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Douglas Hurd Quotes

born 1930 England

Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, (born 8 March 1930), is a British Conservative politician and diplomat, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and 1995. He left the Commons at the 1997 general election and was elevated to the peerage on 13 June 1997.

England
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Random Douglas Hurd quote

13 quotes

NATO is one of the principal props which have allowed Britain to punch above its weight in the world.

Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.

We have learnt that one cannot suppress nationalist feeling or force it into a framework against which it revolts.

People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled 'politics'.

The fruits of economic success could turn sour unless we can bring back greater social cohesion to our country.

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.

Now we've signed it – we had better read it!

European security without the United States simply doesn't make sense. We Europeans need to say loud and clear that we welcome US forces in Europe.

[Politicians have a right to respond to the] presence or absence of the churches, and their sometimes bizarre choice of priorities for discussion.

We have to find, as the Victorians found, techniques and instruments which reach the parts of our society which will always be beyond the scope of statutory schemes. I believe that the inspiring and the enlisting of the active citizen in all walks of life is the key.

I am slightly tired of the approach that it is all because of racism on the part of the police, just as I get slightly weary of police officers saying they are asked to police black communities more lightly.

Underpinning our social policy are those traditions—the diffusion of power, civil obligation, and voluntary service—which are central to Conservative philosophy... The diffusion of power...the key to active and responsible citizenship.

The idea of Active Citizenship is a necessary complement to that of the enterprise culture. Public service may once have been the duty of an elite, but today it is the responsibility of all who have time or money to spare. Modern capitalism has democratised the ownership of property, and we are now witnessing the democratisation of responsible citizenship.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Douglas Hurd (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.