Denis Winston Healey, né à Mottingham le 30 août 1917 et mort à Alfriston le 3 octobre 2015, est un homme politique britannique, membre du Parti travailliste.
Après des études brillantes et une carrière militaire remarquable, il s'engage en politique après la Seconde Guerre mondiale et accède à de nombreuses responsabilités, notamment dans le domaine de la Défense comme Secrétaire d'État à la Défense de 1964 à 1970, mais surtout dans celui de l'économie. En tant que Chancelier de l'Échiquier entre 1974 et 1979, il doit faire face aux graves crises économiques de cette période. Il prend alors des décisions radicales, parfois critiquées dans son propre camp malgré leur efficacité. Bien que très présent sur la scène politique nationale pendant toute sa carrière, il n'accède jamais à la fonction la plus élevée, manquant plusieurs fois de peu une possible nomination comme Premier ministre. Remarquable par sa grande culture, son franc-parler et son insolence, Denis Healey marque l'histoire du Parti travailliste au XXe siècle par son courage politique comme par ses saillies insolentes et ses discours tonitruants.
Wikipedia
“Squeeze property speculators until the pips squeak”
Speech in Lincoln (18 February 1974), quoted in The Times (19 February 1974), p. 4. Misreported as "tax the rich until the pips squeak". "The pips squeak" metaphor was originated by Sir Eric Campbell-Geddes and later used by David Lloyd-George.
1970s
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1969/mar/05/defence in the House of Commons (5 March 1969).
1960s
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1975/dec/17/employment in the House of Commons (17 December 1975)
1970s
On BBC TV (15 December 1976).
1970s
“It has never been my nature, I regret to admit to the House, to turn the other cheek.”
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1974/dec/18/the-economy in the House of Commons (18 December 1974)
1970s
Speech in Birmingham (1 June 1983), quoted in The Times (2 June 1983), p. 1. Healey withdrew the remark "glories in slaughter" the next day and claimed he should have said "conflict" rather than "slaughter" (The Times (3 June 1983), p. 1)
1980s
“By the end of next year, we really shall be on our way to that so-called economic miracle we need.”
In an Ministerial broadcast on the Budget (6 April 1976).
1970s
Speech to the twelfth congress of the Confederation of Socialist Parties of the EEC in Paris (12 November 1982), quoted in The Times (13 November 1982), p. 3
1980s
Answering a suggestion that the Soviets would prefer a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher than a Labour government headed by Neil Kinnock at a press conference in Moscow after a meeting with Anatoly Dobrynin (11 May 1987), quoted in E. B. Geelhoed, Margaret Thatcher: In Victory and Downfall, 1987 and 1990 (Greenwood, 1992), pp. 120-1.
1980s
Source: Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1978/jun/14/economic-situation in the House of Commons (14 June 1978) on Sir Geoffrey Howe
Speech at the Labour Party Conference (30 September 1976), quoted in Labour Party Annual Conference Report 1976, p. 319. Healey had been forced to abandon plans to attend an international finance ministers' conference in order to speak to the conference because of a run on the pound.
1970s
On unilateral nuclear disarmament. (The Guardian, 15 September 1981).
1980s
The London Standard (30 September 1986).
1980s
On BBC Television's Panorama programme (22 January, 1968).
1960s
On the 1983 general election (The News of the World, 19 June 1983).
1980s
Speech to the Labour Party Conference at Blackpool (1 October 1973).
1970s
The Guardian (14 August 1981).
1980s
Interview for La Stampa (5 April 1986), quoted in The Times (7 April 1986), p. 2
1980s
Speech in York (2 June 1973), quoted in The Times (4 June 1973), p. 2.
1970s
Explaining Labour's defeat in the 1983 election in an interview in Marxism Today (April 1986) http://banmarchive.org.uk/collections/mt/pdf/86_04_24.pdf
1980s
“He must be out of his tiny Chinese mind.”
Attacking Ian Mikardo, a left-wing critic of spending cuts, using a phrase of the comedienne Hermione Gingold (The Daily Telegraph, 24 February, 1976), quoted in Denis Healey The Time of My Life (Penguin, 1990), p. 444
1970s
Interview https://www.channel4.com/news/by/michael-crick/blogs/healey-case-for-leaving-europe-stronger-than-staying with Michael Crick (9 May 2013)
2010s
1970s
Source: Speech to the East Leeds Labour Club (10 January 1975), quoted in The Times (11 January 1975), p. 1
Remark at a meeting in No. 10 Downing Street (2 May 1977), quoted in Bernard Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, Volume Two: With James Callaghan in No. 10 (2008), p. 182
1970s
“The owl of Minerva only flies abroad when the shades of night are gathering.”
Source: 'The Owl and the Bulldog: Reflections on Conservatism and Foreign Policy', Twentieth Century, Volume 155 (1954), p. 107
Contexte: Speaking for Conservatism, Hegel was right. And nothing proves it better than the post-war crop of Tory intellectuals, sprouting like mushrooms in the damp cellars of Abbey House. Not until the stimuli which originally conditioned Conservative reflexes have finally disappeared can the intellectual emerge to provide a rationale for Conservative behaviour. So Conservative theory must always base itself on some form of historical restorationism. The moderate seeks the world of Joseph Chamberlain—or if he is daring, of Disraeli. The really advanced radical looks still further back, to Prince Rupert, or the Middle Ages, particularly if he is a Catholic.
“The borrowing requirement was 'terrifying.'”
Source: Remarks to Barbara Castle (9 April 1975), quoted in Barbara Castle, The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (1980), p. 359
Contexte: He just had to cut back public expenditure. The Social Contract wasn't working. Inflation was getting out of control.
