Ball-tampering. There, I've said it. Things that shouldn't be said: the judge in the Saddam trial appears to be wearing comedy specs and moustache.

Commentors to the Blog suggested Nick should take the Independent for every penny.

As a Doctor, I'm often asked: why can't we see more pictures of Albania?

I'm sorry for croaking at you this evening. This is PM, I'm Eddie Mair: the walrus of news.

well with me now is Geoffrey Robinson. He was once voted 'After-dinner Speaker of the Year', so if you've had your tea, you're in for a treat

Our editor came to work today in a vibrant pink shirt. Vibrant. Several members of staff have had to go home sick.

Yesterday people were going past my window in t shirts and dresses. But that's the men at the BBC for you.

The population of the United Kingdom has, for the first time, reached sixty million. If they stood on each other's shoulders they would reach perhaps twenty feet in the air before toppling over.

Sinn Fein say, "The British government are buggers".

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran ... in one shot on his website he appears to be dressed only in flowers. Oh - here's the page, you'll see what I mean.

The strategist is a chess player thrown into life.

Maybe I shouldn't scare off my date so quickly by shooting guns and telling stories about vomit, but, hey, the sooner he knows the real me, the better.

The sisters were glad to be together. They had the easy sort of relationship where they didn't have to speak to be understood.

Dogwoods are great optimists. Daffodils wait and see, crouching firmly underground just in case spring doesn't come this year, but dogwoods have faith.

I'm quite connected to Italy because of Italian Vogue shoots and the Pirelli calendar, so I have a love and appreciation for the culture.

I keep telling myself I should try very hard to write a novel of about 210 pages... I don't seem to be capable of it, but I keep hoping it will happen.

The essence of the modern state is the union of the universal with the full freedom of the particular, and with the welfare of individuals.

Wants keep pace with wealth always.

The heart is the secret inside the secret.

Bloated budgets are ruining Hollywood - these pictures are squeezing all the other types of movies out of Hollywood. It's disastrous.