Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
British politician and shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, son of a Scottish Calvinist minister, seen as a potential Labour leader who stood aside.
On the island
Eight records
See Amid the Winter Snow, I think, brings out the full range of a voice. So it's a Christian song, but it's sung by, I think, the world's best woman singer.
Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068Favourite
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
And this Bach suite number three in D gives all the sense of freedom that looking out on the sea and the mountains on another side, the hills on another side, actually gives you.
Hey Jude, I remember from from being in hospital, and uh it's both sad to start with but actually very positive by the time it it ends, and it's one of the great Beatles songs.
Psalm 23 (The Lord's My Shepherd)
Partly because of what I've been saying about my upbringing and it certainly reminds me of that, and partly also because it was sung so beautifully at John Smith's funeral.
I would want, if I was on a desert island, to have some Scottish music because of my background, but I don't want Scotland to be presented as sometimes it is as simply a nation living in the past.
George Fenton and Jonas Gwangwa
I've chosen Cry Freedom also because I think it's some of these great international causes dealing with the problems of apartheid that really have inspired a generation of young people over 30 or 40 years.
Thank You for the Days is a particularly optimistic song.
Liverpool Cathedral Choir and the Massed Choirs of Merseyside
I think also the words of Jerusalem are about determination, about resolution. And I also think it's about um people recognizing their dependence on other people, their interdependence.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:02Did you consider, after the 1992 election defeat, turning away and beginning a different career rather than slogging on in opposition?
Not at all. I I think a choice uh I made a few years before uh to go into Parliament is a choice I want to stand by. I think it's important that when you make a commitment to public service you see it through.
Presenter asks
10:53What happened when you damaged one of your eyes playing rugby?
I'd been concussed in that match and uh it later turned out that uh as I arrived at university the first thing I did was see a surgeon who told me uh I had got one of these sports injuries, uh a retinal detachment and uh then I missed uh part of the first year, part of the second year, part of the third year because I had a succession of um of eye operations.
Presenter asks
18:56How did you and Tony Blair arrive at the decision as to which of you should step aside for the leadership?
Well, I think that that Tony had presented his case about the change that was necessary in a way that was very attractive to the public, that Tony has got tremendous charisma and was very successful in presenting his Home Office brief and had clearly a set of ideas that we both shared that he could communicate very well.
The keepsakes
The book
Ernst Gombrich
I would have uh my own exhibition that I could look at uh through the pages of his book.
The luxury
Tennis serving machine with tennis balls and racket
my serve's not bad but my returns are pretty poor so that would be pretty helpful
Presenter asks
20:09How large a factor was it in the leadership decision that Tony Blair is a family man and you are a bachelor?
I don't think so now. [It] wasn't mentioned, no.
Presenter asks
27:53Do you accept that as a public person, curiosity about your personal life and non-marriage is a price you have to pay?
Well, I don't mind answering the questions. It's something that comes up. And certainly I think people have a right to know what their politicians do and what their arrangements are. There is a fascination. I'm not surprised at that.
“I think it's important that when you make a commitment to public service you see it through.”
“It would have been inconceivable that Tony and I would have stood against each other, and we didn't, and it was the right thing that he took the job.”
“We've got a strong friendship. It's a friendship that's survived thick and thin. There's been obviously lots of occasions when we've had to make difficult decisions, but it's a friendship that's survived and I hope will be of use to the country.”