“The first lesson that you must learn is that, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.”
When Churchill was in opposition after 1945, he led the Conservative Party in a debate about the Health Service. As he listened to Aneurin Bevan’s opening speech, he called for some statistics about infant mortality … [which were] supplied, copiously and accurately, by Iain Macleod, then working in the back rooms of the Conservative Research Department. But, in his speech, Churchill made only one bold and sweeping use … [of Macleod’s detailed research]. Encountering MacLeod afterward, Churchill made the above statement. As cited in The Life of Politics (1968), Henry Fairlie, Methuen, pp. 203-204.
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Context: I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is that, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Winston S. Churchill 601
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874–1965Related quotes
“For once, prime minister, I believe you.”
Commons flour bomb attack exposes loophole, White, Michael, 2004-05-20, the Guardian, en, 2018-06-29 http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/may/20/uk.houseofcommons,
Response to Tony Blair, who insisted he had not staged a Fathers 4 Justice protest which had just interrupted Prime Minister's Question.
“I wouldn't call the Prime Minister gutless. That's all that's left of him.”
Referring to Sir Robert "Piggy" Muldoon.
Source: NZPD 456, 1984, p. 107.
“I would be a disaster as a prime minister.”
Source: India Today 10 quotes that said it all http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/10+quotes+that+said+it+all/1/23070.html, India Today, 19 December 2008.
“I am an accidental prime minister.”
Manmohan Singh
The Accidental Prime Minister (2014)
Natwar Singh, former External Affairs Minister, "Manmohan hasn't even won an election: Natwar" http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Manmohan-hasnt-even-won-an-election-Natwar/articleshow/1878602.cms, The Times of India (9 August 2009)
“By definition, as a Prime Minister I cannot be a liar.”
Italian Radio National Broadcast (18 January 2006)
2006
Morarji Desai speaks about life and celibacy
by Norodom Sihanouk in 1996
[Jason Barber, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/royal-trumps-table-aces-sleeve, Royal trumps on the table, aces up the sleeve, 22 March 1996, 29 August 2015, Phnom Penh Post]