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Leadership Quote by John Prescott

"There is progress taking place, growth is better. We're only talking about two years there"

About this Quote

Progress, growth, better: John Prescott stacks three warm words on top of each other and hopes the pile looks like an argument. The line has the unmistakable sound of British retail politics in defensive mode, where language isn’t used to illuminate reality so much as to sand down its sharpest edges.

The specific intent is simple: shrink the timeline, soothe the audience, and reframe impatience as unfairness. “We’re only talking about two years” is a tactical downshift. It asks voters and journalists to treat criticism as premature, even if the complaint is precisely that two years have been wasted. By narrowing the window, Prescott also dodges a more dangerous comparison: the longer arc of the government’s promises and the public’s memory.

The subtext is managerial: governance as a process story, not a results story. “There is progress taking place” is passive, almost self-executing, as if improvements are happening off-screen regardless of who’s in charge. “Growth is better” is revealingly non-committal; it doesn’t say growth is good, or sufficient, or evenly shared, just “better” than something left conveniently unnamed. It’s triangulation in miniature: concede that things aren’t perfect while insisting the direction of travel should count as success.

Contextually, this fits Prescott’s role as Labour’s blunt instrument and mood-setter: the guy deployed to calm nerves, lower expectations, and keep the coalition of supporters from splintering. The rhetoric works because it’s not trying to win an argument on facts; it’s trying to win on patience.

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TopicOptimism
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Prescott, John. (2026, January 16). There is progress taking place, growth is better. We're only talking about two years there. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-progress-taking-place-growth-is-better-84009/

Chicago Style
Prescott, John. "There is progress taking place, growth is better. We're only talking about two years there." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-progress-taking-place-growth-is-better-84009/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There is progress taking place, growth is better. We're only talking about two years there." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-progress-taking-place-growth-is-better-84009/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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John Prescott (born May 31, 1938) is a Politician from United Kingdom.

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