Resources for Courses
PMQ’s
Resources for Courses
Teacher Instructions
This is a simple starter activity that requires students simply to work out which Prime
Minister is responsible for each of the following quotes. Teachers should read out
each quote slowly, perhaps twice, and then ask students to decide which PM said it
– mini whiteboards could be used, or the Socrative app, to allow everyone to have
a say.
Extra bonus points can be awarded to students who also manage to get either the
year or event associated with each quote.
Quote
PM
DATE/EVENT
I can only go one way, I’ve not got a reverse gear
Blair
2003, Conference
speech
A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really. But I feel the
hands of history on our shoulders, I really do.
Blair
1998, Good Friday
Agreement
I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone to just sit
there and agree with me – that’s not their job.
Thatcher
1980
I am not running as Son of Margaret Thatcher. I have my own
priorities and my own programmes.
Major
1990
I don’t want to be Prime Minister of England. I want to be
Prime Minister of the whole of the United Kingdom.
Cameron
I don’t mind how much my ministers talk, as long as they do
what I say.
Thatcher
1980
I lead my party; he follows his.
Blair
1995, taunting Major
in the Commons
I can’t legislate to change human nature.
Major
1992
A week is a long time in politics
Wilson
1964
The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it, too many twits
might make a twat
Cameron
We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in
Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a
European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels.
Thatcher
I don’t think its the role of the Prime Minister to court the press.
Major
I am rather in favour of dealing with teenage hooliganism.
Callaghan
1974, Cabinet meeting
The more that we as a society do, the less we will need
government to do.
Cameron
On the Big Society
It’s a funny old world.
Thatcher
1990, at her last
Cabinet meeting
They say I hate the party and its traditions. I don’t. I love this
party. There’s only one tradition I hated: losing.
Blair
2006, final Conference
speech
I know the British people, and they are not passengers – they
are drivers.
Cameron
Nothing makes me more determined to do something than
someone telling me I can’t.
Major
The main essentials of a successful Prime Minister are sleep and
a sense of history.
Wilson
If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise
on anything at anytime, and would achieve nothing.
Thatcher
You’re an analogue politician in a digital age
Cameron
1988
2009, on Brown