doesn't count".

...two things you never want people to see how you make 'em: laws and sausages." - Leo McGarry, The West Wing

Leo also says "You gotta dance with the one who brung ya" at one point. That would work for the Lib Dems.

An actual, real political maxim that I try to cling to, despite not being remotely a Marxist, is "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Massive problems of interpretation (ability? need?), but broadly pretty sound, IMO.

Too true.

but most of them seem to do the opposite.

"Maybe climate change is a threat, and maybe climate change has been tarted up by climatologists trolling for research grant cash. It doesn’t matter. There are 1.3 billion people in China, and they all want a Buick"

Peej again, of course.

Nick Clegg.

No, actually, Groucho Marx.

from the late and very great Mr Zinn;
"You can´t be neutral on a moving train "

It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees!

as always very pithy and astute in HHGTTG. I can't remember the exactly quote but it does along the lines of

"any who wants to be elected to political should on no account be allowed to do so".

Says it all really

"To be alive at all involves some risk".

Probably the most engaging public speaker I have ever heard.

[from memory it goes something like] No-one who believes in an afterlife should be allowed into a position of power.

"We are all fucked, except the politicians".

"What fresh hell is this?"

I've been getting quite grumpy recently...

Frank Zappa

"Always remember there is a difference between kneeling down and bending over"

Think like a revolutionary

...'That government is best which governs least.'

Me.

Who wants to get into politics, and why? There are, I suppose, the genuinely altruistic types who want to serve communities and do good by others. They do their jobs, are good MPs, are respected by their peers and constituents and get paid very little. Virtue is supposed to be its own reward.

But then there's the venal, backstabbing, egotistical opportunists who seek High Office.

..MPs get paid very little?

"Do what thou wilt and harm none, shall be the whole of the law".

Always rung a Satanic and reasonable bell with me.

'There are many men who think like philosophers and live like fools'

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt"

you were in the early days of a better nation.

Alasdair Gray

It does not matter who you vote for, the Government always get in.

Guy Fawkes was right.

I'm younger than Cliff Richard. (OK not politics but I like it)

then fuck your revolution!

Emma Goldman

I've always liked that principle, however a more personally accurate version would be:

If I can't potter about with books and records, occasionally tapping my toe to a particularly groovesome number, then fuck your revolution!

Not appearing on any radical posters anytime soon, I fancy.

is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.

and

I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.

Antonio Gramsci

"Clean living in difficult circumstances"

A Silver Mt Zion

yes

is Sir Humphrey Appleby:

"Politicians must be allowed to panic. They need activity. It is their substitute for achievement."

"The Prime Minister doesn't want the truth, he wants something he can tell Parliament."

"Being an MP is a vast subsidized ego-trip. It's a job that needs no qualifications, it has no compulsory hours of work, no performance standards, and provides a warm room, a telephone and subsidized meals to a bunch of self-important windbags and busybodies who suddenly find people taking them seriously because they've go the letters 'MP' after the their name."

and one to live your life by:

"When you're in a hole, stop digging."

"Political about what? Gimme an issue, I'll give you a tissue. And you can wipe my ass with it."

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to that. So let's have another drink and let's talk about the blues. Blues is about dignity, it's about self-respect, and no matter what they take away from you - that's yours for keeps. I remember how it was, how every medium - TV and papers and radio - and all those people were saying "You're on the scrap heap, you're useless." And I remember how easy it was to start believing that. I remember how you'd hear people take it for granted that it was true. Just 'cause someone with an ounce of power said so. And that's a problem now. Too many oddballs, too many pocketbook psychologists and would-be philosophers with an axe to grind. But there's a solution. It's not easy, but it's a matter of coming to terms in your heart with the situation you're in. A matter of choosing how things go for you and not having things forced upon you. There are plenty of forces against you, forcing you against your will, your ideals. You've got to hope for the best and that's the best you can hope for. You've got to hope against hope. I remember something Sal Paradise said, he said "The city intellectuals of the world are divorced from the full bodied blood of the land and are just rootless fools. So listen. When the smile, when the condescending pat-on-the-back comes and says "We're sorry but you're nothing. You've got nothing for us and we've got nothing for you" You say "No" and say it loud "NO!" And remember, people who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love, and what is positive in refusal and constraint. Such people have a corpse in their mouth.

showbusiness for ugly people".

Whoever said that never anticipated Strictly Come Dancing.