Best Quotes from Ellen Wilkinson’s Biography

FROM ELLEN:

On losing her Parliamentary seat: “It does an MP good to see that what he regarded as the centre of Britain’s whole life is to most folk a curious assembly with incomprehensible ways”

On transparency – “We do not doubt that justice, as a general rule, done. But it should always be remembered that justice is not enough. What people want is security for justice and the only security for justice is law publicly administered”

On the 1925 Zinoviev’s letter scandal – “A really good scare proves better than any argument”

On witticisms: “No authority can discipline anyone with a sense of humour”

On the BBC: “The BBC General is the judge of what we ought to want”

On house building: “I am sick of hearing about the sacred rights of private property. I want to hear about the sacred rights of human life”

On the grammar-school system: “If we are committed to three types of school one grand thing about the scheme is that it won’t work – at least not peacefully. It would hit the middle classes who would scream. Pupils of grammar or technical ability (with high IQ) should be separated on a functional basis, not by going to physically different/separate schools…let the lower IQs find their level in separate classes; arouse [their] interest by a practical side to their tuition; but don’t let the stigma of lower IQs attach itself to the whole school”

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FROM OTHERS:

Paddy Scullion’s memory of Ellen: “Full of fire in a short fur coat”

Amy Mitchell on why Ellen remained unmarried – “Ellen was always so anxious to put the world to rights that love affairs had to wait”

Jack Lawson, Methodist Minister, on her death: “Quite simply (her passion) arose from the urge of compassion for mankind and a vision of the world that might be”