quotes of the week

The Home Secretary has already banned safari trips on at least five occasions. He has no new ideas for dealing with juvenile crime.

Alun Michael, Labour home affairs spokesman

Ministers are not elected and appointed for their chastity.

George Walden, Tory MP

He just waits. He's never had so much time on his hands.

Eberhard Kempf , German lawyer, on the position of his client Nick Leeson

You don't look too bad at all.

John Humphrys to Margaret Thatcher before a television interview

One hazard of attending church these days is that you are likely to be kissed and hugged by people you neither know nor like. To refuse to participate is to brand yourself stand- offish, unloving and un-Christian.

Anthony O'Hear, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford

The remarkable thing about John Major's meteoric rise was that he made no enemies, and many friends, on the way.

Sir Robert Rhodes James, historian and former Tory MP