Producing more reams of detailed policies that have marginal and limited effects on our society is futile.

New Labour has systematically alienated section after section of the coalition we need to win and retain power.

I'm a plain speaker.

The illegal 2003 invasion had little to do with liberating Iraqis from Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. Instead, the real freedoms and benefits were destined to go to corporations like Halliburton and others that stood to gain from the privatisation of the formerly state-owned Iraqi economy.

Politicians have patronised and talked down to us all when it comes to our economy, but ordinary working people have to manage on incomes significantly lower than the likes of George Osborne and his friends in the City. They could teach the bankers and many commentators a thing or two about managing a budget responsibly.

I'm a Marxist.

Tightening up border and immigration controls go nowhere in addressing the underlying causes of terrorism in our society and in our world.

New Labour has systematically alienated section after section of our natural supporters - teachers, health workers, students, pensioners, public service workers, trade unionists and people committed to the environment, civil liberties and peace.

I've always honestly and openly said I believe in a united Ireland, but the point was to try and get to a united Ireland without the violence.

Ministers may not be responsible for administrative errors, but they are responsible for major policy blunders.

I'm from the north. You can take the boy out of the north but you can't take the north out of the boy.

Labour will only survive in government if we can restore the sense of mission upon which it was founded.

Democratic government requires the consent of the governed.

If we need more demand in the economy then protect people in work and raise the incomes of those on low incomes who need to spend, such as the low paid, pensioners and families with children.

There'll be creative business leaders but actually, when it comes down to it, they can't do anything unless they're part of a collective. Unless they've got that wealth creator, that engineer and that work person, that skilled person at the bench to fulfil that idea... they're nothing.

Millions of people feel ignored by the political establishment.

The plundering for profit of the world's natural resources has threatened the very sustainability of the planet.

If bitter party name-calling turns people off then smear politics just destroys all credibility in the aims of politicians, the role of political parties and the political process itself.

You can't change the world through the parliamentary system.

It may sound corny in a cynical age but literally generations of our people have given much of their lives to establishing and cherishing the Labour party because they believed what the party told them when they joined.

We have to face up to the fact that without the armed uprising in 1916 Britain would not have withdrawn from southern Ireland.

The interests of big corporations have so permeated government that its major decisions are indistinguishable from the boardroom demands of the leading companies in each commercial sector.

What Gramsci is all about is hegemony: you win the battle of ideas and it dominates.

The arrogant view that young people don't count because they don't vote has thankfully been smashed for ever.

Our objectives are socialist. That means an irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people.

When I was a GLC councillor, we won and held London as Labour was imploding nationally - running popular campaigns against the Thatcher Government and fighting on our own agenda.

The worry in Labour circles is that, when pressed, Gordon Brown instinctively moved to cut the benefits of the poor rather than upset businesses and the wealthy.

New Labour has deregulated, liberalised and privatised - but every time the private sector fails it is the taxpayer who pays.

Only the political process offers the real prospect of a united Ireland at peace with itself.

We believe that leaders should be following the masses. We only ran in leadership campaigns to get our ideas across, to use it as a platform.

Heathrow expansion is an object lesson in the dominance of a rapacious sector of industry over government decision-making.

I think that I was the first MP to call for the nationalisation of Northern Rock, although that is hardly surprising because I have been calling for the nationalisation of the financial sector for 30 years or more.

We urgently need a major programme of investment in renewable energy generation to tackle climate change.

When I had the heart attack I had one stent inserted, which was great.

Changing leaders is pointless if the same policies are pursued.

I've always said the left needs to be ready for government.

The U.K. needs to diversify - to become the technological as well as the financial centre of Europe.

When you talk to people about their practical life, for example when they're at work, like the rail industry, the RMT members know better than anyone else how to run their industry.

My ambition is to learn to play the trombone. My wife pulls my leg about it. I'll find time, my neighbours might not appreciate it but I'm going to try.

If we as a party are serious about devolution, then we must respect councils and nations enough to determine their own agenda.

If allowed, democracy does actually work.

New Labour has created a society increasingly oppressed by the worry of personal debt.

The assertion that the war in Iraq has had no role in increasing the terrorist threat to Britain is clearly just intellectually unsustainable.

In terms of mainstream media it's very difficult to break through if you're on the left.

Getting political representation is important, but change comes through using direct action, campaigning, and trade unions.

If Marx was alive during the Stalinist period, he'd be first to be in the gulag.

Meeting the challenges of the future requires a state that can think and act strategically.

I'll let the racket do the talking.

I was a different kind of player as a kid and didn't do too much shouting and screaming. If things didn't go my way, I tended to get a bit overwhelmed. All I wanted to do was cry on my mom's shoulder. I didn't know how to handle defeat in front of a crowd, and I didn't want to be the loser.

I think it's the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations.