YouSaid · the spoken record

Luciana Berger

lines on the record: 47
first: 2019-02-22
most recent: 2019-02-22
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

“For any woman that might be listening that has had a child, they'll know that if you're breastfeeding your child, that actually you need some distraction. So I'm going to try and read some more books, but in fact I remember the day that I had my first child. When the news came, I was watching the news and the breaking news there was going to be an announcement. It was then the Prime Minister telling us we were going to get a general election.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, in terms of when an election might be Wait and see in terms of what the future holds. I think I always anticipated that I would be standing at the next election. But politics isn't a job for life and I want to be able to do it in order to make a difference. I want to be able to do it to be able to stand up for the values which I have been very clear what they are and what I stand for. I have a responsibility to my constituents and I'm seeking to bear that out to the best of my ability and I will I think in light of recent events you know I will appraise that decision. Moment at which it presents itself.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've left because I don't believe at this moment in time that there is any prospect in the foreseeable future of the party changing. It's not to say that it couldn't, but I can't see that happening for an extended period of time. I can only make my personal decision to leave something in terms of what happens to the organisation that I leave behind that's incumbent on the people that are there still both from within the leadership and membership to decide that.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't actually hear it until many hours later, but. A very emotional, difficult day on Monday for lots of different reasons.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So we've come together. Of course, we're not going to agree on everything. That is politics. Within our own parties, we don't agree on everything. It's how we can work together in a constructive way going forward to endeavour to arrive at a consensus. What I would say is what binds us together is values. And I would invite anyone to look at our website, the independent.group, to see what those values are, which again, something else I've been struck by the response, particularly how people share those values. And it's what essentially got many of us into politics. Why did I join the Labour Party? Because of the values of equality and anti-racism and social justice and opportunity for all, those in my view not being espoused at the moment, but certainly what binds us together is the values that we share.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The independent group, that is our name, and in fact, I was speaking to someone on the way here who said that's a great name.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In terms of working, there's many examples that I can point to where I have worked on a cross-party basis to affect change. I've seen law changes happen that I've been involved in in the last couple of years. So there's certainly a precedent for this being able to happen. And that for me has been some of my most positive moments, certainly within Westminster, where it hasn't been this argy-bargy adversarial tribal, this very tribal, but actually trying to make a change to make things better. So for me, I've got experience of having done that and I look forward to doing lots of it going forward. There's no rush. You can't just click your fingers. I know this happened previously, but I think it's wrong at this moment in time. We have a responsibility to listen to the public, to reflect on what they respond is, what they want. And again, I've been very, very struck by, as I said, the thousands of messages that I have received so far.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“These are very early days, and I'm asking questions you've got. You can't possibly be the answer. I can only speak on behalf of myself.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You were telling me we haven't even had it, we haven't had that. We haven't had our inaugural meetings, so the idea that there would be any position, I'm not going to speak on behalf, you know, we're doing things differently. We want to arrive at a consensus. I'm not certainly not going to speak on behalf of you.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What is our responsibility? Our responsibility is to the country to do everything possible to rule out a no deal Brexit because the uncertainty of the prospect of that still so close to the wire is just in my view absolutely reprehensible because we know that it's costing at this moment in time already before exit DA jobs. I am a supporter of giving the country a say on the final deal because I know having listened to my constituents those that voted leave that no one is happy with what is being presented at this moment in time. I would vote for the Prime Minister's deal if it meant that we take that deal and the details of it to the country for themselves to decide is that what they want?”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Particularly at this moment, we haven't even touched on the B word, but at the time where Brexit is the greatest issue facing our country, and we have a responsibility to do everything possible, and we've had so many people ask me about it, my responsibility is to my constituents' livelihoods and their jobs and being able to feed their families, and that's the prospect that we are facing. On that basis, in the national interest, the opportunity to work with a group of MPs that want to do that and want to leave the kind of very bullying culture and closed culture behind is for me something really positive.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I think the first step around how we operate is about and what I've certainly left behind, and I spoke about on Monday, was about a culture. And actually, I've left behind a culture of intimidation and a very closed culture and a culture which seeks to suppress people feeling able to speak out and say what they believe to be true and right. And I know that I've certainly sent things publicly over the past few days that colleagues until recently we were in the same party think and feel privately and have reiterated that in the last few days. So I've left that behind and I'm very positive and excited about being amongst colleagues where in a very grown-up way we can have those adult conversations and arrive at a consensus in the national interest. You don't have to be a political party in order to do that but just the very prospect of being able to do that is very refreshing and I think that's what the public deserves. It's certainly what my constituents deserve.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We as a group made that commitment. We had an idea, others were contemplating joining us. There was no pressure on them to do so. It was for them to make that decision in their own time. Obviously, some have done that this week. Others may follow. But people have to again have to arrive at that decision in their own time when they feel most comfortable. In terms of then what happens, again, so people have often on a few occasions in the past few days sought to contrast our decision this week with some events that happened in the 1980s that is of the 20th century. We are now operating very differently in the 21st century and I can only gauge from the response that I've had literally I've had over 2,000 emails and hundreds of messages on social media, probably thousands. I'm not even looking, I can't even, I am looking at some of it, but I can't even keep up that there's clearly an appetite amongst the public for something done in a different way.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So again, we're meeting in the first few days after, for a number of us, we've made that first decision and a difficult decision to go independent. Again, so that is a step on a journey. I think it's absolutely right that, as a number of us have said, that we exist in the politics of the 21st century. For us as a group of MPs, M has already grown over the course of the past few days to cook up some plan across the roads in the House of Commons. I just don't think I was going to wash and I don't want to.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You learn from that experience. But I wasn't dropped in, so that isn't what happened. My constituents had a choice. And if they thought where someone was originally from was the most important thing, they would have gone for another candidate. Liverpool is a city out of outsiders. I'm very proud to call it my home and it has been for almost a decade now. My husband's from Liverpool. I've had my child in Liverpool. At what point do we kind of get over this issue that I've lived in lots of different places across the country? are less rooted to the places in which we're born. And actually, can you make a difference and can you contribute? And I think my record speaks for itself. I think I've done that.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I won them over. And I went to go speak to them and meet them, and they chose me because they believed that I was the best person for the job.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's interesting that people still talk about the nine years on because my constituents certainly don't. And I put myself forward for a selection which I won very well. I mean, it's extraordinary that we're still talking about it, but that I won on my own merits, you know, a selection where the members got to shortlist for themselves and choose their candidate, and I won on the first round very convincingly.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Recently, on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, had received as their inverted commas sanction a reminder of the rules. You can't say that a party is taking a zero-tolerance approach and then just issue someone with a reminder of the rules. We then got told at the Parliamentary Labour Party at a meeting that in fact actually essentially it's not a zero tolerance approach. You get a second chance. All these events over the course of the past year that I challenge anyone that would say that that isn't or hasn't been part of the issue and I've been obviously very outspoken on that and I've been very clear where I've stood and sought to change things from within. So that's the answer to the first of your question. But I think it's worth addressing.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Facets of that question to respond to where do I even begin? So, first of all, the first point about not being about anti-Semitism, I'd invite people to look at my contribution in the debate that we've had on anti-Semitism to catalogue just some of the events that we've seen over the course of the past year. People will have picked up bits and pieces in the press. But again, it's unprecedented in terms of what's actually happened. The fact that we had to fight for the internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism to be adopted by the party in full with all of its examples, which we believed had previously been the case, but then it transpired had been reneged upon, the extraordinary recording of a member of the Labour Party's highest governing body going on a rant about British Jewish rabbis being trump fanatics when in fact they'd raised their very serious and legitimate concerns around anti-Semitism when we've had all these cases surface of people that themselves had made anti-Semitic comments who most”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Difficult to rationalise something that you yourself don't understand and can't rationalise. And there's many different reflections on anti-Semitism. People call it a very light sleeper indeed. People often have ideas of it as being what happened during the Nazi era, but obviously it's evolved over time. There's different manifestations of it. So it's about keeping up with what it means. People also refer to it, I think, rightly as the canary in the mine, and that's indicative, you know, particularly within our own country, you know, post-referendum of a sense of increased identity politics and people gravitating towards the extremes and people feeling they've got permission. I think what we've seen within our public debate, and in particular politicians have a really massive responsibility to contend with, is an allowance essentially for people just as a baseline to be a lot more extreme than they were previously, which then allows people to feel that they've got”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Their partners can impact very, very severely on their own health, and that for every reason is why we've got laws in this country to contend with it. And when that line is crossed, we need, you know, people need to have the confidence to know that they can come forward and people will be convicted.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Platform as an MP, so I have a voice in order to contend with it. I'm very lucky to have wonderful family and friends and a great team that support me through that. And I happen to be pretty resilient. But I'm very clear, and because in particular the work that I do in the mental health sector, that at any moment that could change. And the idea that the majority of it comes online and that that doesn't have an impact. I've given evidence in court and heard firsthand the victim impact statements of people who themselves have been affected by just one of these messages and it can have really, really severe and deep reaching consequences to people's ability to go to work, to have”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have at times, yes, yes, and At a different moment. So, in the wake of one of the convictions, there was an international campaign that was initiated that used the hashtag filthy jew bitch as a result of that conviction and hashtag free the name of the individual. As a result of which the police said that in the three-day period alone I had and received over two and a half thousand anti-Semitic messages of hate and I didn't think it would be a surprise for anyone to know that that had a very difficult impact at that moment but since then I've endeavoured to try and insulate myself from it as much as possible. I still think there's every reason why we should be using social media as much of this bad stuff on there that in order to communicate communicate and connect with the vast swath the majority of people that are good people that we should be using it and I've also said that and it's worth reiterating that I appreciate that I get more than most because I'm in the public eye.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's been peaks and troughs, ups and downs. So I've seen six people convicted of anti-Semitic hate crimes and death threats towards me in the last few years from both the left and the right.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And on my mother's side, over 100 members of her family perished in the Holocaust, in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and many other of the Nazi death camps. Over 100 members aged between four and over 80. And that's the catalogue of names that we've got from a family member that has done extensive research to get those details.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Holocaust touches All Jewish families. If it's not your direct family that was impacted, it will be someone close to you or through marriage that was.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Accusations that I am in the pay of Benjamin Netanyahu that I am a Mossad agent, that I'm a traitor to my country. Again, all the kind of pig references of which there's copious amounts. Lots of imagery used where I've seen people superimpose stars of David on my head, one of which led to a conviction where my face is superimposed onto a rat or superimposed onto like a whole range of Nazi inspired images. There's a catalogue of stuff online if people want to have a look.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I will share it and you'll decide whether you want to include it in this recording. But the first ever piece of anti-Semitic hate mail that I got called me a dirty Zionist pig. And people will appreciate how offensive it is to call any Jewish person a pig. Anyone at all, let alone someone who's of the Jewish faith or even the Muslim faith Doesn't eat pork in addition to which this term, and we've had this debate most recently around the use of the term Zionist. I mean, that's a whole different debate and discussion. But I could just add in answer to your question in terms of just some of the other stuff. I mean, I have shared it only this week in the debate that we've had in the House of Commons around anti-Semitism, a flavour of some of the things that are sent in my direction coming from both the left and the right”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, regrettably. And also, in stark contrast to having grown up as I did in Wembley in a very multicultural area, having gone to very multicultural schools where I had my best friends, people have all faiths a none, to then receive as I did my first piece of anti-Semitic hate mail. I didn't think I'm going to repeat the words, but it was just extraordinary having never up until that moment been exposed to that kind of hatred.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, a very close friend of mine who was a couple of years older than me, who himself was very, very active in student politics, who encouraged me to put myself forward for my first student election. I have him to thank, largely for the fact that I put myself forward for that first student election to represent Birmingham University at the National Union of Students Conference. And that's what's kind of introduced me to what were the opportunities to make change for students both locally in Birmingham of which there were many, and also nationally went on to be involved in lots of different things around changing legislation around homes and multiple occupation for students. And I got very, very involved in campaigns around equality and anti-racism.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, if I also reflect on what I did as a young person, it wasn't necessarily party political, but was certainly political with a small people. I was very involved in volunteering. So I was involved in chairing a committee and a massive event to fundraise for Mencap. I volunteered for a number of years at an after-school club for children with disabilities. And I was very involved in youth movements, which themselves had as their values, as their essence a lot of social action. And growing up as I did, I had a very strong Jewish education as well. I grew up around the values of Tikun Alam, which means repairing the world. And essentially what I endeavoured to do today and what I do as a Member of Parliament is to make our country a world a better place.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I wouldn't be using violence, but clearly what happened to him in the Chamber of the House of Commons, I've been told to go back somewhere, is indicative of some of the challenges that he faced at that time and that have evolved since then. But I think typify what some of the issues are when it comes to anti-Semitism.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I reflected on his experience of sitting in the house when it was a conservative member at the time. He told him to go back to Poland and he duly contended with that anti-Semitic claim by going to punch him.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To be involved in making, you know, it's making a difference in a way, isn't it? So there's lots of different ways in which people can make a difference. But that was what I grew up wanting to do. And it wasn't really until I got to university that I really had my political awakening because I didn't study politics at school. It wasn't until I got involved in student politics that I really got involved.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Certainly knew who he was, but he sadly passed away just before my fifth birthday and he died at the age of 101. So I wasn't sadly aware of him in my childhood. But obviously the history was very, very significant. And I read many of his books, I've read all of his books now. Interesting, I read a report yesterday that said I'd wanted to be an MP since I was a child. I can tell you categorically that's not the case. I wanted to be a police officer. Really? Yes. And it didn't have much time.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it's not just my family's blood, it's many families' blood, and someone who's very proud of being British and Jewish, the Labour Party historically was naturally the home for the British Jewish community. So on many different levels, not just my family connections that go back decades.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not a secret that there have been many conversations going on with lots of colleagues for an extended period of time. And it comes back to the point around how personal decision it is for individuals to make that leap, to make that commitment. For lots of different reasons, actually doing it is a different thing from conceiving or thinking about it in principle. So, you know, until the actual day, you don't know who's actually going to be there.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sarah Wolliston, for example, I've worked with very, very closely for a number of years on the health and now called Social Care Select Committee. So I know her and I've worked cross-party on many different issues. So in some regards, it's not like there's people I haven't worked with before, but obviously just the very physical event of what happened and how that manifested itself was just highly extraordinary.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whole week has been just quite extraordinary and not in the million years I ever anticipate this happening making this decision and obviously then thinking through then what the consequences are of that obviously if it turns out that you leave your party you sit somewhere else and the next step of perhaps you know we extended the invitation for MPs of other parties to join us the consequence of that is that they then come and join you you know just making the decision in and of itself is so monumental that you know if i'm honest I hadn't really thought through all those next steps and what might happen. So, I mean, you know, for example, what you... No, you can't. You don't know who's going to join, and you just have to make the decision for yourself and see what happens following that.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't still think that it's really sunk in actually because it is such a massive decision and just to even make that decision it comes at the end of a very long decision making process a very long journey you just decide it one moment it's it's a painful thing to have done and so I'm still myself coming to terms with that you know just in terms of the kind of the physical nature of what's happened in the commons in the past but you know sitting in a different place you know I've spent the last nine years sitting somewhere else you know it's it's not just about your seat at work or your desk but there's just things that are just very different”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The very prospect of leaving a party that you've been a part of, in my case, I mean not as long as some of my colleagues, but for almost 20 years, it's been part and parcel of who you are, your daily working life for me for the past nine years, but in part before that. And for the connections and people that you spend time with and that I'm part of my friendship groups, both locally and Liverpool and nationally, it's a very, very difficult decision. It's not just like severing a friendship or kind of creating some distance. This is part and parcel of everything of what I've done and been a part of, as I said, for almost the past 20 years.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The idea that any person had instructed me or told me what to do certainly didn't happen. And certainly because there's lots of questions at the moment about when and other colleagues, it's a personal choice. And for each of us that made it this week, it's a very, very personal and difficult decision. And everyone has to make it for themselves in a time and a moment that's right for them.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, of course, obviously, nature comes first. Nature comes first. So, yes, and obviously political events evolve. And I happen not to have had my child yet.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Labour was formed to give voice to the ordinary people of this nation. It can do so again, but only if it stays together, and it can only stay together if it stands for the whole country.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We've lost Luciana, one of our most dedicated and courageous MPs. If someone like her no longer believes there's a role for her in the Labour Party, then many other colleagues I know will be asking themselves how they can stay. That's why time is short for us to confront the scale of the problem and meet the consequences. I confess I feared this day would come, and I fear now that unless we change, we may see more days like this.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I love this party, but sometimes I no longer recognise it, and that's why I do not regard those who've resigned today as traitors.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't still think that it's really sunk in actually because it is such a massive decision and just to even make that decision, it comes at the end of a very long decision making process, a very long journey, you just decide it one moment. It's a painful thing to have done.”
2019-02-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Luciana Berger One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source