The next Tory leader would have to unify his party and ensure that Britain stood tall in the world.

I think it'd be disgraceful if a chap wasn't allowed to have a bit of fun in Las Vegas. The real scandal would be if you went to Vegas and you didn't misbehave in some trivial way.

So I'm definitely in favour of stimulating the dynamic wealth creation sectors of the economy.

The Geiger-counter of Olympomania is going to go zoink off the scale.

Humanity would have plunged into a new dark age of absolutely frightening and appalling characteristics without Churchill.

Churchill decides from very early on that he will create a political position that is somehow above left and right, embodying the best points of both sides and thereby incarnating the will of the nation. He thinks of himself as a gigantic keystone in the arch, with all the lesser stones logically induced to support his position. He has a kind of semi-ideology to go with it - a leftish Toryism: imperialist, romantic, but on the side of the working man.

London is the sporting capital of the world. I say to the Chinese and I say to the world, ping pong is coming home.