John Reid Quotations

I was greatly saddened to hear of the death of a British soldier on duty in Iraq. As always, my thoughts are with the family and the families of those injured in this appalling act of violence.

Nick's track record and experience -- television, digital, international -- make him the right leader to fully integrate AP's technical operations globally and for all media, including video.

Nick's track record and experience - television, digital, international - make him the right leader to fully integrate AP's technical operations globally and for all media, including video.

Nato today faces greater threats to its long-term future than it ever did at the height of the Cold War. Now is the time to replace immobile armies with more flexible, rapid response forces.

My intention is that in the course of the next week or two you will see that far from being an impasse, that this short and temporary suspension will have been a platform for us to go forward.

I don't know who Mr Des Smith is. He doesn't speak with any authority for the Government at all.

There are only a certain number of trains that come through the station that provide funding for projects across the country. This appropriations bill is one of those trains.

She could prick the pomposity of the powerful with the same ease with which she could communicate with the mass of ordinary folk.

Madonna has nailed it with this record and we are rolling it out very big indeed.

Many of those present were clearly prepared well in advance to cause trouble, and we believe that the majority of Iraq people would deplore this violence,

This was a game that was good for both of us,

I am sorry about yesterday. I was on the platform. We didn't want it. It shouldn't have happened. It's not the way we do things in here.

I can't say enough about our defense. They created a lot of turnovers, and that really got things going.

I am aware that the company are going to make a statement and it will involve the whole operation.

I am delighted that Her Majesty has seen fit to mark the outstanding gallantry, professionalism and commitment of so many service personnel operating in difficult and challenging environments. I am immensely proud of their achievements and congratulate them all.

If it could be done tomorrow you'd just see spam just drop off the charts,

I (and) other ministers fully respect the fact that parents want clarity on what is going on and secondly that it isn't going to go on in an indiscriminate fashion.

But the Taliban are still active in the area, so are drug traffickers, ... NATO must send more troops than are currently operating in the north today. We are discussing with NATO what those additional forces should be.

We've got to weigh up the risks. From our own perspective, we'd done our own points system (on the incident) and it fell within that range. The match review panel got it around the mark.

We have to be buying resources that are relevant to today's threats, not to the threats of 10 or 15 years ago,

He cares for people, and they pick up on that. And he always does what he thinks is the right thing to do.

Hi Walter, shout out if you are here - or maybe you shouldn't.

He's a very impressive young man who can play in various roles, so there is some keen interest there,

There is a great deal of urgency about this. I think it is the most important thing on the agenda in Iraq, which is to respond to the efforts of the terrorists to divide by terrorism by uniting through democracy.

He has some pretty good linemen and some pretty good receivers to throw to. We've been real pleased. He's so efficient, but that's what you expect when you have a kid who could be a Division-I quarterback.

He is not just any old Tory MP - he is the architect of the Tory tax and spending plans over the last two years

My thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends of the soldier tragically killed today in Mazar-e-Sharif.

My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Terrorists love a vacuum. I know that from my own experience in Northern Ireland. And it's the same throughout the world.

Parties -- and the paramilitary groups -- have to play their part

Opening ourselves up to a far greater degree of competition in Europe will ensure in the long run a far more efficient industry, which in turn means far more value for money.

NATO has been probably the most effective defense organization in world history, but no institution has the divine right to exist.

It is a relatively small number of people who want to impose their will by the use of terror on the rest of civilization, who have got a program. It's not blind violence. It's with a purpose. They want to destroy the state of Israel. They want every westerner out of the Arab countries, Middle East and elsewhere.

It is a process that could start within the next 12 months,

It is a matter of political practicality. In the course of the next four years this decision will take place. It will inevitably be more public than such decisions in the past,

replace it with a new military-style unit capable of maintaining law and order.

It doesn't matter because they still couldn't beat us. They couldn't have beaten us if they'd brought somebody down out of the stands.

It isn't something that will happen overnight and without discussion,

It is not a matter of casualties, but a matter of trying to avoid innocent casualties of terrorism.

It hadn't improved so we decided to give him time off.

I was asked, what was my response to those people who said that what was going on at Heathrow and elsewhere was all part of a public relations exercise, a spin,

Troops are facing a dark time in Iraq but we won't quit,

We are in Iraq for as long as it takes to solve the problems in Iraq, ... until the job is done.

The armed forces of both India and the UK pride themselves on excellence, and the increase in the number of joint exercises and training opportunities between the two countries will only serve to strengthen that relationship further,

We have always made plain that any withdrawal of forces will be based on local conditions, not some immutable timetable,

We are not saying that everyone will be out by the end of 2006 but we are saying that this process - despite the terrorist attempts to destroy it - is going relatively well, and, in the course of the next year, we could well see the handover to Iraqi forces at certain places in Iraq, including in our own area,

We made it plain that any company which did come in and buy this as a going concern would receive the appropriate support.

While we take what happened seriously, and I stand by everything that our commander on the spot did, don't let's take one incident like that and try to pretend that it reflects the whole of even the Iraqi police force,

We do not have designs to stay (in Iraq) as an occupying imperial power. Nor are we going to cut and run because of terrorists,

When that condition has been met, we will hand over the lead in counter-terrorism to the Iraqis,

The fact of the matter is that whether it's in London or Egypt or Turkey or New York or Washington, we have to pay the price of guarding ourself, which is internal vigilance.

We have said all along that our troops will stay there as long as they are needed and requested by the Iraqis, that when they withdraw... it will not be an event, it will be a process.

The reason Canada has dropped is because Canada is way ahead in doing this.

We're having a good look around to see if we can get someone who we think can do a job for us.

We're not sure all that legal procedure has worked all that well at the tribunal.

When I got here, we were practicing against bags, ... Players were holding up bags because we couldn't practice against other players. They weren't big enough. Now we're building depth and creating quality players in practice.

The decision is never an easy one, and I think recent history teaches us it is impossible in most cases to predict where your enemy will come from.

The death of this British soldier in Iraq deeply saddens me. All our thoughts and sympathies are with the family at this very difficult time.

There are many ways of encouraging people to make life better other than joining a political party. Politics with a small 'p' isn't just about darkened committee rooms, endless meetings - it is about giving people the right to make decisions about our lives.

We don't need them (more troops) at the moment, if that's necessary, of course we would do that,

We were well-prepared tonight, and the kids were ready,

When people are faced with a choice between the Northern Ireland they have got and the perfect Northern Ireland, they complain. But in the real world that isn't the choice.

There has not been a fundamental breakdown in trust between the British government and the Iraqi government,

There has not been a fundamental breakdown in trust, ... There has been an incident that will be investigated.

We will develop a simple code for processed food to indicate fat, sugar and salt content for shoppers,

We are all very sorry. It should never have happened.

The position that has been taken by the Iranians is so extreme,

Until we know how the report has been viewed by the match review panel, we have no position,

We're in the south to help and protect the Afghan people to reconstruct their economy and democracy. We would be perfectly happy to leave in three year's time without firing one shot.

We are promoting the opportunity for healthy living in a manner and scale unseen before.

We applaud the bravery of someone willing to help put an end to abuse.

We believe that there are elements of Iranian society - I put it no higher than that - who may well be associated with the attacks on British troops,

And the suggestion that any government would use that sort of subject and phenomenon for spin and public relations I thought was beneath contempt.

being treated for minor injuries only and are expected to return to duty shortly.

Conservatives conserve and that is why they became irrelevant.

Every day that they (militants) can generate articles telling westerners that Iraq is in turmoil is a day they feel they have done a good job, ... So let's not sell short the progress that is being made.

Every intelligence agency in the world believed that Saddam Hussein had had weapons of mass destruction, precursor chemicals. The inspectors, over a period of ten years, had managed to gain access to much of those precursor chemicals.

The total number of troops in Iraq following the deployment of 7 Armored Brigade will be around 8,000,

I stand by the decision to build the aircraft carriers.

The terrible effects of the earthquake, and the human tragedy that has resulted, have resulted in a major international assistance effort and I am confident that our responsive and valuable assets will contribute a great deal to that relief effort,

When you have stability, it will be time to depart,

When we've been bold on the Bank of England, on PFI, on great constitutional change, on the New Deal, we've been most successful. So what we have to continue to try and do is to battle with ideas and find new ways of applying those values as the world changes.

I understand also that the Minister of the Interior, at the highest level, instructed that they should be (handed over), that the local judicial authorities said the same,

What happened yesterday was that two of our service men were arrested by Iraqi police and under the law as it stands they should have been handed back to the military authorities,

We should have no illusion as to the severity of the struggle we face against international terror. It will be long, it will wide and it will be deep,

We don't actually know the details of why these people were handed over - whether it was under threats or by collusion, or whatever, ... What we do know is that under the law they should have been handed back to the British forces themselves.

Brandon and I have always discussed recruiting like it's going out and picking a Corvette. Now it's about picking the color you like.

The oil sands potential up there is absolutely enormous,

So the longer this goes, the more pleased the terrorists would be because it gives them the opportunity to intervene with acts of violence and, secondly, because they will claim it is an illustration of the inability of politicians in Iraq to come together.

As coaches we took that Maryville game and used it as fuel for the rest of the year,

And I have said since around June that I envisage that that process, which will start unequally in different parts of the country, could start within a year.

This group's had some hard times, but they've bought in and they've reached the pinnacle. They've been awesome, some of the best players this school has ever had.

flattered that a number of people have approached him or mentioned to him that he would be a great candidate one day, down the line.

We have shown an interest in him but if you think it through, other clubs have more (trade) ammunition than we have.

This decision will be taken by the British government, at the request of the Iraqi democratically elected representatives,

This is about 500 fewer than at present, reflecting the closure of two small bases in Basra, the transfer of some training tasks to the Iraqi security forces and structural differences between the two brigades,

This is about a threat of the nature that massacred thousands of people in New York,

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a lot of these kids.

This is definitely bigger than homecoming, I'd say.

In any theatre of combat in the world where there are competing factions at war, there is always the problem about split loyalties,