Quote Unquote

In a referendum, only the result counts - Jacques Delors

They may try to nail it on to the perch again, but no one will believe it is still alive - Lord Tebbit, comparing the Maastricht treaty to a dead parrot

The main question is: why should French voters decide the future of Britain? - Tony Benn

I never felt the need for a virility symbol - Baroness Thatcher, on the eve of the French referendum

I believe there is a reasonable and rational explanation to everything beyond the initial business with Antonia, which I have to accept - David Mellor, the day before his resignation

He (David Mellor) is blaming the tabloids because that is what the establishment always does. But in fact the tabloids did not sleep with Antonia de Sancha and did not take freebie holidays - Bill Hagerty, editor of the 'People'

Although I think it is fair to say that one should always have an irresponsible press, there is a limit to the degree of irresponsibility we can tolerate - Sir Louis Blom-Cooper, former chairman of the Press Council

Mr (George) Carman is the past master of the wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It is classic smear tactics in the hope that if you go on long enough something will stick - Richard Hartley, QC, on his adversary in the libel action brought by Mona Bauwens against the 'People'

Well, like art, I'm supposed to hang around looking good - Jerry Hall on why she had been asked to open the Royal College of Art's London fair

We make up 52 per cent of the population. We might have put different questions from those of middle-aged, middle-class white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men - Anna Ford, on the BBC's failure to use anchorwomen during the general election

The trouble with Carol is that she is a Thatcherite - Michael White, political editor of the 'Guardian', describing Baroness Thatcher's daughter