conservative-party-uk-politicians

"The value of human character, the sacredness of justice on the one side, reverence for authority and tenderness towards human suffering upon the other, make the religious standpoint at once the safest and the most practical for the task of social reform. Toryism even within itself contains balanced principles which make for safety, and when united with the prudence of the natural conservative it forms the most efficient and the most secure political guide for a social reformer."

"Two men had a conspicuous influence in creating and leading the Conservative movement: one was Pitt and the other was Burke. Pitt was the practical leader who headed the opposition to the French Revolution and behind whom the Toryism of George III, the natural conservatism of Burke, the zeal for the imperial greatness of the country, of which he himself was the best exponent, coalesced together and found their sphere of activity in resisting revolutionary France as the enemy of Church and King, the destroyer of all that was ordered and settled, the formidable enemy of the greatness and even the safety of England. And in Burke Conservatism found its first and perhaps its greatest teacher, who poured forth with extraordinary rhetorical power the language of an anti-revolutionary faith, and gave to the Conservative movement the dignity of a philosophical creed and the fervour of a religious crusade."

"It is often assumed that Conservatism and Socialism are directly opposed. But this is not completely true. Modern Conservatism inherits the traditions of Toryism which are favourable to the activity and authority of the State. Indeed Mr. Herbert Spencer attacked Socialism as being in fact the revival of Toryism; he called it “the new Toryism.” And he was so far right, that Toryism was on the side of authority and that it was rather the Whigs, and still more the Liberals of the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, who insisted on the dangers of State interference and the importance of the liberty of the individual."

"Probably no function of Conservatism is more important at the present time than to watch over the religious life of the people in the sphere of politics. Religion, as has been pointed out, touches politics very closely in respect to many questions—such as the claims of rich and poor, all measures for ameliorating the condition of the people, the connection between Church and State, and national education. Its indirect influence extends beyond these limits as far as any controversy which raises issues of moral obligation. The championship of religion is therefore the most important of the functions of Conservatism. It is the keystone of the arch upon which the whole fabric rests. As long as Conservatism makes the fulfilment of its duties to religion the first of its purposes, it will be saved from the two principal dangers that alternatively threaten it: the danger of sinking into a mere factious variation of Liberalism, supporting the claims of another set of politicians, but propounding measures not distinguished by any pervading principle: or the other danger of standing only for the defence of those who are well off, without any sincere endeavour to consider the interests of the whole people, or any higher object than the triumph of the sagacious selfishness of the prosperous. Religion is the standard by which the plans of politicians must be judged, and a religious purpose must purify their aims and methods. Emphasising this truth, Conservatism will be the creed neither of a superfluous faction nor of a selfish class."

"For the rest, he continued to be a brilliant figure in the social life of his time; his presence welcome, his conversation witty, his views original, his candour entertaining, his power of exposition remarkable, his charm unaffected. No sketch can hope to give the peculiar flavour of his personality, nor is it easy to disinter even from the vast chambers of the dead a parallel for him. Yet a Plutarch, in search of his compeer, might find in Montalembert—the Montalembert of Sainte-Beuve's portrait—enough points of resemblance to justify a comparison between two ardent devotees of liberty, and, according to their respective interpretations, of Catholicism."

"For the tradition of authority is naturally a Tory tradition, and, but for the influence of Conservative prudence and justice, the successors of the Tories might probably have been ready to use the authority of the State with a freedom which we associate with Socialism."

"The essential characteristic of a Tory is that in controversies relating to Church and King he takes the royal and ecclesiastical side."

"Historically the principle was adopted that every one must be saved from death by starvation or exposure, but that on the other hand no one ought to be supported by the State in idleness. This was the policy of Elizabeth's famous Act establishing the Poor Law. Nor is it unfair to claim the Poor Law as at any rate of Tory extraction. It was imposed by religious sentiment, and it was the solution of a difficulty caused by an attack on the Church. It arose out of the suffering which had been occasioned by the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, and by the consequent cessation of the relief of the poor which the monasteries had been wont to give. Under the Poor Law the State took over the work that had formerly been performed by the alms of the Church; and in so doing the State acted under the moral ascendency of Church teaching."

"Physical certainty is not to be attained when we have to traverse the vast distances of celestial space, and human infirmity must be content to recognise the boundary beyond which it may not pass, the limit imposed on finite minds by the Infinite."

"I will not support congestion charging. Newcastle’s plans will kill off the city. I will demand better investment in transport and I want to bring in a one stop travel Oyster Card -like London, for North of Tyne."

"Education and skills will improve massively. I will get a deal with government to allow our schools and teachers to offer world class learning. I will develop a North of Tyne curriculum fit for the needs of the future. There will be a link between the classroom and the work place. I will learn from the best to make us even better."

"Brexit concerns business. I will offer support packages, and will lead Britain’s first Brexit Boost Area. Open for business to the world."

"Coun Nick Forbes got it right when he said about the Mayoral Election, ”This is no time for a novice”. I agree with Nick."

"My Tourism Tsar will boost visitors."

"My campaign is unashamedly forward thinking and ambitious. So, let me tell you what the North of Tyne area will be like after I have been Mayor for five years. We will be the home of more and better jobs. We will be the home of Educational Excellence. We will be the home of thriving businesses. We will be the home of Better local Transport. We will be the home of Ambition."

"We have a proud and remarkable history. Home to world class engineering and the hard sweat of workers who built the Industrial Revolution of the past. We have the expertise, passion and talent to be world leaders in the fourth Industrial Revolution of hi-tech, digital and new skilled jobs."

"I will bring a new generation of Council Housing. World class homes and local companies to build them. Homes with Ambition."

"I will create a Community Champion for Voluntary and Charity organisations - they bring out the best in us all. Companies and communities need to be partners to address the challengers we face."

"As the only woman in the race to be Mayor, I will offer something unique. I have worked as a NHS Health Visitor, led local government and I have brought people together to get things done."

"I will bring out the best in people , business and communities. I will appoint a Town Centre Tsar with real powers and money to make sure our town centres thrive despite on-line competition."

"Past battles and political Punch and Judy shows are not for me. I will build a bridge to the brilliant future we all have- the right leader at the right time doing the right things. That leader is me."

"I will have a respected Business Ambassador working with me to promote our area and bring in new business through creating my Enterprise Areas and Business Zones. My plan will offer companies the opportunity to relocate from around the world and the UK, promoting all that is best about our people and place. I will also help our existing businesses thrive"

"Loyalty is the Tory’s secret weapon."

"I have sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership with immediate effect. I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his shadow cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative party. The British public are tired of political psychodrama and so am I. They saw too much of it in the last government, they're seeing too much of it in THIS government. I will not repeat those mistakes."

"I want this country to be the most welcoming country in the world for Israelis and for the Jewish community. And a small thing that I fought for when I was the immigration minister was to ensure that every Israeli citizen could enter our country through the e-gate, through the easy access. So that at every airport and point of entry to our great country there is the Star of David there as a symbol that we support Israel, we stand with Israel. We are friends and allies of Israel, and Israelis are welcome in our country."

"Because whether it's Labour, Reform, or the Lib Dems – votes for these pie-in-the-sky parties is a vote for La La Land fantasy politics which will only take the country backwards. And we cannot afford that."

"Our special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists because our lawyers tell us that if they are caught, the European court will set them free."

"Reform is not the answer at this election. Their plans are not based in reality. Cut £50 billion a year from public services? Independent observers have explained that the sums don't add up."

"We need to make Reform redundant by restoring the Conservatives' credibility on immigration and exposing Reform's fantasy economics."

"I have been very critical of police in the past, particularly around the attitude of some police forces to the protests we saw since [the Hamas attack on Israel on] 7 October [2023]. I thought it was quite wrong that somebody could shout 'Allahu Akbar' on the streets of London and not be immediately arrested; project genocidal chants on to Big Ben and not be immediately arrested. That attitude is wrong and I'll always call out the police for it."

"I said about Andrew Neil that I couldn't understand his position: "He says he is a Thatcherite but in fact Heseltine is a corporate dirigeste – the exact opposite of Thatcherism.""

"I dined with Michael Heseltine at his request at the Stafford Hotel towards the end of July [1990]. "Are you going to run in the autumn?" I asked him bluntly. He obfuscated at first (he did not really know me well enough to take me into his confidence) but later, as we lingered over several brandies past midnight, he said: "I am of a mind to do it. But I have only one bullet in my gun. I can't afford to miss"."

"I have followed the inspiration of Churchill, Macmillan, Heath and Thatcher, who gave Britain a leading position in one of the power blocks of the 21st century. I have seen that overturned on a cynical exploitative combination of promises led by Boris Johnson. He won a large majority on the slogan Get Brexit Done. Yet here we are, years later, when the criticism, even from its most fanatical supporters like Nigel Farage, is that Brexit has failed."

"If I have to intervene to help British companies... I'll intervene—before breakfast, before lunch, before tea and before dinner. And I'll get up the next morning and I'll start all over again."

"Michael was one of the great, commanding political figures of my time and I always admired and sympathized with him."

"Michael is one of the most talented people in politics. His talents are selective and cultivated to what always seemed to me the point of exaggeration. But anyone who has seen him on television or on a public platform will quickly accept that they are real enough. Michael and I are similar in some ways, very different in others. We are ambitious, single-minded and believe in efficiency and results. But whereas with me it is certain political principles that provide a reference point and inner strength, for Michael such things are unnecessary. His own overwhelming belief in himself is sufficient."

"I have since come to know Michael Heseltine well, and now count him as a friend. But at this time I found him hard to read. He made no effort to enlist me as an ally even though I knew that we had several points in common. We both held a generous view of the role of the Conservative Party in social matters; neither of us denied the importance of government action in carrying this through. We both believed strongly in Britain's role in the European Union, though Michael carried his enthusiasm for integration faster and further than I did. But our temperaments were different. Michael was a cavalry leader, relying on the excitement of a charge to carry him to success. For example, I was surprised and dismayed by his vehement desire to transform the structures of the Civil Service which had always been part of my working life. Michael relished and I disliked the scent of danger."

"The issue before Cabinet, Margaret said, was quite simply the restoration of the doctrine of collective Cabinet responsibility (not something of which she was at all times the most devoted adherent herself). To that end Michael would have to be gagged, by the requirement that he could say nothing on the issue without first clearing it with Robert Armstrong, the Cabinet Secretary. Michael objected that this was wholly impracticable, and that in any case collective Cabinet responsibility could scarcely apply since she had not permitted a proper collective discussion of the issue. He spoke quietly, and not at all aggressively, and sought to find some compromise arrangement. But Margaret was adamant. She could see that Michael was now isolated in the Cabinet. The general view of the colleagues was that Michael had become obsessed with the issue, and had lost all sense of proportion... She pressed home her advantage; whereupon Michael slammed his Cabinet folder shut, saying "If this is the way this Government is going to be conducted, I no longer wish to be part of it", picked the folder up and strode out of the room. It was the most dramatic moment in any Cabinet I have attended."

"I knew that, "He who wields the knife never wears the crown.""

"I was unwarrantably provoked by the singing of The Red Flag. [...] I thought "here is a neo-Marxist group in the House of Commons." Having cheated over the motion, cheated in the lobbies, I thought that in the circumstances they might as well have the mace as well! I rapidly realised this was a reflection on the authority of the Speaker and the House I tried to apologise and will do so unreservedly as soon as I can."

"The market has no morality."

"I decided to give Michael his big chance and put him into Defence. There Michael's strengths and weaknesses were both apparent. He defended our approach to nuclear arms with great panache and inflicted a series of defeats on CND and the Labour Left. He reorganized the MoD, rationalizing its traditional federal structure. Supported by me in the face of departmental obstruction, he brought in Peter Levene to run defence procurement on sound business lines. These were real achievements. But Michael's sense of priorities was gravely distorted by his personal ambitions and political obsessions."

"Polluted rivers, filthy streets, bodies bedded down in doorways are no advertisement for a prosperous or caring society."

"Why do male politicians get this so wrong? Unfortunately, the answer is simple: because they believe what they are saying. Galloway, [[Todd Akin|[Todd] Akin]] and [[Craig Murray|[Craig] Murray]] represent the tip of an iceberg of resentment and base sexism."

"It is [[George Galloway|[George] Galloway]] that is bankrupt of meaning: rape is when a woman does not consent. Because she is, for example, asleep and unconscious. Sexual consent is not football; you can’t buy a season ticket."

"All too often, the media pretends that feminism’s work is done. This week shows us what so many male politicians really think about consent, and sex, and the rights of a woman to withhold it, or attach conditions to it. There is a long way to go."

"I have said, and said most truly, that if the country was well governed, and its affairs ably conducted, I cared little in whose hands the Administration was placed. To a very few I have been more explicit, by declaring my strong and increasing repugnance to office, arising from various causes...and my fixed determination never to return to it, except under the positive obligation of public duty, and that, after the experience of the last four years, I could not admit the existence of such an obligation, unless I was to be placed in a situation of perfect and unqualified responsibility: in other words, to use a recent expression of the Speaker, that I would not be a Noun adjective to any Government."

"My determination is to keep clear of all parties, to avoid the reality, and, as far as possible, even the appearance of cabal, to attend the house not constantly but upon such occasions as seem to me to require it, either from a sense of duty to the public or myself: but I will not be the stalking-horse or cat's paw of Opposition nor will I be extinguished by Mr. Pitt. My course seems clear before me."

"The basis of Protestant Union, and the material of all public declarations against further concession should be an unshaken and inviable attachment to the Constitution as established at the Revolution, and a determination to uphold it against innovation, as the best security of our civil and religious liberty."

"Until it is proved that some great practical evil is justly attributable to the present structure of that House, and that it would admit of a remedy which would not be productive of some evil of equal or greater magnitude, my objections to a general reform will remain unshaken. Still I am compelled to feel that this ground is no longer tenable; and that an attempt must be made to satisfy the more temperate and conscientious reformers, without endangering the established institutions of the country."