FOR THE RECORD

It is the big idea and we musn't be deflected from carrying out the reforms that are necessary to provide support for people and get the investment into our schools and our hospitals.

Tony Blair on the Government's Welfare to Work programme.

I am a millionaire and I am delighted also to be a businessman who is a minister in a Labour government, and I now want to get on with my job in the Treasury of helping to build a more successful economy.

Geoffrey Robinson, Paymaster-General.

When they cried for Diana, many people - and particularly men, who often have trouble expressing emotions - found that they could also cry for themselves, allowing the release of all the repressed emotions that had built up in their life.

Dianne Trueman, clinical manager of Sutton's Manor Clinic in Essex, suggesting why admissions to private psychiatric hospitals have fallen since the Princess died.

They also say so-and-so is going to be the next Parkinson, but how can they be when they don't understand what I understand about the talk show?

Michael Parkinson on his return to interviewing on BBC1.

I can say it is the most we have ever spent on a sports book. But this is going to be the biggest sports book ever published.

Roddy Bloomfield, book editor at Hodder and Stoughton, which is believed to have paid around pounds 1m for the autobiography of Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager.

People should try to overcome their embarrassment about tipping because it is only ever the tipper who is embarrassed, never the recipient.

Drusilla Beyfus, etiquette expert, following a ban by Swindon council on employees accepting Christmas tips.

We're so insular over here. They're so much more international and European in their approach. There's no real customs control over there and when you come into Waterloo it's like Fort Knox. It seems to epitomise the Little Englander approach.

Raymond Gubbay, concert promoter and Paris resident, on a survey by 'The Independent' showing that only one-third of Britons liked France.

It may sound old-fashioned but work is what matters. It also matters whether people are employers or employees.

Professor David Rose on a study by the Economic and Social Research Council showing that work still defines social class.

Self-assessment is difficult enough in doing one's income tax. I think in relation to character it is quite valueless.

MP Alan Clark enters the witness box in his legal action against the 'Evening Standard' for running a spoof version of his diaries.