23. I didn't come into politics to have to deal with the issue of clandestine entry, illegal working, or an asylum system that allows a free run for right-wing bigots.
David Blunkett
#24. I must have been a failed football coach in a previous incarnation.
David Blunkett
#25. There are some really good experiments with the youth offending service, joining up youth offending teams with the youth justice board, and good local authority and primary care trusts working together.
David Blunkett
#26. I don't like prolonged, highly expensive commissions, especially if they are chaired by judges. We seem to have overwhelming faith in judges.
David Blunkett
#27. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, in hosting the G20 summit and in the budget, must display the same boldness in tackling the instability at home that they do in promoting a worldwide answer to the global meltdown.
David Blunkett
#28. It's not just parliament that requires radical modernisation. It's our democratic processes.
David Blunkett
#29. Businesses that fail to develop their staff are twice as likely to collapse. Firms seeking to reposition themselves for the economic upturn need to invest in their staff's flexibility, responsiveness and skills.
David Blunkett
#30. Yes, it will go through the disciplines that all puppies go through including house training and puppy walking, then at twelve month old it the training becomes a lot more rigorous which has to be done carefully otherwise you are in danger of stressing the dog.
David Blunkett
#31. None of us believe countering terrorism is about party politics
David Blunkett
#32. I believe Britishness is defined not on ethnic and exclusive grounds but through shared values; our history of tolerance, openness and internationalism; and our commitment to democracy and liberty, to civic duty and the public space.
David Blunkett
#33. Children whose parents return to study do much better at school. Offenders who persist with studies are much less likely to reoffend. The national mental health strategy recognises the important role adult learning can play for people recovering from mental illness.
David Blunkett
#34. Being an MP is not a desperately hard life, like going down the pit or working in the steelworks - with which I am all too familiar, having been brought up in the city of Sheffield; and it certainly isn't badly paid compared with any of my constituents.
David Blunkett
#35. The government wants to be able to attack extremism and hatred wherever it occurs.
David Blunkett
#36. I have always been honest about my recollection of events.
David Blunkett
#37. It is a mistake to separate learning for work and for community and personal development.
David Blunkett
#38. I have made mistakes in the past, but when I have, I have always said so.
David Blunkett
#39. I am nothing if not a loyalist. After 46 years in the Labour party, I've grown weary of the cry: 'If only we had a new, shining, revamped leader, all would be well.'
David Blunkett
#40. To make sense of a world in which rapid change and globalisation create genuine insecurity, we need benchmarks by which we can judge our actions and their long-term impact.
David Blunkett
#41. I regret the time and resources needed to undertake this but ... it is right to lay this accusation to rest.
David Blunkett
#42. I'm as keen as the next person to preserve the right to free speech.
David Blunkett
#43. I believe whoever the Labour Party chooses to replace Tony Blair will beat David Cameron.
David Blunkett
#44. Nothing is more important for young people than enhancing their life chances, liberating their potential and encouraging their contribution to a globally competitive and modern economy.
David Blunkett
#45. I've had a guide dog since 1969. Not the same one, of course: I've had five.
David Blunkett
#46. I'm convinced that quite a lot of young people, when they get in trouble with the law, it's a cry for help there. Because it's not that they go out to offend. It's that their behaviour is self-parading, it's the big 'I'. And sometimes that means they're really lacking in confidence.
David Blunkett
#47. What is it that unites, on the left of British politics, George Orwell, Billy Bragg, Gordon Brown and myself? An understanding that identity and a sense of belonging need to be linked to our commitment to nationhood and a modern form of patriotism.
David Blunkett
#48. My integrity had been called into question; I was being called a liar, and I am not a liar. And I just think it is time that we stop viewing public figures as fair game.
David Blunkett
#49. I said it's impossible to have an amnesty without ID cards and a clean database, because you firstly don't have any incentives for people to actually come up front and register, and make themselves available, and secondly you have no means of tracking them.
David Blunkett
#50. Let's not allow the voice of the people to be overwhelmed by the siren song of those who opposed regulation, who demanded that government should stand aside and let finance and business run the show.
David Blunkett
#51. We have put over £2bn in the last three years into counter-terrorism and we are developing the electronic border surveillance and identity cards
David Blunkett
#52. With the commissioning of new schools undertaken by a local director of school standards, decisions will be fair and transparent, rooted in the needs of the local community. The admissions code and the role of the adjudicator will also be strengthened to provide fairness for all children.
David Blunkett
#54. I have never tried to fiddle my role as leader of the city of Sheffield, as an MP or as a minister.
David Blunkett
#55. We need to reaffirm that politics is not merely compatible with economic progress and development in the 21st century, but essential to it.
David Blunkett
#56. My job as Labour Home Secretary is to ensure people are prepared to listen to us when we take on our opponents across the political spectrum.
David Blunkett
#57. We must look to an open, tolerant, inclusive England, which embraces the values of a Britain that still leads the world in terms of an open democracy, as well as an understanding of the needs for responsibilities and obligations to run alongside the affirmation of individual rights.
David Blunkett
#58. We need to use all the resources at our disposal in order to prosper. We need more employment, and we need employment to be spread more fairly across society.
David Blunkett
#59. We have a media that presents every politician as being as bad as the next. There is no distinguishing between one good idea or another; no explanation of why constitutional change should be uppermost in the minds of the people I represent.
David Blunkett
#60. In Sheffield, we need support from the community and for the community. We need integration with no loss of heritage, and a clear appreciation of what is and is not acceptable.
David Blunkett
#61. In an ageing society, it makes sense to support older adults to develop new skills, prolonging their working lives.
David Blunkett
#62. I did not in late November start the plethora of linking my private life with public events again.
David Blunkett
#63. As home secretary, I gained a reputation for being 'tough'; less concerned with liberty than with public protection.
David Blunkett
#64. Being home secretary involves having to face some of the worst of human behaviour and challenges of modern society.
David Blunkett
#65. Crucially, I'd like to thank Labour party members up and down the country for sticking with us. For their active citizenship, their willingness to engage in our democracy, and for being there at the cutting edge of making our democracy work.
David Blunkett
#66. We need dynamic and thriving businesses and a skilled and adaptable labour force to produce competitiveness and prosperity.
David Blunkett
#67. Speaking for the nation as a whole entails understanding and feeling the pain, as well as understanding the aspiration of the different cultural, social and political make-up of the nation.
David Blunkett
#68. As education and employment secretary in 1997, I inherited hundreds of schools where the roofs leaked, the windows rattled, and they relied entirely on outside toilets.
David Blunkett
#69. I was affected by the harshness of government, the reality of 16-hour days, and the pressures of modern communications.
David Blunkett
#70. Politics is only worthwhile if you are doing what you believe, regardless of the slings and arrows.
David Blunkett
#71. History teaches us that, whatever we say, racists will always distort the words of mainstream politicians to make themselves sound more respectable.
David Blunkett
#72. It would be dangerous territory if I wasn't practising what I preach which is to always accept responsibility, always accept the consequences of your actions.
David Blunkett
#73. When I first came into parliament, there was, on average, a by-election every three months - due not to MPs bailing out, but because of the death rate.
David Blunkett
#74. But any perception of this application being speeded up requires me to take responsibility.
David Blunkett
#75. The clash between capital and labour, between those seeking to maximise profit and those with only their toil to sell, was the driving force for the creation of the trade unions in the 19th century.
David Blunkett
#76. In the U.K., we have always been an open, trading nation, enriched by our global links. Contemporary patterns of migration extend this tradition.
David Blunkett
#77. People from all over the world were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Centre. They came from many different cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu believers were killed together as they worked in the towers.
David Blunkett
#78. It is now in Gordon Brown's - and the Labour party's - best interests for those seeking the prime minister's immediate departure to back off
David Blunkett
#79. Where asylum is used as a route to economic migration, it can cause deep resentment in the host community.
David Blunkett
#80. I'm in favour of a sensible development of response units and their deployment in any circumstance where there may be a risk to the officers themselves or the neighbourhood they're in. I'm not in favour of a blanket arming of the police.
David Blunkett
#81. Bishops and judges are some of the best politicians in the world. They know how to manipulate the political process.
David Blunkett
#82. If you don't create a sense of order and stability, if people do not feel secure, then progressive politics is dead. That is a fact of history. The right has always emerged supreme when destabilisation and insecurity prevail.
David Blunkett
#83. Being a Labour home secretary in the 21st century means fighting a constant battle against both extreme Right and Left.
David Blunkett
#84. In primary schools, I set two main objectives - to cut infant class sizes and improve literacy and numeracy.
David Blunkett
#85. We've got to get back to old-fashioned politics that's in touch with the people we seek to represent and to avoid self-inflicted wounds.
David Blunkett
#86. That is why with enormous regret I have tendered my resignation to the prime minister today.
David Blunkett
#87. I have built my reputation on honesty, I have sometimes been too honest.
David Blunkett
#88. In today's world, learning has become the key to economic prosperity, social cohesion and personal fulfillment. We can no longer afford to educate the few to think, and the many to do.
David Blunkett
#89. If surveillance infiltrates our homes and personal relationships, that is a gross breach of our human and civil rights.
David Blunkett
#90. Much extremist activity falls short of directly inciting people to violence or other crimes and so is not caught by laws on incitement. Neither does the Public Order Act, used to protect groups of people from harassment, deal with the problem.
David Blunkett
#91. I personally guarantee that now that bear wouldn't get past Dover without being shot.
David Blunkett
#92. At this very moment in time there will be people making, breaking relationships, regretting deeply what they've done, and causing hurt, but that is a fact of life, and if we weren't full of emotion, we'd be automatons, and I don't think people want us to be that.
David Blunkett
#93. Reciprocity helps us balance the need for self-determination and creative individuality with mutual hope and, therefore, what might be described as 'solidarity.'
David Blunkett
#94. The government must give men and women without power a real say over what happens to them, and the means of engaging in a participative, invigorated and living democracy.
David Blunkett
#95. The Home Office culture was one of being just above the problem, of hovering just out of reach of knowing what was going on on the ground, whether it was crime or immigration.
David Blunkett
#96. Politics is about the participation and engagement of the wider citizenry - to miss that point would doom us to irrelevance.
David Blunkett
#97. Privacy is a right, but as in any democratic society, it is not an absolute right.
David Blunkett
#98. To punish MPs because of the distance they live from London - those with fast train journeys quite close to London as well as those at some distance from both the capital or an appropriate airport - is perverse, but also dangerous to democracy.
David Blunkett
#99. We must draw on our early roots and remind people why the Labour party was created and who it sought to represent. We have never been a sectional party promoting self-interest, but instead a force for engaging self-reliance and self-determination.
David Blunkett
#100. Throughout my political life, I've not been a stranger to controversy.
David Blunkett
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