Delighted

Delighted

"I am delighted that Mr Murdoch has shown such confidence in the company and its management. We will do everything we can to ensure this investment is very rewarding to him." — Fairfax managing director Stephen Mulholland, commenting on the disclosure that Rupert Murdoch had bought 2% of Fairfax shares.

Affairs of state

"This is a far from trivial concern. We look to ministers to intervene should the quality of food supplied to British forces be threatened with any deterioration in quality of quantity." — Tory MP Sir Nicholas Bonsor, alarmed by reports that British troops with the UN protection force in Bosnia are no longer being given Marmite.

Good help is hard to find.

"Because the CES won't allow discrimination in terms of age, race or sex, it's impossible to get the people you want." — An employer surveyed on hiring practices.

Who else?

"Do you know who I am?" — An irate Bronwyn Bishop demanding that the Captain, in spite of the foul weather, land the plane in which she was travelling in order not to miss her appointment.

Gap in the mind

Human rights violations in East Timor have been "overplayed" — A senior Australian military commander who oversees the Australian-Indonesian patrols of the Timor Gap oil zone.

Just to double cross

"Did you set out to double dip?"

"Never!" — Ex WA Premier Brian Burke, close to tears, denying he had travel allowances to which he was not entitled paid into his bank account.

You don't mean ...

"An economy run by gangsters, murderers, robber barons and the merely corrupt." — The Economist's ground-breaking lead story on the reconstruction of capitalism in Russia.

From GLW issue 151