Top 70 David Lammy Quotes

Universities are not like supermarkets: their job is to serve the country, not just the customers who happen to walk through their doors.

From closing the digital divide to after-school activities and eating well, we cannot afford to ignore the link between deprivation and underachievement.

For even the most seasoned observers of American politics, Barack Obama is a phenomenon.

The New Labour doctrine that skills training was the responsibility of employers was flawed. The idea that employers should take on a bigger role ignores the reality that employers have no incentive to train staff to leave. We can hardly expect Tesco to train checkout staff to become dental nurses.

As a young man, I was angry about all things legal.

Fathers need to be made aware of their responsibilities – and that’s up to all of us to communicate, as parents, as politicians and as members of a community.

The idea of a family sitting round the kitchen table and carefully planning their future family size based on the certainty of years to come is a complete fantasy. Back in the real world, jobs are lost, livelihoods taken away, families break apart, partners leave or pass away.

I love to run outdoors, being outside, enjoying nature, looking up through the trees, being out among the elements… I don’t think there’s a better way to start the day.

You can’t be in business with international development and not understand basic issues of colonialism, postcolonialism and white privilege.

Many black youths are defying stereotypes, achieving good academic results, finding employment and contributing to their communities. But helping those who fall behind is not an exercise in political correctness, it is a precisely what a compassionate – and sensible – state should concern itself with.

Like many black men growing up in London, I have been stopped and searched by several policemen. I was 12 years old when I was first groped and frisked by police for walking down the road. It terrified me so much I wet myself.

People ‘demand’ the opportunity to gamble away money they do not have, just like people ‘demand’ money from loan sharks at extortionate interest rates. This is a warped, empty type of freedom, in which the powerful are free to exploit the vulnerable.

I certainly knew the hard side of urban life, stop-and-search.

The great thing about running is that so often you wake up and you think: ‘I really don’t feel like this.’ And even when you’re up and out, that first kilometre is tough. But then once you get to 3km and you’re getting to the end of the run, it’s really fantastic.

I’m so bored of tribal politics. That’s part of the problem. I’m so bored of it. I’m not a tribalist. That’s not what turns me on.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be Michael Jackson. I used to sing and dance and perform with my sister at parties for 50p.

I’d always been the kind of lawyer that was attracted back to policy.

Cities can be paradoxical places. In the mornings they buzz with commuters, in the evenings they come alive with diners and partygoers, at weekends the streets fill with shoppers and market traders. But amidst the hustle and bustle, even the greatest city can be a lonely place.

Fathers matter.

I love the theatre and Miller is one of my all-time favourite playwrights. ‘All My Sons’ is a very socialist play, which exposes the lack of empathy that can accompany capitalism when it is left unchecked.

We need specific work on race equality programmes and programmes targeted at helping those who are yet to fulfil their potential.

Active dads make a positive contribution: they are good for children and they are good for mothers.

A university education is a privilege, but we should be proud that in Britain it is also a right, no matter what your income or class or ethnic background.

We cannot afford to lose talented young black people, who make it to university, overseas, or worse, to let other talented black people be put off by the notion that university is somehow not for them.

Too much of the Brexit rhetoric is based on the desire to go out and re-create Empire.

Throughout her life my mother, Rose, prayed for good health. My father left when I was 12 and money was tight, so she couldn’t afford to take time off work. I have a younger sister and three older brothers, and she used to panic that we’d be taken into care if she wasn’t able to look after us.

I knew what it was to be poor… my mother worried about putting food on the table. I knew what it was to feel excluded and shut out, but I also knew what it was to experience love and generosity.

The pressures of being an MP mean free time is a very rare luxury.

We have to challenge head-on the way the BNP takes legitimate concerns and manipulates them in the interests of its fascist agenda.

I spend much of my time in a suit and tie with my top button done up and my sensible shoes neatly polished. When it comes to work, my appearance is about communicating professionalism and confidence.

Supporting Spurs is a bit like being in the Labour Party. It’s a labour of love, believe me.

In Britain, we ought to be in a position where doctors and therapists are able to prescribe mindfulness, acupuncture, osteopathy de rigueur, and it not only be available in certain fantastic surgeries in London and Brighton.

Dads are not a risk to be managed, but a resource to be used for the benefit of the whole family.

Our political class obsesses over social mobility from one generation to the next – whether or not people are doing better than their parents did – but we rarely talk about those who are already in work and want to progress.

I’m a legislator, but it’s hard to legislate when my party’s out of power.

We will not achieve gender equality in the workplace until we fix our system of parental leave.

If we want to raise the aspirations of young men, we should be praising their achievements, not talking them down.

There were a lot of things I thought of doing as I was growing up, from becoming a singer to a priest to a pilot.

Being in opposition takes some getting used to. As a former minister, you don’t just lose your job and the enormous resources of the civil service, you also have to watch programmes that you were involved in being gradually dismantled.

For me, a hoodie is like a pair of slippers or pyjamas – something comfortable and well-worn that you can wear unthinkingly. Unless, of course, you happen to be a black male.

I think that’s always something when you’re working class, when you’re aware of things that you haven’t had; there are moments when you question yourself, definitely.

People don’t contest that I’m British as a black man, but they do contest that I’m English. Too many people are going back to an ethnocentric idea of what being English means.

I know what to say, how to say it, how to bring profile to the issues I care about and people want to listen to me.

It is the responsibility of all of us to create a culture that encourages and enables fathers to spend more time with their families.

Plenty of people are intrigued by their family history. Growing up as the son of West Indian immigrants who moved to London in the 1950s and 60s, I was especially fascinated by anecdotes about the lives of my Guyanese relatives, which seemed a million miles away from Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm estate.

From protecting consumers to establishing common standards and promoting free trade, the E.U. plays a central role. And nation states alone cannot tackle common threats such as climate change without the co-ordination that the E.U. and other supranational institutions provide.

At school, I was frequently subjected to racial abuse.

My biggest fear growing up was that I would end up in prison. That was the fate of growing numbers of my peers.

Leadership is about tough choices.

I tend not to read fiction – I’ll read one novel a year during the summer – but I do read a lot of nonfiction.

Family policy is not a zero-sum game: any gain for dads need not come at the expense of mums.

Football is a great way for me to catch up with my sons, and to let off some steam from my professional life.

Reading international law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London was a wonderful experience. With its incredibly diverse student population, I began to immerse myself in the ways social, legal and political forces contribute to human rights and freedoms.

If you’re in the business of law you’re in the business of representation and precedent.

As the MP for an area like Tottenham you quickly learn that the factors leading to unemployment are as numerous as they are diverse.

While at Harvard, I was struck by the palpable sense of noblesse oblige that surrounds their sophisticated outreach and bursary programmes. It is almost as if they view extending opportunity to disadvantaged individuals as their highest mission.

A workplace culture where fathers are encouraged to take paternity leave would result in stronger families, a more equal labour market and a better economy.

My wife does all the driving.

I’m a prolific tweeter. It allows me to respond to the news of the day or comment on something Jacob Rees-Mogg has said on behalf of my constituents.

A loving family matters. So do male role models.