There's nothing to be said for opposition. You can only talk about things and you can lay your plans. You can't actually achieve very much; you have to be in government for that.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My general approach to opposition is where the government is getting something right, we should say so. And where we disagree with them, we should say so, too.
The opposition may have the right to doubt every thing, but for myself, I call on opposition to practice its role within limits of objectively, responsibility and country interests.
Just because you have opposition doesn't make you a great leader.
One can tell or do whatever one wants when one is in the Opposition but once one is running a state, one cannot do that.
Oppositions are not there to get legislation through. Oppositions are there to hold the government to account.
Do not be afraid to offer ideas that draw opposition. Remember, if no one is against your idea, then your idea probably doesn't do anything.
I cannot remember a time in opposition - I am talking about the last four years - when we have done less work on policy and more on slogans. But because of my European views I wasn't allowed to participate.
When a party is in opposition, it opposes. That's its job. But when it comes to power, it must govern. Easy rhetoric is over, the press of reality becomes irresistible. By necessity, it adopts some of the policies it had once denounced. And a new national consensus is born.
Being able to provoke a different point of view to the standard current ideological or political perspective as played out in conventional newspaper or radio reportage is what a public intellectual does. But it's not merely about being oppositional, because that's too negative.
We in the Labour party know better than most that opposition is the easy part. What's more difficult is governing and setting out an agenda for government.
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