Leadership Quote by David Blunkett

“It would be dangerous territory” is the tell: Blunkett isn’t offering a moral aphorism so much as fencing off scandal with the language of character. As a politician, he knows “responsibility” is both an ethic and a brand. The line performs accountability before any tribunal can impose it. By framing responsibility as something he “preach[es],” he subtly elevates himself into a didactic role - the grown-up in the room - then reassures the listener he’s meeting his own standard. It’s a rhetorical preemption: don’t accuse me of hypocrisy; I’ve already audited myself.

The subtext is political self-defense disguised as virtue. “Accept the consequences” is carefully vague: consequences can mean resignation, apology, policy correction, or simply enduring bad headlines. The sentence leaves room to look principled while negotiating the least damaging outcome. “Always” is doing heavy work here, signaling consistency in a profession stereotyped as evasive, even as the conditional clause (“if I wasn’t”) admits the audience’s suspicion that he might not be.

Context matters because Blunkett’s public image was long tied to a tough-on-order, duty-and-discipline sensibility. When that kind of figure faces personal controversy or institutional blowback, the credibility test isn’t just what happened; it’s whether the persona survives contact with real life. This line tries to weld private conduct to public creed, turning a potential contradiction into a demonstration: the point isn’t repentance, it’s control of the narrative - responsibility as damage limitation, packaged as integrity.