A Quote by Anna Soubry

I've noticed that every public health minister has been a woman. — © Anna Soubry
I've noticed that every public health minister has been a woman.
Much to my surprise, not a moment have I been made to feel, 'Alright, a woman - probably the prime minister wanted to make a token gesture.' The ease with which people have taken this thought of a woman minister has been a great strength for me and has made my job far easier.
How does it feel to be a woman minister? I don't know; I've never been a man minister.
Speaking of opinions, the charming woman does not air hers very freely. The crude woman is eager to let you know what she thinks of every matter, person or object that bobs up. She comments on every passing item - even in public, as you may have noticed. Not only is it bad taste for her to be so desperately interested in her own reactions and opinions - but she throws away the precious aura of reserve and mystery that makes a woman attractive.
In 2009, when I was Health Minister, we re-engineered our business processes to examine the weaknesses and opportunities in our health system. Following that exercise, we established a public health emergency management system from national to district level to prevent and provide rapid response to outbreaks.
You cannot stop what the public want. The public want two strong women in the final round and then a woman prime minister and I'm absolutely with that.
I stand here today as the first woman first minister of our country. Every day I hold this office, I will work to ensure that every woman, every wee girl across this country, gets a chance to do what I've done and follow their dream.
We women are callow fledglings as compared with the wise old birds who manipulate the political machinery, and we still hesitate to believe that a woman can fill certain positions in public life as competently and adequately as a man. For instance, it is certain that women do not want a woman for President. Nor would they have the slightest confidence in her ability to fulfill the functions of that office. Every woman who fails in a public position confirms this, but every woman who succeeds creates confidence.
We have been at the matter of police pay for some time. Indeed, the Minister of Safety and Security and the National Commissioner of Police have raised this matter. Treasury has been looking at it and the Public Service and Administration Minister has been looking at it. It is a matter with which we are engaged, the salaries issue, as well as the resource question with regard to vehicles and, and all other matters, including the skills issues.
In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know.
The best way to alleviate the obesity "public health" crisis is to remove obesity from the realm of public health. It doesn't belong there. It's difficult to think of anything more private and of less public concern than what we choose to put into our bodies. It only becomes a public matter when we force the public to pay for the consequences of those choices.
The Prime Minister is head of team but its not a one woman act. I've been called all those things. Intellectual, sharp-tongued, all true. But what New Zealander is like is to know that someone is in charge and in the end the buck stops with the Prime Minister.
In public, when my kids have not been behaving great - because that's life, my kids are not perfect, okay - I've noticed other people watching me. And I felt judged, because I'm obviously in the public eye. So that's been hard.
The trouble is that privacy is at once essential to, and in tension with, both freedom and security. A cabinet minister who keeps his mistress in satin sheets at the French taxpayer's expense cannot justly object when the press exposes his misuse of public funds. Our freedom to scrutinise the conduct of public figures trumps that minister's claim to privacy. The question is: where and how do we draw the line between a genuine public interest and that which is merely what interests the public?
Modern 'public health' initiatives have moved well beyond what could reasonably be classified as public goods. Today, government undertakes all sorts of policies in the name of public health that are aimed at regulating personal behavior.
Nowadays, a minister of health cannot consider his or her job done simply by looking at the health care system. It's not enough to have a health policy, you need healthy policies elsewhere.
I've always been interested in public health approaches because it seems to me we have this yearning for silver bullets, and that is not in fact how change comes about. Change comes through silver buckshot - a lot of little things that achieve results. That's a classic public health approach.
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