British Politician Quotes

The applications of science are not difficult, but without the science there are no applications.

Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair

56,000 companies have already benefited from the schemes that we have brought in. If we have taken the advice of the Conservative Party, no money would have been used. As Barack Obama said only yesterday, doing nothing is not an option.

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?

The only lasting solution is that Europe itself should gradually find its way to an internal equilibrium and a limitation of armaments by political appeasement.

Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian

Denis Healey: Can he assure us there is no question of American military intervention as this could only make the situation worse?
Sir Geoffrey Howe: There is no question of that.

Quitters have the good sense to admit their mistakes, cut their losses, and move on.

The tendency everywhere in America to concentrate power and responsibility in one man is unmistakable.

When all is said, the floating vote lives up to its name. It floats with the tide; and whoever would influence it must first influence the tide.

Richard Law, 1st Baron Coleraine

Kingdoms are but cares,
State is devoid of stay;
Riches are ready snares,
And hasten to decay.

Henry VI of England

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

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.

But a rise in the wages of labour would not equally affect commodities produced with machinery quickly consumed, and commodities produced with machinery slowly consumed.

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

It is in this context that Trotsky's attack on Stalin must be understood. Trotsky's attack on Stalin was not directed against Stalin as an individual but against someone who during the course of struggle had emerged as the most representative spokesman of the Bolshevik Party which was upholding, defending, and applying Leninism. The main target of Trotsky's attacks, therefore, was not Stalin but the Bolshevik Party. It was revolutionary Bolshevism - Leninism - that was under attack. It was an attack on the metodhs and forms of organisation of the Bolshevik Party - an attack on the fundamental Leninist policies pursued by the Party.

Every bodily process is pulsing to its own beat within the overall beat of the solar system.

Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington

I foresee a Liberal vote so massive and the number of Liberal MPs so great that we shall hold the initiative in the new Parliament.

People in this country have had enough of experts.

The evil was not in either ideal; the evil was in the attempt to impose that ideal by force upon others.

Making every allowance for the errors of the most extreme fallibility, the history of Catholicism would on this hypothesis represent an amount of imposture probably unequaled in the annals of the human race.

William Edward Hartpole Lecky

I believe with all my heart that the Church of Jesus Christ should be a Church of blurred edges.

When the British Empire finally sinks beneath the waves of history, it will leave behind it only two memorials: one is the game of Association Football and the other is the expression 'Fuck Off'.

Richard Turnbull (colonial governor)

Over and above all, we shall work for a Legislature, elected by the manhood and womanhood of Wales.

Thomas Edward Ellis

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

Maurice Edelman

I shall not hesitate to issue writs for libel and slander if scandalous allegations are made or repeated outside the House.

As a result of uncertainties caused by the French referendum, massive speculative flows have continued to disrupt the functioning of the exchange rate mechanism. As Chairman of Ecofin I have tonight called an urgent meeting of the EC's monetary committee to consider how stability might be restored to the markets over the next few days.
In the meantime the Government has decided that Britain's best interests would be best secured by suspending our membership of the ERM with immediate effect. As a result, the second of the two interest rate rises announced today will not take effect.