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Harold Wilson
60 quotes
“Traders and financiers all over the world had been listening to the Chancellor. For months he had said that if he could not stop the wage claims, the country was "facing disaster". Those were his own words. Rightly or wrongly these people believed him. For them, 5th September—the day that the Trades Union Congress unanimously rejected the policy of wage restraint—marked the end of an era. And all these financiers, all the little gnomes in Zurich and the other financial centres about whom we keep on hearing, started to make their dispositions in regard to sterling.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (12 November 1956); often quoted as "gnomes of Zürich".
“We cannot accept that this is a little local matter within the control of South Africa's internal affairs. Oppression, apartheid, and racialism—those are crimes against humanity as a whole.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a May Day rally in Hyde Park (1 May 1960), quoted in The Times (2 May 1960), p. 6
“This party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton (1 October 1962), quoted in The Times (2 October 1962), p. 16
“The period of 15 years from the last time we were in Scarborough, in 1960, to the middle of the 1970s, will embrace a period of technical change, particularly in industrial methods, greater than the whole of the industrial revolution of the last 250 years.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In all our plans for the future, we are re-defining and we are re-stating our Socialism in terms of the scientific revolution. But that revolution cannot become a reality unless we are prepared to make far-reaching changes in economic and social attitudes which permeate our whole system of society. The Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated methods on either side of industry.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Labour Party conference (1 October 1963), quoted in Labour Party Annual Conference Report, 1963, pp. 139-140. Usually quoted as "the white heat of the technological revolution".
“This odious doctrine of apartheid at 11-plus. ... We reject it because as a nation we cannot afford artificially to segregate three-quarters of our children, and virtually cut them off from the normal chance of higher education.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions in London (19 February 1964), quoted in The Times (20 February 1964), p. 5
“You need men with fire in their bellies and humanity in their hearts. The choice we offer, starting today, is between standing still, of clinging to the tired philosophy of a day that is gone, or moving forward in partnership and unity to a just society, to a dynamic, expanding, confident and above all purposive new Britain. ... The spirit of 1945 is in the air again.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a Labour rally in Wembley Pool (12 September 1964), quoted in The Times (14 September 1964), p. 6
“Let us not be afraid to express the passionate concern everyone of us feels about present housing conditions. ... This is a problem which brooks no escape, no evasion. It is no use talking about a free market: the provision of decent housing for all is a clear and inescapable obligation of government.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a Labour rally in Wembley Pool (12 September 1964), quoted in The Times (14 September 1964), p. 6
“The government have only a small majority in the House of Commons. I want to make it quite clear that this will not affect our ability to govern. Having been charged with the duties of Government we intend to carry out those duties.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Television broadcast (October 1964), after winning the general election, quoted in David Butler, Coalitions in British Politics (Macmillan, London, 1978), p. 99.
“The Smethwick Conservatives can have the satisfaction of having topped the poll, and of having sent here as their Member one who, until a further General Election restores him to oblivion, will serve his term here as a Parliamentary leper”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (3 November 1964). The 1964 general election had seen the defeat of Wilson's Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker by Conservative Peter Griffiths after a racist campaign. Griffit…
“The answer is to increase industrial efficiency, to build up our exports, and to substitute home production for imports wherever this can be achieved competitively and economically, to broaden the base of our economy with capital investment, through the training of skilled manpower and the encouragement to accept change, to enable us to expand without running into strains and stresses such as have revealed themselves in past periods of expansion.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton (12 December 1964), quoted in The Times (14 December 1964), p. 14
“The measures we have taken, the further measures we shall be taking in the coming weeks, will create the conditions in which these problems are going to be solved. I believe that our people will respond to this challenge because our history shows that they misjudge us who underrate our ability as a nation to move, and to move decisively when the need arises. They misjudged our temper after Dunkirk, but we so mobilized our latent and untapped strength that apparent defeat was turned into a great victory. I believe that the spirit of Dunkirk will once again carry us through to success.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton (12 December 1964), quoted in The Times (14 December 1964), p. 14
“This country cannot afford now—if it ever could afford—unofficial strikes, wasteful stoppages, long, weary arguments about industrial demarcation, any more than we can afford out-of-date industrial methods, industrial promotion based on influence and connexion rather than technical ability, or management attitudes which give a higher priority to tax avoidance or the earning of quick, uncovenanted capital profits than to modernization and innovation in industrial production methods, or aggressiveness in exports.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton (12 December 1964), quoted in The Times (14 December 1964), p. 14
“Britain's frontiers are on the Himalayas”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the opening of the Nehru Memorial Exhibition, Royal Festival Hall, London (10 June 1965), quoted in "The Guardian" (11 June 1965), p. 1
“We have not been pushed around either abroad or at home and we are not going to be. This is government of the people; it is government for all the people, and the accent is on government.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool (28 September 1965), quoted in The Times (29 September 1965), p. 5.
“We are more interested in the monthly trade returns than in Debrett, more preoccupied with what is said by the industrial correspondents and economic editors than what is said by William Hickey; more concerned with modernizing the machinery of government and the action that will need to follow the report of the Estimates Committee on the Civil Service than in altering the layout of Burke's Landed Gentry.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool (28 September 1965), quoted in The Times (29 September 1965), p. 5.
“I know I speak for everyone in these islands, all parties, all our people, when I say to Mr. Smith tonight: "Prime Minister, think again".”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (12 October 1965), quoted in The Times (13 October 1965), p. 8, calling on the Government of Rhodesia not to declare independence.
“We have taken steps which have not been taken by any other democratic government in the world. We are taking steps with regard to prices and wages which no other government, even in wartime, has taken.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the White House (29 July 1966), quoted in The Times (30 July 1966), p. 1
“The greatest enemy that lies in our path in creating the kind of Britain we want to create is conservatism in all its forms. We cannot afford Tory conservatism, with its smug preoccupation, complacently looking on while the rest of the world passes us by.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton (4 October 1966), quoted in The Times (5 October 1966), p. 16
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France (23 January 1967), quoted in The New York Times (24 January 1967), p. 12.
“From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn't mean, of course, that the Pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (19 November 1967), following the devaluation of the Pound Sterling. Usually remembered as "the Pound in your pocket".
“I am not prepared to stand aside and see this country engulfed by the racial conflict which calculating orators or ignorant prejudice can create. Nor in the great world confrontation on race and colour, where this country must declare where it stands, am I prepared to be a neutral, whether that confrontation is in Birmingham or Bulawayo. In these issues there can be no neutrals and no escape from decision. For in the world of today, while political isolationism invites danger and economic isolationism invites bankruptcy, moral isolationism invites contempt.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a Labour rally in Birmingham Town Hall (5 May 1968), quoted in The Times (6 May 1968), p. 1
“We are the party of human rights—the only party of human rights that will be speaking from this platform this month. (Loud applause.) The struggle against racialism is a worldwide fight. It is the dignity of man for which we are fighting. If what we assert is true for Birmingham, it is true for Bulawayo. If ever there were a condemnation of the values of the party which forms the Opposition it is the fact that the virus of Powellism has taken so firm a hold at every level.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool (1 October 1968), quoted in The Times (2 October 1968), p. 4
“Hughie, get your tanks off my lawn.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to trade union leader Hugh Scanlon (c. 1969), as quoted in "Lord Scanlon" in The Telegraph (28 January 2004)
“May I say, for the benefit of those who have been carried away by the gossip of the last few days, that I know what's going on. [pause] I'm going on, and the Labour government's going on.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at a May Day rally in London (4 May 1969), quoted in The Times (5 May 1969), p. 1. There had been a series of reports that Wilson's leadership might be challenged.
“The last two years show that what Enoch [Powell] says today Edward [Heath] will be proclaiming as Tory policy anything from three to six months later...Selsdon Man is not just a lurch to the right, it is an atavistic desire to reverse the course of twenty-five years of social revolution. What they are planning is a wanton, calculated and deliberate return to greater inequality...The message to the British people would be simple and brutal. It would say, "You're out on your own".”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Nottingham (6 February 1970), quoted in The Times (7 February 1970), p. 1 and Phillip Whitehead, The Writing on the Wall: Britain in the Seventies (1985), p. 40
“[Tory domestic policies were directed to four aims:] To force up food prices; to force up prices of other essentials; to cut down the welfare services to means-tested levels; to force up rents in a free-for-all in housing. ... In borough after borough, city after city, we have learnt what Tory housing policy means. In many areas—not in all—cuts in the housing programme for basic needs; in all areas, higher rents.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a Labour rally in Birmingham (6 March 1970), quoted in The Times (7 March 1970), p. 3
“Chris Mullin: What do you regard as your biggest error? Harold Wilson: That I underestimated the power of speculation to knock government policy aside.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Torchlight (7 May 1970), quoted in Ben Pimlott, Harold Wilson (1992), p. 555
“I believe that the situation has now gone so far that it is impossible to conceive of an effective long-term solution in which the agenda at least does not include consideration of, and which is not in some way directed to finding a means of achieving, the aspirations envisaged half a century ago, of progress towards a united Ireland...A substantial term of years will be required before any concept of unification could become a reality, but the dream must be there. If men of moderation have nothing to hope for, men of violence will have something to shoot for.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (25 November 1971)
“I've been wading in shit for three months to allow others to indulge their conscience [on the EEC].”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to the Shadow Cabinet (1972), quoted in Denis Healey, The Time of My Life (1990), p. 360
“I'm like Baldwin. I'm here to give people a quiet life.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Bernard Donoughue during the February 1974 general election campaign, quoted in Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher. The Authorized Biography, Volume One: Not For Turning (2013), p. 246
“Yet people who benefit from this now viciously defy Westminster, purporting to act as though they were an elected government, spending their lives sponging on Westminster and British democracy and then systematically assault democratic methods. Who do these people think they are?”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (25 May 1974), referring to the Ulster Workers Council strike, quoted in The Times (27 May 1974), p. 2
“The people must have confidence in their publicly-owned industries. Private industry must have the necessary confidence to maintain and increase investment to do their duty by the people. And confidence demands that a clear frontier must be defined between what is public and what is private industry.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Socialist International Conference (30 June 1974), quoted in The Times (1 July 1974), p. 1
“I get a little nauseated, perhaps, when I hear the phrase "freedom of the Press" used as freely as it is, knowing that a large part of our proprietorial Press is not free at all”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (5 December 1974)
“I have never been emotionally a Europe man. I have been and remain fundamentally a Commonwealth man. I therefore cannot ignore the fact that the vast majority of Commonwealth countries now want Britain to stay in.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party conference on Britain's membership of the EEC (26 April 1975), quoted in The Times (28 April 1975), p. 4
“I intend to play it low-key throughout. The decision is purely a marginal one. I have always said so. I have never been a fanatic for Europe. I believe the judgment is a finely balanced one.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Barbara Castle (26 April 1975), quoted in Barbara Castle, The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (1980), p. 379
“The lead Britain can give and is already giving rests on the fact that we are a world-minded people. Britain will give a lead in political attitudes and political developments in Europe. We cannot do that by taking our bat home and sinking into an off-shore island mentality.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech during the European Communities membership referendum, quoted in The Times (4 June 1975), p. 5
“This Party needs to protect itself against the activities of small groups of inflexible political persuasion, extreme so-called left and in a few cases extreme so-called moderates, having in common only their arrogant dogmatism. These groups, equally the multichromatic coalitionist fringe or groups specifically formed to fight other marauding groups, these groups are not what this Party is about. Infestation of this kind thrives only, and can thrive only, in minuscule local parties.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Labour Party conference (30 September 1975), quoted in Labour Party Annual Conference Report 1975, pp. 186-187
“I want to talk to you as an old friend who has always been loyal to me. You are the only person I know who never leaks. I am getting tired of this job. I've spent thirteen years trying to keep this party together and it's been a pretty thankless task. Do you know I've only been to the theatre about twenty times in all those years? Because I have had to keep on top of everything that is happening.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Barbara Castle (4 March 1976), quoted in Barbara Castle, The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (1980), p. 671
“There are three groups on the Left. There is what is now called the "soft" Left, to which you and I and Michael always belonged. There is a middle group and then there are the really vicious group.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Barbara Castle (4 March 1976), quoted in Barbara Castle, The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (1980), p. 672
“Overseas anti-democratic forces have conspired for years to undermine the political position of individuals and parties who have opposed apartheid.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Parliamentary Press Gallery (12 May 1976), quoted in The Times (17 May 1976), p. 2
“I have always said about Tony [Benn] that he immatures with age.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with The Times (7 April 1981), p. 12
“It stems from the loss of the election and the growth of the 'cowboys'. The Labour Party has got out of the way of losing elections. We are now the natural party of government...These cowboys are absolute Trots. The number of Communists in the party is very small but the Trots are much more sinister. They are negative and have no policy. There is a fairly high number of—not intellectuals but let's say intelligentsia element there, stemming not least from the growth of sociology as a discipline in the universities.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with The Times (7 April 1981), p. 12
“Roy Jenkins? ...tended to knock off at 7 o'clock...a socialite rather than a Socialist...The SDP. It's not a party, it's a clique or a click, as they say up 'ere. As for Dr Owen and Mr Rodgers, I never thought of them as Cabinet calibre...perfectly good junior ministers. Jim [Callaghan] took a different view. I had retired by then—voluntarily—which is a very unusual thing in politics.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference during the Warrington by-election (15 July 1981), quoted in The Times (16 July 1981), p. 28
“[H]e was extremely pleased with the things President Reagan had done. One feels in Europe there is somebody in charge.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to correspondents in New York (21 September 1981), quoted in The Times (22 September 1981), p. 6
“President Reagan is likely to be more successful in dealing with the Soviet Union than any recent American leader. ... he had been impressed with Mr Reagan's instincts and style.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Indiana University (4 October 1982), quoted in The Times (5 October 1982), p. 4
“Begin, Shamir and Sharon were the evil three. Sharon is the most evil man I've run across in Israeli politics. [I regarded myself when Prime Minister as] the best friend Israel had in the Western world.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Indiana University (4 October 1982) after the Beirut massacre, quoted in The Times (5 October 1982), p. 4
“The nation yesterday was awaiting a clear, statesmanlike call from the Chancellor of the efforts and, if necessary, the sacrifices that are needed to lift the country out of the perpetual series of crises and near crises that have dogged us ever since the war. That was what we were led to believe would happen. What did we get? We had a shambling, fumbling, largely irrelevant and, at one point, degrading speech. The Chancellor told us that the Budget was prepared under the piercing eye of Mr. Gladstone. There was one passage that was quite obviously written under a portrait of Horatio Bottomley.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (18 April 1956)
“A second devaluation would be regarded all over the world as an acknowledgement of defeat, a recognition that we were not on a springboard, but a slide. I myself have always deprecated—perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly—in crisis after crisis, appeals to the Dunkirk spirit as an answer to our problem, because what is required in our economic situation is not a brief period of inspired improvisation, work and sacrifice, such as we had under the leadership of the right hon. Member for Woodford (Sir W. Churchill), but a very long, hard, prolonged period of reorganisation and rededication. It is the long haul, not the inspired spurt, that we need.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (26 July 1961)
“I have stated these Commonwealth problems in terms of hard economic facts, but I should be the last to disagree with those hon. Members on both sides of the House who put the problem in yesterday's debate in terms more of sentiment, kinship and bonds of a less materialistic character than those that I have been describing. … I submit to the House that we cannot consistently with the honour of this country take any action now that would betray friends such as those. … if there has to be a choice [between the Commonwealth and Europe] we are not entitled to sell our friends and kinsmen down the river for a problematical and marginal advantage in selling washing machines in Dusseldorf.”
Harold Wilson (1916–1995) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (3 August 1961) on Britain's application to join the European Economic Community