John Major

“My mother was the center of the family.”

“Life is full of surprises.”

“You've had an extremely weak euro on the foreign exchange markets, you've had a very dubious policy being followed.”

“Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation.”

“Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.”

“My father was 64 when I was conceived, my mother 38, which was late for babies in the 1940s.”

“Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less.”

“I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.”

“If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years.”

“I don't have a shred of regret about entering the exchange-rate mechanism.”

“I want Britain to punch its weight in the European Community.”

“What happens when there is a conflict between the Scottish parliament, if it was established, and the Westminster parliament? Who is supreme?”

“The sight of allegedly sophisticated politicians parroting complete tripe trivialises and demeans government and it has to be stopped. It's played a significant part in public disillusionment with politics and has led to the absurd situation where more people vote for 'Strictly Come Dancing' than voted in the general election.”

“Well British troops are superb in the field in terms of conflict.”

“I think we can get respect for Parliament back providing governments and oppositions are frank.”

“September the 11th was a huge shock in the United States. It was the first time you had been hit at home in your own territory by terrorist on this scale.”

“Well, I think there's a distinction between sexing-up the intelligence and sexing-up the presentation of the intelligence.”

“I thought I could do something different from any Conservative prime minister before me. But I couldn't.”

“Of course there are regrets. I shall regret always that I found my own authentic voice in politics. I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive. Later, too often on the back foot.”

“I think it's extremely unlikely that the European Union will fracture with nations dropping off the edge.”