Quotes by John Mcdonnell - Page 2

My ambition is to learn to play the trombone. My wife pulls my leg about it. I'll find time, my neighbours might not appreciate it but I'm going to try.
John Mcdonnell /
Trombone
Leg
Neighbours
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If the government is injecting public money, it should also take the right to oversee board appointments, executive pay, and future business operations.
John Mcdonnell /
Appointments
Operations
Public Money
Board
Executive
Oversee
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There are some lines in the sand you just do not cross. Undermining basic civil liberties by locking people up for long periods without charge is one of them.
John Mcdonnell /
Civil Liberties
Lines
Periods
Sand
Undermining
Basic
Charge
Civil
Cross
Liberties
Locking
Long Periods
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We want to be absolutely clear to the people what we are about. No backroom deals whatsoever and we're not going to be held back by any other political parties.
John Mcdonnell /
Deals
Political Parties
Whatsoever
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The worry in Labour circles is that, when pressed, Gordon Brown instinctively moved to cut the benefits of the poor rather than upset businesses and the wealthy.
John Mcdonnell /
Circles
Upset
Gordon
Instinctively
Pressed
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If corporations and rich people who made fortunes out of us during the boom are not paying their fair share then reform the tax system and close down the tax havens.
John Mcdonnell /
Corporations
Fair Share
Reform
Rich People
Tax System
People Rich Who
Boom
Fortunes
Haven
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Conservatives claim they are 'one nation' Tories when they have actually been a government for the 1% who have undermined our economic interests through their greed.
John Mcdonnell /
Economic
Greed
Claim
Nation
Conservatives
Interests
One Nation
Tories
Undermined
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We need an NHS with fewer managers, fewer contractors and more power (rather than choice) to patients - with the input of the real experts: healthcare professionals.
John Mcdonnell /
Experts
Fewer
Healthcare
Input
Managers
Nhs
Choice
Contractors
More Power
Patients
Professionals
Rather
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I have a political philosophy by which I judge political events. It's called socialism, which at its core is about achieving equality, justice and peace through democracy.
John Mcdonnell /
Socialism
Achieving
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When I was a GLC councillor, we won and held London as Labour was imploding nationally - running popular campaigns against the Thatcher Government and fighting on our own agenda.
John Mcdonnell /
Running
Campaigns
Fighting
Labour
London
Agenda
Won
Held
Popular
Thatcher
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In 1985, as a community activist and GLC councillor, I organised the first ever public meeting to explain the threat of a third runway at Heathrow airport for my local community.
John Mcdonnell /
Activist
Local Community
Organised
Runway
Airport
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When you talk to people about their practical life, for example when they're at work, like the rail industry, the RMT members know better than anyone else how to run their industry.
John Mcdonnell /
Rail
Life Work Better
Anyone Else
For Example
Practical
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If we are to depression-proof our economy we may need to pay more attention to the radical ideas and policies of those who witnessed the misery inflicted on so many during the 1930s.
John Mcdonnell /
Misery
Radical
Inflicted
Witnessed
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From nuclear waste to Northern Rock and Metronet, risk is never transferred to the private sector - the state will always be forced to step in where there is a clear public interest.
John Mcdonnell /
Nuclear
Private Sector
Public Interest
Risk
Waste
Forced
Northern
Private
Sector
Transferred
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I would like Leveson Part Two. I think Leveson was a good exercise. That is why the Tories blocked it, because it was beginning to develop more accountability within the media itself.
John Mcdonnell /
Accountability
Blocked
Good Exercise
Tories
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To be effective in tackling poverty wages, a living wage has to be mandatory and basic trade union rights should be restored so workers can protect themselves from exploitative employers.
John Mcdonnell /
Employers
Living Wage
Poverty
Protect
Rights
Should
Tackling
Trade
Workers
Living
Basic
Effective
Exploitative
Mandatory
Union
Restored
Themselves
Trade Union
Wage
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If bitter party name-calling turns people off then smear politics just destroys all credibility in the aims of politicians, the role of political parties and the political process itself.
John Mcdonnell /
Bitter
Credibility
Party
Political
Process
Turns
Politics Political People
Aims
Itself
Destroys
Off
Parties
Political Process
Role
Smear
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The interests of big corporations have so permeated government that its major decisions are indistinguishable from the boardroom demands of the leading companies in each commercial sector.
John Mcdonnell /
Big Corporations
Corporations
Indistinguishable
Sector
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If we need more demand in the economy then protect people in work and raise the incomes of those on low incomes who need to spend, such as the low paid, pensioners and families with children.
John Mcdonnell /
Demand
Work People Children
Incomes
Work Children People
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It was inevitable and understandable that the election of Jeremy Corbyn would be a massive culture shock for some sections of the party, especially some members of the parliamentary Labour party.
John Mcdonnell /
Election
Inevitable
Labour
Labour Party
Massive
Members
Parliamentary
Party
Sections
Shock
Jeremy
Understandable
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I do not want to be associated with those that are willing to support undermining the basic human rights that socialists have fought and sacrificed themselves to secure and protect over generations.
John Mcdonnell /
Basic Human Rights
Generations
Human Rights
Protect
Secure
Undermining
Willing
Associated
Basic
Fought
Sacrificed
Socialists
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When I left school I went onto the shop floor, working 12-hour shifts in a TV factory. My workmates were sharp, skilled and all capable of enjoying higher education - but they didn't have that opportunity.
John Mcdonnell /
Capable
Higher
Higher Education
Enjoying
Factory
Floor
Shop
Onto
Sharp
Shifts
Skilled
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When governments fail us, what else can people do except take to direct action? When corporate power can so dominate government policy-making that whole communities are placed at risk, where else can people turn?
John Mcdonnell /
Corporate
Power Government People
Dominate
Governments
Placed
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Governments usually end not with a bang but with a whimper, as the Conservatives learned in the 1990s. Support and authority erodes over time until there is a final collapse of support and pivotal electoral shift.
John Mcdonnell /
Authority
Collapse
Pivotal
Bang
Conservatives
Electoral
Final
Governments
Shift
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I think that I was the first MP to call for the nationalisation of Northern Rock, although that is hardly surprising because I have been calling for the nationalisation of the financial sector for 30 years or more.
John Mcdonnell /
Surprising
Hardly
Northern
Sector
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It may sound corny in a cynical age but literally generations of our people have given much of their lives to establishing and cherishing the Labour party because they believed what the party told them when they joined.
John Mcdonnell /
Corny
Cynical
Generations
Labour
Labour Party
Establishing
Joined
Our People
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The spread of information technology and the long-term decline in the cost of computing power have created opportunities that simply did not exist before. Airbnb, for example, could not have existed before the Internet.
John Mcdonnell /
Technology
Airbnb
Computing
Cost
Decline
Example
Information
Information Technology
Internet
Long Term
Spread
Exist
Created
Simply
Power Technology Information
For Example
Opportunities
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I made the case for public ownership in 'Another World is Possible' - a manifesto for 21st-century socialism - as it is the most rational approach for managing resources in the long-term interest of the entire community.
John Mcdonnell /
Approach
Community
Long Term
Ownership
Rational
Resources
Socialism
Case
Entire
Manifesto
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I sneaked into an Everton match once. I'm a Liverpool supporter, but Liverpool were away, Liverpool reserves weren't playing, there wasn't even a youth match, so I took my son into an Everton match. God help me. It wasn't me.
John Mcdonnell /
Everton
God Help
Liverpool
Reserves
Son
Supporter
Youth
God Me Help
Match
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Since John Smith's death and the Blair/Brown takeover in 1994, party members have watched the way in which an elite leadership group has formed in the Labour party, cutting itself off from the party's traditions, values and norms of behaviour.
John Mcdonnell /
Behaviour
Cutting
Labour
Labour Party
Elite
Formed
Norms
Smith
Takeover
Traditions
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New Labour has systematically alienated section after section of our natural supporters - teachers, health workers, students, pensioners, public service workers, trade unionists and people committed to the environment, civil liberties and peace.
John Mcdonnell /
Health
Civil Liberties
Committed
Environment
Labour
Natural
Public Service
Trade
Workers
After
Alienated
Teachers
Civil
Public
Liberties
Section
Service
Supporters
Systematically
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Many argue that graduates earn a 'premium' because of their education, and should have to pay their way. I agree, and that's why I've always advocated a progressive taxation system - so if people do receive large salaries, they pay more income tax.
John Mcdonnell /
Graduates
Income
Income Tax
Premium
Progressive
Taxation
Argue
Earn
Receive
Salaries
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The New Labour political elite has long conspired to secure a so-called 'smooth transition' for Blair's successor. This would amount to little more than the imposition of a leader on the party and our supporters without any real democratic participation.
John Mcdonnell /
Blair
Democratic
Imposition
Labour
Leader
Participation
Secure
Smooth
Elite
So-Called
Successor
Supporters
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Out of the suffering of the 1930s, Britain built a civilising society, based in large part on the important lesson that unemployment is rarely the fault of individual malingering but the structural consequence of governments allowing the free market to rule our lives.
John Mcdonnell /
Allowing
Britain
Built
Consequence
Free Market
Individual
Our Lives
Unemployment
Based
Fault
Governments
Important Lesson
Large
Large Part
Lesson
Market
Rarely
Rule
Structural
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I saw the Blair-Mandelson regime as a coup, and I think it was a well-funded coup as well - resources obviously came from big private-sector backers. But all through that period the bulk of the rank and file party were what the party has always been, a socialist party.
John Mcdonnell /
Socialist Party
Bulk
Coup
File
Rank
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People realise that if Labour is to fulfil its founding goal of transforming our economic and political system into a more equal, free and truly democratic society, which provides security and life-changing opportunities to the British people, then there is no going back.
John Mcdonnell /
Democratic Society
Founding
Life Changing
Transforming
Society Political Free
British People
Fulfil
Political System
Realise
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Leaders play an important role, but it is the Labour party's supporters and potential supporters who should take the lead in discussing and determining the sense of purpose and direction of the party if we are to return to being a social movement aiming to transform our society.
John Mcdonnell /
Discussing
Labour
Movement
Purpose
Return
Aiming
Determining
Direction
Important Role
Supporters
Transform
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Nationally, unrestrained Heathrow expansion has prevented the balanced development of regional airports and their economies and the planning of an integrated transport system maximising more environmentally friendly modes of transport such as rail linked more effectively to Europe.
John Mcdonnell /
Balanced
Expansion
Friendly
Integrated
Linked
Planning
Rail
Transport
Airport
Economies
Environmentally
Modes
Regional
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The decision over Heathrow expansion exemplifies the style of policy-making that starts with capitulation to a powerful self-interested lobby, blatantly fixes a public consultation and then drives through a policy that destroys any vestiges of green credentials the government had left.
John Mcdonnell /
Capitulation
Consultation
Credentials
Expansion
Destroys
Drives
Lobby
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There'll be creative business leaders but actually, when it comes down to it, they can't do anything unless they're part of a collective. Unless they've got that wealth creator, that engineer and that work person, that skilled person at the bench to fulfil that idea... they're nothing.
John Mcdonnell /
Business Leaders
Creative
Wealth
Bench
Collective
Fulfil
Skilled
Unless
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Our supporters just want a Labour government. They want a Labour government that does what Labour governments are expected to do. They expect a Labour government to provide them, their families and their communities with the support and security they need, especially in difficult times.
John Mcdonnell /
Difficult Times
Labour
Governments
Labour Government
Supporters
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The illegal 2003 invasion had little to do with liberating Iraqis from Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. Instead, the real freedoms and benefits were destined to go to corporations like Halliburton and others that stood to gain from the privatisation of the formerly state-owned Iraqi economy.
John Mcdonnell /
Benefits
Corporations
Destined
Dictatorship
Economy
Hussein
Illegal
Invasion
Liberating
Saddam
Freedoms
Gain
Instead
Iraqi
Iraqis
Stood
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When you're in the depths of a recession, that isn't the time when people want to challenge the system, they're too busy trying to survive. It's when they're told we're coming out of a recession, growth is returning, and they're not seeing the benefits of it, or they're not seeing them quick enough.
John Mcdonnell /
Depths
Quick
Recession
Returning
To Survive
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Politicians have patronised and talked down to us all when it comes to our economy, but ordinary working people have to manage on incomes significantly lower than the likes of George Osborne and his friends in the City. They could teach the bankers and many commentators a thing or two about managing a budget responsibly.
John Mcdonnell /
Bankers
Economy
Likes
Manage
Ordinary
Teach
Budget
City
Politicians
George
Incomes
Lower
Responsibly
Talked
Working People
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Heathrow is in my constituency and I have been at both the Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 planning inquiries. At these inquiries my community has been assured by the inquiry inspectors, BAA and government ministers that each development would be the last piece of expansion of the airport because of its ever-increasing noise and air pollution.
John Mcdonnell /
Air
Air Pollution
Assured
Development
Expansion
Inquiry
Ministers
Noise
Planning
Pollution
Terminal
Piece
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