Chum was a British boy's weekly which at the end of the year was bound into a single huge book and the following Christmas parents bought it as Christmas presents for male children.

No men and women of the Irish race we shall not fight for England. We shall fight for the destruction of the British Empire and the construction of an Irish republic.

When the British came to Ibo land for instance at the beginning of the 20th century and defeated the men in pitched battles in different places and set up their administrations the men surrendered. And it was the women who led the first revolt.

The British Red Cross asked me to help them spearhead a fundraising campaign for the victims of the war in Nicaragua. It was a turning point in my life. It began my commitment to justice and human rights issues.

However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbours we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account.

The west has a great deal to answer for in the Middle East from Britain's belated empire-building after the First World War to the US and British policy that condemns modern Iraq to the material and social squalor of a half-century ago.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

This sympathy is not translated into force against the British government because it is not like the anti- apartheid movement which had a high profile here and Mandela is a more engaging figure than Yasser Arafat.

The first condition of success for the League of Nations is therefore a firm understanding between the British Empire and the United States of America and France and Italy that there will be no competitive building up of fleets or armies between them.

The problem with being British... I don't know if it's me being British or being raised a strict Catholic but you never really enjoy success.

Like the British Constitution she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.

I receive huge support from Irish and British sports fans alike and it is greatly appreciated. Likewise I feel I have a great affinity with the American sports fans. I play most of my golf in the U.S. nowadays and I am incredibly proud to have won the U.S. Open and U.S. PGA Championship in the last two years.

The British are supposed to be particularly averse to intellectuals a prejudice closely bound up with their dislike of foreigners. Indeed one important source of this Anglo-Saxon distaste for highbrows and eggheads was the French revolution which was seen as an attempt to reconstruct society on the basis of abstract rational principles.

It turns out that understanding the British public is not rocket science. The British appreciate honesty and they also have a bonkers off-the-wall sense of humour like me.

Even modern English people are imperious superior ridden by class. All of the hypocrisy and the difficulties that are endemic in being British also make it an incredibly fertile place culturally. A brilliant place to live. Sad but true.

I think Bond the character is distinct: He's British he has a certain code that he lives by he's incorruptible... he's a classical hero but he's also fallible. He has inner demons inner conflicts and he's a romantic.

I hope that tomorrow we can all wherever we are join in expressing our grief at Diana's loss and gratitude for her all-too-short life. It is a chance to show to the whole world the British nation united in grief and respect.

I've always had great respect for Paddington because he is amusingly English and eccentric. He is a great British institution and my generation grew up with the books and then Michael Horden's animations.

The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are who like to be told the worst.

It was part of your religion to hate the British.

My father and I had a good relationship it was very relaxed. He had a lot of humour. He looked a little bit like me although he had no beard. He had the appearance of a very elegant British-looking man.

It has been argued that British girls are incapable of deep feeling or brilliant acting owing to their lack of temperament. This I am positive is not true.

The positive news is that the British economy is continuing to grow and is creating jobs. And it is positive news too that at a time of real international instability we are a safe haven in the storm.

Short of being prime minister there isn't a better job in British politics than running London.