We simply cannot delegate the exercise of mercy and generosity to others.

It pays to know the enemy - not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.

I don't mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

To me consensus seems to be - the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no-one believes, but to which no-one objects.

The acid test of politics is not what you say at the hustings, but what you actually do in government.

Bribing regimes to comply with requirements which they should have acknowledged in the first place is not a process that appeals to me.

And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark divisive clouds of Marxist socialism.