Quote Unquote

It's just a spanking for Saddam, not a real beating - American administration official describing the allied raid on Iraq

It is fair to say that not every single target was hit, but that was never our measure of success - Pentagon spokesman on the raid

Let's just hope Saddam Hussein got the message - President George Bush

I am not obsessed with the man, but I am obsessed with the standards of conduct in those UN accords, and I would urge him to change his behaviour - President-elect Bill Clinton on Saddam Hussein

I am not going to have some clapped-out judge and two busybodies deciding what our readers want to read - Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of the 'Sun'

We are not all mad dog editors. We are responsible people - Brian Hitchen, editor of the 'Daily Star'

The press are getting themselves in a twist about this. It is not just about secrecy, it is about fair treatment to the people they prey on - Teresa Gorman, Conservative MP

No one in the royal household has the slightest experience of ordinary life, and they have precious few technical skills - David Robertson, Fellow in Politics at St Hugh's College, Oxford

Universities are finished. So much rubbish gets taught. I can just see the sort of don I would have become - smug, self-satisfied, living in a fantasy world - A N Wilson, novelist and critic

Fifty per cent of bugger all is bugger all - Brian Dallyn, chairman of Exmoor farmers, when John Gummer, the Agriculture Minister, said that hill farmers' incomes were expected to a show a 50 per cent rise this year over last year

It was serendipity - like looking for a needle in the haystack and finding the farmer's daughter - Gareth Roberts, leader of a team of UK scientists that discovered the causes of Alzheimer's disease