Quotes from Crispin Blunt

The aim has got to be to maximize the opportunities for prisoners, having got themselves clean and got themselves some training, to have the best possible chance of going straight when they come out.

The public don't want prisoners lying about being idle.

Many other countries have tried this and getting businesses to work in partnership in prisons, in prison and with prison labour, and to actually be able to make an economic return is extremely difficult.

There are some times when something is proposed which becomes personal to you and you realize the Government is about to do something fantastically stupid and I think in those circumstances one has a duty to speak up.

In truth the importance of U.K. airstrikes and the U.K.'s eight additional planes is more political than military. It is in honesty a micro military issue. There is no great military necessity for the U.K. to be involved since planes are queuing up from a wide range of countries over the skies of Syria.

Those members of the executive council who voted against my candidacy in the absence of a cogent reason they could publicly present and having now been so convincingly contradicted by the wider membership must ask themselves how they can best assist uniting and reinvigorating a party which is overwhelmingly united around my candidacy.

There is a tendency for the British establishment to work out everything very carefully and then present it to parliament as 'a take it or leave it' choice. And then ministers wonder why they have difficulties in parliament.

The government is sending some terrible signs about what we really stand for.

The Islamist camp is infused with a righteous indignation, as the forces of old, corrupt and rotten Egypt unite to try and drive them underground once again. This indignation is lethally reinforced by a willingness to die for their beliefs and a determination that they are not going to be driven from the political field as they were before.

European exporters will be paying twice as much duty on stuff they sell to the U.K. because they sell twice as much stuff as we sell to them. We would then have quite a lot of money to support our industries in ways that we choose when we leave the E.U.

The Foreign Affairs Committee is first in line to call for the U.K. to take a more active and independent role in world affairs, and to have the resources to do so. But a large part of that role involves working with allies and leveraging the range of our assets in co-ordination.

There is a growing body of opinion in support of a royal commission. It's not an issue which will go away, because the global environment is changing around us.

The coalition government made it clear from the outset that it would proceed with defendant anonymity in rape cases only if the evidence justifying it was clear and sound. In the absence of any such finding, it has reached the conclusion that the proposal does not stand on its merits.

I do have a huge debt of gratitude to people who fought for equality.

We already heard from President Macron saying he won't let Britain leave the customs union until we get access to their fishing grounds. You can then see the complexity in future, this will go on forever.

We are in this Alice in Wonderland world where parliament has approved a motion saying: 'notes the government will not deploy U.K. troops in ground combat operations.' It doesn't say: 'brackets not special forces.' But the convention is that it is 'brackets not special forces.'

I am disappointed not to receive the endorsement of the Reigate and Banstead Conservative Association's executive council as the Parliamentary candidate at the 2015 General Election.

There may be connections between the nearest prison to Oxford these days, HMP Bullingdon, and other institutions of that name. I have yet to investigate these and, on reflection, probably won't.

Our unique selling point as a country is global, not regional. Our industries have a pitch to the world, rather than simply trade with Europe.

Having western, Russian or Iranian forces providing the ground defeat of Isis would certainly work militarily, but would be the least attractive option as it might help reinforce the Isis myth.

The private sector complains that some of the agencies set up to advise and assist them in protecting their networks, such as CESG, are good at gathering information, but reluctant to disseminate it. This culture of information hoarding has to be changed.

Development of a framework for the reporting of cyber incidents between government and industry is considered a priority. This includes the government sharing information with industry and, where possible, providing the research community with cyber-security event data.

There is fear of impoverishment as a narrowly based ideological government, infused with medieval religious rectitude, lays waste to the Egyptian economy, which, given the economy's precariousness, is a clear and present danger to the daily life of millions of Egyptians.

In delivering the agreed objective of a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process, the removal of Isis from its territory in Syria by Syrian forces, the Syrian army and the Syrian Free Army fighting alongside each other is an opportunity to bind wounds.