Douglas Alexander
Douglas Alexander
Douglas Garven Alexanderis a British Labour politician who was the Shadow Foreign Secretary and former Member of Parliamentfor Paisley and Renfrewshire South...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 October 1967
interested less means people politics prominent side willing
I've never been interested in self-promotion and that side of politics; and if that means people judge that you're less prominent than others, that's a choice I've been willing to make.
british commit correct course face forces growing history iraq learn lessons responsibility threat wrenching
Of course the decision to commit British forces in Iraq was, for many MPs, a wrenching choice. However, our responsibility in the face of a growing ISIS threat is not to be paralysed by history, but to learn the correct lessons from it.
past important lessons
It's important to learn the right lessons from the past.
deal needs
It would be better if we were able to get a deal, but it had to be the right deal. It needs to be the right deal for Britain, and it needs to be the right deal for Europe.
moved politics represents
The style of politics that Damian McBride represents has been discredited, and Labour has moved on.
clear cost equally offer remain
It would be wrong for us to offer difference from the Conservative Party at the cost of credibility, but equally it would be wrong to offer credibility at the cost of being clear that there remain very fundamental differences.
cannot device explosive speculate
We do not know who planted the explosive device and cannot speculate at this time,
came change empire rather views
As times change, so do the way each generation see the world. It is rather like the way our generation came to see our grandparents' views on the Empire and colonies as outdated.
address below british conduct emerged fall far government practices sanctioned standard system taken unlike
There's no doubt that what has emerged in the years after 9/11, unlike the situation in Britain, there were practices sanctioned in the U.S. that fall far below the standard of conduct that should have taken place. It is for the American system of government, in all of its branches, to address that. It is not for a British politician.
agreement country david electoral hand labour says serious willing
I'm in agreement with David Miliband when he says our generation of Labour politicians are not willing to hand over the direction of the country without a serious electoral fight.
power
The 'Arab Spring' is the most spectacular example of the dispersal of power.
belonged bitter born experience joined labour power repeated
When I joined Labour in 1982, I didn't feel I belonged to a party born to power. My repeated experience was of bitter and repeated defeats.
reveal themselves
Politicians often reveal most about themselves in unguarded moments.
audacity hope politics requires
Politics requires the sense of possibility. Dare I say it - the audacity of hope.