If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.

I applaud strong government, but not overweening government sustained by cronies, ciphers and a personality cult.

One of my favourite quotations is: 'That which thy father bequeathed thee, earn it anew, if thou wouldst possess it.'

I wasn't lucky. I deserved it.

We need a free economy not only for the renewed material prosperity it will bring, but because it is indispensable to individual freedom, human dignity and to a more just, more honest society.

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 process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner "I stand for consensus"?

Any leader has to have a certain amount of steel in them, so I am not that put out being called the Iron Lady.