Attacks on a politician's identity - questioning Romney's religion say or Obama's birthplace - tend to come when an opponent is desperate and can't sell himself.

Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable the principles of it are troublesome.

The relationship between press and politician - protected by the Constitution and designed to be happily adversarial - becomes sour raw and confrontational.

A politician's goal is always to manipulate public debate. I think there are some politicians with higher goals. But all of them get corrupted by power.

If those in charge of our society - politicians corporate executives and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.

Political folk talk a lot these days about 'messaging' - a neologism designed to describe the way in which parties and politicians consciously characterize their efforts. It is only intended to be positive - i.e. 'Our messaging is designed to show we care.'

I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty it fights dirty.

As a politician who cherishes religious conviction in his personal sphere but regards politics as a domain belonging outside religion I believe that this view is seriously flawed.

My job is to look at what politics is doing not be a politician myself.

I am not at all a politician. I don't think I'm cut out for politics. I am certainly not going to stand for election.

Broadcasters or politicians or writers who think that they are respecting Struggle Street the battlers by dumbing things down into one-line sound bites are not respecting them they are treating them with contempt. It's our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them.

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.

The Labour party has done more than any other to address gender inequalities through legislation and other means and to increase women's representation in politics which has led to recent increases in the number of female politicians.

The ability of the 1 percent to buy politicians and regulators is nothing new in American politics - just as inequality has been a permanent part of our economic system. This is true of virtually all political and economic systems.

The more that I know of politics the more it makes me realize that being a politician is largely useless.

What drew me to politics in the first place was the fact that I wanted to have a place to take a stand and use my voice to express what I believed in. But I've no longer got any political aspirations. I feel that as a politician fifty per cent of people would hate you before you even left the house.

I am a sportsman and not a politician. I am a sportsman and will always remain one. I am not going to enter politics giving up cricket which is my life. I will continue to play cricket.

Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent scurrilous wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.

By nominating Chuck Hagel to be his Defense secretary President Obama is putting forward an aloof contrarian who doesn't suffer fools - a striving politician who considers himself above politics.

You know the media and politicians are always gonna be in a bit of tension with one another and probably most of the time that's healthy and indeed even creative. But it's where - it's really when news organisations are used as kind of instruments of politics that it gets tricky.

I'm not a politician and don't want any part of politics.

I think that politics could be a positive thing. My beef is that people focus on the personal aspect of a politician too much. They should focus on the results.

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.