YouSaid · the spoken record

Greg Clark

lines on the record: 32
first: 2019-03-22
most recent: 2019-03-22
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

“I think it's probably not right to personalize it because the national interest, it seems to me, requires us to make sure that we don't willingly plunge ourselves into something that we would regret for many generations to come. I couldn't do my job as business secretary, knowing the clarity with which businesses up and down the country say that it is important to make sure that we can continue to trade without tariffs, without the interruptions to supply chains. I would anyway, but I have to make sure that the government, a conservative government that has the interest always of the whole country at its heart. that it acts on the evidence that it proceeds on the basis of what is in the best interests of the country.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My view, we should not leave without a deal and without a negotiated resolution to this, but we need to find a deal. And it is possible to do that.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But the most important thing is to make sure it doesn't become the government's policy and it hasn't been. I'm pleased to say.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think if you've got a clear view of what needs to be done and the reason for that is that the consequences of leaving in a disorderly way, in acrimony with no agreement with the European Union are so severe that actually it's perfectly obvious what you have to do. It's not the policy of the government to do that. And so, of course, when it comes up, There's no question as to what the right thing to do is.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Investments into our country. Stick with us. This is going to be resolved. We still are at heart, that same pragmatic, sensible country. This has been a turbulent period, but we're going to resolve it. Please don't up sticks. Please don't give up on us now. Time and time again, I do that. I think we've had some success in doing that. A lot of investment decisions have been deferred rather than cancelled. But when the business organizations and when the TUC say that we need to bring this to a resolution, they're absolutely right.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, they are right. They were right and they are right. I deal all the time, as you know and would expect with trade unions as well as with businesses. And all of us have to pay attention to what employers are saying, what trade unions are saying, that the hit to our national reputation, which has always been one of confidence, reliability, wherever you go in the world, Britain is a place in which you can make investments knowing that you're going to have a good stable, dependable, common sense environment to do business. That is incredibly important. I have been so frustrated with having to have conversation after conversation in person, going around the world and saying to people who've made significant long-term investment.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I'm very sad that my colleagues have joined that party of left the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party has always had, in my view, clearly in mind a responsibility to safeguard and advance the prospects of people from whatever their background right across the country and has had a good record over the decades of doing that. And I think that is so important that we should stay together and be, of course, a broad church. That's a strength of the Conservative Party. And in times of stresses and strains, that's needed more than ever in my view.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As a few years went by, I came to see very clearly that the values and the motivations that I had and thought were needed for the country actually were found in the Conservative Party. And I've never for a moment regretted it.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“representation of the Labour Party there had not resulted in great attention and great prosperity coming to Teesside and the rest of the North East. And I felt that should be challenged. And one of the things I remember was people in education. It was very rare in those days for people of my background to go on to university. In most schools there was a couple of handfuls of people that went on to higher education. And that was the norm. This was not, people were missing out on opportunities. And I felt at the time that that needed to be shaken up a bit. And when the SDP was being formed, that seemed to be a challenge and an alternative. Now, as the...”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think the circumstances at the time were that this was when I was a teenager. I'm afraid very many years ago. Actually, at that time, growing up in the Northeast, growing up on Teesside, and seeing just how dominant the Labour Party were there, I felt at the time that the...”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In all the things that I've done, I've stayed in touch with obviously very close to my family up there and to many of my friends. And on the way that you want to continue to maintain the friendships that you've had over the years, I remember going back when I was first thinking of university and I went to a six-form college and the careers or the university's admissions teacher asked me had I thought of university and if so which ones and I read I said well this place called Oxbridge sounds very good and very good place demanding place to study I don't know where it is but Oxbridge sounds like a place I might be interested in She had to set me straight.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But certainly, if it's the latter, then it's kind of joshing rather than anything else. I was of my grandmother sadly died a few weeks ago. And so, of course, there was a great celebration of her life. And there was 98 when she died. And she was a very great woman. But I've always had a huge amount of support, not just from my family, but the friends that I grew up with, some of my old school teachers were there, some of them members of the Labour Party and had a bit of a tease about things. But I've always enjoyed that support. And...”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think my dad's experience of seeing me at 6 o'clock in the morning running up and down drives, delivering milk bottles, probably dissuaded him very quickly of the idea that this was the career for me.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I never really think of myself because it never has been the case that I've been held back in any way in my background, quite the reverse. My dad was a milkman and worked very, very hard and it was a family business. It was one of my early experiences with her. I learned to drive in a milk float. It was a good piece of small business entrepreneurism. When I asked when I was 17 and wanted to have some driving lessons, I mentioned this to my dad and he said, great, they start at 6 o'clock in the morning on the milk float the next morning dropping off some bottles on the way. I used to go collecting the milk money every Thursday and Friday night door to door and that's pretty good training for going door-to-door canvassing. You can't just knock on the door and say two pounds 30 please. You have to have a bit of a chat about how things are.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you were to talk to my wife and put to her the suggestion that I'm very tidy, I think you would get a derisive reaction to that. I suppose I have... spare taste when it comes to decoration but that doesn't go completely to the point of never leaving things in piles and desks and by the sofa.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're not all called David. There are two of us that have the name David. And it's not particular family name. My father and grandfather are both John.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is called David. That's not quite true. There are a lot of Davids. Is this true? I only have three brothers and sisters. My youngest brother is called David, and it is. And I was always Greg from the outset. My parents always called me Greg from the outset. They're clearly, for some reason, very attached to the name David. And since they didn't use it for me, I've always been called Greg, they decided to attach it to my youngest brother.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was a very tough time. So when I was at secondary school in the early 1980s, unemployment was very high, where I went to school it was one of the highest unemployment black spots in the country. And many people that I was at school with, their fathers and mothers had lost their jobs through no fault of their own and they were really tough times.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I not only hear them, my family are still on Teaside, my parents and two of my brothers and sisters are there. I've got lots of friends on Teesside as I have in Tunbridge Wells and across the country. But I don't see any tension because if I take the north of England, the northeast of England where I grew up, actually the importance of manufacturing industry for the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people cannot be understated and it could not be clearer what manufacturers say which is that we really need to have a deal and to have a deal soon.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there should be debates on these matters. I think there's an emerging sense after this week's events that I think a kind of cooler set of heads, I think, seem to be emerging that actually we need to bring it to a resolution and hopefully the government's made a commitment to do that.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the policy of the government is that we should have a completely independent trade policy and control our migration policy. And the problem is that that would involve changes, breaches of that, which is why I do think that the better option would be the Prime Minister's deal.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My own view is that if you want people as MPs, as parliamentarians to form a majority and a consensus, then I think that helps. But obviously these are decisions for the party leaders to make.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, no To buy it. I'm coming on to that. What the government has said was that if there were not an agreement across the House, the government would facilitate a process in the two weeks after the March European Council, in other words the next two weeks, to allow the House to seek a majority on the way forward.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Young, the first thing is to support and look again at the deal that has been negotiated, which I think does and should command support.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“together and I think something that has been significant that has been rather overlooked in recent days is the commitment that the government made that we would facilitate a process to allow the House to seek a majority on the way forward just to spell it”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think that if you look at this whole question, in any referendum in which the result was 5248, that requires coming together and to find a way to bring people together. If that's then followed by a general election in which no one party had a majority, I think that's an invitation again to find out where there might be agreement across the House. And so I think the ambition that we should have is to find a way forward that commands not a majority of one or two. Sometimes this talk of getting it over the line, I don't warm to that. I'm not drawn to that because something that passes with a majority of one or two I think is not doing what we need to do, which is to try to bring as many people as possible.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The pressures that the Prime Minister is under are always considerable, but any human could understand just the degree of frustration that the Prime Minister has felt with the process.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think anyone watching that, anyone having watched the Prime Minister over the years could understand the sense of frustration that she no doubt felt that she's negotiated painstakingly a deal that she feels correctly, in my view, has been underappreciated. And listen, in terms of what she said on Wednesday, I think it's understandable given the sense of frustration she had that people weren't coming together, but it clearly wasn't a great success. I don't think it was helpful in resolving the matter. But listen, none of us is infallible, and even Prime Ministers sometimes don't get the tone choir right. I think this is a time for us all to come together, to find common ground. And to do what it takes to resolve this matter.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She's a woman of her word, in my experience, and when she said that the United Kingdom would not leave without a deal on the 29th of March without explicit consent of the House of Commons, and then the House of Commons, I think, made it clear last week that it didn't want that to happen. That counts for something with the Prime Minister.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we were in a dangerous situation in which the mechanics made that possible, although I always placed great faith in the Prime Minister's categoric commitment. She said to the House of Commons, as you know, that the United Kingdom would only leave without a deal on the 29th of March if there was explicit consent in the House of Commons for that outcome. But the businesses that I talk to and deal with day in, day out felt a mounting sense of alarm. And I think it is very good that that has been removed prospectively for now. But of course, the situation isn't solved. And I and every employer across the country want now to bring it to a resolution.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mightily relieved, I think it was a sensible outcome for us to leave the European Union without a deal in disharmony a week today was certainly not in anyone's, it was not in the interest of the United Kingdom, but not in the interest of the European Union. And so I think it is a good thing that common sense broke out and I think a reasonable set of proposals was agreed.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“clearly wasn't a great success. I don't think it was helpful in resolving the matter. But listen, none of us is infallible and even prime ministers sometimes don't get the tone quite right.”
2019-03-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Greg Clark One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source