quotes of the week

Until a woman is free to be as incompetent as the average male then she will never be completely equal.

Roseanna Cunningham, SNP candidate in the Perth and Kinross by-election

The power and the glory of public service broadcasting in Britain is that it is not an optional extra.

Alan Yentob, controller of BBC1

I am not one to lecture my colleagues on a total unswerving commitment to vote for your party right or wrong ... I have not always done that.

Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade

The one and only lesson that our parliamentary party could usefully learn from Labour is the discipline of hunger for power.

Sir Michael Hirst, Scottish Tory chairman

I can't determine the markets and I don't think it is helpful if I start reacting and getting into a tremendous flap when there is any movement in the markets.

Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor, on sterling's slump after his decision not to raise interest rates