QUOTES OF THE DAY

“I wouldn’t say it’s in limbo actually, there’s still a lot of ministers still doing their job. It’s summertime, a lot of the people are on holiday, a lot of people work very, very hard”

- Sports minister Nigel Huddleston fends off criticisms that key members of Government are absent during an economic crisis.

“I go everywhere with her and I told her that she was going to meet the Prince and she licked his shoes, so that was nice” - Church organist Mary Edmondson, 89, on her dog Poppy’s encounter with the Prince of Wales at a church service in Caithness in the Scottish Highlands on Sunday.

“The great irony, of course, being that when I was younger and not facing death, my fear of it was so uncontrolled that quite often it stopped me from living” - Dame Deborah James, above, who has said has said in her posthumous book that her “periods of frequent, crippling panic attacks” stopped when she was diagnosed with incurable cancer.

“The economic situation people and businesses are facing requires all hands to the pump this summer. We simply cannot afford a summer of Government inactivity while the leadership contest plays out followed by a slow start from a new prime minister and cabinet”

- Confederation of British Industry (CBI) director general Tony Danker

on the cost-of-living crisis. “I’ll be lying if I said that I hadn’t thought about extending. I’m still on the mission, I’m still loving driving, I’m still being challenged by it. So I don’t really feel like I have to give it up anytime soon”

- Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, 37, admits he has considered extending his stay in Formula One beyond the end of next season.