quote unquote

"There is something in the new relationship between ministers and journalists which is irritating. The manipulation can be sinister" - James Naughtie, radio presenter.

"The teaching profession is full of heroic people confronted by Kafkaesque absurdity" - Justine Cartwright, novelist, and former teacher.

"For the Government, history is an embarrassment, something that gets in the way of the bright, cheerful, user-friendly, rebranded philistine Britain that is ministers' only vision of the future" - Dr John Casey, Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

"I've tried to write lyrics for the common man, or to put it another way, the thicko" - Ian McCulloch, composer of the official FA song for the England World Cup team.

"There is really very little research on tickling. I suspect it is because people don't take it very seriously" - Jacqueline Smith, of Stirling University, whose researches have shown that the right foot is more ticklish than the left.