It Is Government Policy To Phase Out

If Democracy Is Destroyed In Britain, It Will Be Not The Communists, Trotskyists Or Subversives But This House Which Threw It Away. The Rights That Are Entrusted To Us Are Not For Us To Give Away. Even If I Agree With Everything That Is Proposed, I Cannot Hand Away Powers Lent To Me For Five Years By The People Of Chesterfield. I Just Could Not Do It. It Would Be Theft Of Public Rights.

Experience Is The Only Real Teacher And If You Keep A Diary You Get Three Bites At Educating Yourself - When It Happens, When You Write It Down, And When You Reread It And Realise You Were Wrong. Making Mistakes Is Part Of Life. The Only Things I Would Feel Ashamed Of Would Be If I Had Said Things I Hadn't Believed In Order To Get On. Some Politicians Do Do That.

There Is No Final Victory, As There Is No Final Defeat. There Is Just The Same Battle. To Be Fought, Over And Over Again. So Toughen Up, Bloody Toughen Up.

We Have Been In Recess Since July, And During That Time There Has Been A Fuel Crisis, A Danish No Vote, The Collapse Of The Euro And A War In The Middle East, But What Is Our Business Tomorrow? The Insolvency Bill [lords]. It Ought To Be Called The Bankruptcy Bill [commons], Because We Play No Role.

I Opposed The Suez War, I Opposed The Falklands War. I Opposed The Libyan Bombing And I Opposed The Gulf War And I Never Believed That Any Of Those Principled Arguments Lost A Single Vote - Indeed, I Think They Gained Support Though That Was Not Why You Did It. What Has Been Lacking In Labour Politics Over A Long Period Is A Principled Stand