Anyone who supposed that when Margaret Thatcher left Number Ten she was going to take a Trappist vow did not know that formidable politician.

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.

You don't have to wait until people say they accept everything you say until you are actually prepared to sit down and discuss matters with them.

I suppose I've always carried what is regarded as a bit of unnecessary baggage in Britain. I've always carried the charge that I am an intellectual in politics.

It behaves more like a tribe than a democratic institution...responding to custom rather than reason and using its own liturgy and language for the conduct of its domestic affairs.

Anyone who supposed that when Margaret Thatcher left Number Ten she was going to take a Trappist vow did not know that formidable politician.

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by "unbridled" you mean unregulated.