Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be too clever by half. The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

I would rather go while I am being urged to stay, than to stay beyond the time when I should go.

My father was 64 when I was conceived, my mother 38, which was late for babies in the 1940s.

Political suicide can end a career.

I don't have a shred of regret about entering the exchange-rate mechanism.

I am not running as Son of Margaret Thatcher. I have my own priorities and my own programmes.

If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years.