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Edward Heath

65 quotes

“The end of the negotiations is a blow to the cause of the wider European unity for which we have been striving. We are a part of Europe, by geography, history, culture, tradition and civilization … There have been times in the history of Europe when it has been only too plain how European we are; and there have been many millions of people who have been grateful for it. I say to my colleagues: they should have no fear. We in Britain are not going to turn out backs on the mainland of Europe or the countries of the Community.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at European conference after France vetoed the British application to join the EEC (28 January 1963), quoted in Edward Heath, The Course of My Life (1998), p. 235.
“Action, not words.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Title of 1966 Conservative election manifesto (publication GE 1).
“Robin Day: But how low does your personal rating, among your own supporters, have to go before you consider yourself a liability to the party you lead? Edward Heath: Well, popularity isn't everything. In fact it isn't the most important thing. What matters is doing what you believe to be right, and that's what I've always tried to do and I shall go on doing. The question doesn't arise.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on Panorama, BBC 1 (16 October 1967).
“I have told Mr Powell that I consider the speech he made in Birmingham yesterday to have been racialist in tone and liable to exacerbate racial tensions. This is unacceptable from one of the leaders of the Conservative Party”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (21 April 1968), as cited in "Enoch Powell dismissed for 'racialist' speech", The Guardian (22 April 1968; April 2018 reprint)
“That, although a century out of date, would certainly be a distinctive, different policy. But it would not be a Conservative policy and it would not provide a Conservative alternative. For better or worse the central Government is already responsible, in some way or another, for nearly half the activities of Britain. It is by far the biggest spender and the biggest employer.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Scotland (10 September 1968) criticising free market ideas, quoted in The Times (11 September 1968), p. 1.
“If there are any who believe that immigrants to this country, most of whom have already become British citizens, could be forcibly deported because they are coloured people...then that I must repudiate, absolutely and completely.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Party Conference (12 October 1968), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), p. 245.
“I have always had a hidden wish, a frustrated desire, to run a hotel.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the Hotel Exhibition, Olympia, 1969.
“My position has remained the same. I have had more to do, at first hand, with European policy than any other person in politics today.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Robin Day on BBC Panorama (6 October 1969), quoted in The Times (7 October 1969), p. 1
“The conclusion of Mr. Powell's latest speech as I understand it—certainly its implication—is that we should do nothing to help boroughs and cities like Birmingham and Wolverhampton that have these problems, in the hope that if only we let the housing get bad enough, the schools overcrowded enough, and the social services overburdened enough, the immigrants will go away of their own accord, and the problems will disappear. It is an example of man's inhumanity to man which is absolutely intolerable in a Christian, civilized society.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with BBC Radio's The World This Weekend (18 January 1970), quoted in The Times (19 January 1970), p. 1
“Everyone who is already here must be treated as equal before the law.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with London Weekend Television's Man in the News (18 January 1970), quoted in The Times (19 January 1970), p. 1
“It would not be in the interests of the Community that its enlargement should take place except with the full-hearted consent of the parliaments and its peoples of the new member countries.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Paris (5 May 1970), quoted in The Times (24 December 1970), p. 3
“We may be a small island. We're not a small people... For the last six years the Government of this country...have let us be treated as second rate. They even plan for us to stay second rate. Because that's what Labour policies mean... Now I don't intend to stand by and see this happen... Do you want a better tomorrow? ... That's what I will work for with all my strength and with all my heart. I give you my word and I will keep my word.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Television broadcast (15 June 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), p. 278.
“This would, at a stroke, reduce the rise in prices, increase production and reduce unemployment.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (16 June 1970), quoted in The Times (17 June 1970), p. 4. This would be quoted back at Heath repeatedly during his premiership.
“This was a secret meeting on a secret tour which nobody is supposed to know about. It means that there are men, and perhaps women, in this country walking around with eggs in their pockets, just on the off-chance of seeing the Prime Minister.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to the press after Harold Wilson was hit by eggs thrown by demonstrators on two successive days (1 June 1970), quoted in Edward Heath, The Course of My Life (1998), p. 305.
“It was wildly exciting. It certainly wasn't the highest feeling I've ever had, but it was one of them. In those days, security was not as good as today. Just afterwards, some chap was able to get at me and stab the back of my neck with a cigarette. It wasn't very pleasant.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Describing the scene at Conservative central office after winning the 1970 general election.
“One lonely voice still shouting labour!”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During the 1970 election campaign.
“You will see that our strategy is clear. It is to reorganise the functions of Government, to leave more to individual or to corporate effort, to make savings in Government expenditure, to provide room for greater incentives to men and women and to firms and businesses. Our strategy is to encourage them more and more to take their own decisions, to stand on their own feet, to accept responsibility for themselves and for their families.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), p. 310
“No one can deny that today the major cause of the inflation from which we are suffering is the excessive wage demands... It is the responsibility of an employer, direct or indirect...if they go their own way and accede to irresponsible wage demands which damage their own firms and create a loss of jobs for those who work in them, then the Government are certainly not going to step in and rescue them from the consequences of their own actions.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), p. 311
“We will have to embark on a change so radical, a revolution so quiet and yet so total, that it will go far beyond the programme for a parliament.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), p. 311
“[W]e must recognise a new threat to the peace of the nations, indeed to the very fabric of society. We have seen in the last few years the growth of a cult of political violence, preached and practised not so much between states as within them. It is a sombre thought but it may be that in the 1970s civil war, not war between nations, will be the main danger we will face.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[I]ncreasingly the use of violence has become not the last resort of the desperate, but the first resort of those whose simple unconstructive aim is anarchy. That we must all surely resist. Anarchy is not a prescription for peace, justice and progress. It achieves nothing but the suffering of innocent men and women.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations (23 October 1970), quoted in The Times (24 October 1970), p. 5
“Do we have the courage to forget the dissensions and the suspicions that have divided us, and to learn to work together for lasting peace and prosperity, not just for our country but for a continent? Do we have the wisdom to achieve by construction and cooperation what Napoleon and Hitler failed to achieve by destruction and by conquest? ... Let us all recognise the opportunity that is now presented to us for what it is: the chance to unite Western Europe.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Women's annual conference in Central Hall, Westminster (19 May 1971), quoted in The Times (20 May 1971), p. 5
“There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty, even that we shall begin to lose our national identity. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified and exaggerated. We shall, of course, be accepting the common procedures of Community life, just as we accept those of other organizations which we have joined. But within the framework of a developing Community the identity of national states will be maintained.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Wilton Park, Sussex (21 June 1971), quoted in The Times (22 June 1971), p. 5
“Government, management and unions...have now...jointly embarked for the first time in Britain, on the path of working out together how to create and share the nation's wealth for the benefit of all the people. It is an offer to employers and unions to share fully with the Government the benefits and the obligations involved in running the national economy.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool (14 October 1972), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), pp. 473-474
“It is the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism, but one should not suggest that the whole of British industry consists of practices of this kind.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (15 May 1973)
“Our problem at the moment is a problem of success.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Six weeks before the three-day week, November 1973.
“As Prime Minister, I want to speak to you, simply and plainly, about the grave emergency now facing our country. In the House of Commons this afternoon I announced more severe restriction on the use of electricity. You may already have heard the details of these. We are asking you to to cut down to the absolute minimum the use of electricity for heating, and for other purposes in your homes. We are limiting the use of electricity by almost all factories, shops, and offices, to three days a week.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast to the nation (13 December 1973).
“We shall have a harder Christmas than we have known since the war.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ibid. Reported in Time magazine (24 December 1973). It was spoken on television.
“He [Mick McGahey] has made it quite plain over the weekend—as has another miners' leader—that the object of what they are doing is not a wage negotiation... Its purpose is...to get rid of the elected government of the day. Now that is entirely a political approach and, he has said quite openly, he wishes to do it in order to get a left-wing government and obviously he expects a left-wing government to toe the line as far as he is concerned.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Robin Day on BBC Panorama (28 January 1974), quoted in The Times (29 January 1974), p. 1
“I was interested in being present for its first, and I trust only, performance.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After hearing a new choral work at Gloucester Cathedral, 1975.
“In excluding me from the shadow cabinet, Margaret Thatcher has chosen what I believe to be the only wholly honest solution and one which I accept and welcome.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: February 1975.
“The historic role of the Conservative Party is to use the leverage of its political and diplomatic skills to create a fresh balance between the different elements within the state at those times when, for one reason or another, their imbalance threatens to disrupt the orderly development of society.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Newspaper article, February 1975.
“They have made a grave mistake choosing that woman.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Margaret Thatcher's election to the leadership of the Tory Party, 1975.
“[If Britain withdrew from the EEC] the wild men of the left would certainly try to build a barrier against the outside world. But they would be confronted by such powerful economic gales that they would be forced to build the barriers higher and higher until they had finally built an economic Berlin wall around Britain. Within that wall would be a socialist state running a siege economy.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire (28 April 1975), quoted in The Times (29 April 1975), p. 2
“[If Britain withdrew from the EEC] it would be a new and different D-Day for Britain—Disaster Day. Of course, this is what the wild men of the left, Mr Benn, Mr Shore and Mr Foot actually want. They thrive on a diet of disaster...they are aching for the go-ahead to build an economic Berlin wall around Britain. And within that British Berlin wall, there would be a socialist State running a siege economy.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Newcastle (2 May 1975), quoted in The Times (3 May 1975), p. 4
“We would find ourselves pulling out of the European Community straight into the arms of the wild men of the left. The whole country would be plagued with Foot and Benn disease ... The left are not really all that interested in the Common Market. What they want is for Britain to break her treaty obligations and pull out of the Community so that they could impose their own extreme socialist state in Britain.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Catterick, Yorkshire (29 May 1975), quoted in The Times (30 May 1975), p. 4
“I regard Mr Benn as a menace to the country. He was guilty of sabotage last year when he rejected an offer of Community help with the readjustment necessary due to steel plant closures in Wales.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Newcastle's Metro Radio (2 June 1975), quoted in The Times (3 June 1975), p. 4
“You mustn't expect prime ministers to enjoy themselves. If they do, they mustn't show it – the population would be horrified.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, November, 1976.
“The Pax Americana has gone the way of the Pax Britannica ... The implication for us in Europe is twofold. First, we shall no longer be able to enjoy the luxury of urging the Americans to put right anything of which we disapprove anywhere in the world and then of criticizing them for the way they do it; and secondly, we shall have to undertake a proper share of the burden of Western defence if American support for the Western Alliance is to be sustained. That share can be underpinned only by a strong and expanding European economy.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Political Centre in Blackpool (12 October 1977), quoted in The Times (13 October 1977), p. 6
“I am sometimes accused of being oversensitive about unemployment. I do not believe that that is possible, certainly not for anyone who lived through the 1930s and saw the political consequences of high unemployment throughout Western Europe and what happened in 1939.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (30 January 1978)
“The opponents of EEC membership inside the Labour Party know how much more difficult it would be to foist their brand of left-wing socialism on the British people if we remain part of a Community based on the principles of free enterprise and the mixed economy. We in the Conservative Party must vigorously oppose this ominous development.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservative Group for Europe after the Labour Party conference voted for Britain to leave the European Economic Community, quoted in The Times (9 October 1980), p. 6.
“We are now faced with massive unemployment, on a scale certainly at the level of the 1930s and to become greater. The improvement in housing, education and the standard of living has stopped. To all of us, that is a matter of the greatest possible regret... One of our intentions after the 1930s was to ensure that the Conservative Party was never again considered to be the party of unemployment. I ask my hon. Friends to think seriously about that in our present circumstances.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (27 November 1980)
“To return to the question of strategy... The Falkland Islands are unlikely to cause a major explosion.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (7 July 1981)
“The time has come to speak out. Britain is now locked in a vicious spiralling interest rates... The net result of completing the vicious circle is that prices have increased, the rate of inflation has gone up, the money supply has increased, unemployment has gone up, the rate of bankruptcies has increased, the industrial base has been further eroded, the Government's borrowing requirement has increased and as a result there is more pressure to raise interest rates yet again, to be followed inevitably by the same vicious circle. It is this that must be broken.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Federation of Conservative Students in Manchester (6 October 1981), quoted in The Times (7 October 1981), p. 6.
“Please don't applaud. It may irritate your neighbour.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Receiving a mixed reaction to his speech at the Conservative Party conference, Blackpool (14 October 1981), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993), p. 731
“Monetarism is dead and the alien doctrines of Friedman and Hayek remain only to be buried.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (15 March 1982)
“We have had eight years of consistent and persistent attacks on those four years in government - and on me, personally, but that does not matter - by people who were collectively responsible for those four years.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed in 1982 about Margaret Thatcher's attitude towards him and his government.
“He is not mad in the least. He's a very astute person, a clever person.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is bad because it is a negation of democracy … Worst of all is the imposition by parliamentary diktat of a change of responsible party in London government. There cannot be any justification for that. It immediately lays the Conservative Party open to the charge of the greatest gerrymandering in the last 150 years of British history.”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (11 April 1984) opposing the 'paving Bill' preparing for abolition of the Greater London Council, 1984.
“It was the most enthralling episode in my life”
Edward Heath (1916–2005) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed in 1984 about taking Britain into Europe.