John Prescott Quotes (52 Quotes)

So what I did was stuff my face with anything around, any old rubbish, burgers, chocolate, crisps, fish and chips, loads of it, till I felt sick - but at least I'd had the pleasure of stuffing my face and feeling really full.

He was a principled foreign secretary, he was reforming leader of the house and even when he resigned regretfully from the government he did on principle he did it with style and elegance,

I see this fella built like a barn door... and there's all these fox hunters, who didn't like me, screaming and shouting and as I walked past him I looked at him and he hit me with something.

He also made an enormous contribution to British politics in opposition and in government,

We are making the fundamental changes. It was like the decent housing target. We said by 2010, we'd have taken a million houses and refurbished them into decent housing.

Why can't we, with a more intelligent policy, actually have houses that are affordable, built at higher densities than they are at the moment and built on brownfield sites.

Perhaps they thought I was on a fact-finding mission, never for one moment thinking that a man of my age and build could be suffering from bulimia nervosa, but that's what the consultant said I had.

have a great deal in common and a lot to discuss.

I've gone through that with my mother and father and here I was in a similar situation. I've wronged her and I've wronged the family. Because when these things happen, it doesn't just happen to you, it happens to the people around you and the family.

She's not forgiven me, but we have a wonderful life from our family and that's the nature and quality of that woman that she can say that.

Well, if she said she couldn't understand the deal, how could she know that it was a bad deal

I don't make decisions by the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General makes the decisions in these matters. There's not even a war either.

You go down some street - no doubt it's there, and we have to do something about it, and our programmes are designed to do that - but if that's a picture of Newcastle, it's not the one I recognise and I bet none in the North East do either.

That's what I think regions are about, making central government more accountable and fairer.

All I could feel was this warm liquid running down my neck. You automatically think it's blood, it's all in split seconds, so I decided to say I didn't agree with him.

If a party loses its local authority base, it won't be long before it runs the risk of losing power nationally.

In a sense, what we do with the regional development agencies is to give them resources to look at the deficiencies in the economy in the regional areas, so they can address themselves to that.

So if you look at the money we've given, we've actually still given more in fact in housing to the north than they had the years before.

I have only been seeking to get them to the negotiating table and, thank God, that's where they are.

Coming from low demand, houses available, prices falling. Depends from area to area, but if you go to the south, it's exactly the opposite.

I'm not a fancy rapier man-more of a broadsword. Not for me the flesh wound. I prefer to take the head off.

I haven't seen the letter and I think it would be terrible if it was done that way,

I don't think he is welcome by many people in this country, is he ... But at the moment he has the right to come in and out. ... It's a democracy, not a dictatorship, for God's sake.

There's no excuse, it's just an opportunity that presented in a limited way and that happened and as soon as the press rang me I didn't deny it I just said 'that's it' and I had to go home and explain it.

I'm going to introduce you to a revolutionary thought - you can go slower and get there quicker. And that's to do with flow. As soon as you made it two lanes and brought in the 70 (mph) and 50 (mph), you got there quicker. It meant the flow of the traffic was better, there were less accidents, less deaths, I think that's an important factor.

Governments are never loved ... when you have been eight years in government there is always something people aren't happy with.

The only break I ever took was to eat. That's all I did. Work, and then quickly eat something. It became my main pleasure, having access to my comfort food.

The choice is not normally between the north and south. It might be between Britain and Europe.

It was a terrible tragedy that that young lad was killed but ... an independent inquiry is underway. Let us wait for the facts,

The objectives remain the same and indeed that has been made clear by the Prime Minister in a speech yesterday that the objectives are clear and the one about the removal of the Taliban is not something we have as a clear objective to implement but it is possible a consequence that will flow from the Taliban clearly giving protection to Bin Laden and the UN resolution made it absolutely clear that anyone that finds them in that position declares themselves an enemy and that clearly is a matter for these objectives.

There is no doubt that Tony Blair is acting in a very courageous way and is doing what he believes to be right and we are supporting him in that,

There was only one punch. Tony Blair rang me and he said 'Are you OK?' and I said 'Yes', and he said 'Well, what happened?' and I said 'I was just carrying out your orders. You told us to connect with the electorate, so I did.

We've given more resources. On housing, we are now establishing a regional housing pot.

We are proceeding through international law to deal with Saddam. We are working very hard to get agreement for the second resolution.

Refurbishing I've done in the first three years and I'm still giving housing money, of course, to the north.

Down in the south, it's how we find the brownfield sites without taking too much land take to meet the tremendous demand for housing, and that's what I've done.

It's moving in the right direction. It was in decline under the previous administration.

Life is better under the Tories' sounds like a Steve Norris chat up line

the greatest parliamentarian of his generation.

We believe the 36, nearly 40, billion pound discount given for a right to buy houses took a million houses out of the public housing sector which is desperately needed for rent.

I was the one that brought it in, but not only for the north-east, for every area so we can develop all the regional economies, lift up the national productivity, get greater wealth and share it more evenly.

What government has been doing, we've got major programmes now, of billions of pounds, which are directed by central government into these areas of deprivation.

I'm kind of on the fence. On one hand it's easy to take it and be done with it. But on the other hand, it sends the wrong message to my daughter.

I want to be a champion of your industry.

First of all, in our first period of office, we were concerned about the renovation of all those old properties you talked about.

From 1997 when we came in, you guys and the public bought seven million more cars. You didn't get rid of the second car, did you? So what is happening is the growth of cars on the motorway.

Legislation in itself will not end the dispute, but it is prudent to take these powers to use if necessary to help reach an agreement.

In the north east, there, they have had quite a bit of government offices moving in. It's not a new policy.

If you look at Newcastle or Gateshead, even over twenty years, even with the previous administration, it has moved quite remarkably in transforming itself.

a lot of jostling and abuse.