Quotes of the week

There goes your deregulated individual, I thought . . . And to think I have stayed up many a night to vote people like that into existence. Now I know what it feels like to be midwife to a skunk.

George Walden, Tory MP, who put his only pound coin into the wrong parking meter and found a Mercedes backing into the space; the driver refused to give him a replacement coin

I'm devastated, not just for myself, for my country. I want to give so much for everybody.

Paul Gascoigne, footballer, on his way back to Britain for surgery to a broken leg

We're on the elevator that leads from Purgatory to Paradise.

Giuseppe Tatarella, of Italian neo- Fascists, seeing the possibility of a deal with the Northern League

I believe that my family must come first and I do not feel I could do justice to either family or work by attempting to do both.

Resignation letter of Helen Homewood, now awarded pounds 300,000 compensation for loss of her Army job

Political change starts at the bottom and never at the top.

Tony Benn, Labour MP