Political Misquotations: Healey, Callaghan, Voltaire and Ahmadinejad

Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.
– Hesketh Pearson

With the Lib Dems announcing new tax plans this week, no doubt the right will soon lament (regardless of the detail) that we’re returning to the days of taxing the rich till the pips squeak. Some will probably think they’re quoting former Labour chancellor Denis Healey to whom those words have been long attributed. In fact, Healey never did say that he would “tax the rich till the pips squeak”, though he did declare at the party conference, “I warn you that there are going to be howls of anguish from those rich enough to pay over 75% on their last slice of earnings”. Similarly, Healey’s prime minister, Jim Callaghan, never said, “Crisis? What crisis?” (that was a Sun headline writer), but he did try to cool the Winter of Discontent by arguing, “I don’t think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos.”

The anti-clerical philosophe Voltaire, is regularly invoked in defence of free speech, but the imperishable line, “I disapprove of what you say, but i will defend to the death your right to say it”, never left his lips. The line, taken from Beatrice Hall’s Friends of Voltaire, was instead designed to bottle the spirit of his liberalism, reflected in aphorisms such as, “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too”.

A potent example of a recent misquotation is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s apparent call for Israel to be “wiped off the map”. In fact thorough research found that he declared, “the regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”. Thus expressing his hope that Zionism will fade away in a manner akin to Soviet communism, rather than the threat of a pre-emptive strike.

Anyone have more?

George Eaton : 21 Sep 2007 22:48 |  Tags: Denishealey Jimcallaghan Mahmoudahmadinejad Misquotation Politics Voltaire |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem