We say here that if you fall down in the United States, the ambulance man must feel for your wallet before he feels for your pulse.

My own experience of growing up as a Roman Catholic in Scotland has led me to fear independence in Scotland. The possibility of Scotland being a kind of Stormont is a real one. I wrote a book recently about Neil Lennon's year of living dangerously and in the course of it I had to revisit some of my own experiences. Of course, most Scottish people are not swivel-eyed, loyalist sectarians but there are a large number of them. A large six-figure number, and if I were living in Scotland as a Roman Catholic I would be worried about that.

I came to declare that I am a friend to Arabs, at a time when it is not easy to be friend to Arabs, because nowadays those who have ambitions and interests would not befriend Arab.

They say that politics is show business for ugly people, but as I always crack, what would I know about that? I like a challenge

Anyone will say anything under torture.

I've never had a penny through oil deals and no one has produced a shred of evidence that I have.

This murder of Hariri was deliberately planned and executed precisely to implicate Syria and to set in train the events which have unfolded.