History provides no precise guidelines..

War on Iraq runs the risk of turning the Middle East into an inexhaustible recruiting ground for anti- western terrorism..

But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich..

People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled 'politics'..

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed i….

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television..

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they ….

Ten Downing Street is a house, not an office. That is its most important characteristic..

People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance..

Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values ….

We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war..

The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake..

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all cont….

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur..

Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic stren….

It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching..

If Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister at the time, there would have been no Treaty of Maastricht..

Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse..

Wisely used history can give pleasure and provide us with a useful tool; but we should not become its slaves..

Some people find it difficult to argue with a woman Prime Minister and shrivel up..

We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgment on the past..