Douglas Hurd
Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell CH CBE PCis a British Conservative politician who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1979 to 1995...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 March 1930
depends dimension drifting people
It depends on how it is done but what we are drifting into, which is that people grow up without any sense of a spiritual dimension to life, is just impoverishing.
war agreement rights
There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.
guidelines precise
History provides no precise guidelines.
character suffering germany
But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.
iraq might spurs
A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.
growing-up years europe
Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.
country teaching normal
It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching.
past judgment enjoyable
We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgment on the past.
downing-street office house
Ten Downing Street is a house, not an office. That is its most important characteristic.
war military successful
No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.
europe america leaving
The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake.
europe germany economic
Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe.
men action justified
Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.
people way prison
Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.