YouSaid · the spoken record

John McDonnell

lines on the record: 68
first: 2018-10-26
most recent: 2018-10-26
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

“Never believe this would happen, did you? Well, I joke about it at various meetings, you know, before Jeremy got elected. I was saying to people, you know, I was preparing for a nice, quiet retirement where I'd sit at the back of hall saying, this is why we're in a mess. No one ever listened to me. And then Jeremy came along, the opportunity came. And we seized her. Ed Milbank came up to me in the lobby the other month and said, I must have been looking tired. He said, are you all right? Are you okay? I said, we're having the time of our lives. And it's terrific.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Look from my bravest Chancellor Exchequer, I'd want a fair taxation system because that was then give us the base upon which we could afford the public services that we need. And I think if we can get that, that will start the irreversible shift of wealth and power in favour of working people in this country.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Look at world leaders at the moment. The average age must be about 89, isn't it? We'll fight the next election, but what I'm saying is that don't underestimate the work that we've done in bringing forward this new generation. And they're terrific.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“By the time this comes round. The one thing about Jeremy and myself, we've never had sort of, we've never been careerists in that sense. We want to make our contribution, but we want to make a contribution as part of a movement, the collective. That's our politics. So what we're doing at the moment, we're laying the foundations for a Labour administration, but also we're bringing on the next generation and we're bringing them on in a hurry as well. And they're great at the Becky Long Baileys, Emily Thornbury, Richard Bergen. Kate Osmore, that new generation is coming through, and they're terrific.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, we're working on the basis there could be one. I think there could be one on the basis of the demoralization of the Tory Party and the internal conflicts.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's respected very hard. So it makes it that much harder, but at the end of the day, it's not necessarily the legislation that matters, it's the political climate and what happens within a political party. And I think with the Tories at the moment, it's interesting, you know, I think they hate each other more than they hate us. And you can see this government almost imploding, and it might not go out with a bang. It might be like John Major. It goes out with a whimper over a period of time, but I think it will.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know, I know. I'm struggling at that at the moment as well. I think elections come. I know we've got, you know, the legislation as it now stands, but I think this fits.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think what Jeremy brings to the piece is balance and fairness in all of this, and he's Jeremy takes a decision after very careful consideration, and he never rushes a decision, and on all of that I think he always works on the base of rational logic.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like Jeremy, it was a bit like, you know, you just need to see the evidence. You just need, before you make any public conclusion, you need to see a bit more of the evidence as that evidence emerged, it looked pretty clear.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I said to the government, you can send all the diplomats back you like. It doesn't own and have an awful lot of effect. But actually, if we start tackling the money laundering going through the city or the oligarchs, et cetera, that will have an effect.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It shouldn't be. It needn't be. And I think we can negotiate way through, but there are real issues there. The Nova Chok was a disgrace. And I was very hard on that all the way through. And I said to government, it's all well.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think on all these international, I think we can negotiate with all of them. I think we have to be firm in our negotiations on all these things. But I think the issues that will threaten us the most are the ones that threaten our very existence. And I can't think of anything. At the moment in terms of climate change that isn't more pressing.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Climate change overall and I think the IPCC report which actually was relatively mild mannered and it didn't go far enough I don't think but climate change overall and therefore what will happen with regard to the scarcity of resources and the movement of people”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lunchtime, things like that. Is there a vote tonight? Do we have to be back? And I say yes. I said, where are you? He said, I'm Western Sahara at the moment. I'll be there. He all seemed to get back as well for some reason.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not completely accurate, but we complement one another. That's true. And on foreign affairs, I used to get a phone call from Jeremy on the Monday.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There'll be occasional things. Should we vote for that? Should we not vote for this? That sort of thing. In the past, Jeremy specialized in foreign affairs over the years, and I think people underestimate just his knowledge of foreign affairs too.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not saying Paul Kirk and tell us the route. We've never had I can't think of a political difference that we've had over all these years. That doesn't mean we don't discuss that. We talk every day, but I don't think we've ever had a political difference about direction at all.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I can't remember it was in the 70s, late 70s. Yeah, we were some picket line, I'm sure. And we were talking about this ourselves the other day. It must have been on some picket line because we were both in Newpie, we were activists in Newpie the Union itself”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, but he pursued it through. The gimmick is due through the 90s when it was tough. He took the mantle up from John Major and then from 1997 onwards he stuck with it.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think Tony Blair's a real dilemma for us all really, because again I did this eulogy to Tony Blair about what he did in Northern Ireland, which I think was phenomenal, and I was saying actually if he'd stopped there he would have gone down in history as one of the greatest peacemakers we've seen. And then Iraq happened.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, not at all, and I've made that point. We're a broad, you know, this concept of labour is a broad church is fundamental to us because it's better that way.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Peter and I worked. Chris Leslie. Peter and I worked with each other at the TUC years ago when we were kids and all the rest of it. But Chris Leslie, I was at the lobby lunch the other day and praised him. He did a fantastic article for Stounder I thought was excellent.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I'm no longer a practising Catholic. The local parish priest refers to me optimistically as a lapsed Catholic, but there you are.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Liking a Tory never kissed the Tory. It's a joke, obviously. I've seen the badge. Oh no, you can look. You can have political disagreements. You can have political divisions and you can express your views forcefully, but there has to be certain parameters. And the certain parameters are not about making sure that you don't edge into any form of threat of violence or anything like that. But at the same time, there is an element of respect that we need to have to another. I agree. And we're all learning lessons on that. Definitely.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Maybe some of your own supporters. No, of course they are. Oh, God, yes, of course. And that's why I say time and time again.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I said, Look, be careful, will you? So on all of this, I try to treat people on that principle of religion or Christianity, I suppose, as one would want to be treated oneself. I think they're not treating others in the way that they should.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That it was a joke, that was a ridiculous joke. I know. But look, if people who know me will know that I'm genuinely fair with people and I won't go into my qualities of kindness and all the rest of it because, you know, maybe I need to go a confession a bit more often. I don't know, but there you are. I think the key thing in politics at the moment is about, yes, the nature of our language, and I'm incredibly careful now, incredibly careful about what I say, but also is the way we treat one another. So, for example, as you know, I fell over on my face this week, bruised, and all the rest of it. Who do I get a text from Justin Greening, a Tory MP, who's been campaigning with me on the third runway? She said, are you all right? Yes, I am. By the way, she's fallen off her bike as well.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's saying the Chesterbook. I said, This is what they shouted out to me, and people fell about laughing. I said, actually, I regret that. It wasn't a very good joke. It was a horrible joke. In Parliament, shortly after, someone raised it and I got up and I explained. And I said, I mean no harm to anybody. But then people say, well, I apologise. Now what? Then I realised. I was set up because what happened the Daily Mail did a tape, didn't do anything about it until Ed Miliband, the leader of the party then was doing a speech the next week, and then they brought the story out then. I thought, below, this is a setup. But of course I don't know.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let them get. I want Change it at all. Nick, let me get this out the way because every time this was raised with me, I try to explain I was in the Wirl, it was Esther Mac constituency. I do a meeting and it's packed, a lot of disabled people, and someone shouts out that to me. I come back down. I'm doing some fringe, no, it was a fundraise or whatever. And there's a scouse comedian. And I said, I've just come from Your Wave. And this is how rough politics are. And I did it as a joke. I regret that. It was a stupid question.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If it doesn't sound revolutionary, I'm really pleased because it sounds like common sense and I'll be able to implement it with least opposition.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of course yes, I do. I want workers on boards because if you look at all the research that's been done in terms of the way in which worker ownership and worker participation takes place, you'll find that the company itself is better in terms of recruitment and retention and actually productivity as well.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, by the workers are they? Well, look at what we're doing in terms of our public ownership proposals. Take water, for example, which has been disastrous the way it was privatised and the way it's operated, etc. We're looking and we're consulting now on what is the best model to bring those three elements together. In fact, there's a fourth element in water that people are talking about, which is a wider representation of the community as well.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, look at what's happening in Silicon Valley now, the way that's been brought about a lot more participation by the workers themselves”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let them run it. Well, I think you can. When you bring that knowledge of the shop floor together, along with expert management as well, and also you bring the view of the consumer or the passenger when it comes to rail together, I think that's the optimum way to run any operation. And I think if you look at not what's happened in the past in the old-style nationalizations, if you look at the way modern businesses are being run, that's what's happening, that more inclusive role that is played. And you do give work. What sort of business?”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I tell you the workers on the front line I think has as much nouse as any others to know how a company is operating, how the server's been delivered, how more effectively that can be done.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I can't see, I'm not convinced at the moment there's another route, but I'm really I'm genuinely in this I am genuinely open to say this has been on every policy as well because when people are saying you're a taxation policy say well you find me another route of getting those resources to pay for those schools and hospitals”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He owned collectively and then dividends would be paid out to workers over a certain cap, then the social dividend. But I met with the CBI straight after that speech. And it's the same with others. I said time and time again. If you agree with my objectives, but at the same time you don't agree with the methodology, you fight me another root of the tree, the same objectives, and I'll listen to you.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As if I would. What I said to them is, you know, again, I was reading some stuff from Will Hutton from ages ago, you know, when he was arguing about a stakeholder economy. And I was convinced about that. And I was talking to businesses, and they also say, yes, I agree. We should have a stakeholder economy. I agree workers should be shareholders, etc. And I said, well, that's great, but for 40 years on, it hasn't really happened. So I introduced and said, well, let's have a bit of mandatory nature of that. 1% a year businesses handing over shares to workers. 10% cap, et cetera.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm sure there is. Let me think of an example. I suppose part of it is about part of the... I've been trying to work out how do we bring people back into government with us, really. And it's trying to find mechanisms that can do that which are less bureaucratic and cumbersome than in the past. Because I was looking at maybe setting up an old netty, you know, the National Economic Development Council in the past. That's right, Harrel Wilson. I was looking at that ideas. And people are saying, yeah, that's great, but actually that's most probably going to be cumbersome, not particularly collaborative, etc. Why don't you simply bring us in on particular missions and things like that? And you start learning from modern business in that way.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know about it. I thought you did as well, Nick. Do you know Ryan never answered that? Is because actually whoever I name, whoever I name, the media would take a part in some form, and I don't want to make people vulnerable in that way. I meet a whole range of people who have different attributes and have done some brilliant work. And again, what I do, and I said this in my Labour Party conference. A vast number of entrepreneurs out there earn a decent living on the basis of treating their staff well, paying their taxes, putting back in society we should be proud of them, and I am”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, there's nothing wrong with profit at all as long as it's not as a result of exploitation, either of individuals or now we know more and more about our planet as well. So profit has got to be on the basis of ensuring that you're not damaging someone else or the earth itself.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Them? No, I think the basic instinct is that people want to better themselves, but also a basic instinct in most people. They want better life for everybody else as well. We're communal animals. We live within a community.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It depends how you define rich, and I'm not getting away from this. I think the debate we're having at the moment is about what is richness and it isn't about hoarding money. It is about the richness and the quality of life. And, you know, I'm meeting all these asset managers and others at the moment, you know, as part of my tea offensive, as somebody described. And while it's coming across from them is quite interesting, is that it isn't just all about racking up money in the bank and everything. They don't want to be stepping over homeless people either. They want to live in a society of some quality of life too. And we are opening up that debate as well. And that's one thing, I don't want to get too party political on this. One of the key aspects of what Jeremy Corner has been talking about for years”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It depends on what you define as profit. The whole issue around profit is if it's as a result of the exploitation of someone else's labor. In other words, you're exploiting them. Of course it's not good. But if it is simply what you're talking about is exchange values, of course it's not, because you'll want to exchange things at a certain value and you'll agree that value. But if that value is determined as a result of exploitation, that can't be right.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You put a prize on everything wrong, and I think it opens up all those debates. And Mark's opened up, and that's that debate the earliest.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that comes out of it. It's certain different aspects. But one is the issue of the acceptance that actually capitalism is crisis ridden and you have to understand why those crises come about. But there's something more into, I think there's more philosophical as well. Someone asked me this question during the Lay Party conference. I said, one of the most interesting things I read in Marx was this difference between use for value and exchange value. How something is, you can have a value, how useful it is, and then within a capitalist system, that use value becomes exchange value. And exchange value dominates everything. We're having a new discussion now about it.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Marx never really guided action. What he does a critique or analysis. He never did works on what a social society would look like. He doesn't do that. What he does is he gives an analysis of capitalism from which you can draw your own conclusions. And what I was trying to do is say, you can't write a writer off like this because of some of his followers. It's almost like saying you can't listen to Jesus Christ and read the New Testament because what churches have done through the centuries? It's ludicrous to do that. And I was trying to rehabilitate that discussion because it's quite important. And it's interesting when we went to the economy.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm convinced by a lot of the arguments that Mark has. And what I've been trying to do, maybe it's a vain hope, I suppose, I've been trying to rehabilitate the reading of Marxism because it's the same as it's almost as though they'd argue you couldn't read William Morris or something like that. In British socialism, if you look at the range of different writers and influencers are quite important to me, that we ensure that we take into account all them. I was inspired very early days, I was inspired by Robert Owen and cooperation, and I still am. And all that work in New Lannock and his writings, etc., particularly around education, you know, it is not the individual, it's the environment as much as anything, those sorts of things. That concept of beauty and Ruskin and others. And then you do look when you're looking at the analysis of the economy, I think, can think of no better understanding of how capitalism operates on reading Marx, simple as that.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't actually. Someone made that up. I wish he did. I'm sorry. I wish I read that and I thought, that's a good line. But you could use it now. I will do.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, he did your height. And I was 13. So I was very young. And I must have read something. I thought he's doing a good job. I'll send it. So I wrote off. It must have been 64, that's right. So I wrote off, I sent him a Christmas card. And I got a nice reply, not from him, but from someone. But at that age, I was reading quite a lot and devouring political aspects of newspapers too.”
2018-10-26 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The John McDonnell One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source