It would be as unthinkable to try to construct the Labour Party without Marx as it would to be to establish university faculties of astronomy,anthropology or psychology without permitting the study of Copernicus, Darwin or Freud, and still expect such faculties to be taken seriously

Encouragement is the most important thing in the world for young people, rather than league tables, which demoralise everyone.

If you're going to make sense of politics you have to have a historical perspective and also recognise that you have to work with people you don't agree with.

I have had the advantage of a radical Christian upbringing

The First World War created the Second World War because that was a war between three grandsons of Queen Victoria: The King of England, the Kaiser and the Tsar married Queen Victoria's granddaughter. And that triggered Communism in Russia and Fascism in Germany and led to the Second World War.

Britain's continuing membership of the Community would mean the end of Britain as a completely self-governing nation...

In developing our industrial strategy for the period ahead, we have the benefit of much experience. Almost everything has been tried at least once