Sunday, March 14, 2010

Words, words, words

Three nice political quotes from the last week.

First, Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell responding to Tory criticisms that the government is setting long-term ‘pet projects’ into motion not long before the election:

Ministers are entitled to take decisions about the administration of the country's affairs.

Second, former Tory party treasurer Stanley Kalms on the Ashcroft affair:

Just because you can find a way of doing something that is not illegal does not mean you should do it.

Third, Paddy Ashdown on Lib Dem rules, introduced under his leadership, about whether the leader is allowed to take the party into a coalition without the consent of members:

“It was a long time ago”, he said, adding that some of those who were supposed to know what it meant were now dead. “One of them may have been me, but I can’t remember.”

1 comment:

Tom said...

I think that report might have spoiled Ashdown's comments somewhat. On Newsnight, he adapted/paraphrased Lord Palmerston's comment: "Only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business - one is dead, one is mad, and I am the third and I've forgotten all about it."