Edward Heath: Doing

Edward Heath was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1970–1974). Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Edward Heath: 120 quotes0 likes

“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

“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 <br class="br">Post-Prime Ministerial

“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

“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 <br class="br">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

“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 <br class="br">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

“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 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

“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 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