Alec Douglas-Home citations (14 citations)

Alec Douglas-Home: 14 citations 0 J'aime

Alec Douglas-Home: Citations en anglais

“This is a counter-revolution. After half a century of democratic advance, of social revolution, of rising expectations, the whole process has ground to a halt with a fourteenth Earl.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

"Labour would reject move to postpone M.P.s' return", The Times, 21 October 1963, p. 6.
Harold Wilson speaking at Manchester, 19 October 1963, shortly after Douglas-Home's appointment as Prime Minister.
About

“I suppose, when you come to think of it, he is the fourteenth Mr Wilson.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

David Butler and Gareth Butler, "Twentieth Century British Political Facts", p. 292.
Television interview with Kenneth Harris, 21 October 1963, responding to Wilson (see below).
Prime Minister

“No, because I do my sums with matchsticks.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Explore Parliament website, accessed 6 September 2006 http://www.explore-parliament.net/nssMovies/03/0378/0378_.htm
Asked whether he could become Prime Minister in an interview with The Observer in 1962. The comment was taken to refer to his lack of economic ability.
Foreign Secretary

“In 1940, he was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis and was immobilised for two years. Afterwards, he said that it was the first time in medical history that they had succeeded in inserting a backbone into a politician.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Attributed

“Now you can see me in the flesh, and I don't really look as I'm made to look on television.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

D.E. Butler and Anthony King, "The British General Election of 1964", p. 147.
Remark frequently made during the 1964 general election campaign.
Prime Minister

“Douglas-Home: Can you not make me look better than I do on television? I look rather scraggy, like a ghost.
Make-up girl: No.
Douglas-Home: Why not?
Make-up girl: Because you have a head like a skull.
Douglas-Home: Doesn't everyone have a head like a skull?
Make-up girl: No.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Michael Cockerell, "Live from Number 10", p. 105.
A story told by Douglas-Home about going on television in the 1964 election.
Attributed

“I think there is a strong reason for having PR as the method of election to the House of Lords because I do not think anyone would want to reproduce the House of Commons of the day in the second Chamber.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Press conference at Conservative Central Office (20 March 1978), quoted in The Times (21 March 1978), p. 2
Later life

“Britain is not earning her living. We are not keeping pace with the economic performance of our European and North American neighbours, and we are certainly not achieving the potential that is in us. … At the end of a war of prolonged sacrifice we were left with much obsolete industrial plant, and a short-fall in the capital necessary to scrap and renew it. For a century we had lived on cheap food and raw materials imported from overseas. They are not and will not in future be available to us. … We cannot continue to live beyond or ability or our willingness to earn. That is the one basic fact with which Britain has yet to come to terms.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

'Foreword' (June 1977), Patrick Hutber (ed.), What's Wrong with Britain? (Sphere, 1978), p. 7
Later life

“There is the chance, too, if we have the imagination to see it, to resurrect the vitality of European civilisation and give to our new generation of Europeans the inspiration to set against the alien but undeniably dynamic, almost religious, creed of Communism. At this point in time when we are seeking reconciliation and yet are faced with increasing evidence of militancy everywhere, I look to an active European Community as a necessary complement to the NATO Alliance.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1975/apr/21/european-community-membership#S5LV0359P0_19750421_HOL_73 in the House of Lords (21 April 1975)
Later life

“We also believe that we should have the power to assist voluntary repatriation, that the dependents must be counted against the limits on numbers, and that the total should be further reduced. … Without the measures outlined, those of us who have studied this question at close quarters are increasingly fearful that an intractable racial problem will be introduced into Britain and may become endemic if we are not careful. This, in our view, must not be allowed. Therefore it is time to bring this problem into the open and not be afraid to talk about it. Those who speak about it in a responsible way should not be charged with racial prejudice.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Speech in Hampstead (3 February 1965), quoted in The Times (4 February 1965), p. 12
Leader of the Opposition

“What had been a trickle of immigrants from the Commonwealth was developing into a flood. We saw that if it was not brought under control it would create very serious social and economic problems—problems of employment, housing and education, for instance. So we brought in legislation. The socialists—aided by the Liberals—opposed it all along the line.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Speech in Bradford (6 October 1964), quoted in The Times (7 October 1964), p. 12
Prime Minister

“Our philosophy is to use what is good from the past to create a future which is better. But these pages are not an introduction to an easy, sheltered life. No country has an inherited right to wealth or influence. Prosperity has to be worked for. The future will be assured only if our people recognize the simple economic rules which must be kept by a country dependent on earning its living in a competitive world. This manifesto points the way.”

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Alec Douglas-Home

Preface to the Conservative Party manifesto Prosperity with a Purpose (17 September 1964), quoted in The Times (18 September 1964), p. 16
Prime Minister