We believe the 36, nearly 40, billion pound discount given for a right to buy houses took a million houses out of the public housing sector which is desperately needed for rent.

It's great to be back on terra cotta

Down in the south, it's how we find the brownfield sites without taking too much land take to meet the tremendous demand for housing, and that's what I've done.

The Green Belt is a Labour achievement - and we mean to build on it.

Because of the security reasons for one thing and, second, my wife doesn't like to have her hair blown about. Have you got another silly question?

My roots, my background and the way I act is working class, but it would be hypsocritical to say I'm anything else than middle class now.

I don't get a fair whack, I don't pursue vendettas or punch people on the nose.

What we are beginning to witness is a whole new set of rules for economics, based on rationing resources.

Improving the quality of life for people of this country is perhaps the most important duty of Government

It's moving in the right direction. It was in decline under the previous administration.

If you look at Newcastle or Gateshead, even over twenty years, even with the previous administration, it has moved quite remarkably in transforming itself.

But what was I but a scared child lost in a strange world? How could I replace all that been lost? Where was my place in the world?

Nothing is so hard that it can't be found by searching.

Victory is a thing of the will.

Happiness is a way station between too little and too much.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.' That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.

Don’t talk about the way you are. Talk about the way you want to be.

Americans are not used to being bombed in their beds, but if you come from anywhere outside America, it's not highly unusual.

I wrote all the time, but the idea of doing it professionally seemed like pie in the sky. Who gets paid to write? I grew up in Pittsburgh, so it wasn't really a notion that a lot of people pursue.

We are the only ones who can tell our stories because we are the only ones who have lived them.