August 26 2004
"Political correctness is, in essence, about power. It is someone telling someone else what to do, how to behave, how to speak, how to think ... sometimes there comes a limit to seeing the other person's point of view. Speech in Stafford on 'political correctness'
August 10 2004
"West Side Story may have been written by an American at the tail end of the 1950s, but these attitudes are all too prevalent in British society today." On personal responsibility over socio-economic factors in criminal behaviour
"'I've got my rights' is the verbal equivalent of two-fingers to authority. There is now a palpable sense of outrage that 'so-called' human rights have tipped the balance of justice in favour of the criminal and the wrong-doer - rather than the victim and the law abider.
On human rights
January 10 2003
"... an increase in the number of criminals in prison leads to a large fall in crime ..." Lecture in London
June 2001
"It's not racist, it's not xenophobic. People say this is a problem out of control and something must be done. The daily experience is of seeing people jump off lorries." On his campaign advertisements which raised asylum as the most important issue. Folkestone, election campaign
May 1997
Now the subject of a Jerry Springer-style operatic transformation, Michael Howard's Newsnight tussle with Jeremy Paxman saw the then home secretary refuse to answer the same direct question 14 times. His grilling over whether he had threatened to overrule prisons chief Derek Lewis over the suspension of the governor of Parkhurst prison was seen as the bloodiest political interview ever.
Mr Howard complained that the bruising encounter had the effect of vilifying politicians, while others mocked the on-screen unravelling of the party.
October 1995
"If you don't want the time, don't do the crime. No half-time sentences for full-time crimes." Speech to Tory conference
October 6, 1993
"Prison works. It ensures that we are protected from murderers, muggers and rapists - and it makes many who are tempted to commit crime think twice ... This may mean that more people will go to prison. I do not flinch from that. We shall no longer judge the success of our system of justice by a fall in our prison population."
Conservative party conference
June 1991
At a meeting of social affairs ministers, as then employment secretary, he said proposed EC rules on working hours and maternity leave were unnecessary and could aggravate unemployment.
May 1991
Mr Howard predicted that Labour's plans for a minimum national wage would produce "between one and two million more' unemployed".
Howard in the words of others
"Proof of the rule that the oily float on water."
Michael White, Guardian
"He has something of the night about him".
Ann Widdecombe May 1997
"Too much of what he does is directed to his own personal political career, too little to the broader political and public interest. I think that's a serious flaw in someone who aspires to be a political leader."
Derek Lewis, prisons director sacked by Howard (and subject of the famous 14 Paxman questions)
"Mr Howard has a problem in that his first reaction to attack is denial and refuge in semantic prestidigitation."
Ann Widdecombe, May 19 1997, House of Commons
"Clearly I do intend to hurt him politically and to wreck his chances of the [Conservative party] leadership."
Ann Widdecombe, May 15 1997
Manages "to combine the smarm of Cecil Parkinson with the charm of Norman Tebbit."
Andrew Rawnsley, Guardian
"Like a duck, moving serenely across the political pond in an apparent triumph of effortless motion; below the waterline, he is paddling away like fury."
John Carvel, Guardian
"He has obviously had, let's be frank, an image problem."
Michael Portillo, March 9 1999