Quotes of the week

My role is non-political. I do what government ministers want me to do.

Robin Young, newly appointed Regional Director for London, with a budget of pounds 1bn

It's 3-0 to our boys. They turned back the Germans in 1918 and 1945 - and they've beaten them off again in 1994.

Bill Walker, Tory MP, on John Major's decision that German veterans should not be invited to VE Day anniversary celebrations in London

Poetry is the art of saying in two words what is better said in 10.

Brian Sewell, 'Evening Standard' art critic on Paul Durcan's National Gallery poems

Democracy does not work in France and never has.

Paul Johnson, columnist, the 'Spectator'

I feel that the House should know that I have never and would never eat a horse.

Nicholas Soames, Minister of Food

We have to raise the sights of school leavers to see an engineer as the man in the Armani suit, not the boiler suit.

John Redwood, Welsh Secretary, launching a centre for young engineers