"What is even more dangerous is to set the cause of internationalism against the claims of freedom and democracy. That is a very dangerous course. What is necessary is that the two claims should be combined, and it is perfectly possible. It is so dangerous to set the cause of Europe against the cause of Parliament, but that is what the Bill does in every contemptible Clause and every pusillanimous subsection. The Bill says that we have to choose between the ideal of entry into Europe on the terms which have been settled by the Government and sustaining our parliamentary freedoms and democratic rights. That is a very dangerous choice."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomJournalists from EnglandDemocratic socialistsEditors from EnglandGovernment ministers
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Speech in the House of Commons on the European Communities Bill (13 July 1972)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Foot
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 1913 – 3 March 2010) was a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his working life as a journalist on Tribune and the Evening Standard and co-wrote the 1940 polemic against appeasement of Hitler, Guilty Men, under a pseudonym.
103 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Michael Foot →
Related Quotes
"Men of power have not time to read; yet men who do not read are unfit for power"
"In my opinion, Marxism is a great creed of human liberation. It is the creed which says that when all other empires f…"
"Most liberties have been won by people who broke the law"
"I first joined the Labour party in Liverpool because of what I saw of the poverty, the unemployment, and the endless …"
"Even the victor in a just cause is susceptible to the passions which war arouses. Every inhuman feeling is at once ex…"
"Socialism with its ideal of the national control of consumption and production, its substitution of national barter f…"
"I am a Liberal, first of all, because of the unfaltering resistance which liberalism is pledged to offer to those twi…"
"THE ARMAMENTS RACE IN EUROPE MUST BE STOPPED NOW. ... I am not in favour of going to war in order to defend the Forei…"
"The revolt against imperialism in the Colonies, therefore, even when it takes on a nationalistic form, is a revolt ag…"
"I certainly think that a Labour Government will have to have effective powers to control the outflow of capital."