Maiden speech moves peers to ovation
NZPA-Reuter London A former British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, calling himself the Rip Van Winkle of British politics, returned to Parliament at the age of 90 vesterday to deliver his maiden speech in the House of Lords. Created the Earl of Stockton in January, he was given a standing ovation — unprecedented in Lords’ protocol — for his 30-minute speech. Robed in ermine and leaning on a silver-topped cane, Lord Stockton, the Conservative Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, urged a moral, spiritual, and intellectual revolution in Britain. His voice breaking, he
said, “It breaks my heart to seeVwhat is happening in
this country today.” “Wicked hatred” filled the country, and he called the eight-month-old work stoppage by coalminers, “this terrible strike by the best men in the world, who beat the Kaiser and Hitler’s armies.”
In a speech interspersed with jokes and indirect criticism of the Conservative Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, who gave him his peerage,,Lord Stockton praised Ronald Reagan's policies.
Afterwards a fellow peer, paraphrasing Lord Stockton’s 1960 s slogan, “You’ve never had it so good," .told the Hpuse: “We’ve newr bearent so good.” . *
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Press, 15 November 1984, Page 6
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191Maiden speech moves peers to ovation Press, 15 November 1984, Page 6
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