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
forces general government modern needs orders putting support war wrong
I may be wrong in that, but not I think in putting the questions. In our modern democracy the government needs not a unanimous but a general support for war before it orders our forces to fight.
admire arab indeed iraqi islamic neither nor reason saddam trust
Neither the Iraqi people, nor other Arab governments nor indeed Islamic fundamentalists have any reason to admire or trust Saddam Hussein.
ahead efforts hard remains starting work
While hard work remains ahead of us, our efforts are starting to show results.
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.
believe children country despite education either hostility lack widespread
Despite this lamentable lack of balance in our education I do not believe that either children or adults in my country are permeated by a widespread hostility to Germany.
labelled people politics
People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled politics.
drew heath margaret ministers prime ted war whom
The first two Prime Ministers whom I served, Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher drew strikingly different lessons from the Second World War.
defence self war
It was essentially for self defence that we went to war in Afghanistan and would go to war in Iraq.
arrogant business false german technical
There is nothing false or arrogant about German pride in German technical and business skills.
bound cannot deployed troops war
But it cannot follow that because weapons and troops are now being deployed we are bound to go to war.
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.