Edward Heath: Trending quotes

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“It was the most enthralling episode in my life”

Edward Heath

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

“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

“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“That, although a century out of date, would certainly be a distinctive, different policy.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

“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

“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