Values exist in a transcendental realm, beyond space and time. They can neither be fought for, nor destroyed.

In the end, the Labour party could cease to represent labour. Stranger historic ironies have happened than that.

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

'Helping industry' is the elephant pit of socialism, a deep hole with sharp spikes at the bottom, covered over with twigs and fresh grass.

Lift the curtain and 'the State' reveals itself as a little group of fallible men in Whitehall, making guesses about the future, influenced by political prejudices and partisan prejudices, and working on projections drawn from the past by a staff of economists.

A politician complaining about the media is like a sailor complaining about the sea.

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.