231 Quotes filtered by margaret thatcher
I must be absolutely clear about this. Britain cannot accept the present situation on the budget. It is demonstrably unjust. It is politically indefensible. I cannot play Sister Bountiful to the Community while my own electorate are being asked to forego improvements in the fields of health, education, welfare and the rest
Margaret Thatcher
Category: Europe & Britain
If there is one instance in which a foreign policy I pursued met with unambiguous failure, it was my policy on German reunification.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
Category: Germany
We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the State in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European Super-State exercising a new dominance from Brussels.
Margaret Thatcher 20/09/1988
Speech to the College of Europe, Bruges
Category: Europe & Britain, Eurosceptic
My first guiding principle is this: willing and active co-operation between independent sovereign states. Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality.
Margaret Thatcher 09/1988
Speech tot he College of Europe in Bruges
Category: European Integration
You can't buck the market.
Margaret Thatcher 1989
On Chancellor Nigel Lawson's attempts to shadow the Deutsche Mark
Category: Free Enterprise
I can cope with nine of them, so they ought to be able to stand one of me. They could end the tiresomeness and stubbornness by giving me what I want.
Margaret Thatcher 10/04/1984
On her 9 European colleagues
Category: Europe & Britain
The secret of happiness is to live within your income and pay your bills on time.
Margaret Thatcher
Category: Debt & Borrowing
The United States is contributing massively to the defence of Europe and we should be very grateful.
Margaret Thatcher 27/10/1983
Category: Europe & America, Defence
What really gets me is this - it's very ironic that those who are most critical of extra tax are those who are most vociferous in demanding extra expenditure. What gets me even more is that having demanded that extra expenditure they are not prepared to face the consequences of their own action and stand by the necessity to get the tax to pay for it. I wish some of them had a bit more guts and courage than they have.
Margaret Thatcher 1981
Referring to the Tory Wets
Category: Taxation
I have the money and they won't get their hands on it.
Margaret Thatcher 13/08/1979
To Sir Nicholas Henderson, on the EEC budget
Category: Europe & Britain
We should not expect the State to appear in the guise of an extravagant God fairy at every christening, a loquacious companion at every stage of life's journey, the unknown mourner at every funeral.
Margaret Thatcher 03/1980
Category: State, The
I think our support for the EEC has been very half-hearted. You really cannot join any group of nations and spend all your time criticizing it. The EEC is free Europe getting together. Had we had some vision like that after the First World War, we might never had the Second. My son does not have to go and fight as his father had to fight. Surely that is the most valuable thing of all, the reason for keeping Europe together.
Margaret Thatcher 15/04/1979
Category: Europe & Britain
We shall take whatever action is necessary to contain the growth of the money supply. The government, unlike so many of its predecessors, will face up to economic realities.
Margaret Thatcher 11/1979
Category: Money
We have made too much of one or two people, and we think that they can win or lose elections for us. Don't be depressed if one particular person transgresses. It doesn't lose an election unless the Party loses faith in itself.
Margaret Thatcher 1963
Category: Winning & Losing
I think Essex Man will vote for a Conservative Government.
Margaret Thatcher 04/1992
Category: 1992 General Election
We were told our campaign wasn't sufficiently slick. We regard that as a compliment.
Margaret Thatcher 06/1987
Category: 1987 General Election
I feel more genuine affection this time. I think I have become a bit of an institution and, you know, the sort of thing people expect to see around the place.
Margaret Thatcher 05/1987
At the start of the 1987 election campaign
Category: 1987 General Election
It's a result that will reverberate through our history. Its consequences will outlive most of us here tonight.
Margaret Thatcher 10/06/1983
On the night of thr 1983 General Election
Category: 1983 General Election
If I lose, I will be out tomorrow.
Margaret Thatcher 02/05/1979
On the eve of the 1979 election
Category: 1979 General Election, Winning & Losing
I must warn you, that although our Party is going to win overall, I could lose Finchley.
Margaret Thatcher 05/1979
To her family on the eve of the election in May 1979. She won, almost doubling her majority.
Category: 1979 General Election
