“... that ‘furs up’ the arteries of government.It’s hardly surprising that FOI is unpopular in Downing Street. The MPs’ expenses scandal emerged from documents prepared in response to an information request to the House of Commons. FOIs have revealed that more than 350 serving officers in the Metropolitan Police had criminal records, that the government ...”

“... a wake. But a couple of lunatic optimists turned up with splendid bottles, and by midnight we were downing them in astonishment and relief. Labour hadn’t simply won: it dealt the conservative side the biggest defeat in its history. The Canberra tallyroom show was a quasi-presidential two-horse race; we loved it because our own mount came in, heavily ...”

“... Manifesto for the 1989 Euro-elections, all point to a greater hostility than in her early days in Downing Street. In turn, this has put the matter back on the political agenda, with consequences that have proved damaging to her. For many years, and despite the ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum of 1975, there were points to be scored in a populist approach to ...”

“... from the rest of the world. This can go too far. Some of her narration has a stunned, Janet-and-John quality. But the restaurant served only beer and wine, so they left. Carol did not stop anywhere for her drink as they drove back towards New York. Carol asked her if she wanted to go home or come out to Carol’s house for a while, and Therese said to ...”

“... the Electricians and their leaders were an anomaly, a piece of eccentricity. In the glory days of Downing Street deference and the super-constitutional role of the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers, Chapple and his successor were perceived as ‘old-style Cold Warriors caught in a time-warp’. But heroic trade-unionism is at one with the ...”

“... the foundations of our economy’. In a pointedly downbeat speech given in the garden at 10 Downing Street in August, Keir Starmer stressed that his ‘project has always been about fixing the foundations of this country’. A slickly presented policy essay appeared online in September, co-authored by three right-wing think tank wonks, outlining the ...”

“... Banqueting House, where Charles had his head cut off, removal vans could be seen parked outside 10 Downing Street. In Parliament Square, the Hare Krishnas were dishing out free lentils and rice. There was another Morning Star stand. The Fire Brigades Union, which re-affiliated to Labour after Corbyn’s election, had set up a platform for speeches. A message ...”

“... fifth most senior post at the Department of Trade and Industry and anonymous accusations from 10 Downing Street of lunacy in Number 11 – while knowing all along that the Chancellor’s camp had a secret which might ruin him. ‘There’s a thermonuclear bomb ticking underneath Mandelson,’ Whelan whispered to lobby correspondents as Routledge’s ...”

“... Cain proposed adding a line about the National Health Service. The following day Johnson gave his Downing Street press conference with ‘Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’ pinned to the front of his lectern.The message worked well (some said too well) and Johnson’s own satisfaction ratings rose sharply after he was admitted to hospital with ...”

“... She hasn’t even managed to persuade Sammy Wilson to wear a mask. When a Ballymena councillor, John Carson, said the pandemic was God’s judgment on Northern Ireland for introducing abortion and same-sex marriage, Foster failed to discipline him. When the same councillor alleged that Covid vaccines were made from the stem cells of aborted foetuses – a ...”

“... Robinson wanted a pledge from the British Government, and not just the temporary occupant of 10 Downing Street, that any change in the constitution and governance of the province would rest on consent. Robinson had been ready to be a ‘persuader’ within the Unionist community, but when Major had shown the DUP his door, he could, he said, ‘have wept ...”

“... Denis Thatcher is entirely inventable – as John Wells understood: he comes in a flat pack with easy-to-follow instructions, all the components familiar general shapes, all parts from stock, no odd angles, no imagination required. When they came up with the idea for Ikea, they used Denis Thatcher as the prototype ...”

“... Allied bombing of Iraq and the war in Kosovo that were manifestly being driven principally from 10 Downing Street and the White House. He also had to sit tight and accept a great many heavy-handed attempts to impose the will of Number 10 on local Labour organisations – the Welsh Assembly and the London mayoral contest were notable examples. Well before the ...”

“... and thorough pandemic plan – ‘We were the envy of the world,’ according to one Downing Street adviser quoted by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott in their excoriating Failures of State. Unfortunately, the reality was that the NHS had a chronic shortage of the necessary equipment and a plan that was reliant on exactly the kind of ...”

“... mixing ‘Marxism, narcissism and paganism’, a realisation of the ‘dystopian fantasy of John Lennon’. Talk of ‘white culture’ under threat lit up social media. Commentators wondered if a radical right-wing vision of politics defined by ‘faith, family and flag’ was taking root in the UK. By then, I was long gone. The press officer came ...”