“It is symptomatic of a government in meltdown that even faced with the strongest evidence of their own errors, and the appalling consequences of these errors, that Cabinet ministers are fighting like ferrets in a sack over who was to blame.” – Lord Bates, about Labour sitting by whilst watching hundreds of vital port jobs and businesses go to the wall because of their own pernicious backdating of a tax and a catalogue of farcical bungling by the government's Valuation Office Agency – on the Blue Blog - 14/10/2009
From Our Archives
"It's painful just to listen to these reports, its was all new to me. My father never spoke about the real hand to hand fighting he had participated in Burma, for which he was awarded the MC, but in those days you had to just grin and bear it. He'd have been disgusted at the treatment of our forces both in theatre and on the (lack of) support for them on return to civvy life. Defence of the realm is a government's number one priority, and if that is not what this is all about, why are we there?" - beecees - in response to Andy McNab and Liam Fox speaking to the Combat Stress Summit - on YouTube
"In accordance with the Weimar doctrine, 97% of the Bank's 'quantitative easing' is being directed towards easing the government's financial difficulties; however there is no truth in recent reports that local councils will be instructed to provide residents with free wheelbarrows" - Denis Cooper, in a comment on an article "Falling tax revenues are about to balloon our budget deficit" by Edmund Conway - telegraph.co.uk - 1/7/2009
"If the problem is an excess of debt, the cure is not adding more debt, whether that debt is public or private," - as written in Corriere della Sera by Giulio Tremonti, Italy's finance minister, and reported by nytimes.com – 14/02/2009
"The simple fact is the electorate must, and will, do whatever it takes to remove this wretched Government from office – and voting Lib Dem will only keep them there" – Kevin Davis – in his New Year message to members of Yeovil Constituency Conservative Association, for whom he is the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate – January 2009
"All I can say is the inmates are running the asylum," – Scott Rodabaugh, a financial planner in New York – from "Counseling, Consoling, and Staying Calm" by N R Kleinfield on Wall Street plunges – nytimes.com – 10/10/2008
"Basically, we're the bullet sponge" – FIRST LT. DANIEL WRIGHT, executive officer of an American unit in Afghanistan, whose function is to draw insurgents away from more populated areas, creating security elsewhere – nytimes.com – 10/11/2008
"The U.S. is going to need a stable, innovative financial system after this panic ends, and we won't get that if Mr. Obama and his media chorus think the answer is to return to Depression–era rules amid global financial competition. Perhaps the Senator should ask the former President for a briefing" - following Barack Obama's slating of a "deregulation" bill signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1999, as being the decision from which "our current financial problems all flow" – unsigned article in the "Opinion" channel of wsj.com – 01/10/2008.
"Palin is twice the man Obama is," - Rush Limbaugh – host of "the most listened to radio talk show in America" about John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin – quoted by Timothy Egan – nytimes.com – 04/09/2008
"How on earth did we end up with this useless wreck as PM, it is an utter disaster, he has bankrupted the country, he is now bankrupting its population, and removing all our freedoms." – "JeremyP", commenting on Ian Martin's article about about Gordon Brown's lack of visibility on the the Russia–Georgia conflict – "Electronic Telegraph"16/08/2008
"The paddling under the water is most extraordinary." - POLLY TOYNBEE, commenting about the way the 2 sides of the Labour Party are facing up on the "GB must go" debate - "The Andrew Marr Show" - 03/08/2008 - BBC1
"What makes this document doubly stunning is that these were techniques to get false confessions. People say we need intelligence, and we do. But we don't need false intelligence." - SENATOR CARL LEVIN, on a military interrogation class that was based on a 1957 Air Force study of how China obtained confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners - published 02/07/2008 at nytimes.com
"Hungry for a life-and-death issue? Tobacco regulation offers a singular moment to show the vision and leadership the voters yearn for." - Talking Sense on Tobacco, editorial - published 3/04/2008 at nytimes.com
"What followed the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was quite unexpected. It had not been anticipated; it had not been planned for; and, as soon became clear, it proved unmanageable." - "Bad Days in Basra: My Time as Britain's Man in Southern Iraq" by Sir Hilary Synnott - review by "Politico's Bookshop" admail – politicos.co.uk – Feb 2008
"Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe. But if they do, we're going to need another two or three globes to grow it all." – DANIEL W. BASSE of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy – published 9/03/2008 at nytimes.com
"The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination" - Ronald Reagan - from Iain Dale's selection of '500 of the Most Witty, Acerbic & Erudite Things Ever Said About Politics' - seen in "Politico's Bookshop" admail – politicos.co.uk – Feb 2008
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," – George W. Bush – 2003, from "The Bush Who Got Away" by JACOB WEISBERG – Published NYTimes.com – January 28, 2008
"Brown hadn't got a clue what he was doing" - Tim Congdon, a banking historian at the London School of Economics, about changes pushed through by Gordon Brown in 1998 – from "Crisis may make 1929 look a ‘walk in the park'" – telegraph.co.uk - 28/12/2007
"After six months in office, Brown has comforted rather than confounded the skeptics. He has alienated both Washington and Brussels, an unusual achievement. Far from breaking with Blair's rule by coterie – sometimes known as "sofa government" – he has proved a dour centralizer: sofa rule without the sofa." - Roger Cohen, (New York Times 20 December 2007) describing Prime Minister Gordon Brown
