Edward Heath (1916 – 2005)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for three and a half years at the beginning of the 1970s.
Peter Sissons: The single currency, a United States of Europe, was all that in your mind when you took Britain in?
Edward Heath: Of course, yes.
You mustn't expect prime ministers to enjoy themselves. If they do, they mustn't show it – the population would be horrified.
He is not mad in the least. He's a very astute person, a clever person.
This would, at a stroke, reduce the rise in prices, increase production and reduce unemployment.
Whatever the lady does is wrong. I do not know of a single right decision taken by her.
This was a secret meeting on a secret tour which nobody is supposed to know about. It means that there are men, and perhaps women, in this country walking around with eggs in their pockets, just on the off-chance of seeing the Prime Minister.
The end of the negotiations is a blow to the cause of the wider European unity for which we have been striving. We are a part of Europe, by geography, history, culture, tradition and civilization ... There have been times in the history of Europe when it has been only too plain how European we are; and there have been many millions of people who have been grateful for it. I say to my colleagues: they should have no fear. We in Britain are not going to turn out backs on the mainland of Europe or the countries of the Community.
I have always had a hidden wish, a frustrated desire, to run a hotel.
We shall have a harder Christmas than we have known since the war.
The historic role of the Conservative Party is to use the leverage of its political and diplomatic skills to create a fresh balance between the different elements within the state at those times when, for one reason or another, their imbalance threatens to disrupt the orderly development of society.
It is bad because it is a negation of democracy ... Worst of all is the imposition by parliamentary diktat of a change of responsible party in London government. There cannot be any justification for that. It immediately lays the Conservative Party open to the charge of the greatest gerrymandering in the last 150 years of British history.
The British government and the British people have been through a searching debate during the last few years on the subject of their relations with Europe. The result of this debate has been our present application. It was a decision arrived at, not on any narrow or short-term grounds, but as a result of a thorough assessment over a considerable period of the needs of our own country, of Europe and of the free world as a whole. We recognise it as a great decision, a turning point in our history, and we take it in all seriousness. In saying that we wish to join the EEC, we mean that we desire to become full, whole-hearted and active members of the European Community in its widest sense and to go forward with you in the building of a new Europe.
A tragedy for the party. He's got no ideas, no experience and no hope.
Our problem at the moment is a problem of success.
Robin Day: How low does your personal popularity have to go before you consider yourself a liability to the party you lead?
Edward Heath: Popularity isn't everything.
I don't think that modesty is the outstanding characteristic of contemporary politics, do you?"
We will have to embark on a change so radical, a revolution so quiet and yet so total, that it will go far beyond the programme for a parliament.
They have made a grave mistake choosing that woman.
I was interested in being present for its first, and I trust only, performance.