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The roots of this crisis lie in your Government's repeated failures to take prompt and effective action to protect our food - Harriet Harman, Shadow Health Secretary, attacking the Health Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, over the BSE scare

There is more bacteria on a Frenchman's breath than there is in a docile cow - Michael Day, founder of the Huge Cheese Company, protesting at the suggestion that BSE panic may mean French milk will be used to make British cheese

On a bad day this is the best job in British government. On a good day it is the best job in the world - Lynda Chalker, Minister for Overseas Development

I hate Emma Thompson. I think she and Glenn Close should do a movie called `We Simper Smugly' - Ethan Hawke, US actor

It's pretty neat out here - Linda Godwin, astronaut, during a six- hour space walk 245 miles above the Earth

Three years of remorseless nastiness at Eton squeezed every last trace of confidence from me - Sir Ranulph Fiennes, adventurer and explorer

The inevitable outcome of handing train services over to bus companies is they will substitute buses for trains whenever they find it advantageous to do so- Brian Wilson, Labour transport spokesman