quotes of the week

quotes of the week

What is this thing called the EU which is sending ultimatums on our behalf to Her Majesty's subjects in Canada?

Col Maurice Willoughby in a letter to the Daily Telegraph

Last year you said you had three bastards in the Cabinet. I don't think you can count.

Dennis Skinner, Labour MP, suggesting to the Prime Minister that the Conservatives would kick him out

Your question might well have been asked of me last year, the year before last and the year before that, and almost certainly was - and very probably it will be asked of me next year, the year after and the year after that.

John Major's response

Well, Jonathon Porritt got more votes than Gerry Adams at our last general election, and I don't think President Clinton would embrace him.

Michael Mates, former Northern Ireland minister

If I had been told in the early 1980s that 10 years later a Labour leader was to send his child to a grant-maintained school, I would have said that was about as likely as Mrs Thatcher applying to join the NUM.

John Patten, former Tory minister