Of course I am very proud of being a Tory. Yes, in my head and in my heart I regard myself as a Tory. As I have said, I was born that way; I believe it is congenital. I am unable to change it. That is how I see the world... [The EEC] is the most un-Tory thing that can be conceived.

Paisley has been and remains a greater threat to the Union than the Foreign Office and the Provisional IRA rolled into one.

Of all political sacred-cows, education is the most sacred and the most cow-like.

People are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles.

A little nonsense now and then is not a bad thing - where would we politicians be if we were not allowed to talk it sometimes.

When we look at the astonishing material achievements of the West. we see these things as the result, not of compulsion or government action or the superior wisdom of a few, but of that system of competition and free enterprise, rewarding success and penalising failure, which enables every individual to participate by his private decisions in shaping the future of his society.

Independence, the freedom of a self-governing nation, is in my estimation the highest political good, for which any disadvantage, if need be, and any sacrifice are a cheap price.