We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.

There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

If Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister at the time, there would have been no Treaty of Maastricht.

People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance.

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.