John Prescott Quotations

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,

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

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.

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.

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.

Most Tories seem to think that 'ethics' is a county near Middlesex

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.

I love coming to Tories' seats and roughing them up... that is what elections are 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.

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

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,

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

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

Our primary responsibility ... is to do everything possible to provide the highest level of protection to the public.

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

It does sound not a very sensitive way to deal with such a difficult matter.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

At present there are more Tory candidates than I've had hot dinners - and you can see I have had a few,

At the moment he has the right to come in and go out,

Enjoy your holiday make it a long one,

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

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.

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

It is totally unacceptable that Britain could be held to ransom in this kind of blockade raising out of a dispute in France.

It's not moving as fast as we'd hoped it would,

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.

I want to be a champion of your industry.

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

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

I didn't say the lady was tired. She constantly said it herself, ... She was too tired to take in all the complexities. I quoted her words.

By entering the entry negotiations, Turkey also enters into obligations in regard to recognizing all the countries within the EU and the obligations Ankara has signed up to.

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.

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

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

My roots, my background and the way I act is working class, but it would be hypsocritical to say I'm anything else than middle class now.

My department is not too big for one man, because I'm Superman.

Perhaps if England and Scotland together had one team we could at least beat the Germans.

Labour economic stability has replaced Tory boom and bust

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.

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

There is progress taking place, growth is better. We're only talking about two years there.

I've always felt very proud of Wales and being Welsh. People are a bit surprised when I say I'm Welsh. I was born in Wales, went to school in Wales and my mother was Welsh. I'm Welsh. It's my place of birth, my country.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He made an enormous contribution to British politics in opposition and in government [on Robin Cook]

When I see that man on the telly - 'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' No! I'm definitely not! I find most of it quite offensive!

This was released I think in February and so it is a great deal of fuss being made, it hasn't in fact been given public release, it was released in February ...

We now have a satisfactory solution not only to coalition forces, but also to the Iraqi authorities themselves.

Improving the quality of life for people of this country is perhaps the most important duty of Government

The Green Belt is a Labour achievement - and we mean to build on it.

I will have failed in this if in five years there are not many more people using public transport and far fewer journeys by car. It is a tall order but I want you to hold me to it.

I can tell you I'm pretty middle-class.

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 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.

I don't get a fair whack, I don't pursue vendettas or punch people on the nose.

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.

What we are beginning to witness is a whole new set of rules for economics, based on rationing resources.

Because of the security reasons for one thing and, second, my wife doesn't like to have her hair blown about. Have you got another silly question?

It's great to be back on terra cotta

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.