This article is from the August issue of Total Politics

Issue 1 July 2008
Gordon Brown
Prime minister
‘I think it is character that people look for in the end, not personality. Personality is where someone walks into a room and says, “What do people want to hear?”

Issue 2 August 2008
Morgan Tsvangirai
Movement for Democratic Change leader in Zimbabwe
‘The victory of the people may be delayed but not denied... These are not just political slogans. These are solemn commitments.’

Issue 3 September 2008
Boris Johnson
Mayor of London
‘Ken Livingstone hangs around like a sort of brooding pterodactyl... It’s good there’s someone in London who’s firing off press releases saying what a tosser I am, which he does virtually every day.’

Issue 4 October 2008
Brendan Barber
TUC general secretary
‘Our job is to carry on representing our 6.5 million members – there is no organisation with anything like that many members that represents a very significant proportion of the national workforce.’

Issue 5 November 2008
Nigel Farage
UKIP leader
‘UKIP’s achievement has been to take an argument that was considered to be mad and bad and to turn it into a mainstream political argument.’

Issue 6 December 2008
Hazel Blears
Communities and local government secretary
‘Every politician has to have ego. You don’t go into politics if you don’t have an ego. The danger is when the ego takes over from the intellect.’

Issue 7 January 2009
Harriet Harman
Labour Party deputy leader
‘I’m in politics as a woman to do things for other women, and to change the way things are done.’

Issue 8 February 2009
Tony Benn
Former Labour MP
‘I would like to be remembered for having encouraged people... All I would want on my gravestone would be: “Here Lies Tony Benn: He Encouraged Us.”’

Issue 9 March 2009
David Cameron
Conservative Party leader
‘I very much believe that, in politics, what matters most of all is your judgement, your character and your ability to listen and then make a decision.’

Issue 10 April 2009
Ken Livingstone
Former Mayor of London
‘The Labour Party only tolerates me because I only get to play with London. If they thought I might get my hands on the whole country, they would be very serious about stopping me.’

Issue 11 May 2009
Paddy Ashdown
Former Liberal Democrat leader
‘I was a disaster when I first became leader. I see some of the criticism of Nick Clegg and think, “Just go back and look at my first year.”’

Issue 12 June 2009
Cherie Blair
Former PM’s wife
‘Politics is a noble thing and one of the worst things we have these days is a cynicism about it – about all these politicians only being in it for themselves.’

Issue 13 July 2009
Alan Duncan
Shadow leader of the House
‘I have been on Have I Got News for You four times... the fourth was a complete almighty disaster... We [MPs] must be allowed to have a sense of humour.’

Issue 14 August 2009
Jacqui Smith
Former home secretary
‘Somebody said to me just the other day, “If you knew everything that was going to happen to you, including the bad bits in the last months, would you still have done it?” And I said, “Without doubt, yes.”’

Issue 15 September 2009
Ann Widdecombe
Conservative MP
‘I believe, as a woman, that every woman in Parliament should be able to look every man in the eye and to think she got there on exactly the same basis that he got there.’

Issue 16 October 2009
David Starkey
Historian
‘We should have a directly elected prime minister. We should have something very much like the American cabinet, which is outside the legislature.’

Issue 17 November 2009
Nicola Sturgeon
Scotland’s deputy first minister
‘My English teacher knew I was interested in politics and assumed, without even asking me, that I would join the Labour Party. I thought, “Stuff you, I’m going to join the SNP.”’

Issue 18 December 2009
Vince Cable
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman
‘Being seen as a human being rather than just a number-cruncher and a party politician is important.’

Issue 19 January 2010
John Bercow
Speaker of the House
‘I received various approaches from various senior people in the Labour Party saying: “Aw, you know, we’d love to have you on board...” And I always said no.’

Issue 20 February 2010
Nick Clegg
Liberal Democrat leader
‘Lib Dems have their embarrassments... but here’s the difference: Labour and Conservatives MPs abuse the system on an industrial scale in a way that not a single Liberal Democrat MP has done.’

Issue 21 March 2010
Sir Nicholas Winterton
Conservative MP
‘Now they want to stop MPs travelling first class. That puts us below local councillors. Why are we going to waste our time when we can work on the train as we do. I’m sorry. It infuriates me.’

Issue 22 April 2010
Andrew Adonis
Transport secretary
‘If I could rewind the clock, I may have taken the chance of going for selection in the 2005 election.’

Issue 23 May 2010
Ed Miliband
Energy and climate change secretary
‘I think you’ll see Gordon strengthen in this campaign. Expenses has given us a moment when we need to respond and show we can reform our politics.’

Issue 24 June 2010
Andrew Neil
BBC presenter (Daily Politics, This Week and Straight Talk)
‘I see quite a lot of interviewers struggling when they deal with economics. Economics is the lifeblood of politics, no more so than now.’

Issue 25 July 2010
Alastair Campbell
Former director of communications for Tony Blair
‘Adam Boulton really doesn’t like me. I thought he might headbutt me at one point. He completely lost it. I heard that Murdoch phoned him the next day and said well done.’

Issue 26 August 2010
Eric Pickles
Communities and local government secretary
‘I’ve seen too many people eaten up by unfulfilled ambition. It destroyed their career, their family life, without leaving any trace of a human-being you’d have a drink with.’

Issue 27 September 2010
Matthew Parris
Political commentator and former Conservative MP
‘I think [Thatcher] quite liked gossip. She thought that the things human beings do are really very strange and unknowable.’

Issue 28 October 2010
Shirley Williams
Former Lib Dem leader in the Lords
‘Most current women politicians are terribly distracted by having two jobs to do... Normally they’re married and have children, whereas they used to be single or widows.’

Issue 29 November 2010
Iain Duncan Smith
Work and pensions secretary
‘My job is not to sit here with vendettas... I just get on. I’m not going to spend my whole time saying I’m going to get even.’

Issue 30 December 2010
Peter Mandelson
Former business secretary
‘If you had Gordon’s intellect... plus Tony’s charm... you would have the perfect prime minister.’

Issue 31 January 2011
Caroline Lucas
Green party leader
‘A single MP can achieve a great deal. I have to remember that I can’t do everything. It is so difficult to prioritise. If you spread yourself too thinly you’re not effective.’

Issue 32 February 2011
Tom Watson
Labour MP
‘I saw that two-party politics was grinding everyone into a pulp because there was no trust at the centre.’

Issue 33 March 2011
Boris Johnson
Mayor of London
‘People should go into politics! It’s wonderful. I mean, look at me... You have an amazing opportunity to do things that are beneficial and I don’t understand why people don’t go into politics.’

Issue 34 April 2011
William Hague
Foreign secretary
‘I’ve been a better politician since I got being the leader out of my system. This isn’t a launch pad to be leader again one day, which must be a great distraction, and has been for some predecessors.’

Issue 35 May 2011
Sadiq Khan
Shadow justice secretary
‘We’ve tasted what being in government can do, and how you can act with the levers of power, and how you can make change. None of us are in favour of simply playing to an audience.’

Issue 36 June 2011
Lynne Featherstone
Equalities minister
‘Cross-departmental nagging is my strong point.’

Issue 37 July 2011
Andy Burnham
Shadow health secretary
‘I’m a big believer in conducting politics along football principles... when you’re in public, you back each other up and debate your differences behind closed doors.’

Issue 38 August 2011
Jeremy Hunt
Culture secretary
‘We can’t link phone hacking and media plurality issues on which the News Corp/BSkyB decision is taken. That’s a decision with the Labour Party as well.’

Issue 39 September 2011
Francis Maude
Cabinet Office minister
‘I’m socially quite liberal... That’s probably what people think when they loosely say: “Francis is on the left of the party.” It’s baffling, but it doesn’t particularly bother me.’

Issue 40 October 2011
Tim Farron
Liberal Democrat president
‘There’s a general sense of politics as a grubby business, but everybody can be morally corrupt. We’re all scumbags.’

Issue 41 November 2011
Liam Fox
Defence secretary
‘I’ve made very clear my position on that [Adam Werritty], and I wouldn’t touch it because of legal reasons... I’ve made very clear that the email involved was completely untrue.’

Issue 42 December 2011
Ed Balls
Shadow chancellor
‘I cry at the Antiques Roadshow. You know, when someone comes in with some family heirloom and the expert says, “Do you know how much this is worth? It’s valued at X thousand pounds.” Incredibly emotional.’

Issue 43 January 2012
David Miliband
Former foreign secretary
‘I’m proud I [went for leader] and I would do it again. It’s a very important part of my politics that we’re a movement, not just a machine. When we are a machine, we lose... And I want us to win.’

Issue 44 February 2012
Theresa May
Home secretary
‘I’m not naturally over-effusive in wanting to tell everybody my story. Showing that you can do something, that you’re doing it, is more important than the backstory.’

Issue 45 March 2012
Tristram Hunt
Labour MP
‘The best politicians probably have little time or inclination for history. Politicians who understand history... get bogged down... You don’t want too much content.’

Issue 46 April 2012
Justine Greening
Transport secretary
‘Talent is important. Actually, if you really want to be successful you’ve got to be prepared to go for longer, put more effort in – with a heavy dash of sheer bloody-mindedness.’

Issue 47 May 2012
Chuka Umunna
Shadow business secretary
‘My constituents love the fact that I go to Nando’s... I wouldn’t take a date to Nando’s... I’d take them to KFC.’

Issue 48 June 2012
Andrew Lansley
Health secretary
‘If people could actually see inside my brain, all the things I was thinking, it really would be a very bad day. And tweeting is like letting what you think out. Probably best not to.’

Issue 49 July 2012
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Conservative MP
‘I was very stupid when I got to Eton... I did not excel at anything. I was not bold. I think ‘shy’ would be overstating it, but I wasn’t somebody who pushed themselves to the front of things.’

Issue 50 August 2012
David Davis
Conservative MP
‘There’s no point in regretting mistakes. Some believed the 2005 leadership contest was a mistake. But he who makes no mistakes makes nowt. So don’t make mistakes twice, but don’t worry about them.’

Tags: Issue 50