Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Conservative MP who twice stood for the party leadership and resigned as shadow home secretary to fight for civil liberties.
On the island
Eight records
Well, in a way it's a sort of musical cliche, but it's a lovely piece of music. I often play it to myself when I walk across the hilltops. It's Passion World's Cannon. It's a baroque, a piece of baroque music, very, very simple melody. People who don't know any serious music know this piece of music because they'cause they it just is so it goes straight to the heart.
Modern music for me is picked up by osmosis from my wife and my children basically. And this one, because the others are a bit sad, I thought this one I rather like it and it I get it from my willowy blonde incredibly clever daughter and it's pink and it's get the party started and it just makes me laugh every time I hear it.
Ah well, this actually brings me memories of seeing homeless people because ... seeing all the people I'd never seen before who are homeless, you know, lying by sort of vents and things to keep warm. And this this particular song just brings it back to me.
I worked for a while in North America. It was actually in Southwest Ontario. And I have just always had an admiration for the people who built America. They fought against temperatures and weather and the wildness of the country. And they conquered the country. ... And this piece of music just brings back that just feeling of awe, frankly, at what they were like.
Un bel dì, vedremoFavourite
This has got significance to me for another reason. This was the day that Margaret Thatcher effectively decided to stand down as Prime Minister. ... I don't drink alone normally, but I went home that day, that night, it was after midnight by then, and got a half bottle of whiskey out and listened to some Puccini. And this was, I think, the most appropriate one, because this is when a woman who's been abandoned is looking to see whether her lover is coming back.
More of the same, because because this took all my nerve. I mean, I was I was scared of this. It took the whole previous weekend for me to sort of really, really decide. ... And so I spent that weekend and a lot of the time I played this next piece of music. ... just as a way of sort of reinforcing my courage to do what I was gonna do.
I am known for having very strong and very odd friendships. ... I like strong big people, I like strong tastes, hot curry in people, yeah? And this also is evocative of that.
This particular piece was on my MP3 player on the day I was in the Lake District, and Jane Clark rang me up and told me that Alan, her husband, had died. Very, very close friend of mine. And I just put this on repeat all day. And it's ... just that while it was raining because then nobody could see the tears right down my face.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:01Do you think it is that you just can't resist a challenge?
Uh well yeah sure there's a bit of that ... but I mean the the ordinary point is that everybody virtually in the country grew up in a poorish background. And the other ordinary part about it is it never felt unusual. ... But resist a change well. When something something important comes along, when there is a challenge, when there is a risk, when there is a problem, yeah, of course that brings out the best in most people, doesn't it?
Presenter asks
1:53When there is a crisis of sorts, what do you think it is that propels you forwards?
Well, this may surprise you. I suspect I'm more cold blooded than some about crises. Not cold blooded generally, but every decision you make has got a an analytical bit and an emotional bit to it. And I work very hard at getting the analytical bit right, and then that makes the emotional bit easier.
Presenter asks
5:51Did your mum ever discuss [your father] with you?
No, no. I mean I throughout my entire career I have leeched out piece by piece the truth about this because I never wanted to hurt her or anybody associated with it. So I never told people until she died that she was a single mum and I don't tell people now about who my father is. I know, but because I don't want the press all visiting him and more importantly his family.
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Works of Iain Banks
Iain Banks
I want the complete works of Ian Banks. He'll be mad as hell I've picked him because he's a very left-wing writer.
The luxury
a magic wine cellar that never runs out
I want a sort of magic wine cellar, one that never runs out, because … I suspect I should spend my time trying to stay alive and staying drunk.
Presenter asks
10:03When did you first confront your own fear?
Oh uh funny enough, this I I guess an interesting question nobody's ever asked me. The I suppose that the the the answer is when my stepfather actually made me go out and face some bullies. And there were five of them, so it wasn't it wasn't very easy and I lost. Um but uh he made me do that. When I was I thought it must have been about six, seven years old, I guess.
Presenter asks
24:08Why did you decide to resign your post on the shadow front bench?
This is an issue which for me it's central to all sorts of things. It's central to being British. What has made us a great nation historically has been our freedom, our liberty, our sense of justice, our sense of fairness. And this was just a strike to the heart of it, really. Frankly, I didn't want to do what I ended up doing. As I say I'm no saint, no hero. I didn't want particularly to sacrifice the remainder of my career for any reason. But I didn't see, I couldn't think of any other way to stop this thing in its tracks than by resigning and making it as huge an issue of it.
Presenter asks
31:07Did you ever feel the need to go in search of your birth father?
Yeah. I again I I kept this all very close for a very long time because uh you always have to think about not the individual concerned, but their you know, his wife, his children, and all of that. ... And my mum died. And n none of this came out until my mum died and then and then and and uh then I thought, well, okay, I can now tell the whole truth rather than just the partial truth. And uh yes, I met him. I found him. It was a sort of little detective story to find him. Met him, talked to him, quite liked him. He was obviously very intelligent.
“Well, you always feel a fear. But you've got to be willing to fail. And the shame is not in getting knocked down. The shame is in not getting up again. And I very much believe that.”
“I believe you can manage fear. And I believe, you know, courage is something that you can learn, really.”
“I suspect everybody lives to a sort of self-image of themselves. They sort of create a sort of personal illusion and then try and live to the illusion. I mean I that's essentially what I do.”
“I actually don't subscribe to the view that being a backbencher is a powerless position. I think actually if you know how to use it being a backbencher is both powerful and free and that second part is quite important to me too.”