The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.
I think the journey for a politician goes from wanting to please all the people all the time, to a political leader that realises in the end his responsibility is to decide. And when he decides, he divides.
The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
You know, the media and politicians are always gonna be in a bit of tension with one another and probably most of the time that's healthy and indeed even creative. But it's where - it's really when news organisations are used as kind of instruments of politics that it gets tricky.
I don't like it, to be honest, when politicians make a big thing of their religious beliefs, so I don't make a big thing of it.
I can't stand politicians who wear God on their sleeves.
I happen to think it's the politics that makes you electable, but the reason for that is politicians sometimes talk about electability as if it's just a matter of conning the public. Actually, it's a matter of persuading the public, and in my experience, usually, the public gets it right.
I'm a Labour politician, but, you know, I can see decent Tories with good ideas.
I think crime is a huge issue for people. If you were living in the poorest state, and you've got drug dealers at the end of the street, and your life's in misery, and you're afraid of your kids going out the door. I mean, the job of progressive politicians is to do something about that.
There are big questions about the sort of skills you need in modern government today. You put politicians in charge of billions of dollars with absolutely no training and very little support system around them. It's an extraordinary thing.
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