British Politician Quotes

In the last Parliament, the House of Commons had more MPs called John than all the women MPs put together.

It is no good putting up notices saying 'Beware of the bull' because very rude things are sometimes written on them. I have found that one of the most effective notices is 'Beware of the Agapanthus'.

Viscount Massereene

When I came here seventeen years ago and I said that I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me — well, I have to say, yow're not laughing now, are you?

No one for a moment can pretend that printing is so great a discovery as writing, or algebra as a language.

Benjamin Disraeli

We can all agree–it has already been a measure of the debate–that Saddam Hussein is an evil tyrant with no regard for the sanctity of human life, for either his own citizens or the people of other countries. We all agree that he is in flagrant breach of a series of UN resolutions, and in particular those relating to his duty to allow the inspection, and indeed participate in the destruction, of his weapons of mass destruction. We can also agree that he most certainly has chemical and biological weapons and is working towards a nuclear capability. The dossier contains confirmation of information that we either knew or most certainly should have been willing to assume.

Menzies Campbell

A system which betrays the greatest distrust of the people must never look for popular support.

Politicians are like monkeys. The higher they climb, the more revolting are the parts they expose.

Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby

If a sportsman true you'd be
Listen carefully to me.
Never, never let your gun
Pointed be at any one;
That it may unloaded be
Matters not the least to me.

Mark Hanbury Beaufoy

Trial by jury, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, will be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.

Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman

When once you have plunged into the strife for power, it is the fear of those who are seeking for power over you that so easily persuades to all the great crimes.

Auberon Herbert

A long line of cases shows that it is not merely of some importance, but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.

Of course there are regrets. I shall regret always that I found my own authentic voice in politics. I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive. Later, too often on the back foot.

After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, "Lies — damned lies — and statistics," still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of.

Leonard H. Courtney

The Conservative Party always in time forgives those who were wrong. Indeed often, in time, they forgive those who were right.

Under David Cameron, we have this situation where you now need more qualifications to work as a shift manager at McDonald's than to become a teacher.

Of British Cabinet government:

I don't think collective responsibility is a myth. I think it is a reality. It is cumbersome. It is difficult. It has all sorts of disadvantages and it is possible it may need to change [...] probably under any of these systems it is going to be a bit of a shambles. But I do think it has got to be, so far as possible, a democratic and accountable shambles.

John Hunt, Baron Hunt of Tanworth

Of Margaret thatcher:

She was a tigress surrounded by hamsters.

I expected to find a contest between a government and a people: I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state.

Of Canada

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham

Look, my job is to upset The Guardian and the BBC. I love it, I love it.

We are now more Socialist in many ways than any other developed country outside the Communist bloc—in the size of the public sector, the range of controls and the telescoping of net income. And what is the result? Compare our position today with that of our neighbours in north west Europe—Germany, Sweden, Holland, France. They are no more talented than we are. Yet, compared with them, we have the longest working hours, the lowest pay and the lowest production per head. We have the highest taxes and the lowest investment. We have the least prosperity, the most poor and the lowest pensions. We have the largest nationalized sector and the worst labour troubles.

Religion and Science are to be finally reconciled... when Religion has abandoned every dogma and every positive belief, and takes the shape of a final negative proposition that Science never rejected [that its explanations are proximate and relative], and has long affirmed.

J. M. Robertson

The personality conveyed by the utterances which are put into her mouth is that of a priggish schoolgirl, captain of the hockey team, a prefect, and a recent candidate for confirmation. It is not thus that she will be able to come into her own as an independent and distinctive character.

Of Queen Elizabeth II

You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy…In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy. Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King.

I dislike censorship. Like an appendix it is useless when inert and dangerous when active.

Maurice Edelman

India has left a deeper mark upon the history the philosophy and the religion of mankind than any other terrestrial unit in the universe.

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston