If you could edit your past, what would you change?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Keir Starmer said elsewhere, not written here
My mum died in her early 70s, and for the last six or seven years of her life she couldn’t move, didn’t speak. By the time our children were born, she was too ill to communicate. I haven’t many regrets in life, but I do regret that they never got to know her, even though she was still alive for a few years. They couldn’t see her warmth, her spirit, her courage.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Rosanna Arquette American actress
I would have skipped the time my daughter was nine to 13, when I was in a toxic relationship.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2021 source ↗
Sandi Toksvig Danish and British broadcaster, comedian and writer
I wouldn’t bother learning how to use logarithms, and I might give netball a miss.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 March 2018 source ↗

More from Keir Starmer

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Question What is the worst job you have done? Craft & work
Leader of the opposition. I worked with the police service in Northern Ireland and then ran the Crown Prosecution Service. In each of those jobs, if something needed fixing, I could fix it. As leader of the opposition, you are not in power and it’s the most frustrating job I’ve ever had, and a job I hope I don’t have for much longer.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗
Question Which moment embarrassed you most? Failure & regret
When I was appointed director of public prosecutions, I had a government car and visited the security services. When I came out, I got into the back of what I thought was my car, but it was somebody’s private car and they told me in no uncertain terms to get out. I had to reverse out with as much dignity as I could, with the head of security services watching.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗

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