"Hugh Gaitskell was that rare creature, a passionate intellectual. Rationality was his creed. His limited patience was strained almost beyond endurance by the the stolid prejudices of the trades union leaders he depended upon, and the colourful sophistries of his left-wing critics. Born in India of Civil Service parents, he was as much a liberal as a socialist. He cherished liberty, detested racism, and believed in the redistribution of income and wealth to achieve social justice. He was never attracted to the European Community, for as a political entity it threatened to eclipse the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth embodied Gaitskell's deepest convictions, including internationalism and interracialism, and it had developed out of Britain's imperial history with which his family had had close connections."
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Anti-apartheid activistsMembers of the Parliament of the United KingdomActivists from EnglandLabour Party (UK) politiciansUniversity College London faculty
Original Language: English
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Sources
Shirley Williams, Climbing the Bookshelves (2009), pp. 135–136
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hugh_Gaitskell
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Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician and leader of the Labour Party from 1955 until his death.
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