British Prime Minister (1953- )
I had discovered long ago the first lesson of political courage: to think anew. I had then learned the second: to be prepared to lead and to decide. I was now studying the third: how to take the calculated risk. I was going to alienate some people, like it or not. The moment you decide, you divide.
TONY BLAIR
A Journey: My Political Life
We became complacent; we became the managers of the status quo, not the change makers, and we've got to renew the center.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, September 25, 2017
Technology is changing the way we live and we work and we think. It's going to transform the world, and yet I think there is an alarming sort of disconnect between the world of public policy-making, and the world of technology.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, September 25, 2017
Broadsheets today face the same pressures as tabloids, broadcasters increasingly the same pressure as broadsheets. The audience needs to be arrested, held and their emotions engaged, something that is interesting is less powerful than something that makes you angry or shocked. And the consequences of this are acute. First, scandal or controversy beats ordinary reporting hands down. News is rarely news unless it generates heat as much as or more than light. Second, attacking motive is far more potent than attacking judgment. It is not enough for someone to make an error, it has to be venal, conspiratorial.
TONY BLAIR
lecture, "Our Nation's Future", 12 June 2007
I don't like it, to be honest, when politicians make a big thing of their religious beliefs, so I don't make a big thing of it.
TONY BLAIR
interview with Jeremy Paxman, BBC Newsnight, 16 May 2002
Before people crow about the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction, I suggest they wait a bit.
TONY BLAIR
Prime Minister's monthly press conference, 28 April 2003
We must redefine what radical means. We're living through a technology revolution which is the 21st-century equivalent of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. It will change everything and therefore everything should change including radical reorientation of government. This is the context in which we tackle inequality, promote social justice and redistribute power.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, February 20, 2020
I can't stand politicians who wear God on their sleeves.
TONY BLAIR
Sunday Telegraph, 7 April 1996
I think we are dealing with what is essentially the inevitable political challenges of globalization. In other words, as the world transforms, moves closer together, jobs are displaced, and the world of work completely changes the way we live, the way we think. As that revolution goes on around us, it is going to pose political challenges of which immigration is one very obvious one, which are going to be extremely difficult to deal with. But it's like free trade. You know, in the end, if we go protectionist, we'll make a mistake.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, August 24, 2016
The Labour Party is presently marooned on fantasy island. I understand would-be leaders will want to go there and speak the native language in the hope of persuading enough eventually to migrate to the mainland of reality.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, December 18, 2019
You know, one thing I've learned about peace processes: They're always frustrating, they're often agonizing, and occasionally they seem hopeless. But for all that, having a peace process is better than not having one.
TONY BLAIR
speech to joint session of the U.S. Congress, July 17, 2003
I think the same feelings that gave rise to Brexit gave rise to the election of Donald Trump. In my view, the important thing for those of us from the progressive side of politics is not just to go in head-on opposition to all that, but to try and work out why it happened, and how we meet the anxieties of people without getting into the politics of fear.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, September 25, 2017
When we invade Afghanistan or Iraq, our responsibility does not end with military victory. Finishing the fighting is not finishing the job.
TONY BLAIR
speech to joint session of the U.S. Congress, July 17, 2003
I think the worry all the time, I think in, not just in Europe but outside, is where does the US stand in this slightly difficult space between America first and America alone.
TONY BLAIR
interview, CNBC, November 5, 2019
Any parent wants the best for their children. I am not going to make a choice for my child on the basis of what is the politically correct thing to do.
TONY BLAIR
defending his decision to send his eldest son Euan to the London Oratory School which had opted out of local education authority control under a policy which the Labour Party opposed, "Mr. Blair Opts Out", Guardian, 2 December 1994
The spirit of our age is one in which the prejudices of the past are put behind us, where our diversity is our strength.
TONY BLAIR
speech to the Labour Party National Policy Forum, 16 July 2005
The fear of missing out means today's media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no-one dares miss out.
TONY BLAIR
lecture, "Our Nation's Future", 12 June 2007
She was the people's princess and that is how she will stay, how she will remain in our hearts and our memories for ever.
TONY BLAIR
statement on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, 31 August 1997
Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.
TONY BLAIR
speech in House of Commons, 9 November 2005
We do, as a new Government, have to be extremely careful after 18 years in opposition. A lot of people who worked for us, they then go on and work for the lobby firms. I think we have to be very careful with people fluttering around the new Government, trying to make all sorts of claims of influence, that we are purer than pure, that people understand that we will not have any truck with anything that is improper in any shape or form at all.
TONY BLAIR
Daily Mail, 8 July 1998