Nigel Lawson Quotes

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

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.

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

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’m sure Mark Carney is a very clever young man, but I think that the government would be mad to move from inflation targeting to money GDP targeting.

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 ‘in’ campaign will attempt to scare people into believing that if the U.K. were to leave, investment and jobs would move abroad. They are as wrong about that now as they were when they warned that this would happen if we did not sign up to the Euro.

The Treasury has enough trouble with forecasts even when they are trying to get them right.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I am in favour of a fully transferable allowance.

We already have a sabbatical system. It’s called opposition, and I’ve had enough of it.

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.

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.

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

I am delighted to accept the chairmanship of Vote Leave, to help ensure that the organisation is fully prepared for the start of the referendum campaign.

One of the most important things that a Thatcher government did was change the mood of the nation to give it back its confidence.

I don’t think the government needs to be frightened of the banks in the slightest.

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.

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.

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.

We should be forced to give so many exemptions and concessions (inevitably to the benefit of high spending authorities in Inner London) that the flat-rate poll tax would rapidly become a surrogate income tax.

To govern is to choose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.

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

You have got to clear up that corporation tax in the modern way has had its day as a major source of revenue, and we have got to find a new system.

One of the things that concerned me was the way the system operated: the wife who went out to work got a full personal allowance, but the wife who was working at home got nothing. This was particularly hard on wives who gave up work for a time to bring up children.

Britain’s destiny lies in Europe.

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

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.

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