Politicians From Scotland

"I will name then the following characteristics, one and all of which were more prominent in him than in any public man I ever knew: mental calmness; the absence (if for want of better words I may describe it by a negative) of all egoism; the love of exact justice; a thorough tolerance of spirit; and last and most of all an entire absence of suspicion."

"It is surprising that all these Jacobites shd frequent the Kirk. There is every variety here, for an odd log church on the road is of the free variety. I pointed it out to Ld Aberdeen who wd like to set it on fire."

"Now and then Sir Robert Peel would show some degree of unconscious regard to the mere flesh and blood, if I may so speak, of Englishmen; Lord Aberdeen was invariably for putting the most liberal construction upon both the conduct and the claims of the other negotiating state."

"We abolished the Aberdeen cabinet, the ablest we have had, perhaps, since the Reform Act—a cabinet not only adapted, but eminently adapted for every sort of difficulty save the one it had to meet—which abounded in pacific discretion, and was wanting only in the "dæmonic element;" we chose a statesman Lord Palmerston] who had the sort of merit then wanted, who, when he feels the steady power of England behind him, will advance without reluctance, and will strike without restraint. As was said at the time, "We turned out the Quaker, and put in the pugilist.""

"I recommend that my grandson be partly educated in Scotland that he do not despise his own country."

"Behold a chosen band shall aid thy plan, And own thee chieftain of the critic clan. First in the ranks illustrious shall be seen The travelled Thane! Athenian Aberdeen."

"Walked twice with Lord Aberdeen, he talked a good deal, reckoned that he had planted about 14 millions of trees in his time. Nothing when he came to it at Haddo but the limes and a few Scotch firs."

"Aberdeen was a spare man, of grave and formal but singularly refined manners, with studious habits and fastidious tastes. Though he was an ungraceful speaker, and his voice dull and monotonous, his speeches were weighty and impressive. Without genius or ambition he showed a remarkable love of justice, honesty, and simplicity, and singular courage in expressing unpopular opinions. Despite his cold exterior he was a delightful companion. With the exception of the Greek intervention in 1829, Aberdeen, while foreign secretary, resolutely followed a policy of nonintervention. His cautious and conciliatory foreign policy contrasted strangely with Palmerston's methods, and the friendly relations which he had established with the foreign courts often led to unjust suspicions of his sympathy with continental despotism."

"And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God: but the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight (I Chronicles xxii. 7, 8)."

"For three or four miles the ground is covered with bodies of men and horses, many not dead. Wretches wounded unable to crawl, crying for water amidst heaps of putrefying bodies. Their screams are heard at an immense distance, and still ring in my ears. The living as well as the dead are stripped by the barbarous peasantry, who have not sufficient charity to put the miserable wretches out of their pain. Our victory is most complete. It must be owned that a victory is a fine thing, but one should be at a distance."

"The whole subject of the Eucharist is too mysterious and difficult for me to arrive at any positive conviction; but in a case of this kind, to inflict penalties upon a man for believing more than his neighbour, in a matter neither of them can comprehend, would amount to a tyranny, and I therefore deprecate the threatened eviction of the Archdeacon."

"He excelled most in writing, of which be appeared to have a great habit. He was insolent and cowardly, at least, the greatest political coward I ever knew. He was rash and timid, accustomed to ask advice of different persons, but had not sense and sagacity to distinguish and digest, with a perpetual apprehension of being governed, which made him, when he followed any advice, always add something of his own in point of matter or manner, which sometimes took away the little good which was in it or changed the whole nature of it."

"The great curiosity of seeing the King's new coach yesterday had filled the park and streets, by all accounts, fuller than they were at the coronation... In this crowd Lord Bute was very much insulted, hissed in every gross manner, and a little pelted. It is said, but it is denied also, that the King was insulted. Both Houses were up about four; the crowd of coaches and mob on foot not the least abated; it was so great that the King's coach, with his Majesty in it, upon his return from the House was a full hour in Palace Yard. Lord Bute, to avoid the like treatment he had met in going, returned in a hackney chair, but the mob discovered him, followed him, broke the glasses of the chair, and, in short, by threats and menaces, put him very reasonably in great fear; if they had once overturned the chair, he might very soon have been demolished."

"He was always upon stilts, never natural except now and then upon the subject of women. He felt all the pleasure of power to consist either in punishing or astonishing. He was ready to abandon his nearest friend if attacked, or to throw any blame off his own shoulders. He could be pleasant in company when he let, and did not want for some good points, so much as for resolution and knowledge of the world to bring them into action. He excelled as far as I could observe in managing the interior of a Court, and had an abundant share of art and hypocrisy. This made all the first part of his rôle easy."

"I never knew a man with whom one could be so long tête-à-tête, without being tired, as with Lord Bute. His knowledge was so extensive, and consequently, his conversation so varied, that one thought one's self in the company of several persons, with the advantage of being sure of an even temper, in a man whose goodness, politeness, and attention, were never wanting towards those who lived with him."

"It should be remembered that, in the opinion of many of the wisest and the best, Bute, by bringing the war to a conclusion, had done the State good service... Bute's enemies, however, not only denied him the credit even of good intentions, but continued to raise so fierce an outcry against him, that it had become perilous for him to appear in the streets except in disguise by night, or else protected by pugilists by day... Not since Lord Chancellor Jefferies had been seized in a sailor's dress in Wapping, had a British statesman been reduced to more ignominious straits, or been in greater danger from the fury of the mob. On one occasion, when on his way to the House of Lords in a sedan-chair, it was only by the timely arrival of the Horse Guards that he was rescued from the violence of the populace."

"By the time the procession, which moved but slowly, had got into St. Paul's Church-yard, these fellows had halloed themselves hoarse, and it had been given out that Mr. Pitt was in the chariot, by which means, they had artfully obtained the mob to join them; but, on the east side of St. Paul's Church-yard, some knowing hand stepped up, and looking full at the idol, pronounced, with a fine hoarse audible voice, "by G—d, this is not Pitt; this is Bute, and be damned to him;" (I beg pardon of your ladyship for writing such words; but historians ought to tell facts as they happened.) Upon this, the tide took another turn; and the bruisers' lungs being worn out, the shouts from the independent mobility were instantly converted into hisses, accompanied with a few vulgar sayings, as "D—n all Scotch rogues!"—"No Bute!"—"No Newcastle salmon!"—"Pitt for ever!""

"He took this opportunity to also to add, that it was the glory and happiness of his life to reflect, that the advice he had given his Majesty since he had had the honour to be consulted, was just what he thought it ought to be."

"I follow one uniform system and that is founded in the strictest honour, faith and duty."

"Lord Bute's reception in the City in his passage thro' it to Guildhall on Tuesday was such that it would have been much more prudent for him to have spared his visit; and he seems to have been deceived by his flatterers into an opinion that he was much less unpopular than he has now reason to think he is. As soon as it was known who he was, he was entertain'd with a general hiss; and if some accounts are true, his chariot was pelted, on each side of which the two famous bruisers, Broughton and Stevenson, are affirmed to have walked as a guard to him, tho' I can scarce credit it. It is certain that in the Hall he was very coldly received and sat for some time in a corner of the Council Chamber, alone, with all the appearance of gloom and confusion in his countenance. In short, the whole dinner passed with much less cheerfulness than has been known on such an occasion, and his Lordship thought proper to return, not in his own chariot, but in Lord Mansfield's coach, to escape observation."

"[A]n excise was laid upon cyder... This scheme was imputed wholly to him, and filled the measure of his unpopularity. He was burnt in effigy in all the cyder counties; hissed and insulted in the streets of London. It is natural to suppose, and it is undoubtedly true, that the Opposition, which consisted in general of persons of the greatest rank, property, and experience in business, enjoyed, encouraged, and increased this unpopularity to the utmost of their power; and accordingly it was carried to an alarming height. Lord Bute, who had hitherto appeared a presumptuous, now appeared to be a very timorous Minister, characters by no means inconsistent; for he went about the streets timidly and disgracefully, attended at a small distance by a gang of bruisers, who are the scoundrels and ruffians that attend the Bear Gardens, and who would have been but a poor security to him against the dangers he apprehended from the whole town of London."

"[A]fter 1760, whether Bute was serving the king (1761–3) or out of office, he was attacked by the mob, threatened with assassination, vilified in pamphlets, prints, newspapers, songs, plays, and handbills, and effectively rejected as a potential ally by all the leading politicians of the day except for the none too politically respectable Henry Fox. The bulk of this criticism was levelled in the 1760s, but even after 1770 the so-called "Northern Machiavel" was under withering if increasingly sporadic fire, and as late as the 1780s vestigial elements of the old hostility remained."

"We are now seeing the culmination of not years, actually decades of anti-migrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric being normalised in our political discourse now playing out in the most violent way possible."

"Let me be clear: Scotland is ready to play her part. Our hospitals will treat the injured men, women and children of Gaza where we can."

"You haven't managed to ever get elected to the Scottish Parliament like me. And I suspect the voters of Scotland will show you the cat flap again come May 6. When you are shown the door, please take your race-baiting "You're not a Celt like me" mince with you."

"I was born in Scotland, raised in Scotland, educated in Scotland, just welcomed my third child here in Scotland. Was leader of the Scottish government for just over a year, leader of the Scottish National Party. You cut me open and I'm about as Scottish as they come but the truth of the matter is I don't whether the future for me, and my wife and three children is going to be here in Scotland, the United Kingdom or indeed in Europe and the west."

"I think political leaders should stop beating around the bush, should call what they’re seeing in Gaza. We are seeing not only a humanitarian crisis, but also seeing senior members of the Netanyahu government making statements that are frankly the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing. And that should be condemned in the strongest possible manner."

"[On her home life, she married her female partner in 2022] the rampant feminist that she is, cannot wait to have a housewife."

"Some of the arguments I’ve seen by people who are gender critical, if you start picking away at it, are some of the most misogynistic arguments. Some of the worst abuse I've experienced is from women because they don't see me as feminine enough and doing things a woman should do. People bang on about single sex spaces, but I've had more grief in women's toilets in the past five years than I have had in my life, and it's because I'm not as feminine as 50-year-old Karen expects me to be. That is not a good basis for progress."

"Being trans is not something to be feared. It’s just an aspect of a human being, the same way being gay is just an aspect of who I am. [...] The only place as far as I’m concerned that my sex matters, as opposed to my gender, is in a medical setting. That's between me and a doctor."

"If you are a human being, you are not an intellectual debate and nor should you be made to be one."

"I've genuinely never worried about a career. [...] I can see how politicians game play – it's a long game of chess for many of them. For me, it's either right or wrong, sensible or stupid."

"We have the lowest pensions in Europe, the lowest sick pay, we pretend the minimum wage is a living wage when it’s not. We miss our own economic targets time and time again. We’re happy to break international law. We are turning into a country where words hold no value and over the last 12 years I fear we are sleepwalking closer and closer to the f-word and I know everyone is scared to say it for fear of sounding over the top or being accused of going too far. But I say this with all sincerity, when I say the f-word, I’m talking about facism. Fascism wrapped in red, white and blue."

"Ooo I'm back to being a ned this week, what a buzz. I'm sure it'll be back to a middle class liar with a fake accent next week though."

"I've been challenged going into female toilets before, course I have. Are you kidding? I'm the sort of person who can deal with it, but there was one time I didn't even have to and it was one of the most powerful things I've experienced. There was a woman beside me who said [to the person questioning me] "Who the hell do you think you are, who are you to police this?" That is exactly what I needed in that situation, I didn’t have power, but the woman beside me did. In this debate, I'm the person with the power and I'm not leaving trans people behind."

"Anybody ever watch Gilmore Girls? Mind when Paris built herself a fort in the newsroom of the paper so nobody could talk to her? That's the Prime Minister."

"Just seen a stag do floating down the Thames. As their boat went past, they began pointing at Parliament chanting, 'you don't know what you're doing, you don't know what you're doing...' Probably the most accurate commentary yet."

"I'm a woman, I'm a lesbian, nobody's cancelling me and I want trans people to be able to live with dignity and happiness and for newspapers and politicians to leave them the hell alone."

"Once upon a time intellectuals made great prolific statements about race, saying "I think you'll find the statistics show more BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) people, crime goes up". They might have been an intellectual, but they were also a racist. The vast majority of people don’t know a lot about the trans community, and why should they? They are less than one per cent of the population."

"Folk don't recognise the difference between being unfairly cancelled and being held accountable, those are two very different things. Criticising someone for what they said in public, in front of an audience, that's criticism - that's not anyone attacking you or denying you because you're a lesbian or whatever. It's nonsense. There are definite bad actors at play, radicalising people who are vulnerable, radicalising people who are too online, and using this small community as a wedge issue to create chaos."

"You sound if I head to bed, Sajid Javid? Absolutely shattered."

"In recent days, footage has emerged of the former chancellor and the former chair of the 1922 committee offering their services for £60,000. On top of that, the former health secretary offered his wisdom for £10,000 a day. Can I ask the Deputy Prime Minister, when he is inevitably booted out of office, what will his going rate be?"

"I know I'm not going to become comfortable in Westminster because I'm fundamentally uncomfortable there. I don't want to be there. I don't want to make decisions there."

"I had people wanting me to write an autobiography: I was born. I went to school. I left. I fried a fish. And now I’m an MP. They were offering me a four-book deal!"

"You talk shite, hen."

"So after spending weeks running down the clock telling us the EU will never reconsider the backstop, the Prime Minister is now going to head back to Brussels to ask them to reconsider the backstop."

"Now the government, quite rightly, pays for me – through taxpayer's money – to be able live in London whilst I serve my constituents. My housing is subsidised by the taxpayer. Now the Chancellor [then George Osborne] in his budget said, "It is not fair that families earning over £40,000 in London should have their rents paid for by other working people." But it is ok so long as you're an MP? In this budget the Chancellor also abolished any housing benefit for anyone below the age of 21. So we are now in the ridiculous situation whereby, because I am an MP, not only am I the youngest, but I am also the only 2o-year-old in the whole of the UK that the Chancellor is prepared to help with housing."

"The Deputy Prime Minister, I thank him for his kind words and we did join this place at the same time and I'm pretty sure we'll be leaving at the same time."

"It is worth saying again: Indophobia did not spring up naturally from the soil of Britain, it was deliberately built. India was very different from Britain, to be sure, but Britons did not believe they were "every way different" from the Indians until Grant taught them to think so."

"The argument from silence was once regarded as a weak argument, to be used sparingly and with care, but for some time now authors have become responsible for the infinity of what they do not say, and they are liable to be charged with erasures, elisions, suppressions, guilty silences, and significant omissions. The argument from silence is made more easily today, but even by the higher standard of the past, the complete silence of Grant and Mill on the core argument of Jones is surely significant of a tendency to stress the difference "every way" of the Indians and the British."