"I am finding the inherent politeness of this place quite destabilising. Having come from a House where politeness is about as rare as an orderly queue at a London bus stop, the culture shock on entering your Lordships' House has been profound. Indeed, such relentless politeness is not merely destabilising, but positively exhausting."

“If champagne ever wanted cheering up, it would drink Tony Banks.”

“...one of the most charismatic politicians in Britain, a true man of the people.”

“He was a fairly competent chairman of Housing . Every time he gets up now I keep thinking, "What on earth is Councillor Major doing?" I can't believe he's here and sometimes I think he can't either.”

“More people have probably died from eating dodgy Chinese food than contracting some form of avian flu. The last thing we want is for the Daleks from Defra to start suggesting that they want to exterminate wildlife—as is their normal response when confronted with such a problem. We do not want any proposal that migrating birds are going to be destroyed because of alarmist figures and notions that appear in the Tory press.”

“She behaves with all the sensitivity of a sex-starved boa constrictor”

“I have gone to a safe house, as they say, so I might as well have a different name”