Top 98 Quotes & Sayings by Jess Phillips - Page 2

When your worldview is challenged, you'd be surprised how quickly you can find a way to dismiss reality.

I have not always behaved well. I can admit that. I get things wrong, I learn.

When my children were little, I would chat with my husband or my mum friends about how we were superior parents to other people, or that so-and-so was lying about how their children slept through the night.

As a mother, I want the very best for my children. As a politician, I want what is best for all children.

My paternal grandma was a raving Thatcherite, one who had a xenophobic turn of phrase for most proceedings.

In an election campaign, sleep is for the weak.

Being in France means that I am surrounded by examples of nationalised services that work.

Personally, I find the decisions and actions of my Tory colleagues appalling, but I also know plenty of Labour voters who are less than perfect.

Political books are so often written from the perspective of the politicians, not from the point of view of the people.

I don't know how all of my friends vote; it doesn't come up. But it would be a lie to say that I don't surround myself with people who have a similar moral code to mine.

I made a decision to stop feeling envious of other people, to crack on with my life and stop comparing myself with others.

The ability to say 'I was wrong' or to own up to your mistakes is very powerful. I teach my children that admitting fault is the quickest way to stop the problem, move on and get on with whatever it is you should be doing.

I've carried witty banners against laws that would curtail my freedoms.

I like second chances; I've had a few myself.

Still, I love a campaign. I'm never happier than when I'm fighting shoulder to shoulder with our growing army of foot soldiers.

In the world of fiction, politics usually appears considerably more exciting than it is.

I'm not usually one to heap praise on Jeremy Corbyn but I love that he doesn't drag his wife on stage for awkward snogs after his annual speech at the party conference.

When working at Women's Aid, I met countless women whose families had not believed them when they spoke of their abuse at the hands of another loved one.

I am a party worker ant - always have been, always will be.

Pressure and protest is fine, but using fear and threats to force politicians to sing to a certain tune will be the death of our democracy.

I am not into self-exploration. My family would lose their eyes in the backs of their heads if people talked about personal journeys or finding oneself.

I have felt the force of what governments can do. I remember my elder son being in the first cohort of kids who got a free nursery place, I remember the palliative care my mother got at home as I watched her die.

Regardless of how people love to deride politicians, democracy is not an easy gig. My decisions, views and heartfelt principles are dismissed by so many as careerist, opportunist or attention-seeking.

The desire to look strong and decisive, instead of looking human, is the fatal flaw of so many politicians, and I will never understand why the favoured path of the political class is akin to a child with chocolate smeared on their face insisting that they didn't eat the edible Christmas tree ornaments while their parents slept.

If a friend got a big promotion, I would outwardly congratulate them, but inside I would painfully compare myself with them and think that their success was a reflection on my failings.

The Labour party is not perfect but I have seen in my own life how it is the greatest vehicle for positive hopeful social change.

It might be easy to brush away the febrile atmosphere online as a nasty byproduct of free expression: it's less easy when it happens to you.

But when I'm asked a question I will answer it honestly. There is no spin here.

If the internet has taught me anything it is that people are either heroes or they belong in the bin.

Ken Livingstone appears incapable of contrition. That is why he must be thrown out of the Labour party. He is so certain he is right about everything, he won't come close to change.

In short, that politicians do or don't have families should no longer have any bearing on their abilities to hold office or to care more or less about the future of the country.

Today we're more distanced from each other, the bonds formed at the local shop replaced by the massive supermarket or the stressed driver thrusting a package through a letterbox. Instead of meeting in pubs, more of us sit at home with supermarket wine and Netflix.

Rhe language of politics is experienced by most as spin with the assumption of dishonesty.

The politics of hope is harder to spread than the politics of hate.

The Labour party is mainly full of amazing people who care so much about equality and social justice they are probably a bit of a bore at a family do.

For a party of the left to win, people have to have believe that government, the state, can be on their side. When I was a young mother, Sure Start and tax credits weren't just a financial lifeline, they represented hope.

For me socialism has never been an intellectual pursuit. It comes from my upbringing and experience.

I don't think Jeremy Corbyn hates women - I don't think Jeremy hates anyone. Spend even one minute with him and you would want to take him down to the pub and sink a pint of mild with the man. However, in the hard left of British politics lurks a gruesome misogyny.