YouSaid · the spoken record

Douglas Alexander

lines on the record

70

first

2024-09-22

most recent

2024-09-22

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

1. “Definitely worked brilliantly. Yep, fell for it beautifully. Well, thank you, Alistair, and thanks for getting him on. Bye bye”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “But they don't necessarily have to get out of the question by suggesting that the man they're talking to is a sort of pathetic pessimist who's given up on life. There might be another elegant way of doing it. No, Roy.”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “Under secretary PPS to PPS, exactly shadow PPS came back and I could be eventually rewarded and get by that. The only thing I'd like to grumble with, finally, which showed Doug Alessandra is very, very skillful, but I also thought was a bit naughty, I twice tried to pin him down on what I think as Labour's major mistake, which was that they had gone into an election saying they weren't going to raise taxes, and they now find themselves, having got elected, in trouble. And he kept saying, yeah, but that was essential to get elected. And I was trying to say, well, maybe you could have given up a bit of your majority to actually be able to get something done. And he managed to spin it in the most beautiful way. And I don't know whether he'd learned this from you. He said, Rory, you know, I've been reading your book. And one of the things that I noticed in your otherwise excellent book.”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Well, the big example with us was a guy called Michael Fallon, who'd been in Parliament, I think, since the 1980s. David Cameron got elected. He'd been a minister under John Major. And David Cameron didn't even make him a minister. And you would have thought that would have just made him sort of go into permanent rebellion, instead of which he became from 2010 to 2012 the most loyal backbencher attack job for David Cameron going out on the news supporting again. It was rewarded by giving a junior ministerial position in 2012. And then eventually ending up in the cabinet as defense secretary. So I do think people like it, the sense that people can subjugate their egos, get back in at a more junior position and prove themselves. And often get rewarded.”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Are those who were prepared to take a step down? I mean, it's often rewarded by the party. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't find himself back in the cabinet at some point. People like seeing that, don't they?”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “It's quite rare. I mean, I remember Liam Fox was, I think, offered a minister of state position by George Osborne and David Cameron. turned it down Liam may challenge this but I was with George Osborne at the time when the conversation was happening and certainly the version I got so you turned it down because he said this is ridiculous you know I had that job 15 years ago and I basically been demoted and I know it was tough for quite a lot of people that I knew I mean Damien Hines took a step down Matt Hancock took a step down this trust took a step down Rob Genrick took a step down but often the politicians who are successful and survive”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “It obviously was, and I'd obviously got that wrong because I was trying to assume that he'd lost his faith and what that made him feel about his father who believed so strongly. And of course, what he was doing. He's very”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Tell us a little bit about Douglas, though. Was he, I mean, he was quite sort of earnest and on message. Presumably he's not quite as much like that when he's not a minister.”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Well, the thing I was saying to him about it because I'd been briefly, they'd reached out to me to talk to me about whether I might be interested in the job, I think largely in order to try to bribe me to drop out from running as an independent as Mayor of London and endorse the Conservative Canada. But the thing that put me off it was the thought that I'd have to be at the airport at four in the morning meeting Boris Johnson and then showing him around and standing behind him while he blumbled his way through every conceivable NATO meeting.”

   2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “It's also, I sort of love the vagaries of memory. So I've known Doug Alexander obviously not for as long as you, but pretty long time. I remember pitching him when he was Secretary State for DFID and I was running a charity and trying to get some support back in the day. So that's going back, I guess, 20 years more. I also different memories of that funny conversation where I was getting advice from on what to do when he stepped down. So he'd obviously inspired by our mutual friend General Petraeus had reached out to me to give me consolation. I was actually complimenting him on the compassion and the sweetness of it. What he seemed to remember is that I clearly had got really big-headed and convinced myself I was about to be the British ambassador to NATO, and he really thought I needed putting in my place.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “Yeah, well, I don't know. I mean, I think he's a very likable chap. I am interested in this weird phenomenon. I should have done more work on it, but I think there were very surprising number of children of Scottish ministers in the House of Commons, which Douglas Alexander was one. Maybe we could have got a little bit more into his sister, who of course was a really big leading politician.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “That's true. I don't think we've ever had a minister of state on. That's a great I'm humbled and honored, but the truth is, you know, in Jonathan Reynolds's Secretary of State, somebody I genuinely like and admire, Keir Stammer, I nominated and voted for him and was delighted when he became Leader of the Labour Party. If you're part of a team which takes us back to our earlier conversation, that's what makes politics good. And in that sense, I am beyond thrilled to be part of the team in whatever role.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “2019, Keir Stammer will not just have a minority, but a majority Labour government, and on the day after he's formed the cabinet, he invites you to be the Trade Minister. I would have respectfully recommended Alistair Psychiatrist to you. It's so fundamentally improbable.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “But you've been a secretary of state and you're not a secretary state now And that must feel a bit weird, right? Honestly, it's not that weird. One of the things that I've been shocked by is how similar the civil service is. I thought I was last in government 14 years ago that it would be radically different. It is unnervingly familiar. But you've come back as a junior minister, having been in the cabinet. Yeah, but Rui, you have to understand how fundamentally improbable it is that I'm within 100,000 miles of government. You know, the truth is there were 40 out of 41 of us wiped out in 2015 as you absolutely accurately see for most of the last nine, ten years have not given serious contemplation to coming back. If you'd said to me at any point in those eight or nine years, in 2024 you'll be sitting in a studio with me and Alistair, you will have not just a labour seat in Scotland, but there will be 35 of you that you will have a majority in Scotland and Wales and in England after the worst election defeat for Labour in decades in”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Wow, we really are reeking over old coals. I think honestly, the Labour Party was just weary of the discipline and responsibility that power demands. It was just like, this is just too hard. And I was haunted during that campaign by the sense that if you were going back to your constituency Labour Party on a Friday evening, it was just easier to say to the members, I'm going to be voting for Ed Miliband than for David Miliband. And with David great personal friend who I admire, I think there was a sense of, oh, are we going to have to eat our greens all over again? This is someone who's going to demand that we recognize those disciplines and those responsibilities of power. And ultimately, it came down to the willingness of quite a lot of MPs to be willing to have those conversations with their membership. It's a question that I want to ask you, but I don't think I'm going to get an honest answer, Arike, but I'm going to ask anyway. You asked with your chin.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “Outside, I hope honestly I'm a better politician, not just because of what I've learned but because you learn more about yourself as well”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “My wife was very good with me about this. She said, Listen, it's a big deal when people meet their MP, I was so keen not to seem pushy, arrogant kind of brash that I kind of underplayed my interactions with constituents and others. And she said, you've got to show up and do that. So I think there was stuff about both personal interactions and kind of personal style. I think also it was dazzling and extraordinary to have the privilege of being in the room with people like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. But when it came to probably the vote I most regret in my life, which was the vote on Iraq, I think I placed too much faith in the judgment of others and should have placed more judgment in more faith in my own judgment. So in that sense, I think like anybody, you learn and you mature as you grow older. And I certainly think I will be a changed politician having had effectively a decade.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “That's right. Well, basically, again, it's time and chance. I was sitting in my law office in Edinburgh, and Nick Brown, who was then the chief whip, phoned me saying, I've just told Tony in the garden in Downing Street that Paisley South is now going to have a by-election and he wants you to be the candidate. So in that sense, yes, that takes me back. But in that sense, one thing was, I think I was careless in some of my relationships because I was just so busy. Secondly, I think I was so young when I was elected. How old were you? I was the week of my 30th birthday.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “I think firstly, I was in a very unusual position where I got given a pass to the Treasury when I arrived as a backbencher and indeed to number 10. And I spent a lot of time in number 10 and in number 11 over those years. And I think that meant I was pretty careless about my relationships with a lot of colleagues. I think I'm quite shy. That's maybe something that we share. And that could easily have been perceived as arrogance. And actually, I was just, I was working 19 hours a day. And in that sense, I didn't take as seriously as I should have being part of that intake. I also came in in a by-election, so I didn't have a whole number of peers to start with. But I think I was certainly not good at that. And secondly,”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “You'd said to me most of the last three or four years that Keir Stammer could do what Neil Kinnock, what John Smith and Tony Blair did over, what was it, three, four parliaments in one parliament, I wouldn't have believed you. Corbinism was a catastrophe for the Labour Party and for the country, and the fact that within, what, three years or four years of 2019, and keep assuming the leadership, we're in a position where we've got a majority Labour government and a credible plan for the next five years is extraordinary. What have you learnt about looking back on your first period in politics? What have you learned about your flaws as a politician? What were you less good at in that period from 1997 to 2015 that you wished you'd been better at? So many things.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “And if you want me to say, listen, the economic consequences of Brexit have been profound and negative. I'm willing to say that because they have been. But we've got to start from where we are. And in that sense, you know, the channel is 21 miles wide. I say it in my first interview as Trade Minister, geography still matters in trade policy. The idea that doing trade deals on the other side of the world will compensate for us leaving the deepest and widest free trade agreement we've ever been part of, which is the European Union, is a post-imperial fiction of our opponents. And what we need is a trade policy based on data, not delusion. So I'm with you, but I am respectful of the people who won this election for the Labour Party because it's not a small thing to win and we tend to lose a lot more than we win. So I am humble in the face of the strategic judgments that the leadership of the party made.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “David Lamy is in Kiv as we speak with Tony Blinken. The fact is we are still in the P5. I mean, there are ways that we can make ourselves a more substantial, effective middle power than we've been in recent years. I honestly think the country Internationally lost its bearings in the last few years, and there are practical, challenging ways that.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Back into public life and see that despite a broken machine, despite civil servants that were not always what you would have hoped for or colleagues who were not always what you hoped for, all of which I recognise and understand, that is still worth changing your life, putting your heart and soul and shoulder to the wheel. And in that sense, I can't give you any guarantees that it's going to work, either for my small contribution or the bigger contribution of the government. But when I faced a choice as to is this a meaningful and important contribution that you want to make, I was so dispirited by the state of the country in recent years. I was so down about how Britain, which had been such a powerful voice in the world, had allowed itself to be shrunk and just embarrassed by the leadership that we'd had, that I thought, listen, it's worth having a go. And I might be wrong and have me back in a few years' time and you may be able to say, listen, you know, you made the...”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Who instantly was a very effective Chancellor before 1997, you've basically guaranteed that you're going to be cutting the benefit of lone parents. We are at a very early stage of a different chapter of politics. And one of my lessons, I have to say from observing the last Labour government, is that the character of the leader matters at least as much as the detail of the manifesto. If you look at Tony Blair, he didn't anticipate that Iraq was going to define foreign policy for his prime ministership in the same way. I don't think Gordon Brown anticipated the global financial crisis would be so definitional to his. So actually having people of common sense, decency, goodwill back in office is not a small deal for me. It's a really, really big deal. That would be one point that I would make. And the second thing I would say, and honestly, I loved your book, I genuinely did. But if I had a concern about it, it's that despair is not a strategy. If you like, I'm taking a bet in trying to...”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Have our red lines, which we do. One last chip at my hypothesis, and I'm going to get back to us. I guess my big anxiety is you won the election well, but you won the election by tying your hands behind your backs. You were so keen to reassure voters that you weren't going to get close to Europe, so keen to reassure them you weren't going to raise taxes, that you now have a real problem. I mean, you've got public services in terrible position. There's a desperate need to raise government revenue and spend more on public services. You can't really do it because of all these things you said to win an election. Listen, again, I absolutely agree with you as to the disastrous inheritance that we're facing, and I'll save you the talking points about how much that is and everything else. But I take a longer view. I'd say a couple of things. Firstly, in what you see, Rory, I hear an echo of the conversation we were having two months into Labour government in 1997 in the sense that you've accepted conservative spending plans of Ken Clark.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “You reject it out of hand, right? It didn't seem to me particularly wise, respectfully, of the European Commission to drop that proposal in the middle of a general election campaign if you were wanting for it to be received well by a government in waiting or a government that was seeking to come to power. I genuinely think if I was in the European Commission, I would have said, if you want a youth mobility scheme, let's wait and see what happens on July the 4th. But if you like, it was almost guaranteed in the white heat of a general election that if the Commission drops a proposal for a youth mobility scheme, of course the opposition is going to say one last”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “What seemed to us, at least the two of us, a pretty attractive deal, of young Europeans being able to come over here on short-term visas and vice versa.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Photograph taken in Australia or New Zealand, it's doing the hard detailed, painful work of saying, how do we try and improve trading relationships at the border? How do we try and make sure as part of the broader political reset that we not only have a defence and security treaty, but we have confidence-building measures, frankly. I mean, because we often forget in this debate that there's politics on both sides of the channel. You know, we have to re-earn the trust of the European Union if we're going to improve the trading relationships between them. But frankly, I think it's a bit early to blame the firefighters when we've just got rid of the arsonists. But there is, I mean, there is stuff. I mean, Europe reached out generously to offer...”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “Of government. Okay, so first of all, if you're wanting me to implicitly suggest Brexit is a small deal, I'm going to disappoint you because I accept, as you've been arguing on this podcast for years, Brexit's a very big deal. And as someone whose politics was shaped and tempered by the experience of the referendum in Scotland in 2014, where we were on the same side, Rory, if you like, as much as 2014 and the defeat of nationalism in Scotland was for me an affirmation of a politics of cooperation, internationalism, solidarity. 2016 was a defeat for that politics. It was a profound and significant shift in how the UK accounts for itself and the world and shows up. What is our responsibility though? Our responsibility then is not to do the kind of performative diplomacy that we've seen certainly in the department I'm now in in recent years Liz Truss having her”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “In which case that is, if you like, a trigger and a reminder to leave voters that their primary political identity is leave, which worked very well for Boris Johnson in 2019, or frankly, do we shamelessly change the subject to talk about other issues about the state of public services, the state of the economy, in the hope that people see their primary affinity as prospective Labour voters? And the effect of that has been triumphantly successful in not only vanquishing the Conservative Party, but giving as a political platform on which to build. Traffley successful in vanquishing the Conservative Party, but potentially not brilliant at giving you a political platform on which to build. Because in order to win that election, and it might be smart short-term politics, but by ruling out customs union single market, by ruling out raising income tax, VAT and corporation tax, you've basically come in with your hands tied behind your back on the most fundamental levers.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “A start, and we've got to start somewhere. And I know, because I listened to your podcast, you're going to say, why haven't we done more on Brexit immediately? I think honestly I see that from a slightly different position in Scotland, where not only did we lose in 2015, but we lost in 2017 and we lost in 2019. And my sense is people like Deborah Matheson and Keir Stammer and Morgan McSweeney made a very important strategic judgment which was to change the conversation when he became leader of the Labour Party in 2019. And that was because, as we've seen in Scotland, these referenda burn like battery acid through old affinities and identities, being Labour voters where 45% suddenly voted for independence in Scotland, I think what informed that choice in 2019 was if we don't get these red wall seats back in one cycle, we've lost them for a generation. And how are we most likely to get them back? Is it by talking a lot about Europe?”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “Be associated with the emerging markets rather than a stable OECD economy. So, in that sense, how do we do it? I think we start the hard yards of improving our trading relationship with Europe. You look at what Keir's already done in terms of the EPC meeting in Blenheim and being in Berlin and being in Paris.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “First of all, we change the government, and I'm very grateful to the people of the United Kingdom that on July 4th we did that. It's not insignificant that we have, I say this as a majority in Scotland, in Wales and in England now. So it means, for example, the risk premium that's been attached, is there going to be another independence referendum in Scotland has just vanished? Secondly, I think it's arguable that we're now going to be the most politically stable G7 economy for the next five years. You talk at length in terms of the challenges that France is facing or indeed what we're going to face in November in the United States. Political stability doesn't guarantee economic stability, but it sure helps. So in that sense, kind of point one, political stability on that, you need to build economic stability to be judged investable. There is a wall of international capital that frankly just thought, what the hell's happened to the UK in recent years and priced the risk associated with British politics in a way that would traditionally”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “You're right. I think one of the central conceits of the Brexiteers was that after Brexit we would walk taller in Washington or in Beijing or in Moscow. It's just not true. The fact is we are looking at a world that's very different from the world that was promised to us in 2016. If you look at trade policy that I'm now working on, we're in a world of the big three. It's the US, it's China, it's the European Union, and the kind of free market buccaneering vision of Brexit is. Very, very far away”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “A couple of things. Firstly, I mean, I was elected, as you say, in November 1997. The UK economy was bigger than the Chinese economy in 1997. So in terms of the global economy, and we were still ruling a major Asian country in terms of the city, in terms of Hong Kong. So it was a very different world. And if you think of the world that we're in now in terms of Russia's return, China's rise, it's just fundamentally different. Secondly, I spent a lot of time in the States in the last eight or nine years. By 2007, the Eurozone and US going to roadly the same size, we're now in a position today where the Eurozone is half the size of the American economy. When Biden says don't bet against the United States, the United States is an extraordinary innovation investment, productivity, profitability machine, and so the chance to spend time in California and Silicon Valley and elsewhere has been a huge education for us.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “Actually, ultimately reignited that fire and said, I really do want to come back was how consistently I would meet people abroad who looked at me with a mix of kind of pity and derision about what had happened to the UK. They would say, we thought you were a serious country. Like what's happened? And actually, I just think if you feel that you can make a contribution to try and show that the UK is coming back, that's a very compelling contribution.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “Harvard campus. It was like a software upgrade. And that was from the students, never mind from the faculty. So you can learn a lot in terms of the people that you work with and the conversations that you have. I then kind of moved in different worlds in investment, in law, in consulting. I've learned so much about how business works, frankly, because I hadn't spent time in the private sector. I'd been a lawyer before I was elected to Parliament, but how do these major investment companies allocate capital? How do they judge whether a country is investable or not? What premium do they place on political stability or economic stability? Just if you've sat in investment review committees, you know a whole lot more than if you read about it in the Financial Times. So in that sense, I've been extraordinarily fortunate in terms of those opportunities. But I think I've now worked in more than 70 countries in politics and out of politics. And distance, I think, can lend perspective. One of the things that I...”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “To be on the same path as him, be me coming back in four years' time, it's a long time out. And as you say, I remember unless I'm being misremembering, I think there were definitely times when I've spoken to you when I don't think you did think you were coming back. That's absolutely true. So tell us a little bit about what the world looked like outside and what you learned from stepping outside and what you realized about Parliament that people who never left Parliament might not realize. So listen, there are lots of different ways that you can learn and make a contribution, but one of my observations is the chance to travel, the chance to work far from politics, the chance just to learn has been extraordinarily beneficial for me. I tried very hard not to lose my seat, but I've learned a whole lot more because I did, not just about myself. I think you learn more from defeat than you do from victory, but also the opportunities that that gave me. So literally every time I know that you're a Yale, now every time I stepped onto the...”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “Us a little bit about what you learned about the world when you left politics. You were out for a hell of a long time. I mean, Alistair's saying we went on different paths, but he left politics five years before me.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “And when I go into Downing Street, I found I quite like being Prime Minister. I was quite good at being Prime Minister. And I regret that. But ultimately, that caused some frictions and tensions at the top of the party. Now, it's for them to decide their account of history, but I basically agree with you. I think you put Gordon Brown and Tony Blair together. They're like two giant rocks in a stream that just forced kind of nonsense to the very margins of the Labour Party. They were literally an unbeatable combination, Lennon and McCartney. They were extraordinary figures.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Personality is Destiny Aster. Like, you know how we did this new Labour documentary a few years ago just at the time of the pandemic? I basically at that point had no thought about going back into politics and I thought my obligation is just to turn up and tell the truth. I want my kids to know what I spent 20 years of my life doing. And when I watched the documentary series, I thought it's like a muscle. These people can't stop exercising. Everyone is seeking to bend history to their account. So I have immense respect for Gordon and Tony, but I think if Gordon had gone on to that program and said, Yes, there was a deal and I was pretty frustrated when that deal was not honoured. But when I became Prime Minister, I came to a realisation of just how difficult a job it is to be Prime Minister and a new appreciation of how good Tony Blair was as a Prime Minister, I think that would enhance his reputation. And similarly, if Tony Blair had said, yes, actually, I did have a conversation in Grenitas, truthfully, I shouldn't have had that conversation. It wasn't a deal for me to make.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “In that inner circle, it was immensely exciting. Once you won Gordon's Trust or Tony's Trust, they were remarkably intellectually generous and open. And in that sense, it was literally, to my mind, the most exciting room to be in in Britain in terms of being able to make change happen and contribute. But on the other hand, it was claustrophobic, it was emotional, and frankly, there was a lot of energy wasted on the TBGBs, as they were called, which would have been better service directed towards other goals. What do you”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “One is, I think if you look at that history of Gordon and Tony working together, actually it was generative and productive until at least 2001 in that sense, I think it animated and drove the government forward. Of course there were tensions. Of course there were arguments. But actually I think it was basically a positive phenomenon. And I think as a Labour Party we were extraordinarily blessed to have two politicians of that scale, significance and capability. There was a lot of good work being done. What I do regret is just the exhausting emotion involved in being”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “Yeah, yeah, literally when in the deep freeze for four months. This is why I have to come in on behalf of the listeners because they will know as much as I do about all of the stuff. So there's some sort of inside baseball going on here and some kind of complicated mafia family that none of the rest of us understand, right? Broadly speaking, what you're talking about as far as I understand is that these two people, Tony Berengoran, were incredibly close before Tony Blair ran to be leader. Then Tony becomes Prime Minister. Gordon Brown becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer. And then the impression we get from the outside is that Gordon Brown then believes there's a deal that he's going to be Prime Minister at some point. Tony Blair's going to step aside. And then there are various camps that form. I write that kind of ed balls this sort of with Gordon Brown and David Milliband is with Tony Brown. Can you give us some names? I don't really get what you're talking about. Your broad arc, I would draw a couple of examples.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “As a C, I learned an immense amount from being part of that. And I think also that shaped how I think about politics, which is ultimately it's about a project, it's about people, it's about processes, and it's about principles being aligned in the same direction. That's how you do politics and politics as a team sport. But it also teaches you quite a lot about the bad side of politics. If you look at what Rory's written in terms of colleagues in Parliament, there were a lot of people who didn't have the best interests of the Labour Party at heart, but were trying to preference or advantage individual people. So in that sense, yes, I think the way that I came in that commitment to Labour Party that preceded knowing either Tony or Gordon really helped. But there were rough moments. Rory, you were pushing me earlier in terms of when the bumps happened. I mean, you probably will not remember this, Alistair, but Tony once put me on the National Executive Committee, and Gordon didn't speak to me for four months. Like literally no contact because at that point, I think he wanted to be on the National Executive.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Work. But I very quickly reached a judgment that it was not an environment in which you could ever play games. If I tried to play Gordon Oof against Tony or Peter Off against you, that was like the third reel. You would just get fried. And that served me very well in terms of my subsequent relationship.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “1994 happens by then I'm back in Edinburgh studying law and I get a phone call from Gordon at 10 to 8 that morning saying Joan Smith has died so I was not around at the point of fracture in terms of whether Tony or Gordon were going to stand in London I was helping Gordon write obituaries that day for John Smith and so in that sense I think Callahan called his biography Time and Chance. It was Time and Chance that I was in the right place to start that work. How does that then play out? Observing at very close quarters the team who were leading New Labour, I personally think there is like a PhD to be written about high performing teams in politics. I was thinking about this before the interview. I think with respect to Alistair if Philip Gould, you, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson were in the same room, you were just better at electoral politics than any equivalent team that the Conservatives could field at that juncture. And it was an immense learning and privilege for me to be in that room and to be observing you guys doing your work.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “So, actually, the very first reference I had for my first jobs were all written by Tony Blair. So I benefited immensely from being around and being part of a team of people when they were literally thick as thieves. So we felt even from 1990 onwards, Gordon and Tony would be the last two to turn up to Neil Kennick's Shadow Cabinet. They were restless and impatient about the rate of modernization. They felt that there was a project that was nascent that needed to be accelerated. And if you like, the person they would ask to speak to immediately before they did the Today program or Newsnight would be each other. And so that was what I was immersed in. It was not a politics of faction or of I'm for this guy, I'm for that guy.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “And with Gordon. And so when I went back to Edinburgh University and studied law, I'd been with Gordon professionally there for about three years. I said, listen, would you be willing to be a referee for my traineeships with Edinburgh law firms? And he said, listen, I don't know any Edinburgh lawyers. Tony knows all the Edinburgh lawyers. He was at school with them Tony to be your referee.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “Of my sisters. And then in 1990, I graduated from Edinburgh University two weeks before I graduated, I started work for Gordon Brown. And my senior owner's tutor at Edinburgh University had supervised Gordon Brown's PhD, credentialed me, knew that they were looking to take somebody on. It would be far too dignified to suggest I was a researcher. I mean, I was just doing anything. And actually, I think one of my breakthrough moments was in that November when Gordon was giving a lecture in St. Stephen's Church in Glasgow about theology and politics and I wrote the lecture with him and for him. And I think at that point he kind of began to think there was something that I could contribute. I was holding over a place at Cambridge and Edinburgh to do law and trying to decide what to do at that point. And Gordon said, listen, we need you to travel with us in the 1992 election campaign, which is where we met. And I traveled that year with Tony.”

    2024-09-22 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 99. Team of Rivals: Blair, Brown and the secrets of New Labour (Douglas Alexander) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source