“This is not a time to accuse those who want Europe to change of betraying Europe. Ideals survive through change, they die through inertia in the face of challenge”
Tony Blair
“I had to use all my playboy tactics, even if they have not been used for some time”
The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, explains how he persuaded the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, to give up an attempt to host the EU’s new food agency in her country
“Keane doing Somewhere Only We Know, some Japanese businessman going, ‘Aw, look at him . . . we should really f****** drop that debt, you know.’ It’s not going to happen, is it?”
Noel Gallagher, the Oasis frontman, says that Live 8 will not succeed in persuading rich countries to cancel the debt of poor African nations
“For many viewers, they offer positive examples and practical inspiration for their own lives, and that’s something I’m certainly not ashamed of”
Andy Duncan, chief executive of Channel 4, says that Big Brother contestants are role models who inspire viewers
“There is white heat coming out of Mr De Niro over this”
Stan Rosenfield, Robert De Niro’s publicist, describes the film star’s fury after a reporter covering the arrest of the actor’s housekeeper tried to interview a nine-year-old boy who lives in his building