[PW] ? Notable Quotations of 2007 (Quotation Query #644)

[Bye, Dan J]

My favourites, from a UK perspective:

"He's the one with the dangly bits."
Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, explaining the difference between him and the Lord Mayor of London.

"Oh Christ"
Doris Lessing, told of her Nobel Prize win.

"In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country."
President Ahmadinejad of Iran, answering questions at Columbia University.

"But, comrades, you should know that in a key step on the forward march to socialism I'm dispensing with the wig."
Jack Straw, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, addressing the Labour Party conference.

"The blondest suicide note in history"
(now ex-)Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell, on Tory MP and London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson.

"Northern Wreck"
BBC news presenter Huw Edwards, accidently renaming troubled mortage lender Northern Rock.

"Tell them to come and get a taste of the real deal."
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe responds to the news that his Madame Tussauds waxwork receives a lot of kisses from fans.

"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay."
Harry Potter author JK Rowling outs Hogwarts headmaster

"When I was here last, I collected an enormous amount of seeds in the turn-ups of my trousers, which I experimented with when I got home."
Prince Charles, on a visit to a nature reserve in Wiltshire.

"I've been going on all these years to a chorus of ridicule."
Prince Charles, moaning about the media again.

"I don't really understand what a website is."
British Judge Peter Openshaw, at the trial of three men accused of internet terrorism offences.

"Am I to blame for his leaving? I don't know"
George W. Bush, re: Tony Blair

"I have expressed a degree of regret that can be equated with an apology."
Des Browne, Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary of State for Scotland.

"I don't know why they call it the Westminster village. Where I come from, villages only have one idiot." 
anonymous farmer, quoted in the Guardian of 30 March 2007, speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme about agricultural payments reforms.

"I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting brilliance that may not really be there."
Stephen Fry, English comedian and actor, on English actors who are more successful than him in America.

"Camelot will turn to Gormenghast overnight."
Paddy Ashdown, former Liberal Democrat leader, on Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister.



Dan