YouSaid · the spoken record

David Frost

lines on the record: 55
first: 2022-10-21
most recent: 2022-10-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think I don't think Brexit would have happened if Boris and I and Dominic Cummings and a few others had not been in that place at the right time is now in others' hands to make the country better. What we have created is the ability to choose, the ability to have proper debate, the ability to make things happen again. And that, I believe, is a good thing for a country.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think that's probably an unfair word. We all had the same philosophical beliefs about the kind of society we wanted to see. And remember this.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not necessarily. No. I'm still, no, no, it's not. I'm fairly confident I could be if I wanted to. The question is, is it... Kind of really what I like doing and want to do.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it is not unknown for people to hold both roles, I would say, but that's looking to the future. I think if you want to do serious politics in”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Indeed, and I think in my column this week I explicitly said that is not true. Conspiracy theories are wrong. I don't believe that. Wouldn't it be better not to use it?”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I do. I think I use the words globalism and work in this interview because people understand what I'm talking about. But you know, there are people now.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the party in the country voted for Liz, though that is significant, I think. I think there might be a bit of edginess, but I also think the party's very strong cohesive organisation and wants to come back behind a leader because the last year has been such a mess.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In this country when he was Prime Minister. So, other than that, he's in favour of low tax. Politicians, I mean, I think intentions count for something and a wish to go on a direction of travel rather than not. But it is true that probably that the current plausible leaders of the party don't think exactly the same way about everything that I do.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think some people see him as that. I think it's an oversimplification. I think Rishi is much more complicated and interesting person and politician than that. But as soon as you start talking only about economics or as soon as you talk only about social cohesion and public spending and bring people together, you need both. And you've got to find the right balance all the time if we're going to make the country a success.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Only on economic growth, only on the sort of churn that you need to deliver economic growth doesn't think national identity is that important is quite open to migration, to industries moving overseas, this sort of thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that is Rishi's view. I don't think it is, but I think that's the kind of essence of globalism that, you know, I think George Oscar would probably have been quite comfortable with that description of what he was trying to do.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You've got to kind of, what does global has the right sort of conservatism? I think globalism puts, I mean, I'm not sure I really like the word either, but I think it's shorthand for a view that focuses...”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think they did. I don't think it's just about that though. I think things go deeper than just these last wave of problems. Take one step back. I think a successful country is a nation state. It's got a sort of sense of cohesion and some common purpose. And within that, you've got to find the right balance between free markets, dynamism, people changing their jobs, changing their lives to deliver economic growth on one hand. And you've got on the other the state, the government, the country as a way of developing common purpose, law and order, stopping migration, this sort of thing. You've got to keep those two things in balance. When they get out of balance, there's a problem for the Conservative Party.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, you run for others. The Tory Party is a Brexit party now. I think that's clear. There are very few who disagree with that in the party now. But I think you've got two wings. You've got, you know, if you like, a sort of free market, liberal wing to the party that is, in inverted commas globalist, if you like, looks out of Britain, is not so invested in things like immigration. Yeah, exactly. And then you've got another wing which puts emphasis on strength of the state, law and order, migration, borders, defense spending, and pushing back. I hate the word, but pushing back against sort of woke opinions to use shorthand. And those, I think, can coexist within a party. But if one or the other becomes too strong, as has happened in the past is happening now, you get this rubbing up against each other in a very robust way.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think there's a lot of things going on, and it's not only in the Conservative Party, obviously. I think the whole British political system is going through a bit of a convulsion after Brexit. It's not surprising when you get this sort of huge change. And I think it's got some way to play out yet. Conservative Party has always been a coalition of different views of social conservatives. Nationalists, if you like, the word or free marketeers of people who have a range of views”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We still haven't done it delivering Brexit doesn't rely on David Frost. It relies on a political will from the whole government and a will to turn this country around. And it doesn't just depend on whether I'm involved or not.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I'm not sure when you're thinking of. I certainly went to Boris early in 2021 and said the job's done. Now it's time for others to take over. The Brexit job. The Brexit job. I was a special advisor still at that point. And he said, no, we need, you know, you need to stay. And that's how I became a minister. So I think the job itself”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It made some difference, I don't think it was decisive, you know, there's a lot going on in Parliament and elsewhere as well that made a difference. Bor”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So some did say that, obviously when you're in the cabinet, you have a wider set of responsibilities which are for the wider direction of the government. You have to accept collective responsibility for everything the government is doing. And I felt very strongly that the path down into another lockdown, the path to vaccine passports and certification was a profoundly wrong path. And I couldn't support that. Okay, it wasn't my departmental portfolio, but then going to war is not just the responsibility of the Minister of Defence. You have to take responsibility for the conduct of the government. And that's what I felt extremely strongly. And I think I've been vindicated on that because we didn't need to do what we seemed like we're going to do.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of course I am, but I don't feel that I have anything to apologise for in my conducts of those negotiations. And I don't think Steve was apologizing for me either, to be honest. I don't know who the others are”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I personally would not apologise for the way we went about things. I think Steve has obviously been involved in this for much, much longer than I have as a Brexiteer. He's a very moral and sincere person, and I think that's why he felt he needed to say this. But I don't feel. But only the moral.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Michael's entitled to his view, and obviously he's been a very great leader of the party, but I don't agree with him on this, the protocol. We took a risk. We hoped it would work. We went into it believing it would work. It came apart under pressure, and it needs to change.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the protocol was subject to all kinds of pressures that nobody expected, Pauli, because some of them stem from the pandemic. Sure, I just wonder if you understand why it enrages people. Some people it will certainly enrage because they are strong believers in the way things were done. They're strong believers in Spain.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's the way to get It's the way to take an acceptable risk that we thought balanced all the factors and could work and gave us optionality about the future as regards the free trade agreement, the customs relationships and so on for the future, which that did.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I mean, you have to look at the context. We came in office with a terrible withdrawal agreement, a terrible Northern Ireland protocol that kept us locked in the customs union and the single market forever. It couldn't get through Parliament. We had to improve it. Now, Parliament had passed a law saying that you can't leave without a deal, therefore we had to find some sort of deal that dealt with the worst. We knew that.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do find it quite hard. I mean, people did not say these sort of things to my face, and I felt that Michelle Barnier's team.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's price they had to pay. You know, these are people who wanted us to stay in the EU, and Boris and I and a few of others ruined their life's work. And everything they'd worked for had turned to ashes. And that was the right thing to do. So I'm not surprised they're unhappy. It's hardly surprising.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think it Michelle Barnier and the commission team had spent by the time we came in with Boris, they'd spent three years listening to a British team that A had seemed to be uncertain about what they were trying to do and B had set out a series of points all of which they then conceded. And we felt that nobody believed a word we said. Nobody really understood what we're trying to do. And we had to be as clear as we possibly could about what was acceptable and what wasn't, what we were going to live with and what we weren't. That probably did require a reset and a bit of correction in the way we go about it. I wouldn't necessarily advocate it as you should always do diplomacy like that. Of course, that's not true. You have to tailor it to the circumstances.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, because the economics is more than trade. There has been a small hit to our trade with the EU. That's obvious. It's nowhere near as big as people are saying. But what matters is growth, the size of the economy, and the broader economic prospects for the country. And there, if you compare us to the G7 since 2016, the path is pretty much the same. It's not better, though, is it? It's going to take time to do this. And as I've said, I don't think we've been going this fast enough.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think it has turned out to be true, to be honest. I think, as I said, there is a trade aspect which forgive me there.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think it would have needed something much, much more fundamental to make it a different kind of organization. And it was obvious that that was not going to be on offer and was never going to be on offer. So it's a sort of non-real counterfactual, I would say.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think trade, well, as I said, I think trade is one aspect of the total picture, which is a much, much broader one. I think many of us made up our minds about whether leaving the EU as opposed to trying to reform it was the right policy quite late. I think it was only when the Cameron negotiation failed. And, you know, we were D Mondeur and didn't get anything much. I think it was only when that failed two or three months before the referendum that many of us thought there's really no choice. So that's interesting if Anglo-American.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So Scottish Whiskey Association is a trading organization, and that's what we were talking about. And, you know, ever since I've been in a position to say things in public in my current roles when I was Brexit negotiator and beyond, I've always said leaving the customs union and the single market has a cost. Not every Brexiteer has been willing to say that, but I have always said it. I don't think it's as big as many people say. But the important thing about Brexit is not only the trading arrangements, it's democracy, it's running your own affairs, and it's the ability to open your own market to competition, to regulate it in a different way, to open it up to the world, and to create the kind of dynamism that drives capitalist economy. And that the European Union is driving out. So you do have to look at it in the round, I think, to give a fair judgment.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So they're mine while I was head, I think, of the Scotch Whiskey Association and the policy of the Scottish Whiskey Association was to stay in the EU. And I don't think they would have thanked me if I'd made up my own policy on the hoof.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think this is a sort of trick question coming here. Do you recognize some of the statements? I do. I'll give you some more.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't think that's true. I think it's been attributed to me now that I'm this sort of rather blunt speaking sort of Brit. Somebody said to me actually during the Brexit talks, if I was Dutch, nobody would have thought twice about this because the stereotypes are different, that people expect the Dutch to be fairly sort of robust and blood speaker and they expect the Brits to be elusive and circuitous the whole time. I was in doing the Brexit talks when at a time when our words had ceased to count and we had to make sure people”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I left because I felt it wasn't, I got frustrated by not being able to do and say what I thought about things. And, you know, I still had a lot of my life in front of me and I didn't want to live it on somebody else's terms the whole time.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, it's part of the job if you can't do that, then you shouldn't be a civil servant, because you've got to live your professional life on somebody else's terms. And in the end, I left because I didn't feel that that was what I wanted to do for my whole life.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So maybe they're just saying I was a professional civil servant then because your job is not to give vent to your own opinions all the time but to try and do what the government is trying to do and that's what I tried to do.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They thought it sold out. I mean, I just show you how the debate has shifted over that time, but you know, those opinions didn't jar. And even under the Blair Brown government, let's not forget, in many ways, that had quite strong Eurosceptic elements browned in one enjoying the single currency. I ran campaigns for the Blair government against the Working Time Directive, against the REACH chemicals directive, all this sort of thing. But you see, one of your former boss.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think, I mean, of course, one has to remember the major government was an extremely Eurosceptic government, and that's most of my time I was there. So, you know, opinions, Eurosceptic opinions didn't necessarily jar that much. When you say it was Eurosceptic.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think. In the 90s, I spent a lot of time in Brussels and did a lot of time after that in Brussels. And I think people who go to Brussels usually has two effects on them. Most, the majority effect seems to be what a wonderful thing. This is a great organisation. Let's get, you know, we need to work with it. But there is a minority view which came to me, which is that I don't like this organization. I don't agree with what it's doing. I don't think that the rush to a broader non-democratic Europe-wide organization is the right thing to be doing. That's the effect that it had on me.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was more a process, I think, and for me it was during the 90s, I guess, when I was in the foreign office, you know, kind of exposed to the real world”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I probably would have at some point. You know, I went on CND demonstrations, this kind of thing. But actually, at university, I was more academic than political. I wasn't really a political person. And that's why I guess I didn't have a political career. So it was always a kind of slightly secondary thing for me, probably.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think, I mean, I was politically opposed to her. I didn't, you know, I didn't have a sense of her, you know, as a person. I liked thinking I avoided some of the worst kind of narrow-minded criticisms. But when Liz Trus was in that chair,”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, skilled sort of lower middle class, I suppose you might say, though it sounds sort of slightly, I don't really like the term, but you know what I mean. We relatively unthinkingly supported Labour, though we definitely had doubts, I think, in the 80s.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, not at all, I mean my parents were both labour, they both worked for Rolls Royce in Derby as draughts persons, I suppose one would say nowadays, even though the actual job of drawing on paper has disappeared. But yeah, we were”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I mean, the quote you read about me ranks as a generous tribute compared to some of the things that get said about me. And I haven't really got the thick skin of other politicians yet, so this sort of thing does sort of sting sometimes. But I think what I would say is I believe I have a consistent set of philosophical beliefs about things which are about smallish government freedom, free market, the nation. And I try to stick to those beliefs. And that's not what quite what we've seen.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I was worried it was discrediting the whole party, to be honest. I mean, obviously I believe in my ideas and lots of conservatives do, but the way the polls were going, the way that infighting had broken out again and the way we were ending up with, you know, Osborne Omics, basically, that nobody had voted for in the campaign. That is just corrosive.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Campaign win on something and then change it completely. I think that is just, you know, whether you agree with the policies or not, it just doesn't work.”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I mean, we're all asking that question, I think, honestly, because this is sort of totally unprecedented. I supported Liz because I believed and believe she had the right diagnosis and the right policies to deal with the problem. Unfortunately, she rushed it and bungled it to a large extent, and that was exploited by people who opposed her. But even then, I think the real reason why it became actually unsustainable was that over the last week she's flipped completely, is now advocating policies that are complete the opposite of those that she won the campaign on, and that just won't do. You can't really have that in our system. The legitimacy is fragile enough anyway when it's based on a vote of the ruling party and its members and not a normal election, to then”
2022-10-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The David Frost One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source