YouSaid · the spoken record

Ben Wallace

lines on the record
114
first
2025-01-06
most recent
2025-01-06
sittings or episodes
1
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podcast

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  1. “I think what people are striving to tell the public in a whole range of other areas, including defences, I had a life before politics. One of the mistakes I believe in governing this country is both the media and political parties value the high flyer. And they like, everyone loves the story. And I noticed Louise Haig resigning, and large parts of the script are she was a high flyer, she was the youngest member of this, and the youngest member of that. But politics about governing, you need to learn how to govern. And I think... What people are trying to say to the public is I had a life. I wasn't a PPE Oxford graduate straight into being a special advisor being into a politician. I dealt with real life. And I think the veteran bit is part of that.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I think junior soldiers do. Think if you are institutionalized, I think what people don't always realize is that the armed forces are institutional. And the first 20 years can go really quickly in anything you do in life. And what I noticed in Parliament is those politicians that came in as captains or major, like James Heapy, who was the Ministry of the Armed Forces, outstanding colleague and very good minister, and actually was the most experienced of all our colleagues on operations. I think he'd done two Afghan tours, one of which was horrendous with lots of people losing their lives. I think he'd done Iraq and he'd done Northern Ireland. You wouldn't know it because he wasn't shouting it from the rooftops. But if you start going higher up, these guys have been in 20, 30 years. And that's just quite a hard transition.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “How to understand the labour movement, which is really important if you want to be, in my view, you want to be in politics, you need to understand the labour movement, then, yeah, but my God, literally, I remember I left the army in London. I think I was poured onto a train. I'd had such a boozy lunch with my friend saying goodbye. And I got out at Glen Eagle Station from the sleeper. I'd bought a dog on the train, which I couldn't quite remember, but I bought a lovely dog called Sally, a black lab from a keeper. Literally got back on the train at Upadinsha, and that was really it. Do you think”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Probably didn't warrant a higher promotion. So I thought, you know, I joined, I'd actually at Santos, I think, at 19 when I first went there. And I was 28 when I left. And I'd had a good stint, but time for me to do something else. But I was, when I decided I wouldn't run for leadership of the Tory party and all of that, I went back to Donside up in Aberdeenshire where I used to live, right up on the northeast where the areas I used to represent. And I just went on my own to just go and sort of ask myself where it all began and stay with the lovely family who'd looked after me. And I realized that there was a large part of naivety. I mean, I literally had no idea what I was putting myself into when I went into Scotland Scottish politics, which is a great learning for anyone. I mean, if you want to learn how to fight, how to make your case.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “No, I was never a high flyer in the army. I had a great time. I loved the time with the Scots Guards and the Scots Guardsmen all. I have some great. I did two operational tools which I enjoyed, but I wasn't a high flyer. I wasn't in the right place at the right time.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Thought I'd get some no hope seat and at least lend my trade. And I think probably because I was the only one under 75 or something, people couldn't understand why anybody would want to be a Tory. I got picked by West Aberdeenshire and then I got elected on the list into the Scottish Parliament.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Passionately that I didn't want the union to break up. And, you know, there was a stage when the SNP in the first parliament built up the parliament elections, were polling at 41%. And I passionately felt that, you know, if they carried that momentum into the first government of the Scottish Parliament, then it would be that momentum would be hard to stop. And I felt it was important to stand up for what I believed in. I didn't think I'd be elected. I mean, to be absolutely brutally honest, I was serving here in the London. I thought I had no political hinterland. I hadn't been a member of the party.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Politics is always in you. And I think one thing I learned in the army is I saw it firsthand in Northern Ireland. I hate nationalism. I hate the division that it brings. I hate the. And people forget when the new Labour government had the referendum on Scotland and then the Scottish Parliament elections were happening, I felt...”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Sympathetic to us. And people like Dennis Canavan, who you'll remember from your day, Alistair, was removed from the list by Tony Blair because he was viewed as two left-wing, Tony kind of John McCallion, if you remember, in Dundee. And Dennis was just the kindest man and always supportive and always helpful. And we used to have some very funny, I remember I was on the European committee in the Scottish Parliament, and it was chaired by a man called Hugh Henry, who had been leader of Scottish militant. And Dennis Cavan just pile it in. And he said, We're not with the militant friends now. So there's sort of good gang.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Politician, and he was interested in every facet of Scotland. He was happy, you know, Dollager was as comfortable in a big house, a laird as he was in a tenement block in Glasgow. I think quality Scottish leaders and politicians understand that we are a very diverse country full of class and everything else, whether we like that or not. Those type of people like that. But I'm afraid there's always a bit of a chippy wing, which we've all come across. But ultimately, yeah. And I also found great kindness in Scottish Parliament. I've said it before. When I arrived, I was completely naive. I've been serving in the Army my last base was in Wellington Barracks. And, you know, it was like slightly going behind enemy lines as a Tory in 1998. I mean, we'd been wiped out. There wasn't a single media outlet that particularly was...”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Being in there, you know, and now I think in Scotland actually does have a place for all sorts of people. There's that phrase Royal Jock Camston's Bairn, you know, and lots of Scots did go away and came back. And that's part of our history. And there were some wise people in Scottish politics. I mean, Donald Jer was a great wise.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “No, I think... Always got a few lines, but fundamentally with a name, my first name's Robert Robert Wallace, it's quite hard not to. And indeed, having been in the army.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I spent most of my childhood in England until about Probably I don't have it. 18 really, I came back and I met Rory roughly about 18 then.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Well, my parents are both Scottish. My father grew up in Fife. He was pretty orphaned at 15. His father was from Levon and Kokoldi. So my father used to joke about Gordon Brown that in places like Levin and Kokoldi, you either wanted to marry the GP's daughter or the son of the manse and Gordon Brown was definitely part of that where my father came from. That was the upper echelon. And my mother came from Perth and was a teacher, a secondary school teacher most of her life. They actually met in London, but they went back to Scotland after working in the Somerset in the West Country and then the United States for 10 years and then they came back.”

    2025-01-06 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 115. Ben Wallace: Britain's mistake in Ukraine, Trump vs. NATO, and visiting Iran with Jeremy Corbyn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source