No Battle Is Worth Fighting

If In The Words Which The Secretary Of State Has Just Used, The Use Of A Nuclear Weapon Is To Be Avoided 'at All Costs'. What Is The Point Of Having One?

Of Course I Am Very Proud Of Being A Tory. Yes, In My Head And In My Heart I Regard Myself As A Tory. As I Have Said, I Was Born That Way; I Believe It Is Congenital. I Am Unable To Change It. That Is How I See The World... [the Eec] Is The Most Un-tory Thing That Can Be Conceived.

I Do Not Know If The Doctrine That The Nation-state Arose In The 19th Century Was Still Being Taught:;... But It Is Erroneous. The Nation-state Reaches Back Far Into The Origins Of Europe Itself And Perhaps Beyond. If Europe Was Not Always A Europe Of Nations, It Was Always A Europe In Which Nations Existed, And Were Taken For Granted, As A Basic Form Of The State.

It Is One Of History's Most Mocking Ironies That The German Customs Union, Which Set Out To Dominate Europe And Conquer Britain In The Form Of Bismarckian Or Hitlerian Military Force, Has At Last Vanquished The Victor By Drawing Britain Into A Zollverein Which Comprises Western Europe And Aspires To Comprise The Mediterranean As Well. If The Ghosts Of The Hohenzollerns Come Back To Haunt This Planet, They Must Find A Lot To Laugh At.

When We Look At The Astonishing Material Achievements Of The West. We See These Things As The Result, Not Of Compulsion Or Government Action Or The Superior Wisdom Of A Few, But Of That System Of Competition And Free Enterprise, Rewarding Success And Penalising Failure, Which Enables Every Individual To Participate By His Private Decisions In Shaping The Future Of His Society.