We have many times led Europe in the fight for freedom. It would be an ignoble end to our long history if we tamely accepted to perish by degrees.
Anthony Eden
Category: Europe & Britain
Whether we like it or not we are consideably bound to Europe.
Stanley Baldwin
Category: Europe & Britain
They seem to have moved from total opposition to total subservience.
John Major 1992
On Labour's attutude to Europe.
Category: Labour Party, Europe & Britain
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.
Hugh Gaitskell 03/10/1962
Category: Europe & Britain, Eurosceptic
If Britain becomes a member of the Community, it will be healthier for Britain, advantageous for Europe, and a gain for the whole world. I do not know of many economic or political problems in the world which will be easier to solve if Britain is outside rather than inside the Community.
James Callaghan 08/05/1966
Category: Europe & Britain
It has been suggested by some people in this country that I and my Government will be a 'soft touch' in the Community. In case such a rumour may have reached your ears, Mr Chancellor, it is only fair to advise you frankly to dismiss it, as my colleagues did long ago! I intend to be very discriminating in judging what are British interests and I shall be resolute in defending them.
Margaret Thatcher 05/1979
At a dinner with Helmut Schmidt
Category: Germany, Europe & Britain
I believe we should continue to have a partnership of national states each retaining the right to protect its vital interests, but developing more effectively than at present the habit of working together.
Margaret Thatcher 1977
Category: Europe & Britain
Yes, the Commission wants to increase its powers, Yes, it is a non-elected body and I do not want the Commission to increase its powers at the expense of the House, so of course we differ. The President of the Commission, Mr Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community. He wanted the Commission to be the Executive and he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No! No! No!
Margaret Thatcher 30/10/1990
Rome Summit statement in the House of Commons
Category: Europe & Britain
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
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
I was turned out because I said to Europe no, no, no. That no, no , no has now turned into yes, yes. Two yes's not three because he got the Social Chapter out and he's reserved his position on the single currency.
Margaret Thatcher 1994
Category: Europe & Britain, Europe - Maastricht Treaty
We weren't getting a fair deal on the budget and I wasn't going to have it. There's a great strand of equity and fairness in the British people - this is our characteristic. There's not a strand of equity and fairness in Europe - they're out to get as much as they can. That's one of those enormous differences. So I tackled it on that basis.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
Category: Europe & Britain
When will Labour learn that you cannot build Jerusalem in Brussels.
Margaret Thatcher 1992
Category: Europe & Britain
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
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
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
Any attempts by any government to change Community legislation to its own wishes are doomed to failure following the extension of policy areas now subject to majority voting... In our opinion, this must have serious implications for the traditional view of Parliament as a legislative body sovereignty.
Margaret Thatcher 1993
Report of The Hansard Society's Commission on the Legislative Process, 1993
Category: Legislation, Europe & Britain
There is no question of any erosion of essential national sovereignty.
Edward Heath 07/1971
Category: Europe & Britain
