The great vice of democracy is that for a generation we have been busy getting ourselves on to the list of beneficiaries and removing ourselves from the list of contributors, as if somewhere there was somebody else's effort on which we could thrive.

"I pay my taxes," says somebody, as if that were an act of virtue instead of one of compulsion.

Never take any notice of Anonymous letters, unless you get a few thousand on the same subject.

One thing about bureaucrats is that they never swallow their young. Leave them alone and you'll find them increasing every year.

One speaks with great respect of economists, if only because they represent such a variety of opinions.

When people meet my wife they think better of me. They say: "With a wife like that, he can't be as bad as we thought".

The kind of people I myself represent in parliament; salary earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers and so on, these are, in a political and economic sense, the middle class. They are for the most part unorganised and unselfconscious.