"They said it in 1988" (1989)

From the January 1989 issue of the Socialist Standard

JANUARY

• The pawnbroker of today provides a social service. People come to us when they get into trouble with their credit cards. (Phil Murphy, managing director of a Manchester pawnbrokers.)
• I cannot sleep at nights worrying about the cutbacks and the effect they could have on our son. (Mother of a baby waiting for a heart operation.)
• You may have the staff and the beds but you still need money to treat patients. (Mike Harley, Health Service Management Centre.)
• I'm in this job to care for people, not juggle figures and come up with an immaculate balance sheet ... When you get a note in your Christmas pay packet congratulating staff for being part of the only health authority in the country to stay within budget, you know things are seriously wrong. (Sister Audrey Harris, Ealing Hospital.)
• Anybody who enjoys being in the House of Commons probably needs psychiatric care. (Ken Livingstone, MP for Brent East.)

FEBRUARY

• The army is the army so there will be no problem with trade unions. (General Yazov, Russian army, on possible military redundancies after the INF Treaty.)
• Let's have a proper constructive policy, which as far as were concerned means taking land out of production. (Tony Pexton, National Farmers' Union cereal spokesman.)
• I hate all of them. I think they are the phoniest two-bit bastards. (Bill Carrick, Democrat Richard Gephardt’s election aide, on the other Democratic primary candidates )
• Someone tells them they should break Arabs' bones and then some orthopaedist says they musn’t. What's going on here, for God's sake? (Father of an Israeli paratrooper who was shown on TV beating two bound Palestinians.)

MARCH

• There is so much more to life than business schemes and striving for profit. (Tim Mulligan, Hampshire coroner, at a businessman's inquest.)
• Bush has a charmed life in politics; he's gone a long way without doing very much. (Republican Senator Robert Dole.)
• We see little that is hopeful. A continual rise in poverty, homelessness and reported child abuse has become a feature of Britain in the 1980s. We believe that there is worse to come. (Michael Newman, Chief Executive, National Children's Homes.)
• Money is for those who can make it. And those who can't make it must not be allowed to get in the way of its being made. (Bishop of Durham.)

APRIL

• Although we know atomic weapons will never disappear, it is clear that their development is being intensified against all political claims of disarmament. (Liz Baker, CND veteran on the 1988 Aldermaston march.)
• When the market's very active I have a migraine the whole time — I get through a bottle of aspirin a week. (Mardi Haynes, Eurobond dealer.)
• I know that she has done things like washing up and Hoovering carpets, and she did them very well, but I know that she's very happy being a princess. (Earl Spencer, on his daughter Princess of Wales.)
• I was brought up poor. I never thought it would go on for ever, on to my children and now maybe their children's children. (Shop assistant Claire Hurst.)
• Don't shop when hungry — you may be tempted to buy more than you need. (DHSS advice to claimants.)
• It was a cold-blooded financial decision. (Lionel Read, London Regional Transport's counsel, explaining the lack of fire precautions to the King's Cross fire enquiry.)

MAY

• I vote Conservative no matter what. (Angela Corbett, student nurse.)
• I'd vote National Front if they were here. I like Mrs. Thatcher. She's strong. (Gary Silk, chef.)
• I recommend investment in the quality of life because that is what is really going to matter in the future. (Prince Charles, to the Anglo-American business conference.)
• I do not think I have ever been ruthless. (Margaret Thatcher.)
• My husband takes second place to the Sun but he says he still loves me. (Letter in the Sun from Doreen Steward.)
• Companies are increasingly seeing that controlling crime is good business. More tranquil communities create a better environment in which business can flourish. (Steven Norris, chairman Crime Concern.)

JUNE

• We at LRT can't possibly be considered to be trying to wriggle out of the blame for the tragedy. (Keith Bright, then chairman of LRT, to the King's Cross fire enquiry.)
• You're very hard put to find, even in Albania, an economy that does not rely on the market. (Bryan Gould, Labour industry spokesman.)
• The Soviet people must remember Stalinism as the Jewish people remember the Holocaust (Yuri Skubko, member of a group setting up a memorial to Stalin’s Russian victims.)
• You live for Friday and Saturday night. If you don't get a good time, you get mad; you’ve got to take it out on somebody. (Football hooligan.)

JULY

• Medicine is a fiercely competitive place now. (Malcolm Grosvenor, Trafford Health Authority.)
• Derek Hatton in a show called Scruples. It's enough to make you laugh. (Actor Brian McDermott on Hatton getting an Equity card for a TV show.)
• I have great admiration for Mr. Gorbachev. (Margaret Thatcher.)
• Money does make life a damn sight more comfortable. (Millionaire George Wiliams.)
• On the doorstep I mention David Owen's name three times in the first minute and a half. (John Martin, SDP candidate, Kensington by-election.)
• We live in a society that reveres profit. The effects on health of economic policies are ignored. (Judy Sagrove, Guardian Health Editor.)
• I'm right wing and an absolute royalist and I don't like the way things are going. (Buster Edwards, Great Train Robber.)
• Frankly, I mean, my sort of humour I can use as a kind of phoney elder statesman. (Denis Healey.)
• I am not motivated by amounts of money. (Multi-millionaire Peter de Savary.)
• For reasons which I do not understand, the memory of Mrs. Thatcher seems more indelibly printed on the patients with dementia than most other facts over the last 15 years. (Psychiatrist — Social Work Today).)
• It's easier to be law-abiding when you are wealthy than when you are struggling for your existence. (Peter Imbert, Chief of the Metropolitan police.)

AUGUST

• I really sobbed my heart out when the SDP was broken up. (David Owen.)
• Politics is no longer on my agenda. (Harvey Proctor, ex-Tory MP for Billericay.)
• She really is a woman just like my mum. (Cliff Richard on Margaret Thatcher.)
• Any minister in her Cabinet must respect her judgement... She wins elections. (Kenneth Baker on Margaret Thatcher.)
• My father is a tolerant person. (Rhonda, daughter of Ian Paisley.)

SEPTEMBER

• The Sultan of Brunei is an attractive as well as an absolute monarch. He dislikes being described as the world's richest man. (Susan Crosland.)
• They run if the money is right, rather than to meet one another. (Anne Packer, 1964 Olympic gold medallist, on the participants in the Seoul Olympics.)
• People need to be educated, not trained to work. (Kinglsey Amis.)
• I liked the man. There was nothing he didn't know about birds. (Lord Home on Neville Chamberlain.)
• The things I believe in are fundamental human rights. (Margaret Thatcher.)
• Being a black quarter-back nowadays is almost like being president of Nicaragua. (Don McPherson, quarterback, Philadelphia Eagles.)
• Being the leader of the Labour Party is the worst job in Britain. (Labour MP John Prescott.)
• We first voted for equal pay in 1885 and we have not delivered the goods yet. (Ken Gill, at the TUC.)
• Whatever happens in the world, Hanson wins. (Sean O'Connor, account director. Hanson Trust's advertising agency.)

OCTOBER

• The vote is a clear sign that Labour wants to stick to its traditional unilateralist defence policy. (Ron Todd on Labour's conference vote for unilateralism.)
• These votes were not conclusive. The policy review continues. (Neil Kinnock, on the same vote.)
• For the first time in my life, and the first time I think in world history, I can now see a chance of ending war forever. (Denis Healey.)
• I don't mind looking very glamourous, but I don’t want to be trivialised. (Edwina Currie.)
• I often think television has done so much good for people that I hope they have television in heaven. (Roger Ailes, media consultant to George Bush.)
• Mrs. Reagan is never greedy. She only takes what she can use. (David Hayes, American dress designer.)
• The leadership of the Party writes about individual freedom before collective fellowship and talks about issuing shares. It's difficult. (Martin Corrick, chairman Eastleigh Labour party.)
• Overcrowding is well past safety point now. In the rush hour you can't even get the driver's cab door open to sort out a problem. (Brian Hall, London Tube driver.)
• What we are saying is that Avebury Manor is as much yours as it is mine, although we will charge you to come in. (Kenneth King, who bought the Jacobean Avebury Manor for £1 million.)

NOVEMBER

• We are living in a capitalist society where you are supposed to make money and that is what I am doing. (Sunil Kumar, owner of a bed-and breakfast hostel for the homeless.)
• There is no evidence that rich old people die from hypothermia. (Dr. Eric Midwinter, director of the Centre for Policy on Ageing.)
• I'm merely saying that a lot of people find it difficult to believe your most sincere assurances. (Robin Day, to Nigel Lawson.)
• There is no reason you should feel guilty because you have parents who have money. (Marchioness of Worcester.)
• It is clear on the evidence of Sir Keith that his board did have proper regard to efficiency and economy: it is equally clear that they did not impose the same criteria when it came to safety of operation. (Fennell Report on the King's Cross fire.)
• I'm not a greedy person. (Multi-millionaire Peter de Savary.)

DECEMBER

• We're turning people away if they have slept rough before — they can sleep rough again. (Department of Social Security.)
• Sex discrimination is not only unfair but harms the economy. (Norman Fowler. Employment Secretary.)
• He's the only wally I ever went out with. I feel so ashamed of it now, he's such a yob. (Model Fiona Wright, on Derek Hatton.)
• I am not sure that doing something for money makes it any more moral. (The Duke of Edinburgh.)