Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British politician Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2009 to 2010, and as Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission from 2015 to 2017. He is also Chairman of the European Movement, having previously served as Vice-Chairman from 2019 to 2021. He is currently a columnist for The New European.

It is important to understand that the WTO, like the United Nations, is a weak international agency which depends upon financing and support from its largest members.
I am an electoral reformer and an ex-Lib Dem.
Until the late 1950s Britain's leaders were slow to appreciate the social and economic value of motorways. The first stretch of German Autobahn had opened before the first world war, as did the first highway in the U.S. Other countries followed suit in the inter-war years.
I think universities are one of the great civilising forces of life. — © Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis
I think universities are one of the great civilising forces of life.
What is clear to me is that social media is a skill and you have to keep working at it. But it hasn't taken over my life. I think I use it, it doesn't use me.
School standards need to rise a lot further if the full potential of all our young people, particularly those from poorer backgrounds, is to be realised: there is no room for complacency.
Multinational companies exploit national differences to abuse their workers, to dodge their taxes and to 'regulation shop' as a means to avoid meeting their responsibilities.
I joined the SDP as a founder member a few days after my 18th birthday in 1981. I was a councillor, activist and parliamentary candidate for the SDP and its successor party, the Liberal Democrats, for 14 years before joining Labour when Tony Blair became leader and abolished Labour's old clause IV - committing to general nationalisation - in 1995.
Universities should be supporting Teach First, actively promoting it among their students and financially supporting them to join the scheme, using a small fraction of their income from higher fees for this purpose.
Teach First is uniquely placed to help universities broaden the social background of their student intake.
Clement Attlee, the man who led us out of the rubble of the Second World War and into a more modern, egalitarian Britain, is one of this country's greatest Prime Ministers. One major reason for this is that he was better able to recognise the wants and needs of the British people than some of his more polished political contemporaries.
Teachers need to have the capacity to spot those that are struggling early on and intervene.
Efficiency, connectivity and productivity are all economic buzzwords that people have said high-speed rail will deliver. But at the heart of it what high-speed rail will deliver is growth and jobs.
Academies place a high premium on local community engagement.
The individuals who intervened in my life, transformed it, didn't do so in a vacuum. One was a manager of a children's home, a whole string of them were teachers. What they had in common was that they worked in successful institutions.
I have three children. A son, a daughter, and HS2.
Our European neighbours in France have invested in their infrastructure early and are now reaping the rewards later. This is because wherever high-speed rail has been built between the major cities and economic centres of a country - as in HS2 - it has exceeded demand forecasts.
In the hands of great school leaders, Teach First can make a spectacular difference. — © Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis
In the hands of great school leaders, Teach First can make a spectacular difference.
The partial exception to our London-centric state institutions is the monarchy, which has always had peripatetic tendencies.
I'm prepared to argue with some of my Labour colleagues about doing what it takes to see that every school has the governance needed to succeed.
Global warming - utterly disinterested in our political paralysis - worsens at a terrifying pace.
Nobody knows the tragedy of a small island divided against itself better than a Cypriot.
Unprincipled governments are inevitably unstable, unsuccessful and short-lived.
In the end, pragmatism requires a workable compromise. But none exists on Brexit.
My father came to Britain in search of a better life. My aunts, uncles and cousins fled here in search of safety as Cyprus's Greek and Turkish populations fell into open hostility.
I don't answer deeply hypothetical questions.
We shouldn't leave the E.U. until we have trade protection at least as good.
Lots of my contemporaries have had to come to terms with who they are and realise all those deeply held assumptions we had when we were teenagers and in our 20s no longer apply.
You should be completely honest and open in public about who you are.
By neglecting education, the 1974 Labour government failed as surely as on the picket lines of Grunwick.
I'm never drunk. I do drink but never more than a glass or two of wine a day if that.
Labour should have fought with every sinew in 2010 to retain power. To give up power voluntarily because you are tired of government and it is all too difficult is a betrayal of the people you serve.
Nothing is clear cut in the debate surrounding high-speed rail, but from its successes elsewhere we can be confident that it pays a great dividend to the society it serves.
I've always believed in one nation even when it wasn't entirely fashionable inside the Labour party... and I believe one nation means building a really solid alliance between the classes.
In politics, exhaustion and attrition need to be overcome, not indulged.
Virtually no other state concentrates as much political, economic and cultural power in its capital city. Even Paris is less economically dominant than London and its hinterland.
It is clear to me that when London has expanded successfully in the past, there has always been a plan.
Speaking to people in all parts of the country, it has become clear to me that there is a definite appetite for the option to reject Theresa May's Brexit and hold a referendum.
Parents who've not had an education themselves find it hard to explain to their children what a decent education involves, and I completely understand that. Parents themselves need to be educated by schools about what sort of education they should expect for their children. I do think there's a heavy responsibility of the school.
Apprenticeships must be more than a re-branding of in-work training if they are going to have a substantive impact on the future economy and the life chances of our young people.
Tests account for only a couple of hours within the six years of a child's primary education, but parents expect to know how their children are doing and the government has a responsibility to monitor and control standards.
Education for all up to 18, and lifelong learning beyond. That is a vision true to Ruskin - the man, the college, and the speech. — © Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis
Education for all up to 18, and lifelong learning beyond. That is a vision true to Ruskin - the man, the college, and the speech.
As a Londoner who delights in the capital's dynamism and diversity, I none the less agree with Ken Livingstone that London hosts too great a share of our national institutions. Where sensible, more should be located in other cities, particularly new or reformed institutions that involve new facilities.
England's dominant schools, universities, professions and enterprises are largely in the ideological and filial grip of the Conservative party. This isn't always obvious but it is emphatic, especially when they are threatened.
Good government has essentially broken down in the face of Brexit.
I want a European future where we extend and reinforce peace and prosperity to the east, a future where workers are better protected and inequalities reduced, where our energy and lifestyles are clean and green, where democracy is enhanced, where taxes are paid and corporations play by fair rules.
When I was a minister I only went on about things I was going to make happen. I very rarely talked about things I wasn't.
International examples prove that high-speed rail pays for itself.
What most teachers need is very strong leadership and motivation, and when it comes to recruiting teachers you want to have the biggest possible pool possible.
I'm clear that new schools should only go in areas where there is a need for places. I'm equally clear that we need those schools to have the governance and the leadership to succeed.
There are issues that shape every generation and define every age. Climate change is just such an issue and our political generation has got to deal with it.
All partners in the workplaces have a key role to play in training a workforce fit for the future.
In the hundreds of hours spent in Parliament debating Brexit, I constantly think of how we could have spent our time better. — © Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis
In the hundreds of hours spent in Parliament debating Brexit, I constantly think of how we could have spent our time better.
Developing survival skills in life is incredibly important and I was very lucky that I developed them at a very young age.
The motorway network helps bind Britain together. It remains an extraordinary achievement, making a huge contribution to our economy and our way of life.
Not one single country in the world is dependent for their trade wholly on WTO guidelines - they aren't 'rules,' because the sanctions for breaching the guidelines are puny.
Britain's railways don't need to be wholly nationalised and they don't need to be operated solely by private companies. Both of these myopias harm our ability to get the best deal for passengers.
By managing the speed of traffic and opening the hard shoulder as a new running lane in times of congestion, the M42 pilot showed that it is possible to smooth traffic flow and improve journey reliability safely on a seriously congested route. And it has proved popular with drivers whose motoring experience has improved.
I thought I'd left politics when Labour lost the 2010 election and I went off and ran a thinktank for two years and founded the National Infrastructure Commission. It was only because of Brexit that I came back. And I had to learn rapidly how to do politics in the 2010s and it soon became clear to me that you had to be ever-present on social media.
The reason why I'm so passionate about turning around failing schools is that children who have the misfortune to go to unsucccessful institutions are far less likely to come across the individuals who can transform their lives.
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