Roy Jenkins Quotes & Sayings

I am sure Mr Heath thinks he is honest but I wish he didn't have to have his friends say it so often. — Roy Jenkins

I do not think you can push public expenditure significantly above 60 per cent and maintain the values of a plural society with adequate freedom of choice. We are here close to one of the frontiers of social democracy — Roy Jenkins

Each successive Labour Government has been the most rapacious, doctrinaire and unpatriotic conspiracy to be seen this side of the Iron Curtain. — Roy Jenkins

The most moving speech I have ever heard was Hugh Gaitskell saying he would 'fight, fight and fight again to save the party we love. That was the right message in 1960, and I believe it is still the right message today. — Roy Jenkins

The great disadvantage of our present electoral system is that it freezes the pattern of politics, and holds together the incompatible because everyone assumes that if a party splits it will be electorally slaughtered. — Roy Jenkins

There are always great dangers in letting the best be the enemy of the good. — Roy Jenkins

There is a lot of talk about a centre party - and that I might lead it. I find this idea profoundly unattractive — Roy Jenkins

The fact is that Harold Wilson is a person no one can like, a person without friends. — Roy Jenkins

We must not expect a full-scale peaceful revolution every time a Labour Government is elected. — Roy Jenkins

Many of the early nationalisation measures were right. They have remained part of the social fabric. I favour measures of that type. — Roy Jenkins

I therefore believe that the politics of the left and centre of this country are frozen in an out-of-date mould which is bad for the political and economic health of Britain and increasingly inhibiting for those who live within the mould. Can it be broken? — Roy Jenkins

A substantial extension of public ownership is an essential pre-requisite of greater equality of earned income — Roy Jenkins

A social democratic party without deep roots in the working class movement would quickly fade into an unrepresentative intellectual sect. — Roy Jenkins

Inheritance Tax; - it is, broadly speaking; a voluntary levy paid by those who distrust their heirs more than they dislike the Inland Revenue — Roy Jenkins

The permissive society has been allowed to become a dirty phrase. A better phrase is the civilised society. — Roy Jenkins

The Labour Party is and always has been an instinctive part of my life. — Roy Jenkins