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
Human nature is you get carried away, so we have to protect ourselves from ourselves.
We didn't consider closing Heathrow Airport because those who are threatening us would have been the victors,
What I am clear about is that I have made a mistake, ... I thought there was going to be increasing damage done to the government by me.
Throughout my political life, I've not been a stranger to controversy.
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.
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.
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.
We've known all along that the cells that are placed across the world, those who fund those cells believe that we are the enemy.
We have close connections to the rightwing press,
We need to reaffirm that politics is not merely compatible with economic progress and development in the 21st century, but essential to it.
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.
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.
Our first duty is to protect our people.
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.