Nigel Lawson Quotes

The pro-E.U. campaign is all too likely to be based on a fear of the unknown because in most people's lifetime, we have never been out of the E.U.

This clutching hold of the E.U. is a sign of a lack of national self-confidence - which is not healthy.

It would be wholly wrong constitutionally for the unelected House of Lords to do anything, to kill anything of a financial nature that has been through the House of Commons not once but twice.

I have to say to the Government that you are not even getting nowhere fast - you are getting nowhere slowly.

However useful computer models may be, the one thing they cannot be is evidence. Computer climate models are simply conjectures.

Hopelessly uneconomic on any substantial scale, since it requires a conventional power back-up for when the wind stops blowing, forests of wind turbines are rightly regarded in most countries as an environmental monstrosity.

Those who claim that to leave the E.U. would damage the City are the very same as those who in the past confidently predicted, with a classic failure of understanding, that the City would be gravely damaged if the U.K. failed to adopt the euro as its currency.

As the resignation letter which I wrote to the Prime Minister clearly implies, it was not the outcome I sought, but it is one that I accept without rancour, despite what might be described as the hard landing involved.

No one, however long they have held the post, lightly gives up the great office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Certainly I did not.

The right kind of immigrants can benefit the British economy enormously, but no country can accept indiscriminate, unlimited immigration.

The successful conduct of economic policy is possible only if there is - and is seen to be - full agreement between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

There has always been, and there always will be, an economic cycle.

During the 1960s, and again in the 1970s, growth in manufacturing productivity in the United Kingdom was the lowest of all the seven major industrial countries in the world. During the 1980s, our annual rate of growth of output per head in manufacturing has been the highest of all the seven major industrial countries.

In terms of the arguments, I think the pro-Leave campaign is winning them all.

I think that the ordinary bloke has an instinctive sense that it wouldn't be too bad if the weather warmed up.

When differences of view emerge, as they are bound to do from time to time, they should be resolved privately and whenever appropriately, collectively.

Too much of British business and industry feels similarly secure in the warm embrace of the European single market and is failing to recognise that today's great export opportunities lie in the developing world, particularly in Asia.

Not only is the Kyoto approach to global warming wrong-headed, the climate change establishment's suppression of dissent and criticism is little short of a scandal. The IPCC should be shut down.

The spread of personal ownership is in harmony with the deepest instincts of the British people. Few changes have done more to create one nation.

I have long argued that in the modern world, corporation tax has had its day as a major source of tax revenue.

If you punish the banks, all you are doing is reducing the banks' capital, which you want to increase, and punishing shareholders, who have done nothing wrong.

The heart of the matter is that the very nature of the European Union, and of this country's relationship with it, has fundamentally changed after the coming into being of the European monetary union and the creation of the eurozone, of which - quite rightly - we are not a part.

I am in favour of a fully transferable allowance.

I am not surprised Cameron says he supports what Gillard is doing in Australia because we have, in the U.K., a totally misconceived climate change plan as well.

A flat-rate poll tax would be politically unsustainable; even with a rebate scheme, the package would have an unacceptable impact on certain types of household.

Gradual and moderate warming brings benefits as well as incurring costs. These benefits and costs will not, of course, be felt uniformly throughout the world; the colder regions of the world will be more affected by the benefits, and the hotter regions by the costs.

If our system of cabinet government is to work effectively, the prime minister of the day must appoint ministers he or she trusts and then leave them to carry out that policy.

You don't need to be within the single market to trade; it's not an issue.

It is quite clear that history will record that Margaret Thatcher was the greatest Prime Minister this country has had since Churchill.

The fears of recession in the aftermath of Black Monday have turned to fears of the economy racing ahead too fast, with inflation edging up and a substantial current account deficit ... people understandably feel more confident about their future than they've done for decades, but as a result they have been borrowing more and saving less ... coming on top of a massive income investment boom, it's all been just a bit too much of a good thing.

In Europe, where climate change absolutism is at its strongest, the quasi-religion of greenery in general and the climate change issue in particular have filled the vacuum of organised religion, with reasoned questioning of its mantras regarded as a form of blasphemy.

You do not need to be within the single market to be able to export to the European Union, as we see from the wide range of goods on our shelves every day.

She felt Britain should not be so dependent on coal. She was in favour of building up nuclear energy to break the dependence on coal, and the main opposition to nuclear came from the environment movement. Mrs. Thatcher thought she could trap them with the carbon emissions argument.

I strongly suspect that there would be a positive economic advantage to the U.K. in leaving the single market.

There is always, of course, a limit in a democracy as to what is politically possible, so you have to respect that limit. But in my experience, governments tend to be too timid.

The NHS is the closest thing the English have to a religion.

I am not anti-European.