YouSaid · the spoken record

Jonathan Ashworth

lines on the record: 47
first: 2019-02-08
most recent: 2019-02-08
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

“Not quite sure what to say on that. Look, I just want to do that. I'm just here's the classic politician answer which you told me not to give you any politician answers before I came on but you know I'm focusing on trying to do the best job I can possibly can as a shadow health secretary and then I want to be the actual health secretary and I want to change the country because I don't want kids growing up scavenging in bins growing up in poverty or growing up having to deal with the alcoholism of a parent that's what I'm about”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then we had the 2017 general election, and all the naysayers were proved wrong. All right, we didn't win, but nobody was expecting that general election result we got in the end. I mean, the policies we were talking about, about the economy, investing in public services, getting rid of the public sector pay cap, did strike a chord with people. And I think we can strike a chord with people again in the next general election whenever it comes. No, with Jeremy Board. Maybe John Ashworth. That'll give over.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think there's any I Been there before, haven't we? Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams. A labour man through It wasn't quite born into this party, but I've certainly played a big part in my life growing up and I'll die in this party. And if people decide that they have to go off to form some sort of SDP alliance style arrangement with the Liberals, which we all know has been gossiped about. Surely this story and the history of the SDP is that they didn't break the mould of British politics, they sustained the Tories in power. And if you've got a situation where you've got kids scavenging in bins, according to a teacher from Morcombe on the BBC the other week, how on earth can we allow the Tories to stay in power? I would caution and I would say to any of my friends or colleagues if that's what they're thinking.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Why can't she therefore rule out no deal? But she's not prepared to do that, she's not prepared to move off her red lines. And I think that's the problem. That's why her government's in a cul-de-sac, because she doesn't show the, she doesn't appear to have the imagination or the dexterity to shift her position. Perhaps, and I suspect even if in her heart she wanted to shift her position, her torry back benches wouldn't let her, perhaps.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hobson's choice, isn't it? She's sort of playing Russian roulette with us. I mean, it's like, you know, she's being highly irresponsible in saying, well, it's either her deal or no deal.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But when people say the labour front bench is enabling Brexit, the British people have voted for Brexit. We had a referendum. We have to respect that. And every Labour colleague stood on a manifesto where we said we would respect the outcome of that referendum. Might not like the outcome of that referendum. We have voted Remain and campaign for Maine in that referendum. But that was what the British people voted for.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But we've all known that Jeremy has had traditionally had sceptical views about the EU. That's not come as a surprise. And it has been, it was exposed, or Jeremy made it quite clear in two leadership contests. Members voted for Look, you know, we cannot be starry eyed about the European Union. I mean, I want to remain in the European Union, or I did want to remain when we had the referendum. Shouldn't be sort of just starry eyed about it and think it doesn't need significant reform or change. Of course it does.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sounds like I was. But you know what I mean? Some of the policies that we proposed as a coordinator cabinet have become sort of the accepted wisdom, as it were. Even the Tories have got rid of the public sector pay cap now.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think when you look at some of the active industrial policy that John McDonald's talking about, I think that's hitting a chord. One of the most popular policies we announced in the general election, and I had the privilege to announce it, was getting rid of the public sector pay freeze. That's accepted now that that was the right thing to do. But three or four years ago, Labour colleagues, as it were, were arguing we had to continue with a public sector pay freeze, that was a symbol of our seriousness on the economy. Now nobody believed that.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Decision. I mean, and I think when you look at some of the big challenges we're facing, like widening economic inequality in society, the need for a responsive, active state. I actually think that a lot of what we're proposing as a party are the right answers to today's economic challenges.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'm not a collaborator. And look, I think, as I've said, I think my thinking about why I'm a socialist and a Labour Party politician is in the fine tradition of... Crossland type social democracy”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The smaller towns and the suburbs, I think, were left behind. Yes, we improved sort of poverty with things like tax credits and so on, but the economies in those areas did not see the sort of quality investment in skilled jobs that we should have been delivering. We began to change this funnily enough towards the end of the Labour government with actually Peter Mandelson's more active industrial policy, which I think John MacDonnell is building on, but we didn't do enough, and I think we also were too dismissive of concerns about low wages and the perception that those low wages and zeros contracts and temporary work was created by European freedom of movement. I think we were not alive to that as quickly as we should have been.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I remember that vividly, and I remember the huge change that's taking place in cities like Manchester. It's not just Manchester. All these big cities were transformed with huge amounts of investment.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Got a lot right, and I'm not a lazy critic of that government, not remotely. I worked in that government But I think it's pretty clear that we run an economy which was based on supporting the financial services in London. We put huge investment in the big cities and big cities have been transformed. I mean, walk around Manchester, you know, it's absolutely transformed from the city that I grew up in. When I remember when the bomb went off, I remember that as a teenager and I remember that very vividly.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My socialism. I'm a great Tony Crosslandite, and you make a distinction between means and ends. And what are the end of what we want to achieve? We want to achieve a more equal society, not just because you want to attack material poverty, but because I believe you have to attack the poverty of satisfaction. That's what Bobby Kennedy actually used to call it. And that means improving people's well-being, creating the conditions where people can live happier lives. That's actually what Tony Crossland talks about in his book, The Future of Social, actually what Marx talked about when he talked about a society where you can hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon and be a critic in the evening. So I think my thinking is very much part of the tradition of social democracy or socialism. And I don't think I'm a million miles away from John MacDonald, despite your teasing on Twitter.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But PFI was used in the late 90s when that Labour government inherited a situation where something like a third of hospitals were over 50 years old, some of them from the Victorian age. But now, you know, you've got to be pragmatist. And now we're looking at ways in which we can bring them back in house and refinance it. You see that my socialism.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, of course it is. And it also means you have to make a series of other interventions because if you want to improve people's health outcomes, it's not just funding the NHS, it's investing in prevention measures, but it's also about the quality of air that we breathe, the quality of housing that people live in.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That we should have a health service and we should structure society in such a way that people can live longer, healthier, happier lives”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think it's quite simple, actually. I want to create the conditions in this country where people live longer, healthier and happier lives. Because health inequalities are getting so wide in this country. A child born right now listening to this podcast and the very poorest areas of the country, whether it's the poorest parts of Manchester or Leicester or London, that child born in the poorest areas right now, that baby will live on average around nine years less than a child born in the wealthy areas, born right now, right this second. That should not be fair, and that's because that's because of these inequalities in society. And that's what drives me as a socialist, as a labour politician, and that's what I want to improve. Now, you know, so the question is, what are the sort of technical changes you make to the structure of the NHS or where do you put more money into primary care? What's the acute sector? And so, I mean, that does, there are policy consequences from that. But my fundamental belief is...”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I certainly believe government has a role to intervene earlier. And one of my big passions is not just the alcoholism issue for obvious reasons, but actually improving children's health. If you look at our child health outcomes as a country, not just mental health and obesity, which get a lot of prominence in the media now, but on things like vaccinations, oral health across the board, we're pretty low down compared to other countries. And I think intervening earlier, investing in shorts centres, health visitors, school nurses, things of that nature is so vitally important. So yes, I do believe there's an active role for government. I don't believe in a sort of la safer approach or sort of step back and say, well, that's the responsibility of the family. Families need to be supported. And that is one of my biggest. I mean, that's why I want to be the health secretary, to improve children's health and well-being.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and to his immense credit not only did he respond to what I was saying not only did he announce a fund he allowed me as the shadow secretary to jointly announce it with him I must be the first shadow sexual estate to do a joint announcement with the Secretary of State certainly the first one in a Jeremy Corbyn shadow cabinet and we even did a joint interview for the BBC together but of course we were stood on you know College Green out here but of course Jeremy Hunt is very tall and I'm not if I can put it like that so we're standing next to each other and it looks a bit like that kind of two Ronnie's John Cleese sketch where he's towering over me and I'm looking up at me doing this joint interview together and you know what if you Google me because someone pointed this out to me if you google me it will say Jonathan Ashworth height so people were going off”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, and I've got, you know, I will go hammer and tongs it in the dispatch box because that's, and I'm quite a robust politician in that respect. And I think we should be. But Jeremy Hunt listens to what I was saying and was struck by it, moved by it, I think. And he agreed to set up a fund for children of alcoholics, a sort of £7 million to help children who are growing up in these circumstances.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Gordon Brown came to the wedding, and people who work here, people, journalists, friends, because we make friends in this world, don't we? Shared interests, people like that would have been there, and he just felt that he would shame me, he would embarrass me That's heartbreaking And then three months later, he was dead.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He said he couldn't come because he didn't want to embarrass me in front of the posh people that I now knew because politicians would have been there.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It certainly leaves me determined to do something about it The story I told, which then got captured on social media and went around social media as these things do, is that his drinking got worse and worse and worse as I got older. I know he was proud of me, he was hugely proud of me. I went off to university. No one in our family ever dreamt of going to university and went off to work for Gordon Brown. No one would have dreamt that anything like that would have opened up for me. And then I got married nine years ago in 2010. Couldn't come to the wedding The reason he couldn't come to the wedding is that he felt ashamed and embarrassed of his drinking. And I was angry with him. I was so angry with him.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It gave him release, I suppose. Does it make him happy? I mean, he was a. It was lucky in as much as Domestic violence, or anything like that never featured. He was happy. Life and soul of the party. People loved him. They thought he was a great guy. But you know when he'd play the music, you'd listen to the who or yes. But as the evening wore on, and he got slightly more melancholy, the carpenter's LP would go on the record player. And he would have friends round and it'd be fun. But, you know, when the friends leave and the record stops playing, it's just me and my drunk dad. Difficult really and”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The sort of the Christmases we would have where I'd have to go to the corner shop just to buy some decorations because he wouldn't buy anything. We didn't have a Christmas tree. He just wanted to drink. Would confront him about it, but he would justify it by saying, well, the days that I'm working in the casino, I don't touch it The days when I'm not working, i.e. the days when he was with me, he was just drinking and drinking and drinking.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Alcoholism colored my childhood Through that alcoholism, I've had so many different emotions from shame, embarrassment, frustration, despair, sadness, heartbreak. I always remember A child, I do remember him picking me up from school and falling over. Maybe we had to get a taxi home. I mean, he didn't drive, and he actually was proud that he didn't drive. He would tell a story, or I went for my first driving lesson and I turned up drunk, so they told me never to come back. Or I remember, you know, going home, because opening the fridge, there'd be nothing in there but sort of these big bottles of cheap white wine and cheap lagers from the corner shop or...”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't want to say moral sense because I'm not a moralizing sort of person, but a sort of sense of things that had to change in society.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My dad, even though he worked in this Manchester nightlife as a creeper in a casino. Interacted with all these different sorts of people. He was a great socialist. He was a great labour man. I remember him sitting me down in 1983 in front of the TV and saying that's Michael Foote, that's Tony Ben. We vote Labour in this House. And I remember in 1987 when I was a bit older when I understood it more, you know, and understood there was an election on him saying that's Neil Kinnock, we vote for Neil Kinnock. And I think... Even though he was his drinker, and as we got older and drinking led to the marriage breaking down, and I would divide my time in the week between living in with my mum in different parts of Manchester and living with my dad in a little mill town called Radcliffe near Berry. He always gave him this great sort of”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have been. But here was a working class man who went into that lifestyle, met my mum there. She was a waitress there at the Playboy. She's actually a bunny girl waitress. Could you believe it? The son of a bunny girl.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Them in the taxi, which was veering off to go down to London. As I say, I don't know if it's every aspect of the story is technically true, but it's probably an element of truth in it.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, as I say, this was the story that got told that Carmen was gambling in the Playboy Club, presumably the roulette table, or maybe playing blackjack or something. I don't know. But was that the table's gambling? Up until two in the morning or whatever time the club would shut in them days. And the next day, he was supposed to be defending Thorpe in London at the Old Bailey. And my dad literally had to put him in a taxi from Manchester from the Playboy Club in Manchester at two in the morning. And he shoves him in the taxi to send him down to London and Carmen says, I've left my papers, I've left the papers. And my dad had to run back to the roulette table. And as the story goes, George Cameron had left all the papers for the trial the next day where he was defending Jeremy Thorpe in the Playboy Club in Manchester. So he had to get them, you know, tied up with a bundles of them, tied up with their pink string, grab them.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, and this is the days of George Best pouring champagne in those champagne sauces. This was the days of all kinds of celebrities coming in, including this, he had this great story. I mean, I don't know if it's apocryphal or if it's just got sort of exaggerated in the telling. But he told them in this story about George Carmen QC. It was a famous Manchester based QC very successful, who of course defended Jeremy Thorpe and got Jeremy Thorpe off. And the story.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In a casino. There's a creepier in the playboy casino, and later when that shut down, other casinos in Manchester and Salford. I mean, it... He was a working class man born in Salford, left school fifteen, no qualifications, went to work on what were then the docks in Salford, and then in, I think it was about 1968 or something like that, casinos opened, legislation passed in, I think it was Roy Jenkins who was home to have to say he liberalised gambling laws and casinos open and he went to work as a creepier. I got a job pretty quickly, ended up in the Playboy club. He had great stories working in the Playboy. He was a great raconteur, my dad, a great sense of sort of Joy de Vives, you know, wonderful stories.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the reason I did that, I do feel tremendous guilt for speaking out, actually, as if I'm betraying his memory, is that I did feel, if I'm the shadow health secretary, it's easy for me to be sort of bashing the Tories over the head because of the state of the NHS. But I wanted to use the platform I've got to sort of make a difference on something important. And I did speak out about my dad. I mean, he was an alcoholic.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Working class. I'm a professional politician. I was so lucky. I did go to work for Gordon Brown when I was 25 years of age. Became an MP when I was 31 or something. I can't deny my history, although I would say working class people are very proud when their sons and daughters go to university and get good jobs. So there's nothing to be ashamed of in that career trajectory. I was working class, and the thing Drives me And again, this is one of those things where you probably think about it more when you're an adult. You don't necessarily think about this when you're growing up because you accept the circumstances in which you grow up. The nature or the circumstances around my dad”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, there'll be people listening to thinking, oh, here we go, another professional politician. Never had a real job, doesn't know anything about the real world.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we are seeing across the globe forces which me as a progressive, as a socialist, I'm quite happy to use that term, should fear countries retreating into isolationism. And yet a lot of the big questions we face from climate change to energy security to food security demand international cooperation. And I am genuinely worried as a progressive-minded internationalist that these populist nationalist movements for isolationism is taking hold. You see it in Trump's America, you see it with some very, very unpleasant characters getting elected in certain parts of Eastern Europe. I'm not saying everybody who voted leave wants that. Of course I'm not. There's all kinds of complicated reasons which the Labour Party, I think, failed to grapple with for over 10, 15 years. But I am genuinely worried about...”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm amazed you found a speech. I delivered that in Canada, that speech. You do some top team. You do some excellent research.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not particularly because not because people made the wrong decision the first time round, but I think if Parliament is in stalemate and just cannot make any progress, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the British people for their guidance again. But I would emphasise I don't think that's going to happen.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There will be. Oh my gosh. Some of my friends will be sending me the rudest text messages when they hear this, I'm afraid, because I've got lots of my friends who are part of that campaign. But I might be wrong, it's just my reading of the situation. If there wasn't a majority in Parliament, for the Avette Cooper Amendment to look at delaying the process so we can take no deal off the table, I cannot see a majority in Parliament for a referendum, unless Theresa May turns around and says, look, I don't know what else to do here.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Quite aggressively tell me I'm wrong. It's fake news, it's Project Fear. I don't think I've ever known debate in this country to be so diametrically opposed, no sort of meeting of minds in the middle. And that really worries me.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Remain or leave. I think public debate is becoming coarser around this issue. I think attitudes are hardening up on both sides of the divide. Look, I mean, as a remainer, I'm a passionate remainer. I wanted to stay in the European Union and to be frank, if there ever was a referendum. I don't think there's going to be a referendum now, by the way. I think that campaign has lost momentum. But if there was, I would vote to stay within the European Union. I'm quite open about that. But when I make an argument about my worries for the futures of medicine supply or an argument about the future of the NHS who relies on so many EU nationals working in it, those who are Remainers enthusiastically support me, but those who voted leave”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think those fears are exaggerated, but what I'm very scared of, I don't feel any embarrassment in admitting this, is if British politics and public debate kind of gets reduced to this binary choice. I think that's going to have very damaging consequences for our country and our future.”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Where to start, it's a quite surreal, actually. Possibly some of the biggest set of decisions we'll ever make, which have the most far-reaching consequences for our nation. Yet the House of Commons is sort of in a bit of limbo. I mean, it's Wednesday afternoon. The House of Commons finished at sort of half past two in the afternoon. We're supposed to go on till about half past seven at night because the government aren't bringing any business forward because Brexit is consuming absolutely everything. You've got these weird contradictory feelings of knowing. We've got these big decisions where we have to grapple with what we think is in the best interest of the country, our constituents, with what we think is in the best interests of our ideals as Labour politicians. At the same time”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Been wondering what that special looks like for those who promoted Brexit. Without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it safely”
2019-02-08 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Jonathan Ashworth One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source