The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare.

I will turn directly to the Asylum Bill later.

I think we can get respect for Parliament back providing governments and oppositions are frank.

Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.

I'm not about to write my memoirs. Not for a long time.

I inherited a sick economy and passed on a sound one. But one abiding regret for me is that, in between, I did not have the resources to put in place the educational and social changes about which I cared to much; I made only a beginning, and it was not enough.

They seem to have moved from total opposition to total subservience.