"After 23 years closeted at Westminster, where often all you can see out of the windows are other par..." — Ann Widdecombe

Cats are ideal for politicians. I had two when I arrived at Westminster, Sooty and Sweep, who had come with a flat I had bought six years earlier in Fulham from someone who was about to go abroad. There was a better offer ahead of me but she took mine because I would take the cats.

I am not normally a fan of organised tours: few public figures are, feeling themselves objects of constant curiosity.

The first visit I made to Australia was in 1996 when I was the prisons' minister and was looking at other countries' penal systems.

We need less political correctness and more political courage.