Chris Patten
Chris Patten
Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes CH PCis chancellor of the University of Oxford and a former governor of Hong Kong and the BBC Trust...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth12 May 1944
numbers politician vow
Anyone who supposed that when Margaret Thatcher left Number Ten she was going to take a Trappist vow did not know that formidable politician.
childhood able royalty
Those of us who had a perfectly happy childhood should be able to sue for deprivation of literary royalties.
voting exotic way
There is a sort of exotic preposterousness about a lot of elections, the way arguments are made even cruder.
honesty winning people
It'd make a wonderful change to have the leader of a pluralist democracy who acted on that, who told people just how tough things are going to be, just what's going to have to be done - and, maybe, ran all the risks on the side of honesty, rather than spinning stories and trying to win the headlines every day.
growth world green
Green politics at its worst amounts to a sort of Zen fascism; less extreme, it denounces growth and seeks to stop the world so that we can all get off.
freedom democracy jerk
In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.
vision asia west
Hong Kong represents the kind of Asia with which both West and East are comfortable, ... ... It offers, in that sense, a vision for the future of Asia.
yugoslavia trying recreation
We're not trying to recreate Yugoslavia
police needs doe
All parts of the society need to feel that the police service is their police service, and that does not happen unless all parts of society are represented in the police
military argument moments
Of course, there were huge disagreements in the arguments of military intervention, .. There is no point at the moment on focusing on those disagreements.
problem said difficult
It is almost always wrong that the time isn't ripe to decide something. That is always said of difficult problems.
trying wells victorian
It is a sort of great Victorian truth that actually, trying to do the right thing is pretty good for you and pretty good for business as well, by and large.
intellectual baggage unnecessary
I suppose I've always carried what is regarded as a bit of unnecessary baggage in Britain. I've always carried the charge that I am an intellectual in politics.
writing government important
We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.