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
There is always an effort to link the public and the private.
As home secretary, I gained a reputation for being 'tough'; less concerned with liberty than with public protection.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I can assure the traveling public that if we believed it was not safe for them to travel or fly we would say so,
In government, you are pressed by the security agencies. They come to you with very good information, and they say, 'You need to do something.' So you do need the breath of scepticism, not cynicism, breathing on them.
That is why with enormous regret I have tendered my resignation to the prime minister today.
I'm guilty of a mistake and I'm paying the price of it,
I grew up in one of the most deprived parts of Britain. I know the problems which inner-city children face.
In an ageing society, it makes sense to support older adults to develop new skills, prolonging their working lives.
I've had a guide dog since 1969. Not the same one, of course: I've had five.
I want to go back to a time when I was very young, when you expected the police to be part of the community and the community to be part of policing.