When you've spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment, it's exciting to have a real crisis on your hands.

It seems like cloud cuckoo land. If anyone is suggesting that I would go to Parliament and suggest the abolition of the Pound Sterling - no! We have made it quite clear that we will not have a single currency imposed upon us.

I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

I think Essex Man will vote for a Conservative Government.

We very much hope that as we get growth that we can reduce the burden of taxation, that we can reduce income tax and increase the amount of genuine free enterprise and business enterprise... This is going... toward the restoration of the personal responsibility, the independence, with every man a property owner, every man a capitalist.

Why do you climb philosophical hills? Because they are worth climbing . . . There are no hills to go down unless you start from the top.

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