So long as the international community consists of sovereign states, war between them remains a possibility, of which all governments have to take reasonable account.

So long as the international community consists of sovereign states, war between them remains a possibility, of which all governments have to take reasonable account.

Let us be clear. Prison works. It ensures that we are protected from murderers, muggers and rapists, and it makes many who are tempted to commit crime think twice.

We cannot possibly take them all into this country [asylum seekers] - it is a completely unrealistic expectation.

A common language is the most obvious binding element in any society.

People often of masterful intelligence, trained usually in law or economics or perhaps in political science, who have led their governments into disastrous decisions and miscalculations because they have no awareness whatever of the historical background, the cultural universe, of the foreign societies with which they have to deal.

The important thing when you are going to do something brave is to have someone on hand to witness it.