Opinions from politicians

Elaine Chao,

disagrees Tariffs

Smoot and Hawley ginned up The Tariff Act of 1930 to get America back to work after the Stock Market Crash of '29. Instead, it destroyed trade so effectively that by 1932, American exports to Europe were just a third of what they had been in 1929. World trade fell two-thirds as other nations retaliated. Jobs evaporated.

David Hanson,

agrees Immigrants are net contributors (tax paid vs. benefits received) in their host country

This report shows that immigration since 2001 has contributed to the public finances as well as to the economy. However the impact of different kinds of immigration varies and the system needs to be fair - so we need stronger border controls to tackle illegal immigration and stronger action against employers who use immigration to undercut local wages and jobs, but we should welcome international ... See More

Gavin Barwell, British politician

agrees Immigrants are net contributors (tax paid vs. benefits received) in their host country

What the evidence shows is that it boosts GDP itself – the size of our economy. And because migrants tend to be younger and more economically active than the population as a whole (this is of course a generalisation – the reality is that some types of immigration are more economically beneficial than others, of which more shortly), it also helps us deal with our debt problem at least in the short ... See More

Asa Hutchinson, United states politician

disagrees Tariffs

As we learned after President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff at the outset of the Great Depression, vibrant international trade is a key component to economic recovery; hindering trade is a recipe for disaster.

David Cameron, Former UK Prime Minister

agrees Fracking

I passionately believe that there is big potential for fracking and unconventional gas in Britain, which has some shale reserves that could make a real difference.

Guy Ryder,

agrees Universal Health Care

Health protection is central to decent work and must be a reality for all.

Charlie Falconer,

agrees Euthanasia

For a minority of people dying, no matter how good the end-of-life care, they do not want to go on struggling. The principle of this bill is that those who are terminally ill should have choice over how they die but subject to effective safeguards which prevent pressure and abuse. It would not lead to more deaths but less suffering.

Norman Tebbit, Former Chairman of the Conservative Party

disagrees Euthanasia

A few months ago, an elderly lady asked me how she could ensure that her wish to leave all her assets to a charity for ex-servicemen and women could be entrenched against any attempts by other would-be beneficiaries to override it. She said 'I have no children but I have several vultures awaiting my death'. This bill will be a breeding ground for vultures, individual and corporate. It creates too ... See More

Xi Jinping, General secretary of the communist party of china and paramount leader of china

disagrees Tariffs

Pursuing protectionism is just like locking one's self in a dark room: Wind and rain might be kept outside but so are light and air.

John Birt, Former DIrector-General of the BBC

agrees Euthanasia

I can see no reason for denying individuals the right to manage their own imminent, irreversible and prospectively painful, wretched, or deeply distressing death.

Margaret Jay, Former Labour leader of the House of Lords

agrees Euthanasia

I see this as a tightly focused and compassionate bill which will clarify the incoherent legal framework we have heard about today. I am absolutely committed to the provisions in the bill. It has a narrow, specific focus on the terminally ill and contains strict, upfront safeguards...It is an entirely appropriate measure for this country to adopt.

Andrea Leadsom, Conservative Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire

agrees Fracking

In 2003, we were a net exporter of gas. By 2030 we expect to be importing close to 75% of the gas we consume. By making the most of our home-grown gas we can safeguard our own domestic supply whilst also cutting our carbon emissions.

Rand Paul, American politician, ophtalmologist, and united states senator from kentucky

disagrees Universal Health Care

With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have to realize what that implies. It's not an abstraction. I'm a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery... You’re saying you believe in taking and extracting from another person. Our founding documents were very clear about this. You have a right to pur... See More

Bob Beauprez,

agrees Fracking

I’m pro-fracking, because I’m pro-good science driving good policy. And the science is overwhelming. It’s, this isn’t brand new. It’s brand new to a lot of people, but as you know, Hugh, we’ve been fracking wells in the United States for over 60 years. Over a million of those wells have been fracked. Even people like Lisa Jackson, when she was the EPA administrator for Barack Obama, far from some ... See More

Lisa Jackson, American politician

agrees Fracking

I’m not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water.

George Carey, Former Archbishop of Canterbury

agrees Euthanasia

When suffering is so great, when patients know they are at the end of life, make repeated pleas to die, it seems a denial of loving compassion which is the hallmark of Christianity to refuse to allow them to fulfil their own clearly stated request – after a proper process of safeguards. That is what I would want.

Elizabeth Warren, 28th united states senator from massachusetts (class 1)

agrees Universal Health Care

Disease, sickness, and old age touch every family. Tragedy doesn't ask who you voted for. Health care is a basic human right.

John Key, 38th prime minister of new zealand

agrees Euthanasia

If I had terminal cancer, I had a few weeks to live, I was in tremendous amount of pain - if they just effectively wanted to turn off the switch and legalise that by legalising euthanasia, I'd want that.

Alan Greenspan, American economist

disagrees Tariffs

Protectionism will do little to create jobs and if foreigners retaliate, we will surely lose jobs.

Joel Joffe, Labour peer

agrees Euthanasia

If the Bill passes, Parliament will demonstrate we are a caring society which has compassion for the people who are suffering terribly and that we respect the right of individuals to make decisions for their own lives.

Robert Winston, British scientist

disagrees Euthanasia

We have been talking extensively in this debate about the dignity of a planned death. I don't believe in that planned death being dignified. There is much more dignity, in some ways, in being able to ensure wherever possible that people die with their relatives around them in an unplanned death, in the way my mother died with her youngest grandson present.

Jane Campbell,

agrees Euthanasia

This bill is about me. I did not ask for it. I did not want it but it is about me nevertheless. Before anyone disputes this, imagine this is already law and I ask for assistance to die. Do you think, my lordships, that I will be refused. No. You can be sure there were will be doctors and lawyers willing to support my right to die. Sadly, many would put their energies into that rather than improvin... See More

Barack Obama, Former President of United States of America

agrees Universal Health Care

I think it [health care] should be a right for every American. In a country as wealthy as ours, for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can't pay their medical bills -- for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition ... See More

Ted Kennedy, American politician

agrees Universal Health Care

It [universal health care] has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society.

Steven Chu,

agrees Fracking

[Fracking] is something you can do in a safe way.

Theresa May, Prime minister of the United Kingdom

agrees Fracking

I have to say to the honourable gentleman that this is an issue on which we are simply going to have to disagree because I think shale gas does have the potential to power economic growth in this country. I think it will support thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industries and in other sectors and it will provide a new domestic energy source and we have more than 50 years of drilling experie... See More

Margaret Chan, Former Director-General of the World Health Organization

agrees Universal Health Care

UHC [universal health coverage] is the ultimate expression of fairness and one of the most powerful social equalizers among all policy options.

Joseph Lieberman, Politician from the united states

disagrees Euthanasia

Doctors should do everything they can to reduce pain, but not to administer drugs to end life, I think we go over a line then.

Theresa May, Prime minister of the United Kingdom

agrees Immigrants are net contributors (tax paid vs. benefits received) in their host country

The evidence – from the OECD, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee and many academics – shows that while there are benefits of selective and controlled immigration, at best the net economic and fiscal effect of high immigration is close to zero. So there is no case, in the national interest, for immigration of the scale we have experienced over the last decade.

Jim Yong Kim,

agrees Universal Health Care

Achieving universal health coverage will make the world a more just and prosperous place.

Mark Udall, American politician

agrees Assault weapons should be banned

I've come to the conclusion that military style weapons really don't have any place in our society. We ought to reinstate the assault weapons ban that served us well for 10 years from 1994 to 2004.

Pete du Pont, American lawyer and politician

disagrees Euthanasia

From the Soviet gulag to the Nazi concentration camps and the killing fields of Cambodia, history teaches that granting the state legal authority to kill innocent individuals has dreadful consequences.

Ronald Reagan, Former US president

disagrees Universal Health Care

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine.

Manmohan Singh, Former prime minister of India

disagrees Tariffs

Protectionism is a very real danger. It is understandable that in times of a severe downturn protectionist pressures mount but the lessons of history are clear. If we give in to protectionist pressures, we will only send the world into a downward spiral.

Kirsten Gillibrand, United states senator from new york

agrees Universal Health Care

Health care should be a right; it should never be a privilege. We should have Medicare for all in this country.

Donald J. Trump, President of the USA

agrees Universal Health Care

I’m a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one … We must have universal healthcare …We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan.

Dianne Feinstein, American politician

agrees Assault weapons should be banned

Our support for assault weapons ban is very broad...I think we've got all the police, we have all the mayors virtually - the conference of mayors, mayors against guns. We have medical experts, we have virtually dozens of religious organizations of every creed supporting us. We have just lists and lists.

Bob Corker, Politician, businessman

disagrees Tariffs

As the president taxes Americans with tariffs, he pushes away our allies and further strengthens [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. It is time for Congress to step up and take back our authorities. We have legislation to do that. Let’s vote.

Donald J. Trump, President of the USA

agrees Fracking

Fracking will lead to American independence. With price of natural gas continuing to drop, we can be at a tremdendous advantage.

Benjamin Netanyahu,

agrees Surrogacy

Single mother have the right to the surrogacy process, but single fathers don’t have that right. It simply isn’t fair.

Agnes Binagwaho,

agrees Universal Health Care

Governments have everything to gain when they prioritize human health – it is an investment. I am hopeful for global progress because universal health coverage has been included in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Emma Nicholson, Liberal Democrat peer

disagrees Euthanasia

The wish to dispose of the old is prevalent in our society. We should fight it and not succumb to its throttling embrace through death on demand, the underpinning of this bill....Doctors, as they are the first to say, are not God. They truly cannot tell when death will steal upon us. That argument underpinning this bill is also false...I do not want our trusted NHS to turn from being the National ... See More

Peter Piot, Belgian un official

agrees Universal Health Care

Weak links in a health system are deadly fuel to pandemics. Universal health coverage fills gaps and strengthens our defenses.

Alf Dubs,

agrees Euthanasia

I support this bill and I do so because I do not wish to deny to other people something which I might want for myself one day in the future.

Ron Paul, American politician and physician

disagrees Universal Health Care

You have a right to your life and you have a right to your liberty and you have a right to keep what you earn in a free country... You do not have the right to services or things.

Ben Sasse,

disagrees Tariffs

Europe, Canada & Mexico aren't China. You don’t treat allies the same way you treat opponents. Blanket protectionism is a big part of why we had a Great Depression. "Make America Great Again" shouldn’t mean "Make America 1929 Again."

Tedros Adhanom,

agrees Universal Health Care

For me, universal coverage is an ethical issue. Do we want our fellow citizens to die because they are poor? Or millions of families to fall into poverty because they lack financial risk protection? These are very important questions. As you know, today more than 400 million people lack access to essential health services and 40% of the world’s population lack social protection. These people... See More

Dr Liam Fox MP,

disagrees Tariffs

[Trump's tariff on steel is] patently absurd. It would be a great pity if we ended up in a tit-for-tat trade dispute with our closest allies.

Preneet Kaur,

disagrees Tariffs

The electricity tariff in Punjab is highest in north India, and it should be decreased.

Ron Wyden, American politician

disagrees Tariffs

Because of the Korean free trade agreement, South Koreans who want Oregon blueberries are gonna see their prices go down because we will be getting rid of a 45 percent tariff on this Oregon product.

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