Quotes

That poll did my profile no harm at all. People now remember me as the politician whom nobody recognised.

Shadow Chancellor Francis Maude, on a survey which placed him bottom of the list of leading Opposition figures

I don't think we have failed, we have just found another way that doesn't work.

Andy Elson, one of the pilots of the failed Cable and Wireless round- the-world balloon flight

Exclusives aren't what they used to be. We tend to put "exclusive" on everything just to annoy other papers. I once even put "exclusive" on the weather by mistake.

`Mirror' editor Piers Morgan

In the last Parliament, the House of Commons had more MPs called John than all the women MPs put together.

Health Minister Tessa Jowell

Throughout my career I've been described as "cerebral". But I had to look that word up in a dictionary.

Footballer Graeme Le Saux

I don't always admit to being an MP. If I'm in a bar with people I don't know, to say you are a Labour MP isn't always a good move. I have said I'm a solicitor.

Claire Ward MP

We were not expelled from the Garden of Eden because of the inherent sin within us. Economic conditions made it impossible for Adam to resist the apple.

Labour peer Lord Hattersley

Conservative Central Office is beginning to resemble a mortuary, but without the signs of life.

Former Tory MP Jerry Hayes

Oskar Lafontaine has been the grit in the German oyster.

John Major