Quotes About Government

We have a very clear position in the U.K. against torture, and we should maintain that.

America does not torture. We never have, and we never will.

Sinn Fein will not do Tory austerity.

It's one of the great mysteries to me how anybody who has ever believed in socialism can conceivably vote for Blair or New Labour, which is further to the right of any Tory government apart from that of John Major, and is taking privatisation into realms unheard-of.

The choice between a Labour government and a Tory one is sharpening minds.

Although my seat is a contest between Labour and the Lib Dems, it could well make the difference between a Labour and a Tory government at the next election. In terms of international development, this choice is a very clear one.

Scotland just isn't terribly Tory.

I'm not going to do anything that sees a Tory government be likely.

I'll be my own man and work closely with a Tory Government if it is in London's interest.

Leaving politics was a good thing. I was spared a miserable Tory government where I might have ended up as leader.

I'm not Tory but I do happen to think that the Government should be allowed to govern.

When I was energy and climate change secretary I sat around a cabinet table with Gove, and he couldn't help playing to the Tory climate-sceptic audience. As education secretary, he tried to ban climate change from the geography curriculum. After an angry exchange of letters with me, he eventually backed down.

It's no wonder the Tory Party opposed identity cards, since so many of them struggle to find an identity at all.

I'm not going to do anything that heralds in a Tory government.

People in Scotland don't take too kindly to being lectured by a Tory Chancellor.

Tory governments are bad for Scotland.

Mental health is a case study in Tory failure.

Tory housing policy is the epitome of tinkering with the deckchairs while the ship is listing.

People in Scotland want the parliament but don't give a toss about the elections.

The phone is one hundred, one hundred and ten years old. There was a middle period where the government had a broad ability to surveil, but if you look at human history in total, people evolved and civilizations evolved with private conversations and private speech.

I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society is all about. The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government. We don't need a national ID card.

If you have the 'Total Information Awareness' project working, it might be relatively easy to find everyone who had bought more than a ton of fertilizer and 500 gallons of diesel in the last year, which would be a great way of spotting potential Tim McVeighs - but it would also spot half the farmers and ranchers in America.

We should reduce total government spending as a percentage of the economy.

I can tell you that a carbon tax will be a total economic disaster.