Space is a never-ending race track. The thermal shock region on the prow of our solar system, for example, is screaming through the heavens at 490,000 miles an hour. Earth is hurtling round the sun at 67,000 miles an hour. God, it seems, is a complete speed freak. – Top Gear, series 16, episode 6

Eighty percent of the people of Britain want more money spent on public transport — in order that other people will travel on the buses so that there is more room for them to drive their cars. – John Selwyn Gummer, The Independent, 1994