Edward Heath Quotes (60 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Famous Edward Heath Quotes

“Do you know what Margaret Thatcher did in her first Budget? Introduced VAT on yachts! It somewhat ruined my retirement.”

Edward Heath

1992.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“The British government and the British people have been through a searching debate during the last few years on the subject of their relations with Europe. The result of this debate has been our present application. It was a decision arrived at, not on any narrow or short-term grounds, but as a result of a thorough assessment over a considerable period of the needs of our own country, of Europe and of the free world as a whole. We recognise it as a great decision, a turning point in our history, and we take it in all seriousness. In saying that we wish to join the EEC, we mean that we desire to become full, whole-hearted and active members of the European Community in its widest sense and to go forward with you in the building of a new Europe.”

Edward Heath

Opening statement at the United Kingdom application to join the EEC in Paris (10 October 1961), quoted in Edward Heath, The Course of My Life (Hodder and Stoughton, 1998), p. 214.
Lord Privy Seal

“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

Describing the scene at Conservative central office after winning the 1970 general election.[citation needed]
Leader of the Opposition

“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

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (12 October 1968), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), p. 245.
Leader of the Opposition

“This would, at a stroke, reduce the rise in prices, increase production and reduce unemployment.”

Edward Heath

Statement (16 June 1970), quoted in The Times (17 June 1970), p. 4. This would be quoted back at Heath repeatedly during his premiership.
Leader of the Opposition

“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

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), p. 311.
Prime Minister

Edward Heath Quotes about people

“There's a lot of people I've encouraged and helped to get into the House of Commons. Looking at them now, I'm not so sure it was a wise thing to do.”

Edward Heath

1989.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“The miners' leaders have said more than once that they are confronting the Government, not the National Coal Board. I believe they may not yet have fully understood the implications of this approach. For it is just not the government—it is the expressed will of the elected representatives of the people in Parliament. That is the main difference between the dispute in 1972 and the dispute in 1973 and I believe that it will prove decisive. For the authority of the elected Parliament is the cornerstone of our democracy, and is recognized as such by the overwhelming majority of people in this country”

Edward Heath

Speech in Nelson, Lancashire (22 November 1973), quoted in The Times (23 November 1973), p. 2.
Prime Minister

“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

Interviewed in 1982 about Margaret Thatcher's attitude towards him and his government.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“What I have in common with the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) is that, undeniably, our generation came into Parliament because we were determined to prevent what happened in the 1930s from occurring again and to prevent a breakdown in the social structure and the political institutions that led to the rise of authoritarianism in Europe and finally to the Second World War. That was our determination, and for 25 years, from 1950 to 1975, the people we represented had a better standard of living, bigger and better homes, better education, a better Health Service, better roads and better transport and were able to enjoy holidays such as they had not envisaged before.”

Edward Heath

Speech in the House of Commons (27 November 1980) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1980/nov/27/industry-and-the-economy Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

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 (Hodder and Stoughton, 1998), p. 235.
Lord Privy Seal

“Progress in these policies can only be brought about if a considerable degree of consensus exists within our country. I have heard some doubt expressed as to what consensus means…Consensus means deliberately setting out to achieve the widest possible measure of agreement about our national policies, in this particular case about our economic activities, in the pursuit of a better standard of living for our people and a happier and more prosperous country. If there be any doubt about the desirability of working towards such a consensus let us recognize that every successful industrialized country in the modern world has been working on such a basis.”

Edward Heath

Speech to the Federation of Conservative Students in Manchester (6 October 1981), quoted in The Times (7 October 1981), p. 6. Margaret Thatcher had read Heath's advance text and responded http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104712 by saying that "To me consensus seems to be—the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no-one believes, but to which no-one objects". Post-Prime Ministerial

Edward Heath Quotes about homeland

“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

Broadcast to the nation (13 December 1973).[citation needed]
Prime Minister

“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

Speech in Wilton Park, Sussex (21 June 1971), quoted in The Times (22 June 1971), p. 5
Prime Minister

“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

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 (Hodder and Stoughton, 1998), p. 305.
Leader of the Opposition

“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

Television broadcast (15 June 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), p. 278.
Leader of the Opposition

“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

Interview with Newcastle's Metro Radio (2 June 1975), quoted in The Times (3 June 1975), p. 4
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech in Catterick, Yorkshire (29 May 1975), quoted in The Times (30 May 1975), p. 4
Post-Prime Ministerial

Edward Heath: Trending quotes

“For all Mr. Gorbachev's policies, is he prepared to see the break-up of the Soviet empire? I do not think so for one moment.”

Edward Heath

Speech in the House of Commons (14 July 1989) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1989/jul/14/foreign-affairs Post-Prime Ministerial

“I have always had a hidden wish, a frustrated desire, to run a hotel.”

Edward Heath

Speech at the Hotel Exhibition, Olympia, 1969.[citation needed]
Leader of the Opposition

“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

Newspaper article, February 1975.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

Edward Heath Quotes

“They have made a grave mistake choosing that woman.”

Edward Heath

On Margaret Thatcher's election to the leadership of the Tory Party, 1975.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“I was interested in being present for its first, and I trust only, performance.”

Edward Heath

After hearing a new choral work at Gloucester Cathedral, 1975.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech to Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool (14 October 1972), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), pp. 473-474.
Prime Minister

“We shall have a harder Christmas than we have known since the war.”

Edward Heath

ibid. Reported in Time magazine (24 December 1973). It was spoken on television. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj9OlIiHFo4 Prime Minister

“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

Speech in the House of Commons (27 November 1980) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1980/nov/27/industry-and-the-economy Post-Prime Ministerial

“I think Churchill would be appalled at the Thatcher government.”

Edward Heath

1989.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech in the House of Commons (15 May 1973) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1973/may/15/cbi-and-tuc-talks Prime Minister

“I am sure that entering the exchange rate mechanism was absolutely right and is still right. I regret that we did not do so five years earlier, but that is history. Economic monetary union must come as soon as possible, and with it the single currency. Industry wants the single currency, and we must pay attention to the requests and demands of industry.”

Edward Heath

Speech in the House of Commons (26 June 1991) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1991/jun/26/European-Community Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech to the Federation of Conservative Students in Manchester (6 October 1981), quoted in The Times (7 October 1981), p. 6.
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech in the House of Commons (11 April 1984) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1984/apr/11/local-government-interim-provisions-bill opposing the 'paving Bill' preparing for abolition of the Greater London Council, 1984. Post-Prime Ministerial

“He is not mad in the least. He's a very astute person, a clever person.”

Edward Heath

On Saddam Hussein, undated.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

February 1975.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“Whatever the lady does is wrong. I do not know of a single right decision taken by her.”

Edward Heath

1989.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“You'll lose.”

Edward Heath

His full response supposedly made to Margaret Thatcher when she informed him she would be standing against him for the Conservative leadership in 1975. Attributed to him in his Daily Telegraph obituary http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1494246/Sir-Edward-Heath.html (18 July 2005), although disputed by Heath's autobiography. Disputed

“One lonely voice still shouting labour!”

Edward Heath

During the 1970 election campaign.
Leader of the Opposition

“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

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), p. 311.
Prime Minister

“This is the new imperialism, and I am against the new imperialism. It is not our job to go throwing our forces around the world and saying 'This is an evil man and so on.”

Edward Heath

Remarks on the Gulf War on ITV, On the Record (3 February 1991), quoted in The Times (4 February 1991), p. 5.
Post-Prime Ministerial

“Rejoice! Rejoice!”

Edward Heath

On hearing the news of Margaret Thatcher's resignation (22 November 1990), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), p. 787. When asked later if it was true that he had issued such a joyful declaration on his rival's political demise, he said no. He hadn't said rejoice twice, he had said it three times.
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech in the House of Commons (30 January 1978) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1978/jan/30/employment Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Interview with Robin Day on BBC Panorama (28 January 1974), quoted in The Times (29 January 1974), p. 1.
Prime Minister

“Monetarism is dead and the alien doctrines of Friedman and Hayek remain only to be buried.”

Edward Heath

Speech in the House of Commons (15 March 1982) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1982/mar/15/budget-resolutions-and-economic-situation Post-Prime Ministerial

“To return to the question of strategy…The Falkland Islands are unlikely to cause a major explosion.”

Edward Heath

Speech in the House of Commons (7 July 1981) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1981/jul/07/defence-programme Post-Prime Ministerial

“It was the most enthralling episode in my life”

Edward Heath

Interviewed in 1984 about taking Britain into Europe.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“Peter Sissons: The single currency, a United States of Europe, was all that in your mind when you took Britain in?
Edward Heath: Of course, yes.”

Edward Heath

On BBC's Question Time (1 November 1990), quoted in Peter Sissons, When One Door Closes (Biteback, 2012).
Post-Prime Ministerial

“I don't think that modesty is the outstanding characteristic of contemporary politics, do you?”

Edward Heath

Comment in the Commons, December, 1988.
Post-Prime Ministerial

“You mustn't expect prime ministers to enjoy themselves. If they do, they mustn't show it – the population would be horrified.”

Edward Heath

Interview, November, 1976.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (10 October 1970), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), p. 310.
Prime Minister

“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

Speech in Scotland (10 September 1968) criticising free market ideas, quoted in The Times (11 September 1968), p. 1.
Leader of the Opposition

“Please don't applaud. It may irritate your neighbour.”

Edward Heath

Receiving a mixed reaction to his speech at the Conservative Party conference, Blackpool (14 October 1981), quoted in John Campbell, Edward Heath (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), p. 731.
Post-Prime Ministerial

“A tragedy for the party. He's got no ideas, no experience and no hope.”

Edward Heath

On William Hague's election to the leadership of the Conservative Party, 1997.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Interview on "Panorama", BBC 1 (16 October 1967).
Leader of the Opposition

“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

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.
Post-Prime Ministerial

“Our problem at the moment is a problem of success.”

Edward Heath

Six weeks before the three-day week, November 1973.[citation needed]
Prime Minister

“The incredible sulk.”

Edward Heath

Anonymous nickname referring to his complaints about Margaret Thatcher.
About

“Action, not words.”

Edward Heath

Title of 1966 Conservative election manifesto (publication GE 1).
Leader of the Opposition

“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

Speech to the Conservative Political Centre in Blackpool (12 October 1977), quoted in The Times (13 October 1977), p. 6
Post-Prime Ministerial

“Benn, Shore and Foot were like the three witches in Macbeth.”

Edward Heath

... In some darkened room of Transport House, on the very left of the building, they are busy boiling their own witches' brew. A dash of distortion here, an element of exaggeration there, all of course to be taken with a pinch of salt. And as they brew their myths, they delight in creating hubble, bubble, toil and trouble. ... [Benn] is probably the biggest bureaucrat and the wildest spendthrift that this country has ever known. But let us recognize the facts. Benn, Shore and Foot are using the Europe issue to brew up toil and trouble inside the Labour Party for their own ends. ...If there was a "No" vote in the referendum, we would find ourselves pulling out of Europe straight into the welcoming arms of the wild men of Labour's left.
Speech to the Conservative Group for Europe in Central Hall, Westminster (19 April 1975), quoted in The Times (21 April 1975), p. 4
Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

Speech in Paris (5 May 1970), quoted in The Times (24 December 1970), p. 3
Leader of the Opposition

“Everyone who is already here must be treated as equal before the law.”

Edward Heath

Interview with London Weekend Television's Man in the News (18 January 1970), quoted in The Times (19 January 1970), p. 1
Leader of the Opposition