David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, PCis best known as a British politician and more recently as an academic, having represented the Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency for 28 years through to 7 May 2015 when he stepped down at the general election. Blind since birth, and coming from a poor family in one of Sheffield's most deprived districts, he rose to become Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Work and Pensions Secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet following Labour's victory in...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth6 June 1947
Politics is only worthwhile if you are doing what you believe, regardless of the slings and arrows.
My sense is that there is a new understanding, yes.
So good on them. And whether it is a year or two years, it actually will be a sensible process of combining the talents that we have.
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.
Sir John was an excellent Commissioner and I was proud he invited me to speak at a number of his farewells.
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.
No one is going macho, no one's trying to do this for the sake of promoting some sort of vitriolic or anti-human rights agenda,
None of this is intended to stifle free speech, dialogue or debate, ... Fair comment is not at risk ... Only the incitement to hate.
We need dynamic and thriving businesses and a skilled and adaptable labour force to produce competitiveness and prosperity.
I have made mistakes in the past, but when I have, I have always said so.
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.
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.
What we are proposing are some sensible additional security measures.
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.