YouSaid · the spoken record

Dominic Grieve

lines on the record: 51
first: 2018-06-29
most recent: 2018-06-29
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

“No, let's be quite clear about this. What happened to him on that evening should not have happened. But I think it was high spirits more than anything else.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, but I think there's some misunderstanding about a large number of issues surrounding this episode, which is why on the whole I tend not to speak about it. He was not put into the river off Maudlinbridge.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Amien was put in the river Charwal. That is absolutely true, and he shouldn't have been. And it was an episode which he was entitled to feel aggrieved about.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. I think one does dream about being at the top of government. You take an interest in politics. You want to serve your country. You have ideas for your country. You must remember we were a generation at Oxford in the 1970s, particularly young Conservatives, who were very conscious that the country was going down the plughole. We had a very, very deep sense of real anxiety about the direction of travel. We were failing economically. We were losing our place in the world. And these were things which really mattered to us. And that was one of the reasons why we got, I think, active in politics. And in a sense, we are the pre-thatcher generation, which then led to the 79 conservative victory and a lot that's followed.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All the evidences that when we take the fight terrorists and do it whilst sticking to our own values, we are just as successful if not more so than when we abandon our own values. Do bear in mind that since 2010 we've had plenty of problems with terrorism, we now have consolidated guidance to prevent the sort of events taking place which took place between 2001 and 2004. And actually all the evidence suggests to me that we are successfully working with partners, successfully getting intelligence and successfully preventing people from being tortured, which is unacceptable. We are signed up to an international convention that prohibits it, and which we take very seriously and ought to be an activity which is eliminated on a worldwide basis.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We could interview the current chiefs. We couldn't interview the chiefs who were the chiefs at the time and we couldn't interview the Indians. And I'd like to make clear that in wanting to interview them and have a discussion, it wasn't because we wanted to sit in judgment on them, but because we thought it would be really helpful to have an understanding of what goes on in those gaps which don't necessarily get filled by documents. And we were prevented from doing that from my point of view, and I think the committee's point of view, that was a serious problem. And that's why we actually brought the inquiry to an end. But what we decided to do was that although we were going to stop the inquiry, we thought that there was enough that had emerged, which we should properly put in the public domain, because it would inform the public what we'd found on the documents.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's no documentary evidence to suggest it was a planned pattern of behaviour. The evidence that we saw suggests that we were, in a sense, carried along by a number of things. One was wishing to continue to be a good partner to the United States because it ultimately would help with our own national security and by a failure to get to grips with the growing evidence of what was going on. Now, people will reach their own conclusions and I should make clear we weren't able to conclude our inquiry in the way we wanted.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Facilitating it, Where anybody looking objectively as to why is this person being moved from A to B must have concluded that it was being done for a reason which”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No clear understanding of what was going on, and we didn't take steps to either distance ourselves from it or to stop it. And in some cases, we seem to be quite happy to participate in activities, such as rendition.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We allowed ourselves to accept practices from our senior partner, the United States, in the aftermath of 9-11 in Afghanistan and Iraq. Which were in violation of international law norms about the treatment of people who were being detained. And that should be a subject of concern, as we explained in our report. There's no smoking gun, there's no evidence that UK personnel or agency officers did bad things themselves, but they found themselves in the company of people who were doing things which were improper. And we showed”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was troubled by what I found what the committee has found is, I think, clear evidence on the documentation, that in the period between two thousand one and late 2004”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Saying they would like the public to change their mind on it, and if the public did change its mind on it, or it became apparent that the public was changing its mind on it, then there would be an argument, although it would be very complicated and quite difficult to do, whether the public should be consulted again. You shouldn't just because you're given an instruction, and two years down the track that instruction looks as if it's going to lead to a bad outcome, simply say, because the instruction was given two years ago, under no circumstances will I consider any other”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's certainly not improper for people to try to reverse it. I think it would be improper for Parliament to use its power to block it. I keep on saying this to people when they ask me about it and my own views. I, as a Member of Parliament, will not use my role as a parliamentarian to block Brexit. That's not to say that we shouldn't be open-minded firstly about how Brexit is carried out, and secondly, I don't think it's improper for people to campaign if they wish.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know, but it may be that the truth is that she thinks that this is. But at the same time, she accepted post the 2016 referendum that as the referendum result had gone in a particular way, she had to try to implement this as best she could and in a way which minimized damage and maximized opportunity. That's how I've seen how she's approached this and that's not an improper way of doing it.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I shouldn't think there is, and I suspect that duty plays a very large role in the way she approaches her job. I mean, I've been struck, for example, by the fact that each time she's been asked, will we benefit economically from Brexit? She's always refused to answer the question.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not one little bit. And I'm also very respectful of the immense burden she's having to carry because the truth is that she's having to resolve a problem.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I should make this clear are professional differences which may arise over Brexit. Have always been conducted in a totally professional way, and I'm very respectful of her because”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It makes it more painful, but we're also professionals. We've had to deal with each other professionally in politics, professionally as fellow ministers in government.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She's certainly been to my house. Yes, I haven't been to her house where she lives out in Berkshire. But that said, we are on friendly terms with each other and have been, and I think there's been an element of personal friendship, which quite apart from political. But that having been said, and I'm also...”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wish to say that I was a close personal friend, and there was a period when she was busy pursuing her career in London, and I was busy pursuing my career as a barrister, where we probably saw each other very little, except at other people's parties, because we had friends in common.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Intensely polarizing event in modern British political history. And you get people writing to you in very angry terms from both ends of the spectrum”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Turning point moment. Now, I happen to think they were wrong about that because even if the government had been defeated, it wouldn't have been a major turning point.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“be a mistake, and that was what informed my decision. And in doing it, I realized that some people would be very disappointed. After all, I was seeing the email stream coming in in the 48 hours before, which saw this as sort of some...”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Party is totally divided on the issue of Brexit and has no coherent policy. So to add another layer of trouble to the problems of the problems of the problem”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I ultimately pulled back because having seen what the government had at the end of the day offered, even though I thought that what they were offering was less good than what I was myself suggesting, I thought the area of disagreement between us was certainly not of a kind that merited creating a further political crisis by the possibility of defeating the government.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it did, but in those days in 1940, the Conservative Party didn't have its bizarre rules about how it elects its leader. We didn't have a general election in 1940. We replaced the Prime Minister and we took another Prime Minister within 24 hours and life went on. So the idea was to try to put something in which prevented that crisis immediately generating. And the obvious thing to do is consult Parliament. You may not like what Parliament tells you, but then you decide whether you decide to ignore it if you're the government. And potentially if you ignore it, that might be the end of the government. But at least there is a pause moment when Parliament can express an opinion. That's what we were talking about. I mean, from my point of view, this was an important issue, but it was a detail issue. Whereas what actually happened to it, which is typical of political discourse, is it all got elevated into a supreme moment of challenge of sort of asparring match between me and potentially the Prime Minister, which was not...”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can do that, but that is more chaos, isn't it? If you get rid of the Prime Minister, then just at the moment when everything is going very badly wrong, you end up with a situation where you might have a leadership election for a new Prime Minister. You might have a general election. And meanwhile, your clock's ticking. So all I was trying to do.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let's just do a quick analysis. The Prime Minister comes back and says, I haven't got a deal, and on the face of it we have no deal, or we get to the 21st of January next year, and there is no deal on anything. I think everybody must be agreed. This is a big political crisis. I mean, on the face of it, we're within six weeks of not being able to take a plane to Rome. Where within six weeks of most of our medicine supplies drying up, it's a major issue. I hope it doesn't happen. I mean, it is so ghastly that one hopes that we get something. But that is a possibility of our leaving. What do you do then? Now, the risk is there will be chaos. And all I was saying is, well, couldn't we just introduce a bit of structure? And the structure is the government comes along to parliament and says this is what we plan to do. And then there's a debate in Parliament and Parliament either approves what the government's planned to do or suggests something else.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we got at the end to a reasonable place. It wasn't an ideal place. I would have preferred it if the amendment, which was being touted the week before from the government, offering an amendable motion in Parliament in the event of no deal, that we had put that on the statute book, and indeed the government didn't seem to have any real objection to doing it until it suddenly became a hugely politically controversial issue with some elements of my party.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We perhaps reflect on something else? Should we go ahead and do what we originally planned? Because if you don't have the process, you lose that.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't quite get that impression. I mean, some of them may have been irritated at times, but then the job of Attorney General is to pay attention to the law and make sure the government complies with it. But lawyers are quite important, and I think the reason why is that we do have an understanding about process. And process matters because my experience is if you get the process right, the chances are that you will ask and answer the right questions as you go along at the right moment, whereas the risk is that if you don't, you don't ask the right question at the right time. So particularly with Brexit, I mean, I completely admit this, having seen what we've done to ourselves in the referendum, some people are over the moon about the results, some people are appalled, but I think everybody would probably now agree that we do have quite a challenge that we're facing have got to deal with. Trying to get the process right ensures that at the right moment people pause and say, what are we doing now? Are we doing the right thing?”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There is, but I mean, it's one of those tensions which probably underpins a successful democracy if the democracy was wholly dominated by lawyers like me. People would probably be driven round the bent. You've got to have people who come along and talk in broad brush.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I came to the law bit sideways. I mean, I read history at university. I then decided I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, becoming a barrister seemed to be interesting. I don't think I was very good at my studies when I did my bath studies. I don't think I took them particularly seriously and I don't think I found academic law riveting. But I confess that once I got a place in Chambers and was able to start practising, I really enjoyed courtroom advocacy and applying the law to practical problems. And then as times gone by, that's probably developed quite a lot. And I have to accept that although when I came into Parliament in 1997, I didn't come into Parliament thinking I am a lawyer coming into Parliament and bringing my lawyers skills with me. One of the ironies of my political career is despite my best efforts, I've never been able to escape the law.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've been to the United States. I can't claim to know it well. One's always quite surprised because you go there and you see things which are similar and then you suddenly encounter something which is utterly different.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd like to think I'm both a citizen of somewhere and capable of being a citizen of everywhere. I think I would express it slightly differently. But I mean, I should also make clear that there are some countries in which I would probably feel distinctly uncomfortable. But most Western European countries which share our values, and indeed we have to a great extent a shared history, are places where I find it quite easy to feel at home.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it certainly makes me very comfortable with being abroad. And I think abroad more generally, I think I see myself as being utterly British, but very open to external influences and very comfortable with Europe as a concept, culturally within which Britain forms an important part, but distinctive one as well.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think this can be exaggerated. I mean, firstly, I've never lived in France. What is, I think, probably true is that my mother, in an effort to ensure that I was bilingual, spoke French to me in the cradle, and I suspect I spoke French before I spoke English, although I have no memory of it. My wife worries about this. She says, if I'm ever becoming senile, I might only be able to communicate in French. But apart from that, I spent holidays in France, and I have distant French cousins, and when I was little, my grandparents were alive and living in Paris who would go over at Easter. And a lot of the focus of the family's life was towards France. It was the place where you spent holidays and the place where you probably as a family unit at your most relaxed. So all that must have had an impact on me, but equally.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had four years at the Lyc ⁇ e, which is probably very important formative years. I except if you go to a school from the age of four to eight, that is quite an important time of one's life.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you met her, you'd have no idea that you were speaking to somebody who'd been brought up in Paris and gone to the Sovereigns.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not sure that's right. It's true that my father, because of his upbringing, and it was a rather curious background, my grandfather was killed during the First World War, and so my father was brought up as a posthumous child, and his mother had married my father secretly. She was an actress model, my grandmother, and she married my grandfather secretly in 1914, and so the first my great-grandparents knew was that one their son had been killed at secondly he was married. Thirdly, probably to an unsuitable wife, and fourthly, that she was seven months pregnant. And my father then appeared. So my father had a rather curious childhood as a consequence of that. And I suspect that because of that, in late teens, he fell in love with France. He went to France, he learnt French. I mean, schoolboy French, and he eventually married my mother, who was half French. But I emphasize half French. She spoke perfect English. You wouldn't have known she had any French background, but she had been brought up in Paris.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, that can be, and one's got to be careful about that if you are simply doing something out of self-indulgence or anger, then that's probably a bad reason for doing it. You've got to think through very carefully, and I think my father did, and to that extent his independence of mind has certainly been something of an inspiration to me, but the political circumstance in which we find ourselves are very different. Certainly, he was a man of great integrity, and he taught me that going into parliament was a great honour and that one had to try to rise to the responsibility one was given.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. When people say somebody's too independent, you never quite know what they mean. What did they mean about him that he was independently minded and in party unit? Political parties have a tribal quality. And so if you have somebody who has an independent view, it usually means that he doesn't always concur with the tribal mood. But on the other hand, that's quite important. But he was always seen as being a very loyal member of the party.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was certainly very independent, he was also loyal in fairness. I don't think he was a particularly rebellious MP and he came into Parliament quite late in life. And I think his ambitions were probably, in terms of ministerial office, for example, were pretty modest or probably not really there. I think he came in because it was something he really wanted to do after having had quite a successful career as a balance.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are considerations that you have to factor in if people disagree with you. You've always got to listen to why they're disagreeing with you and you should always be willing to take that on board. After all, they may have a valid point to make. And some of the events that have taken place in recent weeks, I've had to factor in quite a lot of thought about what is it I'm doing? Am I doing the right thing at this very moment? Will it lead to a constructive move, which takes me in the right direction or might it simply be destructive and therefore pointless? But what you try to eliminate is the sense of just because people are angry with you, that's not a reason why you shouldn't do it because if you think it's something that's got to be done, then one of the tasks you're sent here to do in Parliament is to be fearless in that respect. You must stand up for what you believe in.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I do. I think that as a politician, and I've been in Parliament for 21 years, I hope my antennae is sufficiently well tuned that you can anticipate when something you're going to do is going to cause difficulty.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the French people as friends. That may be the source of their upset. But at any rate, I don't know. I hope they had a nice expenses paid jaunt to the area, that's all I can say.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I just don't know what treachery they thought I got up to there in what is a nice place where I go to go diving, running, swimming, having friends, not usually non-party political, you know, non-political friends to come. French people.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The death threats are unpleasant. I haven't had as many as some of my colleagues, partly because I don't do social media, I don't tweet, and if you don't tweet, you don't get trolled. So they've tended to be quite specific. And generally speaking, reading between the lines, I've thought this isn't somebody who's really threatening to kill me. It's just somebody who's very angry, had to report some to the police. The person's been prosecuted for making and convicted for making I also find it slightly wearying when I sort of discover from I have a holiday home in France and I hear from my nice French neighbours saying that there are daily mail journalists sort of wandering around the village inquiring what I do there well the answer is I go there on holiday this is slightly wearying as well”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is. The death threats don't upset me. I think what upsets me is the issues around it because I do think that was a country we've got ourselves into a hole. And when one sees that happen, irrespective of party political affiliation or anything like that, it depresses me a bit to see the whole we're in because we've got to get ourselves out of it by one means or another if we're to make progress.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I do keep cheerful most of the time. I'm conscious that if you engage in politics, you've got to expect the brickbacks to be chucked at you. And the Brexit particularly is a very wearying process. I mean, it has an obsessional quality because until we've resolved it, it just goes on and on. And I think people would be surprised at how weary it is for the politicians, quite apart from the public who have to sort of watch this unfolding.”
2018-06-29 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Dominic Grieve One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source