 Of course there are regrets. I shall regret always that I found my own authentic voice in politics. I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive. Later, too often on the back foot. |
| A consensus politician is someone who does something that he doesn't believe is right because it keeps people quiet when he does it. |
| The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare. |
| Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be too clever by half. The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters. |
| I inherited a sick economy and passed on a sound one. But one abiding regret for me is that, in between, I did not have the resources to put in place the educational and social changes about which I cared to much; I made only a beginning, and it was not enough. |
| Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less. |
| The politician who never made a mistake never made a decision. |
| Ronnie Barker will forever be remembered as one of the great comic actors. |
