YouSaid · the spoken record

Steve Rotheram

lines on the record: 46
first: 2020-12-04
most recent: 2020-12-04
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

“Because I sit in the same speck at home because I've got a sort of a little mini office set up with all the stuff that you need. And I've got a ring light that my daughter uses to put makeup on and she put this up. And sometimes if it's on too bright, it does affect the color. So Doug Leash told me that I needed to stop dyeing my hair because when I looked, it looked as if somebody poured a pot of ink over my head. It was so black. And actually, it's not, it used to be, but it salt and pepper at the moment. So I always take advice off Dargles, but not on this occasion.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think tougher now, given that when you're going through it, you go through these things, don't you? I think it's the second time, the second lockdown for those four weeks was probably more difficult than the first occasion when everybody was doing it. Didn't seem that way in the second one. I think winter also makes life difficult. But because of all that, I'm looking forward now to being able to, with the family, go out and, as you say, have a Scotch egg. But isn't that why those masks were designed in that shape so that you can have your mask on and still eat the Scotch egg?”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I didn't go out at all. I went in the back garden, but it was the summer, wasn't it? So it was great to be able to go out and enjoy some sunshine.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My wife is on the front line of the NHS, and so I decided that given that she was out there without PPE and all of that stuff, early doors, that I would stay at home, at least we would half the chances of one of us getting something. Because as you know, my job is very forward-facing as well. So you meet an awful lot of people. So I literally stayed at home for 17 weeks without crossing the threshold. And while Sandu was going out doing really important work trying to help people.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm in the ballot, so I'm hoping that I will be Amphield on Sunday evening to see us play Wolverhampton. I'm desperate to get back and in all honesty, but you can imagine that is the same for most fans throughout the country.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Same as I've said all along. I mean, I could never, ever be a friend of somebody like Boris Johnson. And I can never respect somebody who won't apologize for what he said, which hurt so many people so badly all those years ago. I mean, if he was genuine about offering an apology, it should be him saying into the camera he was wrong and that he understands the hurt that he caused and he won't do that. And until he does that, I've refused to shake his hand when it was offered to me last year. And I'll continue to do that. But whilst he's the prime minister of the country, we have to deal with the government of the day. And so we can get rid of them, that means that I will continue to do the best and the right thing for the city region and the 1.6 million people that are feeling. It's an absolute privilege to represent.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Turn the clock backwards a few decades. We want to get through the rescue bit, get into recovery, but quickly get back into growth and make that as inclusive as we possibly can.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm always a glass half full person. I have been all my life, but I have to say it does cause me sleepless nights thinking that we could ever return to the despair of the 1980s because it was horrible. It was a horrible time to live through. You said I went to the Falklands, but I was also unemployed twice during the 80s and I hated it. I hated being unemployed. And we don't want to fail. a whole generation of people now when we've done so much to build resilience into our economy in the city of region and really turn the whole thing around. I don't know whether you know, but we were the fastest growing city region economy in the whole country pre-pandemic. And we were talking about looking at inclusive growth across the whole patch. And then this happens and we don't want it to...”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nationalization of the rail system and doing more on council housing and all those sorts of things that now just seem ordinary. And then you become a metromayor and there are things that happen where you have to then go the other way and deal with the government of the day. And then you criticize as being a closetory. And neither of those things, I'm neither, you know, on those extremes, I look at where my values fit and I'm a pragmatist and I've always, you know, I'm a construction worker by background. So that's what I do. I try to build and try to get alliances to get the right result.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“12 or something like that, and it was with the legs of Diane Abbott, Chris Williamson, you talk about people who have had problems in politics. It was with Michael Meezer, but people on the left, and we were trying to get the party under Ed Milliband to do things like”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's uncomfortable I love the Labour Party. It's really mad because we've just been sort of our football. It's a bit like that for me with politics. I support Liverpool football club and absolutely loved my Klep memorabilia and I've got a massive program collection which are memories for me. But I'm the same with the Labour Party. The Labour Party is in my DNA. I love it. I think it is the greatest organ for social justice that this country has ever seen. And therefore I want what's right for the Labour Party. And that means that sometimes where I sit within the scope of left and right about a decade ago, I co-authored and put my name to a document and I think we were called the Labour Left.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm removed from all of that to tell you the truth, other than the odd text, I don't really speak to Jerry. When he was still the leader, he did spend a bit of time in Liverpool. And again, just the reaction in my home city to Jeremy Corbyn. There was once when we were on St George's Hall and there was about 12,000 people. It was chucking down with rain. We were on the top of an old fire engine and he was given the speech. Jeremy is still massively respected in our area. And therefore we need him in the party and he needs to do the right thing to get back into the party because he still represents a whole constituency of views across the Labour movement.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do you know what I would have done, Nick? We wouldn't have got to the situation, I don't think, because I would have said, and I did say, because this started all of those years ago, and I did say we needed to act strongly so that we could get the message over very, very clearly. Look, I worked with that man for three and a half years, I think it was, and not once did he ever give me any cause of concern around saying anything or indicating anything that could be anti-Semitic, but that's not the point. The point was that the report came out and the report was quite clear. And they're the sort of things that I would have been advising them to take very seriously and to say, look, we need to act upon this report because otherwise the alternative is that it may appear that you're not supported. Of what the recommendations are.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Save these things, and I would go back and tell them I also wanted them as well to have that fire in the belly. But we went into PMQs. I wanted him to channel the energy to really take on the Tories because they were doing some horrendous things and continue to do them to this day.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I like clothes as well. The other thing is that's my little Peccadillo, isn't it? That I spend far too much money on clothes. But it's with the wife's okay, so that's fine. As long as she's happy, then we're all happier. I used to say to Jeremy that I wanted to be an honest broker. I wanted him to hear the views of the parliamentary Labour Party because if you become two cocoons in your own little world and don't forget there were many people who literally were thrown rose petals under Jeremy's feet as he was walking and I wanted him to remain grounded because you're talking about a man that does have values and principles that he stuck with through thick and thin. So I wanted him to understand that when there were alternative or contrary views that he needed to understand that people”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I got very, very close with Jeremy. I mean, when I say close, I think he quite rightly was relying on me. And that was because I was an honest broker, so I'd tell him some of the things that I didn't think were right.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Previous prime ministers say something about Liverpool, and I'd be absolutely furious, but then I could stand up and vent that fury because I felt what they were saying was wrong. And, you know, if we get more of that, you know, more of that genuine passion in politics, that can only be a good thing.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Has for me because surely Parliament is supposed to be representative of the communities that it's drawn from. I remember I was on the NEC, the Labour NEC, which is the National Executive Committee, and I got a clause into one of the documents that came before us, which talked about trying to get more women to politics, which we need to do, trying to get more people from black ethnic minority groups into politics, which we also need to do. But I got a clause inserted which said that more people from working class communities, and I'm proud of that. And that's because we need to do that for the people to come from an area and to represent that area. You bring, of course, all of your lived experience, but you bring the passion. So I remember when”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, and it's what the speaker always refers to. So, you know, all the protocols are all within Erskine and May. And there were people quoting large passages of Erskine and May. It was like, wow, I don't even know what this is.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, some on our benches in all honesty, because I don't really watch an awful lot of the government, but I do watch some opposition stuff. And I think there are some people who've come in recently who need to settle down because you have to work out the mechanisms and protocols. I remember my very first occasion in the chamber, and I had never walked in to the chamber of the House of Commons until I was elected and walked in and they got all of the new intake from 2010, which I think included Jacob Reese Mogg. And we sat on either sides. And there was lots of people asking questions from the Tory benches. And they were talking about Erskine May. And I genuinely thought that this is somebody who'd been elected that year because I'd never heard of what Erskine May was. So I had to learn an awful lot of those things.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Inside the chamber trying to persuade people of what your views on something are. So it's not an easy fit. It's not something I think that many working class people take to. Although I do watch, of course, the proceedings in Parliament. And there's some people who are from working class backgrounds who've done brilliant things, people who are really putting forward their ideas and their values. And that's what it's for, really. If you can get over the feeling that it's more for Jacob Reese Mogg than Steve Rotherham, if you can get over that, then you can start to really makingroads.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The strangest place I've ever worked in in my life. By the way, I've had worse jobs. I used to work on building sites where in the winter you were having to use a lump hammer to smash the ice off the drum to get water to mix mortar. So look as a job privilege, but it is very, very archaic. It has, I suppose, a charm for certain people. But I found it an absolute frustration. I thought some of the way in which it operates really panders to those people who believe they should be there and causes issues for those people who have that imposter syndrome. You know, I did think at times somebody's going to say to me, look, you know, I know you've got a bricklaying background. You should be outside fixing the mortar on the walls that's falling out rather.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nationally, it's really, really well known, and most people know it for good things. The problem is, I think you've identified, we've still got to win many areas of our own country over. And that's one of the things that I'm embarking on to try to do that with a bit of a charm offensive.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I genuinely do, Nick, because I know people who say to me, and I'm going to use some profanity, but they say it pisses them off that we do seem to, you know, it's us, isn't it? Scouses and all that sort of stuff. Well, do you know what that is? That's solidarity. That should be something that's celebrated because we do have that identity and we stick together. And other areas can learn an awful lot, you know, from what's happened historically in our city region because we have been battered go back to the 80s, you know, it's almost like we lived in black and white and then all of a sudden have a look at what happens now. It's technical. It's amazing our regeneration and the transformation of not just the city center of our fortunes. And as an international brand, as a global brand, go anywhere. And if you say Liverpool, international...”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not so in the own region, but yet there were parts that sort of believe some of the myth that had grown around it. But they say, don't they, that all lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on? Well, that's what happened. The narrative then was built around hooligan fans. And it took 20-odd years of hard fighting by all of those families and by not just the families, by the way, lots of survivors and football supporters back there. But then they got the truth out through the Hilver Independent panel. But it took years after that to be fully exonerated in a court of law. And that was the inquest, the longest coronial inquest in British history. And that's what they had to go through to prove that actually the funds on the day went the villains. They were the ones who caused this. Actually,”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The same as anybody else, isn't it? When you've had some traumatic experience, of course, you relive it. You think how lucky you are. And perhaps for whatever reason, it wasn't your time. But then because it was such a great injustice, people again listening to this all those years later, perhaps a more accepting of the reality and the facts, but they weren't, you know, for ages, Nick, we were saying, this is wrong, you know, a Labour government had a foamy review of what happened and all of that left a real sour taste in everybody's mouth. So when I said we needed to do more and embarked on this, people sort of loved and went, yeah, right, you know, we've heard all this several times before. And he didn't genuinely believe that anything would come from it.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I said, you know, we're on the same party. And he went, Oh, why are you? He said, I thought you, so we started chatting and then that led to me speaking to the families to say at the next anniversary, which was the big anniversary was the 20th anniversary. I thought that we should invite Andy to speak to the families to tell them what could happen in a political context with Westminster getting behind us. That was before I was an MP, a long time before they had, I didn't have any plans to be an MP to treat them my whole life. But that was one of those things that I think are pivotal. But it was by chance.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Young person and gave this person the Secretary of State for Cultimedia and Sport and Culture, of course, capital culture meant that all of a sudden me and this person, Andy Burnham, were thrown together. And at first, he wouldn't speak to me because he thought it was a Lib Dem because LibDem is controlled Liverpool at the time and I was the Lord Mayor. So he thought I was a Lib Dem until one day I told him in my rather frank way I said you're the effing snob because he hadn't been speaking to me. And he said”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think also as well, you know, not only that as a fact, but also because our name had been bespretched and we talked about Boris Johnson and his part in that, but by lots of other things, the sun is absolutely still hated in our city and city region because of that infamous headline about the truth when it was far from and none of it was true. But people who didn't know what had happened, who weren't there, who hadn't bothered to read up on it, they believed some of those things. And so for me, it was about trying to put some wrongs right. And the opportunity arose because I was the Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 2008 when we European Capital Culture. And believe it or not, because of some stuff that had happened within the Labour Party who are the government at the time, they took...”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“we were probably just about on time for kickoff but you know not many minutes before kickoff then i started to see things unfold and and almost that you know that disbelief and you're thinking what the hell's happening here and then of course”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Seen the pictures of the horse outside of the Leppens Lane and the gates, and I was inside those gates and it wasn't moving. There was nobody getting in. The turnstiles weren't operating properly. It was very, very slow. And so there was a buildup and as it built up, you get chatting, don't you? And there's just some lads that I was talking to because we were in very, very close proximity. I'm talking about right up against each other. And they were saying that two of them had tickets for a standing area called the Lepons Lane and one of them had a ticket for the stand. And I had a ticket for the standing area, the Lepons Lane. And he said, do you want to swap? And we swapped tickets and whatever the difference in the ticket price was, which is only a couple of quid. And as we went in, obviously they turned right to go down the famous tunnel that you see. And I went to the stand upstairs.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was one of the fortunate ones, I'd say, but with that look and fortune always comes that, I don't know, there's a bit of guilt, I suppose, from lots and lots of people who I've spoken to.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lines all you want. The only way you're going to change things is getting actively involved. And unfortunately, I listened to him.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really, by chance, because my wife was the breadwinner, I was a stay-at-home dad. I went to the school, well, it was the nursery school actually. And the head teacher that asked us to all the parents to come along and lots and lots did. And Peter Kilfoyle was the MP for Liverpool, Walton. He addressed the parents. And one of the claims was that there were more buckets in the school, in the nursery than there were teachers because it was literally decrepit and falling down. And he said if labour get back in, then what we'll do is we will concentrate on education. This was before Blair's famous education education education mantra. But Peter Gilfoy was telling me that a Labour government would invest in schools and it's a young people and it would be fair. And he said to me, I had a conversation. At the end, and he said to me, look, you can moan or snipe from the side.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now it was absolutely to do with money. I was skint. I mean, I literally was, I had a wonderful mum who never had any money, but would lend you her last five bobs, she'd say, but always kept a record of everything that you did borrow. And it had to be paid back. And that's a lesson in life. And at that time, I maxed out my mum who was my credit card. He just didn't have any money. And this was an opportunity to pay off some debts. But also, hopefully, to save enough, because I always wanted to set up my own business and then I came back and I had a couple of Bob, which would save me over a short period to try to set up.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To examine them, you know, always trying to point them away. There was such devastation and there were still bodies that they were recovering when we were going and having a look at what had happened in that conflict.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I saw the devastation to the infrastructure of what happened with the conflict with Argentina and spoke to a lot of islanders about what their reaction to the war was because you'll remember at that time it was very jingoistic. You saw all that stuff about the RGs as they were called and we were going to go over there and teach the RGs a lesson. Actually, many young men lost their lives and we saw some of the devastating consequences of that because foolishly being a young lad as I was at the time I think was 22 we had access to land rovers so we used to jump in the land rover and go on the mountains where all the battles were fought and there was still everything lying around all the ordered and so like guns everything was lying around on the floor and we picked these things up foolishly but we picked them up.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It goes way beyond the 80s because you'll know in 1911 the general strike and all the problems of gunboats on the River Mersey Church. And there were people shot in the street. So Liverpool has been an active hive of political activity for many generations. And so there are some people who think that the only way in which you should work with a Tory government is to try to bring them down. And that's my political life. I've always tried to fight a Tory government, but sometimes you have to make decisions which go beyond the purely party political.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, we moved from Anfield into genuinely what was described as the new utopia at the time. It was a new town. It was called Kirvin Newtown. And one of my mates, John Bishop, and Bish always says, you know, at that time, the town planners thought that if you had a pub and a chippy, then you had social cohesion. You built a community. And actually, it took a little bit more than that. all of those ills of that ill conceived way of town planning manifest themselves many years but for us to go into a place that had an inside toilet and that you know we had a front and back garden and we could play in our back garden it was big enough to play in and kick a football and that was that was just amazing for us all”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely, it was vile at the time. You were either on one side or you're on another side. And of course, that's the problem with politics. It's not all about different sides. It's about values and principles. And as long as you true to yourself, then that should be enough for people. But it never really is. And of course, it's worse now with social media. But I did see the negativity of it on family life and the fact politicians who weren't paid even they didn't get allowances then don't forget you know you were just a local counsellor and you know my dad was probably away every single night of the week plus the fact is of course nick in them days the meetings were mainly of male counsellors and they took part in working men's clubs and that gave an opportunity for my dad to have a few pints and unfortunately when money was tight it was sort of”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I suppose I saw the effect of politics on my dad and certainly on my mum and dad's relationship. And it wasn't a positive one. So I was turned off for a while. But when I was 16 and I was able to join a trade union, an apprentice bricklayer and that was the first thing that I did. So I got back involved, but it took a long time for me to become actively involved. And that's the difference really. Our party sort of hooped you into things and then all of a sudden you're away then and you can't get out of it.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd sort of been turned off a little bit, in all honesty. When I was about, oh, I don't know, nine or ten, I've got a letter actually from Kirby Labour Party because I used to go out on leaflet my local candidates. And I did that for many, many years. I mean, now, of course, my parents had been reported to social services. They literally used to go on the streets with a bag full of leaflets and go door to door, delivering them.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Himself in the third person, which I found incredible. Then his aides dragged him away because this, you know, furious scouser was trying to berate him before he'd done. And on three separate occasions I've had meetings with him when I asked him to do the right thing and he didn't. So for me it was really difficult to have to do business with somebody that I had no respect whatsoever for but I had to do the right thing not for me as the individual or as the mayor I had to do the right thing for the people in the Liverpool City region.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Talked about wallowing and self-pity and self pity city, and it was because Ken Bigley had been beheaded, as you remember, and there was an outpouring of sympathy towards the Bingley family in the Liverpool City region. So I've always had personal problems with Boris Johnson, in fact, on three separate occasions. We've gone head to head when I was going into the my office in Normanshaw, which you'll know is on the parliamentary estate. I was an MP. the then mayor of London was coming down the stairs and as he passed me i grabbed alderman said you're now satisfied that that spectator article was wrong and are you going to apologise to the people of a great city that you're besmirched and typically boris johnson at the time he was the mayor and he said to me uh and then he said that wasn't boris so he spoke about”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do you know when it becomes personal when people start to die that you know? And that's what happened with myself and other senior politicians in Nulipill City region, whereas beforehand it seemed to be we were reading things and seeing the news and seeing you announce the numbers increasing. And then when it becomes personal, when you know people who've succumbed to that terrible illness and that people had gone through that for many, many months and you know, families had lost loved ones unnecessarily, then there was something that we needed to do and the director of public health said to me if we don't do something serious, then we are going to lose control of coronavirus in the Lippill City region. And that was the wake up and smell the coffee moment.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very difficult, very bruising as well, Nick, because you did introduce it. There's been praise. Well, there's probably been praise from the wrunk waters and there's been lots of criticism from people that I thought would have understood that what we were trying to do was the right thing. And it is something that I'll look back on in future years and know that what we did has been vindicated by what's happened recently that we saved lives. Undoubtedly our infection rates, which were all going in the wrong direction, not just in the headline figure, 760, pay 100,000 in some of our areas. But it was the way it was spreading through the demographic and the presses on our NHS and the ICU and ITU. And so we had to do something, and I think we'll look back and realize that something need to happen. Happen and it was the right decision.”
2020-12-04 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Steve Rotheram One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source