British Politician Quotes

For you alone I ride the ring,
For you I wear the blue;
For you alone I strive to sing,
O tell me how to woo!

Robert Cunninghame-Grahame of Gartmore

Politicians who wish to succeed must be prepared to dissemble, at times to lie. All deceit is bad. In politics some deceit or moral dishonesty is the oil without which the machinery would not work.

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 country is going down the drain, and they are squabbling about the size of the plughole.

[National Socialism] has survived the flames of war and the tempest of vilification because, when war has done its worst and vilification has run its entire gamut, National Socialism remains, in the final analysis, synonymous with higher man's will to survive, his instinct for health and strength, and his desire for beauty in life; and, as long as that will, that instinct, and that desire remain on this earth, the creed of National Socialism will remain, indestructible.

The archbishop [Archbishop Runcie] is usually to be found nailing his colors to the fence.

Method is everything in archaeology, my boy. Why, we always deal with our finds in order.

Sir Joseph Scott, 1st Baronet

Where the Left imagine social justice to be the realization of certain abstract ideas — equality and emancipation — the Right see it as a system of naturally occurring and beneficial relationships. Social justice is the fulfilment of the individual's need for positive liberty through social membership.

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

Everyone knows that the Chinese regime is coming to an end. I just say to the people in China who are guilty of crimes of genocide, such as harvesting organs from Falun Gong prisoners—we know your names. We know what you're doing… and you will be punished. This is the world of 2006 and beyond. It is a world of human rights and democracy, and a world in which the CCP has no place.

Edward McMillan-Scott

Of Margaret Thatcher:

She cannot see an institution without hitting it with her handbag.

Julian Critchley

Cheese. Shropshire Blue—it's so high in calorific content you need only rub against it, and that's enough.

On why he is so large

We are fed up with fudging and mudging, with mush and slush. We need courage, conviction, and hard work.

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

Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington

The colonization and exploitation of Africa and the enslavement of African people must be the biggest crime in the whole of history, and one from which we still suffer, both materially and psychologically. Yet we never had even an apology, let alone any form of compensation.

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 Margaret thatcher:

She was a tigress surrounded by hamsters.

The fact is, we're looking for a very small number of very evil needles in a very large haystack, which is the city of London.

The only exercise I ever take is walking up hospital stairs to visit friends who've damaged themselves by taking exercise.

Stormont Mancroft, 2nd Baron Mancroft

Before the Battle of Trafalgar:

Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter.

Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

If you lived in Sheffield and were called Sebastian, you had to learn to run fast at a very early stage.

The people of this country are not idle. Let no man tell me this, when I see a peasant from Connaught going over to reap the harvest in England.

I never really needed a nickname at school. Although it was bad for me it was much worse for my sister Ophelia.

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

What is more dull than a discreet diary? One might just as well have a discreet soul.