Insensitive
"One would have hoped that they could have found a good British company to run the agency. Some of our old boys will regard it as terribly insensitive." — An official of the Royal British Legion, on news that a German company has been short-listed to take over the agency that handles British war pensions and administrative preparations for war, when the agency is privatised.
Sack them all
"Sack the whiz-kid who dreamt up the poster." — Former Tory PM Sir Edward Heath, advising British PM John Major after a Conservative election poster bombed (it showed Labour leader Tony Blair as a puppet of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl). The poster was designed by deputy PM Michael Heseltine.
Ideological
"The sale [of the NSW TAB] is opposed by other [state ALP] MPs on the ideological grounds that public assets should be retained in public ownership." — Sydney Morning Herald, April 22.
Honest
"A very honest man." — ACTU secretary Bill Kelty on Brian Quinn. Along with Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett and trucking boss Lindsay Fox, Kelty appeared as a character witness for Quinn, who was convicted of conspiring to defraud Coles Myer, which he headed in the 1980s, of $4.46 million.
Simple
"It's so simple and common-sensical that I don't know why anyone hasn't thought of this before." — Arizona (US) state corrections director Terry Stewart on proposals to build a private 1800-inmate prison in the neighbouring Mexican state of Sonora to hold Mexican immigrants convicted in Arizona. The goal is in part to take advantage of lower wage costs in Mexico.
Stop press
"There are still a lot of them out there, and they are still very active." — Tim Sage, assistant commissioner of the NSW Police Integrity Commission, on corrupt cops.