Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Conservative MP and shadow home secretary, known for a bold, unscripted conference speech attacking the government's health policy.
On the island
Eight records
How Great Thou ArtFavourite
Aled Jones with the BBC Welsh Chorus
Well, the first thing I've chosen is my favourite hymn. It's How Great Thou Art, which I think sums up everything that Christians believe, that the majesty of God, the beauty of God, the superb nature of His creation. But it also has a personal memory for me, because the Cardinal came to my fiftieth birthday party. Basil Hume. ... And this was the grace that was sung at that dinner, and I will now forever associate that hymn with Basil Hume, who I think was one of the greatest men of this century.
Now, as you point out, I grew up in quite a naval tradition. Very recently my father died, and at his memorial we played the sailors' hornpipe, because we were determined it was going to be a celebration of his life, not a mournful occasion. So I think, rather to the amazement of the Admiral present, whose eyebrows shot up, we had the sailors' hornpipe.
My third choice is ... the seekers, the carnival is over, because that sums up very much my attitude towards not only the sixties, but the seventies as well. It was a time of great promise when everybody thought the world was changing, we were all going to be much freer and therefore much happier, we were all going to do what we liked and this was going to make us all a much more easy society. The exact opposite has happened. We've ended up with record breakups in families, record rates of suicide, we're a much more unhappy country. And I look back now to the sixties and seventies and I think the carnival's over.
This little choir came along to the Speaker's House a couple of years ago. And at the end of it all, they went into the speaker's apartment, where there is a very large and enormous historic bed. ... These kids were all bouncing up and down on it, smiling and chattering and looking very happy indeed. It's a wonderful memory. But I think a happy day sums up for me the feeling of release when you've made the right decision.
Symphony No. 94 in G Major, 'The Surprise': II. Andante
Life is full of surprises. My father once said to me when I passed my driving test ... Now remember, it's not only your own mistakes you've got to look out for, you've also got to drive for the other fool on the road. And I took it at the time to apply only to driving, but actually I think it's it's probably quite a good ... maxim for one's approach to life. And very often you're going along gently and everything seems to be going well, and then suddenly, womph, something happens to take you completely off track.
Richard Dimbleby's broadcast from Belsen
I think we should never forget this great evil which swept the civilised world in the middle of this century. I mean the appalling thing is not only what happened, but that it happened where it happened in a country that was renowned for its culture, its opera, its creativity. At the time it happened, which was not the Dark Ages, but the middle of the 20th century, it should lead us always to be watchful and wary.
Sounds of Contented Hippo Grunting and Wallowing
Um well the next one I've chosen actually um is a holiday sound. We've been talking about work. The one rule I have is that I do not work in August. And I always try to get right away in August ... And the furthest away I ever got from civilization ... was the African bush. And I can still remember now this was nineteen eighty nine, that's ten years ago. Lying in my tent at night, listening to the sounds of the animals.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048
Everybody has to have something that's background music. You know, it's the sort of thing when you're flicking a duster around the house you have on in the background, or when you're writing the book, you have on in the background. For me, it's undeniably the Brandenburg concerto. The thing that you enjoy but doesn't intrude.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:20What made you do [the party conference speech without notes or autocue]?
I wanted to talk to them, rather than standing at a lectern talking at them. I wanted to very much be myself and talk to them about things as I saw them, about what I wanted us to do, what I thought we should do. I thought they needed it. We'd been through a rough time as a party. I thought they actually needed somebody just coming along and saying it as it was, and I took that risk.
Presenter asks
6:01Why did you choose politics?
I became attracted to politics when I was still in my early teens, but I think for wholly different reasons from those which finally impelled me to choose politics. I think when I was thirteen or fourteen I thought all politicians were like Winston Churchill and had huge impacts and made real differences. ... what attracts me to politics is the possibility of solving the seemingly insoluble. Whether it's an individual problem, it can be a constituent who's using me very much as a last resort, or whether it is a big macro problem like the health service, the pension system, there is an enormous challenge there, and it's a very satisfying job from that point of view.
Presenter asks
8:07How would you characterize [your father's] disposition?
He was very ambitious, very single-minded, and encouraged us to be the same. They never forced us, but encouraged us to be the same.
The keepsakes
The book
Thomas Gray
I think they're wonderful for putting things in perspective. I particularly enjoy the ode on a prospect of Eton College, which of course contains the immortal words, where ignorance is blissed is folly to be wise. And actually I take that very seriously because I think we should protect children, we should shield them, we shouldn't try to introduce them to reality too early.
The luxury
My luxury is a hot shaft on which is perched a photograph of my family, and around which is a shelf of wonderful, smelly, scented things to use in the shower.
Presenter asks
9:25Did you stand up for yourself then [at the strict convent boarding school] as fiercely as you might now?
I certainly learnt there to stand up for myself in terms of belief, because I was in a minority. Not only was I in a minority, but I came from a family where my brother was training for the Anglican priesthood. And so there was certainly a lot of conflict of belief around, and I learnt to stand up for what I believed.
Presenter asks
15:42What do you mean by [saying you would go to the stake to fight against abortion]?
I mean that I regard that as a supreme cause. I don't actually equate the abortion issue with the issue of sexual morality. ... Abortion is about life itself, it is about taking life. It is not a women's issue, it's something that should concern us all. ... if I ever had a choice to make between the progress of my career, or anything else, and my support for the pro-life stand, I would always take the pro-life stand. It is the one issue on which I would not compromise. The fact is politics is the art of compromise. This is the one that I've always said, no, no compromise.
Presenter asks
17:26Why [did you not convert to Catholicism] until your mid forties?
There is no doubt in my mind that when, for example, I returned after a fairly prolonged period of agnosticism, I was admiring Rome. I had less than admiration for the Church of England. But the fact is I had strong Anglican roots. It was a mistake. I think I knew it was a mistake at the time. But it is also a fact that when I did finally cross to Rome, I didn't do it over night, as a lot of people seem to think. I had a very long process of trying to resolve doctrine.
“Politics is fickle. It's the sort of business in which you can't ever rely on anything or anybody. ... But I think it is also the case, and increasingly the case, that people are fed up with what is now called spin. ... with style over substance, with the promotion of image, with everything looking absolutely perfect, but may not be underneath. And I think there is an increasing desire for honesty.”
“I think because [the relationship] was mutual and because it had lasted a long time and the end was inevitable. Now I wasn't heartbroken ... I'm certainly not going to say that. I also I don't think that sort of thing is fair. ... Very unfair burden to hand to the other person.”
“If people want to make these comments, it is very much better to deface the facts, because I always say this, that in society today we have a complete overemphasis on physical perfection, which is actually dangerous. Because what it does is to marginalize people with disabilities, people with severe disfigurements, people with very obvious limitations. That is the result of too much concentration on physical perfection.”
“In a game like politics ... where you are always looking at the next move, always looking ahead. There is a terrible temptation to do just that, to live in the future for what you hope will be. And that is a very dangerous occupation because you don't actually know that you're going to live beyond tomorrow. None of us do. So we should always seize the day, really get on with the day and not worry too much about tomorrow.”