QUOTE OF THE MONTH

 

'Where we have won our greatest successes has been in London, in Rochester, in Shropshire, and, above all, in South Birmingham; where we have had candidates who have had a little courage, and who have dared to call their souls their own (laughter)- who have supported with all their might whole-heartedly the policy in which they believe, and who have earned and deserved to earn, the result of their courage. Victories in politics are like victories in war: they are won by enthusiasm; they are lost by timidity. It is not, after all, good policy – to say nothing at all about morality – it is not good policy to sit upon a fence (hear, hear). Now, I say, at the next election, whatever its result is to be, let us hold our banner high (cheers) – and we shall have plenty who will come to the standard. Let us fight, if we must fight, for something worth fighting for. I do not much like the modern political nomenclature, and I will not use it; but I will say that on the whole I believe that those who take “Thorough” as their guiding motto will be much more likely to be successful than those who are half-hearted and weak-kneed and trying to catch a breeze that will never come.'

- Joseph Chamberlain, speaking in Birmingham to the Grand Committee of the Birmingham Liberal Unionist Association, in May 1904.