Quote Unquote

If you say the unprintable to a journalist, it is going to get into print - Nicholas Winterton, Conservative MP

I will put my concerns for country and party before the personal feelings of others - John Major, urging backbenchers to stop Tory infighting

The Prime Minister has had more relaunches than Eddie the Eagle - Paddy Ashdown

Discussing John Major's hair is a real conversation turn-off - Ted Reynell, London hairdresser

Old journalists never retire. They just grow old and mad, until the last deadline is missed and the phone rings no more - Edwina Currie

I find this modern thirst for public vengeance on people pilloried by the press detestable. We have a duty to disclose, not to destroy - Lord Deedes, former editor of the 'Daily Telegraph'

I think lager is a brown liquid for people who like to look as though they're drinking beer but don't like the taste - Kenneth Clarke

I've had sex in a car with everything except a giraffe - Larry Adler

The more famous a person is, the more hard it is to get one (a photograph) of the back of the head - Lady Quinton, who needs a picture of the back of Harold Macmillan's head for a sculpture

I'm too embarrassed to go to the police - Norman Webster, a garage mechanic plagued by a mystery caller who plays Des O'Connor records down his phone

He (John Birt) and his managers are not listeners. They are not viewers. They are Cromwell's army, well-intentioned but too serious - Simon Bates, former BBC disc jockey, accusing the corporation of having lost touch with its audience