David Blunkett Quotes
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Despite being in public life, I value my own privacy immensely and would be as concerned as anyone else if I thought my mobile phone records could be easily available to officials across government.
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Parents don't believe that lifting life-chances in one school means reducing them in another.
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If you have a sense of irony or humour, you're usually cut down, as you're usually distorted or misinterpreted. So it does lead to us being slightly more dour and staid and predictable than would otherwise be the case, which I personally find quite frustrating - because if you don't laugh occasionally in my job, you cry most of the time.
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The government wants to be able to attack extremism and hatred wherever it occurs.
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Being home secretary involves having to face some of the worst of human behaviour and challenges of modern society.
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Where asylum is used as a route to economic migration, it can cause deep resentment in the host community.
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I'm as keen as the next person to preserve the right to free speech.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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History teaches us that, whatever we say, racists will always distort the words of mainstream politicians to make themselves sound more respectable.
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If surveillance infiltrates our homes and personal relationships, that is a gross breach of our human and civil rights.
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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.
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That is why with enormous regret I have tendered my resignation to the prime minister today.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Being a Labour home secretary in the 21st century means fighting a constant battle against both extreme Right and Left.
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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.