quotes of the week

The forces of darkness have prevailed.

Tony Banks, Labour MP, on the failure of the daylight saving bill in the Commons

I did not expect to come across such a thick concentration of sad, ill- adjusted, egotistical, cruel, deluded, ruthless, two-faced Napoleons-in- waiting. And that is merely the world of classical music.

Waldemar Januszcak, commissioning editor for arts and music at Channel 4

Maxwell was a public danger. I felt, if London was to continue to be a big financial centre, then we had to prevent him getting away. The report took two years to prepare and was upheld at the High Court, but you would think nobody read it.

Sir Ronald Leach who led a Department of Trade investigation in 1973 which condemned Robert Maxwell as a person not to be relied upon to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company

What the Duchess of York needs is not so much financial advice, rather someone with a few million to spare.

Lord McAlpine, former treasurer of the seriously indebted Conservative Party

I never use a computer.

Andrew Wiles, who proved Fermat's last theorem, on BBC's 'Horizon'