When all the objectives of government include the achievement of equality - other than equality before the law - that government poses a threat to liberty.

I suppose I was about 20, and a crowd of us had been to a village hop and came back to make midnight cups of coffee. I was in the kitchen helping to dish up and having a fierce argument with one of the boys in the crowd when someone else interrupted to say: 'Of course Margaret, you will go into politics won't you?' I stopped dead. Suddenly it was crystalised for me. I knew.

I wasn't lucky. I deserved it.

I still want to play in it, maybe when I absolutely think I have no chance of playing in it my view might change but I doubt it because it just doesn't interest me.

Object to merit and distinction, and you're setting your face against quality, independence, originality, genius against all the richness and variety of life. When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help.

Let us never forget this fundamental truth: The State has no source of money other than the money people themselves earn.

People think that at the top there isn't much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.