One nation banking recognises that banks must not be isolated from the rest of the economy. Because banks and small businesses must succeed or fail together, banks must lend to small businesses so we can get the growth and jobs we need for the future. As things stand, that is not happening enough. Lending was down £10.8billion last year.
Ed Miliband 03/02/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
"Whether you come here to work, study, or get married, we as a country are entitled to check that you will add to the quality of life in Britain...What we need is a national consensus on how we can make immigration work for Britain. We are evidently a long way from such a consensus but I want to start to build it ... the legitimate question in today's world is how we can benefit from immigration... Importing economic dependency on the state is unacceptable. Bringing people to this country who can play no role in the life of this country is equally unacceptable. Everyone who comes here must be selected to make a positive contribution".
Damian Green 02/02/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
How long do Syrian families have to live in fear that their children will be killed or tortured, before the Security Council will act? How many people need to die before the consciences of world capitals are stirred?
William Hague 31/01/2012
The foreign secretary, during an address to the UN
Category: Quote of the Day
Look back to 1948 when the British Medical Association denounced Aneurin Bevan as 'a would-be Führer' for wanting them to join a National Health Service. And Bevan himself described the BMA as 'politically poisoned people'. A survey at the time showed only 10 per cent of doctors backed the plans ... But where would we be today if my predecessors had caved in?
Andrew Lansley 27/01/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
It's a good thing then that the general election is not taking place tomorrow and we are a long way off from a change of government, it would seem to me. So he has plenty of time to repair his image, repair his standing and persuade the public that he is a credible future prime minister, and on the basis of his current activity and performance, I believe that he can do that.
Peter Mandelson 26/01/2012
The former Labour busines secretary on Adam Boulton's show on Sky News
Category: Quote of the Day
I am certainly not a blogger. Quite a large proportion of them are nuts and extremists – with the honourable exception of the culture secretary.
Ken Clarke 17/01/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
Most people in the country would think the diamond jubilee is a wonderful occasion for us to celebrate together as a community and as a nation. But I suspect that most people in the country would think, given that there is very little money around, that this probably would not be the top of their list of priorities for the use of scarce public resources.
Nick Clegg 16/01/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
In good times, people turn to Left wing parties, in bad times, they say, well, possibly Left-wing parties can’t make those tough decisions... We’ve got to buck that trend
Ed Miliband 10/01/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
I think it's very unfair on the Scottish people themselves who don't really know when this question is going to be asked, what the question is going to be, who's responsible for asking it
David Cameron 09/01/2011
Category: Quote of the Day
I've seen it, yes, it's a fantastic piece of acting by Meryl Streep, but I just, you can't help wondering, why do we have to have this film right now, it is a film much more about ageing and elements of dementia rather than an amazing prime minister, and my sort of sense was a great piece of acting, really staggering piece of acting, but a film I wish they could have made another day.
David Cameron 06/01/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
I’m not even a PPS (parliamentary private secretary, the lowest run on the ministerial ladder). It’s kind of annoying. What do I have to do to get promoted over here? Am I being disloyal? I don’t know.
Louise Mensch 03/01/2012
Category: Quote of the Day
No one in this House is going to be surprised that Conservatives and Liberal Democrats don't always agree about Europe, but let me reassure him he shouldn't believe everything he reads in the papers. It's not that bad, it's not like we're brothers or anything!
David Cameron 14/12/2011
Category: Quote of the Day
They're tweeting, blogging and poking for all they're worth, but they still haven't got a policy
David Cameron 12/12/2011
The prime minister directs a jibe at the opposition front bench
Category: Quote of the Day
I work in lockstep, hand in glove, with the prime minister on these issues, and as we are supportive to the Eurozone so they can sort their problems out, in return they introduce safeguards to ensure precisely what I said: that the single market is not fragmented and that important industries like the financial services industry are treated fairly. Not exceptional treatment, but are just simply treated fairly, on a level playing field within Europe.
Nick Clegg 08/12/2011
The deputy prime minister on his role in the decision-making process over Europe
Category: Quote of the Day
It breaks my heart, because we owe it [a peace process] to the people of Afghanistan, we owe it to all our servicemen and women who have fought and died and been wounded in Afghanistan. I don't think time is ever too short to start something like that but the problem lies not in Kabul, Kandahar, Islamabad or even in London - it lies in Washington. Is Obama's America up for it?
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles 07/12/2011
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009, on the political will for a peace process in Afghanistan
Category: Quote of the Day
Douglas Carswell accused all political parties of “deliberately cultivating the impression” that there would be a referendum.
“The coalition agreement is the product of politicians negotiating at their convenience – what is important is to recognise that all three parties deliberately cultivated the impression in the minds of the electorate that they would give people a referendum.”
Douglas Carswell 06/12/2011
The Conservative backbencher tells Radio 4's Today programme that a referendum would be necessary on any EU treaty change
Category: Quote of the Day
I think it is a ‘little England’ moment in the sense that the factors which really are going to drive the economy are... The euro, there have been higher energy and food prices to some extent – it’s what’s going on in the global economy and this is a bit of a sideshow.
Lord Malloch-Brown 29/11/2011
Category: Quote of the Day
I think we'll say flat is the new growth in the short term.
Sir Philip Green 24/11/2011
Category: Quote of the Day
Where was Nick Robinson, the most powerful political editor in the land, during this period? Kissing Andy Coulson’s arse.
Tom Watson MP 14/11/2011
Category: Quote of the Day
You are the first Mafia boss in history to not know he was running a criminal enterprise
Tom Watson MP 10/11/2011
Tom Watson to James Murdoch during a culture, media and sport select committee evidence session on phone hacking at News International
Category: Quote of the Day
