The Sunday Quote

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'' When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.

James Boren Quoted in The Official Rules by Paul Dickson, 1972
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The Sunday Quote

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''I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'' - Voltaire (1694 -1778)


The above quote is inspired by the subject this week of - Geert Wilders the Dutch MP and his the treatment of him by this country – my country. Last weeks reaction by the Government makes me feel as if I am living in a foreign land. Is this reallythe UK from which he was turned away because 'we' do not like what he says? Is this the same country which so egregiously, for so long, permitted the hate-filled preaching of Abu Hamza, before finally doing something about it?

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Philip Johnston makes the point well in The Daily Telegraph, as do many many more right across the political spectrum. Johnston thinks that the refusal to admit the oddball Dutch MP to Britain yesterday "marks a further retreat from this country's traditions of free speech." He is quite correct; any right-thinking person would agree.

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Over and above the loathsome behaviour of our government, however, is the attitude of Her Majesty's "loyal opposition", the once great Conservative Party, which is reduced to this.

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Did we not hear so very recently from our MPs, a strident dissertation about the "privilege of freedom of speech", enjoyed by Members of Parliament, this being "in truth the privilege of their constituents."

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Well … Mr Wilders is an MP. Or does freedom of speech apply only to Conservative MPs and their constituents?

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For the avoidence of doubt any doubt, I do not agree with the views of Geer Wilders he is clearly bonkers, but the point is however, freedom of speech is a very basic right in any proper democracy.

Peter Troy
Sedgefield. County Durham

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The Sunday Quote

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'' If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same,

If you can walk with crowds and keep your vertue,

Or walk with Kings, nor lose the common touch,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run,

Yours is the earth and everthing that's in it, ................''

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
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The Sunday Quote

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Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
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The Sunday Quote

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''If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time with a tremendous whack.''

Sir Winston Churchill, FRS, OM. PC

(30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)
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The Sunday Quote

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''There is one just one rule for politicians all over the world. Don't say in power what you say in opposition. If you do, you'll only have to carry out what the other fellows have found impossible.''

John Galsworthy, Maid in Waiting, 1931.
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The Sunday Quote

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''We must be clear about this it does mean, if this is the idea, the end of Britain as an independent European state … it means the end of a thousand years of history. You may say, "let it end". But my goodness, it is a decision that needs a little care and thought.''


Rt Hon Hugh Gatiskell (1906-1963) leader of the Labour Party from 1955 until his death in office in 1963.

In October 1962 Hugh Gaitskell electrified the Labour Party conference with his 105 minute speech, wholly dedicated to the Common Market, he delivered the singular and now oft-quoted passage that has proved to be horribly prescient.

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The Sunday Quote

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''Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies''

Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) 3rd President of the US.
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The Sunday Quote

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'' Human behaviour flows from three main sources, desire, emotion and knowledge''

Plato

The Sunday Quote

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''Bank failures are caused by depositors who don't deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement ''

Dan Quale 44th US Vice President (1989-93).
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The Sunday Quote

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''The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.''

Eugene McCarthy (1916 - 2005), Time magazine, Feb. 12, 1979
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The Sunday Quote

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'' The more you read about this Politics thing, you have got to admit that each party is worse than the other.''

Will Rogers (1879-1935) The Illiterate Digest (1924)
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The Sunday Quote

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''During Stalin's speeches to the Praesidium, the first delegate to stop clapping was routinely haulded off to be shot.''
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Clive James - Writer and Broadcaster

The Sunday Quote

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''Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.''

St. Francis of Assisi quotes (Founder of the Franciscan order of Monks 1181-1226)

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http://www.the-publicist.co.uk/indianSummerBall.html

The Sunday Quote

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To make up for the absence of The Sunday Quote last week today is a 'pack' of three Churchillian Quotes:-

''It cannot in the opinion of His Majesty's Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminolgical inexactitude.

Winston Churchill in a speech in the House of Commons, 22 February 1906, referring to the government's denials of the exploitation of Chinese coolies in South Africa. ''

''I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.''

Winston Churchill in a BBC Radio broadcast, 1 October 1939.

''Sometimes truth is so precious, it must be attended by a body of lies.''

Churchill, when war-time Prime Minister speaking at the Tehran Conference in 1943. He was referring Specifically to Operation Overlord the code name for the Allied planed landings in Normandy which eventually took place in June 1944. The detailed plans were in no small part made successful by a series of imaginative and astonishingly effective deception operations.

Clearly all of the above quotes can apply to British politics in the early 21 Century!

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The Sunday Quote

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''Every sale has five basic obsticals: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.''
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Zig Ziglar
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The Sunday Quote

"When life appears to be working against you, when your luck is down, when the supposedly wrong people show up, or when you slip up and return to old, self-defeating habits, recognize the signs that you're out of harmony with intention.''

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

The Sunday Quote

''The higher a monkey climbs, the more you can see of his behind.''

General 'Vingar Joe' Stillwell. (1883-1946)

The Sunday Quote

"Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only sustained by perpetual neglect of many things."

Robert Louis Stevenson

The Easter Sunday Quote

''The Bible tells us to love our neighbours and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people. ''

G K Chesterton