We have the character of an island nation: independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel. And because of this sensibility, we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional.

There are some people who seem to think that the way you reduce the cost of living in this country is for the state to spend more and more taxpayers' money. It is as if somehow you measure the compassion of the government by the amount of other people's money it can spend.

It is national parliaments, which are, and will remain, the true source of real democratic legitimacy and accountability in the EU.

Edward Heath and Richard Nixon took personal awkwardness with each other to new and excruciating levels.

Corruption is one of the greatest enemies of progress in our time. It is the cancer at the heart of so many of the world's problems.

We spend billions of pounds on welfare, yet millions are trapped on welfare. It's not worth their while going into work.

The best chapters in our economic history are those that embrace the many, not the few.