Charles Clarke

"One of the main purposes of university is to encourage people to think. But education for its own sake is a bit dodgy, too. The idea that you can learn about the world sitting in your study just reading books is not quite right... If we had less people studying philosophy, that would be unfortunate. I feel very less occupied by classics."

"I don't mind there being some medievalists around for ornamental purposes, but there is no reason for the State to pay for them."

"I am not in any way opposed to medieval studies (or for that matter Latin)."

"The fact is, we're looking for a very small number of very evil needles in a very large haystack, which is the city of London."