Words matter. These are the best David Gauke Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
We must face facts. I have made that my guiding principle in office.
I don’t like the idea of being chucked out of parliament, chucked out of the party, for basically doing the bleeding obvious: trying to stop an absolutely damaging policy, that a responsible political party should be opposing vigorously.
Beginning with the launch of targeted interventions, including through the tax return process, we will look to find simple and efficient ways in which we can support people to save.
Sometimes you do have to accept your second or third choice in order to avoid an outcome you consider to be even worse.
If Parliament is voting overwhelmingly against leaving the European Union without a deal but is voting in favour of a softer Brexit, then I don’t think it’s sustainable to ignore Parliament’s position and therefore leave without a deal.
Non-custodial sentences are certainly something to look at, more support in the community rather than within prisons is something we have to look at. There will of course still be women who need to be in prison, serious offenders, but I think there is scope to look at that number and I think that number could come down.
Boris Johnson was elected on a strategy that went down well with members, but was inevitably going to collide with reality and unravel. And it’s happened more quickly than it might have done, for reasons for which he and his team are responsible.
As employees, we are all given specific duties and carrying out these duties provides us with a great sense of responsibility.
Like most MPs, I campaigned and voted to remain in the EU. I was concerned that extricating ourselves from a relationship built up over 40 years would be complex and challenging and that the economic cost of increasing friction in our trade with the EU would be high.
There are tradeoffs between independence and co-operation, between regulatory autonomy and market access. This means that compromises are necessary to deliver a pragmatic Brexit that protects jobs and living standards while respecting the referendum result.
My position was that if the country could unite around a soft Brexit that would be the least worst way through. But it is now very clear that the country is not going to unite around a soft Brexit. There is nobody really advocating a soft Brexit.
I believe that the Conservative party is at its best when it’s a pro-business, pragmatic party, so to appeal to the country, and the country loses out significantly if the centre right of politics becomes much more populist, nationalist, and more right of centre.
Traditional Conservative voters like me should lend their support to the Liberal Democrats but I think I am best placed to run as an independent.
A willingness by politicians to say what they think the public want to hear, and a willingness by large parts of the public to believe what they are told by populist politicians, has led to a deterioration in our public discourse.
The best way of ensuring that we get what we need is by demonstrating we have a clear plan, we are thinking strategically and ensuring every pound of taxpayer’s money is spent wisely and my focus is ensuring we do that.
I would make the case that the vast majority of prisoners leave prison and go back into society. We share that society with them and what sort of people do we want them to be.
People don’t like what’s happened to the big parties. They think they’ve been dragged off to the extremes. They think the quality of leadership is below what a country like the United Kingdom ought to have available. And they want something different.
Our judiciary has a reputation for intellectual rigour, careful consideration of the arguments, and a serious-minded determination to each decision based on what is right and not necessarily what is superficially popular. I am not sure that all politicians have the same reputation.
Our reforms to criminal record disclosure will benefit ex-offenders, but there will a broader, more significant payoff for everyone in society.
Rather than recognising the challenges of a fast-changing society require sometimes complex responses, that we live in a world of trade-offs, that easy answers are usually false answers, we have seen the rise of the simplifiers.
We should be extremely cautious about continuing to increase sentences as a routine response to concerns over crime.
Introducing a social investment tax relief will make investment even more appealing and accessible.
Where ex-offenders are genuinely trying to turn a corner and live free from crime, it is vital we do all we can to support them.
For the offenders completing these short sentences whose lives are destabilised, and for society which incurs a heavy financial and social cost, prison simply isn’t working.
I wouldn’t want the country to be faced with a choice in 2024 between a discredited Conservative party that has inflicted unnecessary destruction on our economy versus a semi-Marxist Labour party. People would be left with such a terrible choice.
I want to go further and make the UK the easiest place in the world to invest in social enterprise.
I believe we are nearing a time when a combination of technology and radical thinking will make it possible for much more intensive and restrictive conditions to be applied in more creative and fundamental ways outside of prison.
There is one stark fact facing us: three quarters of all crime that results in a caution or sentence happens because of reoffending. We must be fearless in dealing with this.
Loose talk about no deal has given credibility to the simplistic slogans of the Brexit party and resulted in millions voting for them.
A Canada-style deal for the whole of the UK results in a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. For that reason, it has never been acceptable to the EU without a permanent hard border down the Irish Sea.
