Frasi di Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
Data di nascita: 11. Marzo 1916
Data di morte: 24. Maggio 1995
Altri nomi:James Harold Wilson
Lord James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson de Rievaulx è stato un politico britannico, esponente del Labour Party, che ricoprì due volte discontinue la carica di Primo Ministro del Regno Unito, dal 1964 al 1970 e dal 1974 al 1976.
Dopo essere stato docente di economia a Oxford, dal 1945 fu deputato del Partito Laburista; dal 1947 al 1951 fu ministro del commercio con C.R. Atlee e nel 1963 sostituì Hugh Gaitskell alla guida dei laburisti.
Vinte le elezioni dell'anno seguente divenne Primo ministro del Regno Unito mantenendosi in carica fino al 1970 e poi ancora dal 1974 al 1976, quando decise di ritirarsi a favore di James Callaghan.
In politica estera Wilson fu sostanzialmente contrario alle istituzioni europee; di fronte alla crisi dell'economia britannica cercò di preservare il benessere e la stabilità sociale del Welfare State applicando una politica deflazionistica e il "controllo sociale" dei redditi concertato con le Trade Unions. I costi elevati del Welfare State e l'eccessivo peso politico concesso ai sindacati forumularono tuttavia le premesse alla crisi del Partito laburista e, quindi, dei successivi trionfi di Margaret Thatcher.
Wilson fu il Primo Ministro inglese che fece nominare dalla Regina Elisabetta II i Beatles come "baronetti".
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politico e scrittore britannicoFrasi Harold Wilson
„May I say, for the benefit of those who have been carried away by the gossip of the last few days, that I know what's going on. [pause] I'm going on, and the Labour government's going on.“
— Harold Wilson
Speech at a May Day rally in London (4 May 1969), quoted in The Times (5 May 1969), p. 1. There had been a series of reports that Wilson's leadership might be challenged.
„I know I speak for everyone in these islands, all parties, all our people, when I say to Mr. Smith tonight: "Prime Minister, think again".“
— Harold Wilson
Broadcast (12 October 1965), quoted in The Times (13 October 1965), p. 8, calling on the Government of Rhodesia not to declare independence.
„From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn't mean, of course, that the Pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.“
— Harold Wilson
Broadcast http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/19/newsid_3208000/3208396.stm (19 November 1967), following the devaluation of the Pound Sterling. Usually remembered as "the Pound in your pocket".
„We have taken steps which have not been taken by any other democratic government in the world. We are taking steps with regard to prices and wages which no other government, even in wartime, has taken.“
— Harold Wilson
Speech in the White House (29 July 1966), quoted in The Times (30 July 1966), p. 1.
„A week is a long time in politics.“
— Harold Wilson
Possibly misattributed; according to Nigel Rees in Brewster's Quotations (1994), asked shortly after his retirement in 1977 about the quote, he could not pinpoint the first occasion on which he uttered the words.
„He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.“
— Harold Wilson
Speech to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France (23 January 1967), quoted in The New York Times (24 January 1967), p. 12.
„We have not been pushed around either abroad or at home and we are not going to be. This is government of the people; it is government for all the people, and the accent is on government.“
— Harold Wilson
Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool (28 September 1965), quoted in The Times (29 September 1965), p. 5.
„The government have only a small majority in the House of Commons. I want to make it quite clear that this will not affect our ability to govern. Having been charged with the duties of Government we intend to carry out those duties.“
— Harold Wilson
Television broadcast (October 1964), after winning the general election, quoted in David Butler, Coalitions in British Politics (Macmillan, London, 1978), p. 99.
„I get a little nauseated, perhaps, when I hear the phrase "freedom of the Press" used as freely as it is, knowing that a large part of our proprietorial Press is not free at all“
— Harold Wilson
Speech in the House of Commons (5 December 1974) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1974/dec/05/prime-minister-visits
„We are more interested in the monthly trade returns than in Debrett, more preoccupied with what is said by the industrial correspondents and economic editors than what is said by William Hickey; more concerned with modernizing the machinery of government and the action that will need to follow the report of the Estimates Committee on the Civil Service than in altering the layout of Burke's Landed Gentry.“
— Harold Wilson
Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool (28 September 1965), quoted in The Times (29 September 1965), p. 5.
„I have always said about Tony [Benn] that he immatures with age.“
— Harold Wilson
Interview with The Times (7 April 1981), p. 12.
„The Smethwick Conservatives can have the satisfaction of having topped the poll, and of having sent here as their Member one who, until a further General Election restores him to oblivion, will serve his term here as a Parliamentary leper“
— Harold Wilson
Speech in the House of Commons (3 November 1964) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1964/nov/03/debate-on-the-address-first-day. The 1964 general election had seen the defeat of Wilson's Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker by Conservative Peter Griffiths after an allegedly racist campaign. Griffiths was indeed defeated at the next election but returned to Parliament in 1979 and served until 1997.
