Quote Unquote

We give the impression of being in office but not in power - Norman Lamont, accusing the Government of listening 'too much to pollsters and party managers'

Either he is a jolly good Prime Minister and I am a silly old fool who has got it wrong. Or he is not a good Prime Minister and he will go. One of those propositions must be true - Lord Rees-Mogg, a persistent critic of John Major

It's a Holbeck Hall government, sliding slowly into the sea while the Chancellor plays his jazz piano in the bar to alleviate the suffering of the guests - Austin Mitchell, Labour MP, likening the Government to the collapsed Scarborough hotel

I personally could never have signed this treaty - Baroness Thatcher, on the Maastricht treaty

I am contemplating writing a musical about the Grand National - Andrew Lloyd Webber, after the opening of 'Sunset Boulevard' was postponed

He just looks for permission to do what he wants - Eleanor Alter, Mia Farrow's lawyer, on Woody Allen's years of psychotherapy

He's inside you, he's inside me, he's inside all of us - Dave Sandall, chair of the Tony Hancock Society

I know why the country is so badly governed . . . everybody who knows how to do it best is driving cabs or cutting hair - Tony Banks, Labour MP

I'm the new Lord Lucan, except he has been on the run for 19 years - the Marquess of Blandford, less than 24 hours before he was recaptured by police

Mineworkers' backs have got no more room for the knives - Geoff Sheldon, president of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers' white collar section

Not a penny was passed between Terry Venables and me . . . the last time I was in a motorway service station, I went for a wee - Brian Clough, on allegations that he took money for easing transfers through