Henry Campbell-Bannerman citations

Henry Campbell-Bannerman, né le 7 septembre 1836 à Glasgow et mort le 22 avril 1908 à Londres, est un homme d'État britannique. Chef du Parti libéral de 1899 à 1908, il fut Premier ministre sous Édouard VII du 5 décembre 1905 au 3 avril 1908. Auparavant, il fut de nombreuses fois ministre, notamment secrétaire du Trésor à la Guerre dans plusieurs gouvernements de Gladstone , secrétaire parlementaire et ministériel à l'amirauté dans ce même cabinet , secrétaire en chef des Affaires irlandaises , puis, enfin, secrétaire d'Etat à la guerre .

Aucun précédent First Lord of the Treasury n'avait été officiellement appelé « Premier ministre » avant lui, usage qui devient officiel cinq jours après son entrée en fonction. Il cumula ce titre avec celui de Father of the House . Il fut également le seul Premier ministre à mourir au 10 Downing Street, neuf jours après sa démission pour cause de santé.

Surnommé « CB », il était un partisan du libre échange, de l'autonomie irlandaise et de progrès sociaux. On a pu dire de lui qu'il était le « premier et seul Premier ministre britannique radical ». Après la défaite aux élections générales de 1900, Campbell-Bannerman avait pris la tête du Parti libéral qu'il parvint à faire gagner en 1906, dans un véritable raz de marée électoral contre les conservateurs : ce fut la dernière fois que les libéraux eurent la majorité à la Chambre des communes. Son gouvernement promulgua plusieurs réformes sociales d'envergure et consolida la Triple Entente, tandis que diverses réformes étaient faites dans l'Empire britannique. Wikipedia  

✵ 7. septembre 1836 – 22. avril 1908
Henry Campbell-Bannerman photo
Henry Campbell-Bannerman: 19   citations 0   J'aime

Henry Campbell-Bannerman: Citations en anglais

“I am half-surprised to find that as I go on I get more and more confirmed in the old advanced Liberal principles, economic, social, & political, with which I entered Parliament 30 years ago.”

Letter to John Spencer (19 February 1900), quoted in John Wilson, C.B.: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (London: Constable, 1973), p. 326
Leader of the Opposition

“…the concentration of human beings in towns…is contrary to nature, and…this abnormal existence is bound to issue in suffering, deterioration, and gradual destruction to the mass of the population…countless thousands of our fellow-men, and still a larger number of children…are starved of air and space and sunshine. …This view of city life, which is gradually coming home to the heart and understanding and the conscience of our people, is so terrible that it cannot be put away. What is all our wealth and learning and the fine flower of our civilisation and our Constitution and our political theories – what are all these but dust and ashes, if the men and women, on whose labour the whole social fabric is maintained, are doomed to live and die in darkness and misery in the recesses of our great cities? We may undertake expeditions on behalf of oppressed tribes and races, we may conduct foreign missions, we may sympathise with the cause of unfortunate nationalities; but it is our own people, surely, who have the first claim upon us…the air must be purified…the sunshine must be allowed to stream in, the water and the food must be kept pure and unadulterated, the streets light and clean…the measure of your success in bringing these things to pass will be the measure of the arresting of the terrible powers of race degeneration which is going on in the countless sunless streets.”

Speech in Belmont (25 January 1907), quoted in John Wilson, C.B.: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (London: Constable, 1973), p. 588
Prime Minister

“Liberal politics meant the politics of common-sense.”

The Spectator (17 February 1884), pp. 223-224, quoted in John Wilson, C.B.: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (London: Constable, 1973), p. 230

“All that he said about the clean state and efficiency was an affront to Liberalism & was pure claptrap – Efficiency as a watchword! Who is against it? This is all a mere réchauffé of Mr. Sydney Webb who is evidently the chief instructor of the whole faction”

Letter to Herbert Gladstone on Lord Rosebery's speech advocating national efficiency collectivism (18 December 1901), quoted in John Wilson, C.B.: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (London: Constable, 1973), p. 371
Leader of the Opposition

“If people should say of me that I tried always to go straight there is perhaps no credit to me in that. It may have been mere indolence. The straight road always seemed to me the easiest.”

Remarks to a friend on his death bed, quoted in J. A. Spender, The Life of The Right Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, G.C.B. Vol. II (1923), p. 407
Prime Minister

“The greatest of British interests is peace.”

Speech in the Circus, Anlaby Road, Hull (8 March 1899), quoted in The Times (9 March 1899), p. 6
Leader of the Opposition

“Self-government is better than good government.”

Widely attributed to Campbell-Bannerman since at least 1910 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1910/jul/12/parliamentary-franchise-women-bill-1. However it appears unattributed earlier https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rIFPAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22self-government+is+better%22, and the concept pre-dates https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lFI3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA403&lpg=PA403&dq=%22your+public-spirited+advocates+of+good+government,+I+do+find+sneering+upon+the+self-government+of+the+Christian%22 Campbell-Bannerman.
Compare Gandhi: "Good government is no substitute for self-government." Young India (2 September 1920), p. 1
Attributed

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