The Labour Party is and always has been an instinctive part of my life.

The great disadvantage of our present electoral system is that it freezes the pattern of politics, and holds together the incompatible because everyone assumes that if a party splits it will be electorally slaughtered.

I do not think you can push public expenditure significantly above 60 per cent and maintain the values of a plural society with adequate freedom of choice. We are here close to one of the frontiers of social democracy.

A substantial extension of public ownership is an essential pre-requisite of greater equality of earned income.

There is a lot of talk about a centre party – and that I might lead it. I find this idea profoundly unattractive.

The most moving speech I have ever heard was Hugh Gaitskell saying he would ’fight, fight and fight again to save the party we love. That was the right message in 1960, and I believe it is still the right message today.

A social democratic party without deep roots in the working class movement would quickly fade into an unrepresentative intellectual sect.

We must not expect a full-scale peaceful revolution every time a Labour Government is elected.

The permissive society has been allowed to become a dirty phrase. A better phrase is the civilised society.

Inheritance Tax; – it is, broadly speaking; a voluntary levy paid by those who distrust their heirs more than they dislike the Inland Revenue.