Charles Kennedy

Politician

1959-11-25

Quotes by Charles Kennedy

• I don't actually subscribe to the view that all power corrupts. But absolute power - when secured on the back of massive parliamentary majorities, which don't reflect the balance of political opinion in the country - can corrupt absolutely.

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• If you were to describe me as teetotal, on behalf of my constituency I'd have to sue; that would lose me every vote in the Highlands.

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• By common consent, most European countries support the maintenance of robust welfare states and are comfortable with taxation systems that support them.

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• Tony Blair took us to war in Iraq on the basis of the supposed threat of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

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• When I started knocking on Highland doors in May 1983, two things struck me more than any other. First was the sheer depth of hostility towards the Tories in general. Second was the particular hostility towards Margaret Thatcher and her local ministerial spear-carrier, energy minister and incumbent MP of 13 years' standing, Hamish Gray.

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• That 1983 general election contained the telltale seeds of eventual Scottish Tory self-destruction.

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• It would be a tragedy if the remarkable international coalition against terrorism, successfully marshalled in the aftermath of 11 September, were to fragment over a unilateral U.S. strike against Baghdad.

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• This country has a proud history of opening its doors to generations of people fleeing personal persecution, civil unrest and war.

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• 'Federalism', in the context of political and media usage in Britain, has come to mean the creation and imposition of a European superstate, one centralised in Brussels.

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• As Liberal Democrats and proponents of federalism, we must put our heads above the parapet and recapture and disseminate the true meaning of federalism. We have to win the vocabulary before we succeed in the vision.

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• I can hardly think of an occasion when I've got into a stand-up fight with any political opponent. I've got my views, people know what they are, they can agree or they can choose to disagree. I'm not going to waste time just rubbishing everybody else.

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• Public perception of the Westminster arena, with all its posturings, does little to engender a sense of voter belief.

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• Westminster is a jungle - and the hunter can always smell fear on its prey.

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• Some ministers are fond of talking about a return to Victorian values. We must realise that those Victorian values are being expressed by some of the younger people in this society in shameful and disturbing disregard for other members of their generation who are not as fortunate as they are in having a job.

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