Nuclear margin
"There's always a margin for error in these clean out procedures and a skilled worker will know how to exploit these to remove material. The company will never know whether it was lost or deliberately diverted." — Paul Leventhal of the US Nuclear Control Institute on three kg of highly enriched uranium that went missing in the Dounreay nuclear reprocessing plant in Scotland earlier this year. Initially, 11 kg was missing, but eight have been accounted for, including three kg flushed out to sea as liquid waste.
Scout's honour
"Not one cent is being spent by the Liberal Party on anyone else in the field." — Victorian Liberal Party director Petro Georgiou replying to questions about Stan Germaine, independent candidate in the Wills by-election, and until recently a Liberal member.
Words of wisdom
"It takes two to tango, 1992 is different from 1892. There is a new environment. It is about a new industrial relations culture ..." — ACTU president Martin Ferguson suffering from cliché overload while trying to think of something to say about Associated Pulp and Paper Mills' frontal assault on working conditions and safety standards.
Tradition
"Our people are frustrated about the direction Labor has taken and see no answers for them in privatisation." — Telecom workers' union secretary Len Cooper explaining why 29 officers of the union campaigned for independent Phil Cleary in the Wills by-election even though the union is affiliated to the Labor Party.
Paddy the pig
"Possibly the best result would be a victory for the Independent, despite the fact that he has no credentials other than the kind of hatred of 'economic rationalism' instilled by a mediocre university and occupation." — Padraic P. McGuinness on Phil Cleary, teacher and independent candidate in the Wills by-election, Australian, April 11-12.
Vitality and unity
"It is essential that the Labour Party retains the vitality and the unity which we have demonstrated in recent years." — Neil Kinnock after plunging much of the party into crisis with a purge of the left and leading the British Labour Party to its fourth straight defeat.
Crusade
"This, in our opinion, is the modern-day version of the Crusades, that the United States will now trample across the entire world, imposing its will upon so-called independent, sovereign nk Rubino, defence lawyer for General Manuel Noriega, former CIA agent and president of Panama, after Noriega's kidnapping from Panama and conviction in a US court on charges of drug trafficking.
We haven't changed ours
"... recession to the average affluent Aussie is more likely to mean not changing the yacht this year than cutting down their consumption of the good life." — Fairfax ad in the UK Economist.