“The only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”

This is not a time to quail, it is not a crisis, nor should we see it as an excuse for wobbling or self-doubt. But it is a moment for hope.

I have not been more robust towards female rather than male assembly members and I do not believe I have been remotely sexist.

London is a fantastic creator of jobs – but many of these jobs are going to people who don’t originate in this country.

The next Tory leader would have to unify his party and ensure that Britain stood tall in the world.

Hitler showed the evil that could be done by the art of rhetoric. Churchill showed how it could help to save humanity.

I have as much chance of becoming Prime Minister as of being decapitated by a frisbee or of finding Elvis.

I think it’d be disgraceful if a chap wasn’t allowed to have a bit of fun in Las Vegas. The real scandal would be if you went to Vegas and you didn’t misbehave in some trivial way.

I’d like thousands of schools as good as the one I went to, Eton.

Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix and stay conscious.

My speaking style was criticised by no less an authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a low moment, my friends, to have my rhetorical skills denounced by a monosyllabic Austrian cyborg.

He is like some sherry-crazed old dowager who has lost the family silver at roulette, and who now decides to double up by betting the house as well.

Can I say anything good about Ken Livingstone? A long time ago he did some good things, but I can’t now remember what any of them were.

I have come to the conclusion that Tony Blair has finally gone mad … he made assertions that are so jaw-droppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help.

The difference between Hitler’s speeches and Churchill’s speeches was that Hitler made you think he could do anything; Churchill made you think you could do anything.

Life isn’t like coursework, baby. It’s one damn essay crisis after another.

I want to win and I want to be in office.