Gavin Esler Quotes

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Gavin Esler

Profession : Journalist

Birth : February 27, 1953

Democratic government is difficult. It is much more difficult than populists claim. It's not like running a business or a police force. It demands compromise.

Gavin Esler

Compromise disappoints those who buy into the most ambitious and simplistic populist slogans.

Gavin Esler

Populism, literally, means speaking for 'the people.' In practice it means demagoguery.

Gavin Esler

Government is not a game show, though at times it is amusing and entertaining to watch.

Gavin Esler

Receiving my first degree was one of the most important days of my life.

Gavin Esler

During my childhood in the Cold War, my family saw America as a great ally in our common struggle to keep back Soviet communism.

Gavin Esler

Donald Trump's tweets attract ridicule from some. But clearly they communicate effectively with his millions of supporters.

Gavin Esler

A political and economic system that only works for a small group at the top is a system that needs to change.

Gavin Esler

As a journalist, I have spent years reporting on often difficult and depressing conflicts, on poverty, and the inhuman way we sometimes treat each other.

Gavin Esler

I've always been a fan of the Overton Window. It's not a piece of glass but a political theory named after the conservative American political analyst, Joseph P Overton.

Gavin Esler

We need to create a sense of shame about racism, and about leaders who deliberately mislead and lie.

Gavin Esler

People in the U.S. who feel they need guns or enjoy gun sports of various types, are, in other words, decent, law-abiding, generally honest members of society. Their wish to have guns should be respected.

Gavin Esler

World leaders and major political figures have often had delusions of grandeur.

Gavin Esler

The skills necessary to change nappies or negotiate Brexit are obviously very different, but both involve a great deal of trust in the competence of the people doing the job.

Gavin Esler

International politics attracts politicians who talk a good game, but whose achievements are often slender.

Gavin Esler

Amateurism has its place in government, in journalism and also on the tennis court, but lack of expertise means politicians routinely promise far more than they achieve.

Gavin Esler

Leaders of organisations, political parties and large businesses frequently fail to talk in a straight and entirely truthful fashion.

Gavin Esler

In years of interviewing presidents, prime ministers and chief executives all over the world, I can remember only a handful of times in which a leader has said: 'I don't know' in answer to a question. Perhaps everyone I have ever interviewed knows everything about everything, but I doubt it.

Gavin Esler

My father was a member of the Dunkirk Veterans Association.

Gavin Esler