Sometimes that stammer gets the better of me in the first minute or two when I speak, especially when I have got the prime minister, the chancellor and 300 Conservative MPs yelling at me at the top of their voices.
Ed Balls shows his vulnerable side 06/12/2012
Category: Quote of the Day, Opposition
Lord Justice Leveson's proposals are measured, reasonable and proportionate. We on this side unequivocally endorse both the principles set out and his central recommendations.
Ed Miliband speaking in the House of Commons 30/11/2012
Category: Quote of the Day, House of Commons
As Parliamentarians, we believe in free speech and are opposed to the imposition of any form of statutory control even if it is dressed up as underpinning.
86 MPs and Lords, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph 27/11/2012
Category: Quote of the Day, Debate
I think it was a legitimate comment and I mean Twitter is edgy and you know it provokes debate. It looks on this occasion that as if it has caused a serious problem and we need to go back and look at that.
David Wright MP 16/02/2010
on his "scum-sucking pig" Twitter post
Category: Insulting Conservatives, Labour Party, Making Headlines, Member of Parliament (role of)
In the Members' Dining Room, the Conservatives eat at one end, the Labour Party at the other, while the Liberals wait at table.
Gyles Brandreth
Category: Insulting Liberals, House of Commons
At the House of Commons sword-fighting is strictly taboo. Back-stabbing, on the other hand, is quite a different matter.
Gyles Brandreth
Category: House of Commons
The dreadful truth is that when people come to see their MP they have run out of better ideas.
Boris Johnson 2003
Category: Member of Parliament (role of)
There is a popular belief among Prime Ministers that regular bursts of activity make it look as if something positive is happening.
Richard Marsh
Category: Prime Minister's Questions, Prime Minister (Office of)
To anyone with politics in his blood this place is like a pub to a drunkard.
David Lloyd George
To Robert Boothby.
Category: House of Commons
Normally when I'm asked on holiday and I say what I do, I say I'm a traffic warden. That makes me much more popular.
Stephen Pound 31/08/2003
Category: Member of Parliament (role of)
I have long held the view that the whole country would benefit from a moratorium on new legislation for at least two years.
Ted Willis
Category: Legislation
The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.
Lord Beaverbrook
Category: House of Lords
We could not have parliamentary sovereignty with a European Parliament.
Hugh Gaitskell 1962
Category: European Parliament
You can't have a motion without a debate.
Hugh Dalton
On his deathbed when a nurse told him he should stop arguing and have an enema.
Category: Debate
No Government can be long secure wihtout a formidable opposition.
Benjamin Disraeli
Category: Opposition, What is Government
The argument of the broken pane of glass is the most vaulable argument in modern politics.
Emmeline Pankhurst
On the use of violence to promote the Suffragettes' cause.
Category: Suffragettes, Violence
It was like addressing sheeted tombstones by moonlight.
Sidney Herbert
On what is was like addressing the House of Lords.
Category: House of Lords
