The most famous misquote?

Above - the famous Sun headline from the Winter of Discontent in January 1979, which has passed into folklore as the complacent utterance given by then Prime Minister James Callaghan on returning from a summit in Guadeloupe. In fact, the exchange went like this:

REPORTER: What is your general approach, in view of the mounting chaos in the country at the moment?

CALLAGHAN: Well, that's a judgment that you are making. I promise you that if you look at it from outside, and perhaps you're taking rather a parochial view at the moment, I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos.

What the newspaper did was perfectly legitimate - a soundbite was compressed into an eye-catching headline. They never tried to allege that Callaghan had uttered those infamous words, 'Crisis? What Crisis?' But the claim that he did has passed into folklore, with the supposed 'quote' even finding its way into dictionaries of quotations.

Some other well-known political sayings, either misquoted or taken out of context:

On Your Bike
Attributed to Norman Tebbit in 1981, following his speech about his unemployed father looking for work in the 1930s depression, and used in subsequent years as shorthand for Conservative intransigence to the plight of the unemployed. Tebbit's actual words were:

I grew up in the 1930s with an unemployed father. He did not riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he went on looking until he found it.

There's No Such Thing As Society
Famously attributed to Margaret Thatcher. She did, in fact, say these words in an interview with Woman's Own in October 1987. However, looking at the complete context of the line gives a rather different perspective which might even resonate with many of her detractors:

I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.

Let's Bomb Russia
Only half-jokingly attributed to US President Ronald Reagan. On live radio in 1984, supposedly intending it to be a quip and thinking himself off-air, Reagan declared,

My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.

So that’s what you get, people said, for putting an actor in the White House.




Monkish Ignorance
And finally, one which is interesting for what it left out. Well-known polymath, intellectual and pacifist George W. Bush, in a speech celebrating the Fourth of July, quoted Thomas Jefferson, third President of the USA, as follows:

On the fiftieth anniversary of America’s independence, Thomas Jefferson passed away. But before leaving this world, he explained that the principles of the Declaration of Independence were universal. In one of the final letters of his life, he wrote, “May it be to the world, what I believe it will be — to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all — the signal of arousing men to burst the chains, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

Now, what Jefferson actually wrote was:

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

Do you see what he did there? One wonders why such an important anti-religious sentiment should have been deliberately left out. A clear sin of omission, perhaps, from one determined to push his own agenda of 'monkish ignorance and superstition' through?...

Let's remind ourselves of this moment

David Miliband predicts the future.



No, not the 'banana incident' - but perhaps another famous banana skin.

Look, it's true - even Iain Dale misses him!

Political Quote of the Week

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)

The Hand of History

If circumstances had been different, each of these people could, at some point, have become Prime Minister.

Enoch Powell (1912-1998)



Remembered now, of course, for his speech against the 1968 Race Relations Act, nicknamed the 'Rivers of Blood' speech. A fascinating alternate history can be found here, portraying a Britain in which Powell's career was rather more illustrious - and the likely consequences.

Michael Portillo (born 1953)



Seen as a likely candidate on three occasions at least. First, it was thought he'd stand against John Major when the latter embarked on his 'put up or shut up resignation' in 1995. Portillo even got as far as setting up a campaign HQ equipped with telephone lines. Secondly, of course, he was scuppered from standing in 1997 after the one moment everyone remembers from that General Election - losing his seat to Stephen Twigg. And then again in 2001, with Portillo back in Parliament and back in the Cabinet, he was knocked out of the leadership contest leaving the party members a choice between Kenneth Clarke and Iain Duncan Smith - ultimately won, of course, by the latter.

Again, the possibility is seen as so interesting that an entire alternate history has been written on the subject.

John Smith (1938-1994)



One of those rare politicians seen as an honourable man even by his enemies, Labour leader John Smith was widely considered as the man to defeat the Tories in the 1990s. Few doubt that, had he lived, he would have gone on to become Prime Minister. His death in May 1994 prompted sombre tributes on all sides of the House.

Neil Kinnock (born 1942)



Famously lost two General Elections (1987 and 1992) before throwing in the towel. His defeat in 1992 came as something of a shock - the cringeworthy Sheffield Rally was thought to be instrumental in his downfall, and that infamous Sun headline can't have helped much...

Don't Punch The Voters

We're going to be seeing a lot more of our sitting and prospective MPs over the next three or four months, as at some point they will be returning to their constituencies and begging for our votes.

Of course, politicians coming face-to-face with Real People doesn't always work out for the best. Here are a few reminders of some of the awkward, amusing and memorable things that can happen.




Blair and the Women's Institute
In 2000, a nervous Tony Blair is slow-handclapped by the disdainful ladies...

Joe Biden and the "stand up" moment
Oops - US Vice-President-to be, Senator Joe Biden in 2008 asking a man in a wheelchair to stand up. To be fair, he recovers pretty well from this!

Maggie and the Belgrano Housewife
Mrs Thatcher is bettered in debate by Mrs Diana Gould in 1982.

The Prescott Punch
Livening up the moribund 2001 General Election campaign.

The Promise

Pop and politics have always been uneasy bedfellows. Those of a certain age will recall the cringe factor of seeing Neil Kinnock mucking about in a Tracey Ullman video in the 1980s - even young people were vaguely uneasy at the idea that someone aspiring to run the country should concern himself with such things.

Post-Live Aid, we've become used to our Serious Rock Stars from Bono to Chris Martin issuing pronouncements and edicts on everything from Third World Debt to sustainable living. To which the obvious reply is, "all very nice when you have a private jet and someone to wash your socks, mate."

It may have slipped under the radar that, back in December 2006, the New Statesman broke out its sparkly slingbacks, put on its best lippy and sashayed forth to meet five would-be policy makers, a bunch of narrow-hipped vixens known otherwise as Girls Aloud. It's safe to say the political world did not exactly tremble - however, what followed was not necessarily that embarrassing either. Cheryl Cole, at that point in time poised exactly halfway between uncomfortable memories of toilet-attendant incidents and future quasi-Diana status as Nation's Sweetheart, helpfully offered that she voted Labour because her mum always did. Nadine Coyle was friends with a nurse and suggested the money being spent in the NHS wasn't going to the right places. Sarah Harding ventured that "We need to make politics more user-friendly... It just isn't talked about in normal magazines and newspapers. We never get asked who we would vote for. It could be a general question to ask us in an interview, but it isn't. Everyone has ideas about what we want for the country, but people need to vote to make that happen." Blimey. Join the club. As a snapshot of the political thinking of the successful working-class British girl, it was pretty effective. Amusingly, they didn't want to back David Cameron and seemed rather confused over whether they had met Gordon Brown.

The Guardian had something to say back in 2007 about the lack of political pop music these days.

In truth, getting celebrity backing for your party can be a two-edged sword. In the past, Billy Bragg and Paul Weller have lined up for Labour, Elton John was courted by the Tories and Labi Siffre came out as a Lib Dem. But we wince now at the memories of "Cool Britannia", of Spice Girl Union Jack chic and the Gallagher brothers quaffing champagne in Downing Street. It's all very 1997. Where will it end? One can't imagine the current leaders desperately seeking the seal of approval from Pixie Lott, Lady Gaga and Chipmunk. Maybe we're returning to a time when celebrities can get on with doing what they do best, and politicians can do the same.

Poster boys

We're not officially in an election campaign. But we're in that interesting period, just as we were at this time in 1992, where we know there is only a limited amount of time left. The election has to happen by June 2010. And so, since Christmas the parties have effectively been fighting the first rounds in an election campaign. It is unlikely to go on at this kind of intensity, but so far all three party leaders have struck blows which must have encouraged them. The polls look good for David Cameron, although still not consistent enough to ensure him an overall majority, while Nick Clegg has actually got some decent media attention for his recent pronouncements (always difficult for the third party leader) and Gordon Brown is on fighting form in recent Prime Minister's Questions - he certainly isn't acting like a man who has given up.

So, if this is an election campaign in all but name, we can expect more and more giant billboard posters to go up in the next few weeks. Even in the age of Broadband and Twitter - and this will be the first election fought with those technologies at the parties' disposal - a giant two-dimensional image is still, it seems, thought to be an effective way of getting one's message over to the public.

Memorable election posters from previous decades immediately spring to mind - a classic Conservative poster forever associated with the Winter of Discontent and Callaghan's "Crisis? What Crisis?" (which he didn't actually say), and an ultimately ineffective campaign hinting that Tony Blair was not all he seemed. Some played on old fears while others showed commendable optimism...

These days, of course, new technology can be used to play with the images the parties come up with. The voters won't sit still and take the message in one direction - they're going to have a little fun with it. I think we can expect a bit more of this kind of thing over the next few weeks. In its own way, this very Tens (Teenies? Tweenies?) satire is yet another channel of communication between politicians and the people.

Create your own David Cameron poster!

We love this 'create your own David Cameron poster' built by a guy called Andy Barefoot.

Create yours here and here's one we made earlier:

X Marks the Box - FREE ebook giveaway

Book publishing trade magazine The Bookseller are first with the story that, from 11th February 2010, Daniel Blythe will be giving away, in ebook form, his new book on politics and voting, X Marks the Box, entirely free.

Sign up for the free ebook in advance of 11th February using the widget on the right of this page, which is shareable if you'd like to put it on your site, using the button at the bottom right.

Read the full piece in the Bookseller here and download Icon's press release here.