David Miliband
David Miliband
David Wright Milibandis a British Labour Party politician, charity chief executive and public policy analyst who was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of Parliamentfor South Shields from 2001 to 2013. He and his brother, Ed Miliband, were the first siblings to sit in the Cabinet simultaneously since Edward, Lord Stanley, and Oliver Stanley in 1938...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth15 July 1965
I was always brought up that if you can make a difference, you should, and if you don't it's a waste. So we'll see if I can make a difference.
closest history understand word
I do not speak Hebrew, but I understand that it has no word for 'history.' The closest word for it is memory.
capitalism dad debating football mum profit remember saturday sitting table taking
My memories are of my dad taking me to football on Saturday mornings, and my mum taking me swimming. Those are the things I remember from my childhood, not sitting around the table debating capitalism and the profit squeeze.
education prescribed system welfare work
In Britain, the centrally prescribed welfare to work system short-changes the young unemployed. Transport, housing and education are over centralised.
religion
Communism was meant to be an alternative religion.
borders consensus endgame israelis parties suspicious terms
Israelis and Palestinians are suspicious of each other and of promises from outside. But the need for a negotiated solution between the parties should not stymie international clarity and consensus about the endgame in terms of borders and other issues.
bad less prospects smaller sorts ten ways
The 1970s - I was ten in 1975 - were a bad decade in all sorts of ways but the middle class had comfortable assumptions about the prospects for its children. The middle class was smaller then; it was a much less competitive Britain, less meritocratic.
biggest bombed both dangerous iran middle nuclear threats unstable
The two biggest threats to international security in 2013 are Iran getting a nuclear weapon, and Iran being bombed to stop it getting a nuclear weapon. Both would precipitate a long and dangerous conflict in an already unstable Middle East. Both would be a disaster.
bring british cameron david leadership
The test of leadership for David Cameron was actually to bring the British Conservative Party back in to the mainstream.
developing human incredibly miracle optimistic race sons
I think the wonderment of seeing my two sons developing makes me incredibly optimistic about human potential. It makes you think: 'My goodness. It's a miracle that's going on here. What could the human race do together?'
abhor clash ideals perfectly rendition supported
I abhor anything that constitutes torture. Water-boarding, it's perfectly clear to me it is torture. I never supported extraordinary rendition to torture, always said that Guantanamo should be closed. There is no clash of ideals and pragmatism there.
britain danger europe foreign therefore
The real danger to Britain is a foreign policy that is isolationist in Europe and therefore weak in the rest of the world.
history
History is information. Memory is part of your identity.
believe change economic lead politics social societies
You have to believe that it's through politics that societies can lead social and economic and political change.