A vision of Europe fit for the 21st century and a practical plan to deliver strong rights, decent jobs and livelihoods, with strong unions at its heart, is one worth fighting for.

Each day more coalition MPs in seats outside the South East come out against George Osborne's regional pay cut plans, and Vince Cable now claims they are dead.

I cherish the creation of public space and services, especially health, housing and the comprehensive education system which dared to give so many of us ideas 'above our station.'

I am a feminist and I have no problems being called that.

I suspect there are people in all walks of life who need to be dragged into the 21st century in terms of attitudes towards women.

The UK has a poor investment record. According to IMF data, we have come seventh out of the top seven industrialised countries since 1999.

I'd be happy to have regular face-to-face meetings at Downing Street with David Cameron to argue the case for alternative economic policies.

When I look at my daughter, who's 24, she is much more confident than I ever was and her expectations are higher. But I worry that there is a backlash brewing against progress on equality.

Ordinary people who have lots of good ideas want more than a suggestion box, and they need a union to represent that thinking.

I came from a family where joining a union was the expected thing to do. I've always believed that the relationship between an employer and an individual worker is fundamentally unequal.

I want a society that provides decent jobs for those who can work and decent security for those can't.

Too often it’s about what stands before us, not what stands within us.

We shall me much less miserable together.' -Emma Darwin to husband Charles upon grief for loss of daughter Annie

Life without knowing your destiny leads to “rat races”, depression and frustration, and attempt to commit suicide

Everything was a broken line for me in those days. I was slipped into the empty spaces between words.

My feathered friends were so much to me that I am constantly tempted to make this sketch of my first years a book about birds and little else.

There's a Celtic saying, "Many a time a man's mouth broke his nose."

We can thank our lucky stars when once in a blue moon we find rare and kindred souls along the pathways of our lives.

Just standing around looking beautiful is so boring.

There are two million interesting people in New York and only seventy-eight in Los Angeles.

A proud man is satisfied with his own good opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it.