QUOTE UNQUOTE

When the curtain falls, it's time to get off the stage - John Major, announcing his intention to stand down as leader of the Conservative Party

I will not let you down - Tony Blair, after winning Sedgefield

This result demonstrates that being openly gay is not a barrier to election - Stephen Twigg, Labour, who ousted the former defence secretary Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate

And James Goldsmith, you can get off back to Mexico knowing that your attempt to buy the British political system has failed - David Mellor, after his defeat at Putney

Oh my God, it's the night of the living dead - Boy George, pop star, after winning a legal battle with Kirk Brandon over a disputed gay affair, then hearing that Brandon planned to sue him in the US

The trouble with writing a novel about the suburbs is that you would have to go and live in them - Martin Amis, novelist

If we encourage the use of mean, trite, ordinary language, we encourage a mean, trite and ordinary view of the world we inhabit - the Prince of Wales, lamenting what he sees as a decline in standards of English

There was no sadness at an era passed, rather the reverse - a feeling of relief - Geoffrey Page, of the Leander Rowing Club, after members voted to admit women for the first time in its 179-year history