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The Great Gatsby
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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Iain Duncan Smith Quotes

What happened I think on Sept. 11 was we were given graphic and clear evidence that things had changed.

– Iain Duncan Smith

With high underemployment – currently over one million part-time workers in the UK want to work more hours – sanctioning clients who cannot increase their hours seems to be both unworkable and unfair.

– Iain Duncan Smith

What we want to do is reform the welfare system in the way that Tony Blair talked about 13 years ago but never achieved – a system that was created for the days after the Second World War. That prize is now I think achievable.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Look, I’ve always said from the word go many years ago that I felt the whole bonus culture, they need to think very carefully about being detached from the rest of the British public.

– Iain Duncan Smith

There are few more powerful tools for promoting stability than the institution of marriage.

– Iain Duncan Smith

The future of Conservatism lies in our beliefs and values, not by throwing them away. We need to shed associations that bind us to past failures, but hold faith with those things that make us Conservatives.

– Iain Duncan Smith

I hate this argument that says little Britain or something outside, or Britain is part of a wider Europe. We can both be within our trading relationships within Europe but we can also be a fantastic global trader.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Can there not be a limit to the fact that really you need to cut your cloth in accordance with what capabilities and finances you have?

– Iain Duncan Smith

Even as our economy starts to pick up, and new jobs are created, there is a risk that young people in Britain won’t get the chances they deserve because businesses will continue to look elsewhere.

– Iain Duncan Smith

You know in my own area of Waltham Forest, we’ve had many murders as a result of the gang violence and often innocent bystanders get caught up in it.

– Iain Duncan Smith

It’s fairness to say those who work hard, get up in the morning, cut their cloth – in other words ‘we can only afford to have one or two children because we don’t earn enough’. They pay their taxes and they want to know that the same kind of decision-making is taking place for those on benefits.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Aspiration, it seems, is in danger of becoming the preserve of the wealthy.

– Iain Duncan Smith

We do not celebrate people who have made success out of serious hard work.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Well football teams are perhaps easier to control than political parties, I’m sure the Prime Minister would agree with me, but yeah I think every team needs discipline and a sense of self-belief and that’s important, that’s what leadership’s all about.

– Iain Duncan Smith

By measuring the proportion of children living with the same parents from birth and whether their parents report a good quality relationship we are driving home the message that social programmes should promote family stability and avert breakdown.

– Iain Duncan Smith

With the right support, a child growing up in a dysfunctional household, who was destined for a lifetime on benefits could be put on an entirely different track – one which sees them move into fulfilling and sustainable work. In doing so, they will pull themselves out of poverty.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Too many couples break up without understanding the consequences for their families.

– Iain Duncan Smith

All too often, government’s response to social breakdown has been a classic case of ‘patching’ – a case of handing money out, containing problems and limiting the damage but, in doing so, supporting – even reinforcing – dysfunctional behaviour.

– Iain Duncan Smith

With participation in politics so low at the moment I think Christians should ensure their views are represented at all levels and not leave it to others.

– Iain Duncan Smith

For those who are able to work, work has to be seen as the best route out of poverty. For work is not just about more money – it is transformative. It’s about taking responsibility for yourself and your family.

– Iain Duncan Smith

A system that was originally designed to support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate.

– Iain Duncan Smith

After years of piecemeal reform the current welfare system is complex and unfair.

– Iain Duncan Smith

In many ways, Scotland will benefit more than other parts of the UK when Universal Credit comes in. A larger percentage of people will see an increase in their income through moving into work or taking on more hours.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Every parent wants to know that their children are protected against those who have a particular agenda until they get old enough to make decisions for themselves.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Kids are meant to believe that their stepping stone to massive money is ‘The X Factor.’

– Iain Duncan Smith

In Birmingham, Manchester or Liverpool there are white gangs that share the same backgrounds – they come from broken homes, completely dysfunctional, mums for the most part unable to cope, the fathers of these kids completely not in the scene.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Gang members have invariably grown up in broken, chaotic homes, often experiencing domestic violence; they have truanted from school and many have been formally excluded; and they live in neighbourhoods where worklessness, addiction and crime are rife.

– Iain Duncan Smith

We have to challenge the whole idea that it’s acceptable for a society like Britain to have such a significant number of people who do not work one day of the week and don’t have any possibility of improving the quality of their lives.

– Iain Duncan Smith

The fact is that in too many communities in cities in Britain gangs now have become completely rooted into these communities and they destroy them around them.

– Iain Duncan Smith

Getting a family into work, supporting strong relationships, getting parents off drugs and out of debt – all this can do more for a child’s well-being than any amount of money in out-of-work benefits.

– Iain Duncan Smith

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