Nigel Lawson Quotes

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Nigel Lawson

Profession : Politician

Birth : March 11, 1932

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

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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

Nigel Lawson

Most of the countries in the world are outside the E.U., and they are doing very nicely, thank you.

Nigel Lawson

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

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

Prime Minister Cameron says he wants to be the greenest government ever, but the definition of green is immature... I don't deny for a moment that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but there are so many other factors that affect climate. It is more complicated than the computer models that we are using. What the truth is, nobody knows.

Nigel Lawson

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

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson

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

Nigel Lawson

I remember when we ignored Europe and we were totally committed to the Commonwealth and the former Empire, and thought imperial preference was the only thing which enabled us to survive, that was a mistake, and it's a similar mistake to feel Britain can't be a hugely successfully country - economically and in any other way - outside the E.U.

Nigel Lawson

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.

Nigel Lawson