"Lloyd George's strengths were more remarkable than his weaknesses. For he really did try to answer the questions that mattered. He saw, more clearly than any other political leader, that Britain could survive in a changing world only if she changed herself... [H]is answers cut across the "false dichotomy" [between capitalism and socialism]. They were neither "capitalist" nor "socialist"; they were designed to use the power of the state to make capitalism work properly. As such, they were much more modern in conception than anything else on offer at the time. But in the climate generated by the struggle between "capitalism" and "socialism" they did not look modern. They looked irrelevant, opportunistic and, in an odd way, out of date. So, by a terrible paradox, the most creative and adventurous statesman of the day, who might have resolved the progressive dilemma if he had had the chance, appeared to most of his countrymen as a querulous and self-seeking voice from the past."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandBritish peersPoliticians from WalesPeople from Manchester
Original Language: English
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Sources
David Marquand, The Progressive Dilemma: From Lloyd George to Blair (1991; rev. ed. 1999), p. 37
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lloyd_George
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David Lloyd George
1863 – 1945
britischer Politiker
461 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by David Lloyd George →
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