I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
John MajorRead
The sight of allegedly sophisticated politicians parroting complete tripe trivialises and demeans government and it has to be stopped. It's played a significant part in public disillusionment with politics and has led to the absurd situation where more people vote for 'Strictly Come Dancing' than voted in the general election.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the superficiality and absurdity in politics that leads to public disillusionment.
John Major expresses concern over the trivialization of politics by politicians who say meaningless things, which undermines the integrity of government. He highlights the worrying trend where people show more interest in entertainment shows than in political elections, indicating a growing disillusionment with political engagement among the public.
In practice
During a debate on political reform, this quote can illustrate the need for serious discussion about government credibility.
I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.
Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation.
If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
I would like Israel to be a Jewish state, and therefore not to annex over 2 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Israel, which will make Israel a bi-national state.
I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.
We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste.
I may find Saddam Hussein's regime abhorrent - any normal person would - but the survival of it is in his hands.
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