If you are trying to take a difficult decision and you’re weighing up the pros and cons, you have frank conversations. Everybody knows this in their walk of life.
It is absurd to say in respect of any intelligence that it is infallible, but if you ask me what I believe, I believe the intelligence was correct, and I think in the end we will have an explanation.
The world is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power.
Fanaticism is not a state of religion but a state of mind.
There will be no peace in our world without an understanding of the place of religion within it.
When Europe and America stand together the world is a better and more prosperous place.
All the way through, we have been willing to take risks, provided at the end of it we can get a decent lasting settlement in Northern Ireland.
I don’t concede it at all that the intelligence at the time was wrong.
Today the impulse towards interdependence is immeasurably greater. We are witnessing the beginnings of a new doctrine of international community.
We are all internationalists now, whether we like it or not.
Values unrelated to modern reality are not just electorally hopeless, the values themselves become devalued. They have no purchase on the real world.
The best philanthropy is not just about giving money but giving leadership. The best philanthropists bring the gifts that made them successful-the drive, the determination, the refusal to accept that something can’t be done if it needs to be into their philanthropy.
I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour, but sometimes it is the price of leadership and the cost of conviction.
The fear of missing out means today’s media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no-one dares miss out.
Sovereignty rests with me as an English MP and that’s the way it will stay.
Sometimes, and in particular dealing with a dictator, the only chance of peace is a readiness for war.
It is not a sensible or intelligent response for us in Europe to ridicule American argument or parody their political leadership.
In this day and age if you’ve got the technology then it’s vital to use that technology to track people down. The number on the database should be the maximum number you can get.
That’s the art of leadership. To make sure that what shouldn’t happen, doesn’t happen.
The spread of freedom is the best security for the free.
Most of the problems of government come from people being overwhelmed by the size and scale of what they have to do.