Top 108 Quotes & Sayings by David Lammy - Page 2

We should not let those with a political agenda use London's growing population to support their anti-immigration rhetoric, and we should challenge those who want to label London's global attraction a flaw rather than a strength.

Mum eventually graduated with a City & Guilds certificate that hung proudly on our living room wall throughout my childhood.

Fathers matter.

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.

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.

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.

When I was a young child and before he had left us for the U.S., my father would give me Mark Twain novels. In the characters, the weather and the context, my father must have seen many parallels to his own youth in the Caribbean in the 1930s and 40s.

Prejudice is not just a personal sentiment - it can be institutional too.

A loving family matters. So do male role models.

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.

The 1980s were tough for most of Britain, but nowhere more so than Tottenham.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis' by JD Vance made me entirely rethink U.S. republicanism, Donald Trump and the American white working class.

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

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

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

To tackle the scourge of young unemployment we need to be ambitious.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

At school, I was frequently subjected to racial abuse.

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

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.

I like the state of being self-aware, it's interesting when you start to look at your own habits.

Parents' evenings were a big event in our social calendar and school reports were taken very seriously; 'C' was not a grade my mother recognised. Her favourite shop was WH Smith, where every week there would be a new book or pen or calculator to buy. But most importantly, she was my best friend.

It is hard to speak the truth about valued national institutions. But when they are not fit for purpose, we must speak out.

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

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

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

Leadership is about tough choices.

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

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.

It is almost impossible to open a newspaper without reading something about the London housing market. House prices are rising at such a rate that the vast majority of Londoners can't afford to buy, are being forced out of the boroughs they grew up in, or in the worst cases, are being made homeless. If nothing is done, people will continue to be driven out of the city and London will cease to be a hub for creativity and entrepreneurship.

We need to revisit that planning decision because in many cases across our capital [London], greenbelt land doesn't deserve the name. Car parks, quarries and wastelands are being protected and we are saying there isn't enough land to build the houses we need.

I think it's very realistic to think we could provide additional protection for renters because for many people - renting is now the only option. It is also entirely necessary if we are to protect Londoners from rapidly rising rents.

Let me speak frankly: separate but equal is a fraud. It is the language that tried to push Rosa Parks to the back of the bus. It is the motif that determined that black and white people could not possibly drink from the same water fountain, eat at the same table or use the same toilets.

Too often, the perspectives on housing come from journalists, politicians and property experts, with a focus on the extreme ends of the market. Through the FOURWALLS Film Project, we want to get an accurate picture of the London housing situation through the eyes of the people that live there, and promote discussion around it.

Anyone that says the housing crisis can be resolved with one magic bullet or by the next election isn't being honest.

We need find the space to build more affordable homes in the city. That involves a number of different policy responses. For example, I've spoken about the need to rethink the greenbelt - the protected land around the edge of London that was originally intended to be protected and retained as an area of natural beauty but in many cases is neither natural nor beautiful.

I hope we get a real diversity in perspectives from the good, the bad and the ugly. I love living in London so I hope there are submissions that celebrate the City while also showing that there are many challenges we need to face together.