Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Dominic Grieve
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British politician Dominic Grieve.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
Our best hope in meeting the many challenges that Brexit brings for us is being willing to be open-minded about the options we may choose to pursue.
Once E.U. law ceases to be supreme it is unclear how this vast body of law, which will then be incorporated into our own domestic law, will be interpreted by our own courts.
A decision as a backbencher to vote against one's party ought not to be taken lightly.
Whatever long-term advantages are claimed for Brexit it is overwhelmingly clear that in the short to medium term it carries risks to our economy and security.
I believe that MPs from all parties must work together to prevent a damaging hard exit.
Surveillance legislation passed in good faith has been stretched well beyond its original purpose.
Notice of leaving the E.U. under Article 50, for which most of us voted, provides a mechanism for extending the negotiating period by agreement if this is necessary. It is not to undermine Brexit to insist it is carried out correctly.
If you are making policies through speeches that are contradicting some of the policy development your colleagues are embarked on, you are destroying collective responsibility.
There are, of course, some who demand a no-deal Brexit and threaten to vote for any party that will deliver it.
As a strong believer that Brexit is a very damaging mistake that becomes more obvious every day, I see sound democratic reasons for asking the electorate to confirm what it wants to do.
No one is going to thank us afterwards for a Brexit that reduces people's quality of life.
Ties of loyalty play an understandably important part in how most MPs interact with their own party and the supporters who have elected and sustained them in their careers. As I know personally it is the strain put on those ties which constitutes the most unpleasant aspect of being at variance with one's own party line.
The ending of irrational fantasies is always going to come as a rude jolt.
Our schools face immense pressures caused by the different needs and languages of children from immigrant families, particularly in urban areas.
The public are not fools.
As a practising Anglican I go to church on a Sunday.
The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement was a bilateral one between ourselves and Ireland and did not involve the E.U. at all. It just presupposed common E.U. membership as a facilitator of its successful operation.
In 2016 the public voted by a majority to leave the E.U. As I can see from my mailbag, some are angry at being deprived of their hopes and expectations. They demand action to implement their vote, just as others require we should think again and abandon the project entirely.
Investment by any foreign company in any element of the U.K.'s Critical National Infrastructure should receive careful scrutiny.
Contrary to the myth that the U.K. respects decisions of the Strasbourg court but many other adherent states do not, the convention and Strasbourg court judgements have proved a highly effective tool in protecting and developing human rights in countries with no tradition of the rule of law.
No politician can expect to escape criticism for a controversial decision and we have to be robust in justifying what we do.
Intelligence is fragmentary and hard to discover, so it is by joining forces and sharing information with our allies that we maximise our ability to protect ourselves.
The principles of conservatism include upholding the rule of law and the United Kingdom's international legal obligations.
Very few MPs disagree with the need for a withdrawal bill to enable us to disentangle our 50-year relationship with the legal structures of the European Union and to enable us to function effectively outside of it.
As attorney general I see my role as defender both of press freedom and of the fair administration of justice.
Believing in and practising the principles of the rule of law is, with our liberty and democracy, among the most powerful weapons we have. It is less effective if we blur its clarity and we should do this as sparingly as possible.
No amount of extra civil servants recruited to deliver Brexit will make up for a lack of rational debate or for political judgments distorted by a desire to sound tough in order to appeal to narrow sectional interests.
In the past there has been debate as to whether or not traditional rights such as that to trial by jury might be protected or if a Bill of Rights should extend into areas of social and economic policy.
Hostility to the Human Rights Act has been present in sections of the Conservative Party since its enactment, and this has grown more strident with the passage of time, encouraged by some sections of the press.
Since 1955, the U.K. has been part of an intelligence-sharing arrangement with the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Intelligence-sharing is, in itself, commonplace.
We need to work together to either achieve a form of Brexit that does not threaten our future or ensure that the decision to complete departure is the electorate's informed choice.
The Government has correctly recognised that this E.U. law cannot all be changed into domestic law at once.
Jeremy Corbyn has shown no ability to provide solutions for Brexit whatsoever.
Some in favour of Brexit are so fixated on leaving the E.U., they keep arguing that any attempt to change it is some form of sabotage.
Henry VIII Clauses allowing the Government to change almost any law of the land by statutory instrument, if needed, to implement Brexit must be properly restricted.
In my brief, home affairs, we have witnessed ministers issue countless dodgy dossiers, fiddle figures and fudge facts.
Whatever may have been suggested by some Leavers during the referendum it must be clear now that the Brexit process is immensely complicated.
Most states, for all their rhetoric in favour of free trade, are adept at trying to manipulate markets to protect and advantage their own producers.
I have no doubt that those who campaigned for and voted leave in 2016 did so with honourable motives.
The truth is that every trade deal imposes some restriction on sovereignty.
Any politician can talk about resuscitating public trust.
In seeking to counter challenges such as terrorist threats, hostile state activity, or nuclear proliferation, we cannot work in isolation.
This is bad for policy-making - if you cover up the problems, how can you solve them? It also corrodes public trust. Government must be much more honest about the challenges facing the country, if we are to begin to tackle them. Short-term spin must give way to proper long-term strategic thinking.
Paralysis in decision-making breeds frustration and contempt from the electorate, and provides the perfect seedbed for demagogues who fill the vacuum with populist simplicities, hatred of opposition and lies.
The purpose of the E.U. Withdrawal Bill is in any event not to decide the terms of Brexit but to ensure that it can take place smoothly and that legal continuity, which is essential for businesses, is maintained. There is not a single MP who does not agree that getting the bill on the statute book is essential for us all.
As a mountain walker, one of the most frustrating mistakes one can make in bad weather is taking the wrong route down.
Putting the Withdrawal Bill in order is an essential step to stability and achieving a reasonable outcome to Brexit.
As an MP, my first duty is to act in the national interest, regardless of party affiliation.
For democracy to function properly it requires accepting the absolute right of individuals and groups to campaign against decisions previously taken by majorities and to seek to change them.
In a mature democracy any proposed policy should be subjected to a close analysis of its likely benefits and costs.
Only a Conservative government can credibly deliver the overhaul in approach that will ensure the controlled immigration that Britain needs to prosper in the 21st century.
In a deeply divided country we must either work together to get the best deal we can - and this needs compromise - or accept that Brexit cannot be implemented and think again about what we are doing.
Much as criticism can and has been made as to how E.U. law has been created, there is much in it that affects our daily lives for the better and is welcomed by many without them being necessarily aware of where it comes from.
We then need to consider carefully how the E.U. law that is going to be imported into our own law will operate. Its processes and interpretation have always been different from our own domestic law.
A Conservative government will set immigration policy within a wider strategy that meets the changing demographic make-up of Britain, taking full account of its impact on our population and maximising the economic advantages while mitigating the costs and risks.
As a past attorney general I consider a WTO Brexit to be a disaster for us as, leaving aside the economic damage it will cause, it would trash our reputation for observing our international obligations - as it must lead to our breaching the Good Friday Agreement with Ireland on the Irish border.
Trade wars in which countries are then obliged to retaliate by raising their own tariffs against the initiator undermine growth and hurt consumers. Far from being expressions of strength they highlight the failure of the initiating country's economic sector to compete in the global market place.
The failure to manage economic migration properly has put further pressure on transport and housing.
Having campaigned to remain in the E.U., I voted to trigger Article 50, in response to the clearly expressed wish of the electorate. It must now be my duty as an MP to try to ensure that Brexit is as smooth as possible and that there is a sound legislative framework in place to bring this about. A chaotic departure is in no-one's interest.
We were all elected to try to improve the lives of our constituents.
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