'Like so many once pig-ignorant artsy types, I'm now conversant with credit default swaps, bundled securities and derivatives'

'Even if it's theoretically possible to sustain 10.2 billion people on the planet, is this what we aspire to as a species?'

‘The UK has exceeded its commitment to cut carbon emissions to 34 per cent by 2020. Under Ed Miliband’s Labour government, balsa wood cars are powered with twisted rubber bands’

‘If you were a CEO, would you base your company in the United States, with one of the world’s highest corporate tax rates?’

'What’s wrong with murderers is that they murder; not that they hold the wrong views'

‘The writer’s place in a movie is somewhere between the second assistant cameraman and the catering staff’

‘I do not care whether Osama bin Laden was cowering behind his wife or whether he had a gun. I’m just glad he’s dead’

'A fat tax would earn the Treasury £38 billion a year. But it would only raise that much money if it didn't work'

‘If you’ve always paid your way in your working life, you’ll pay your way as you die’

‘The acquiescent citizen is always a soft target for lazy, disproportionate policing’