Quotes

I didn't spend too much time pondering the ethics of how a story was gained nor over-worry about whether to publish or not. If we believed the story to be true and we felt Sun readers should know the facts, we published it and we left it to them to decide if we had done the right thing. They could decide we were correct and carry on purchasing us - in my time in ever-increasing numbers - or could decide we were wrong, in which they could decline to buy us again, ie Hillsborough.

I was never put under any commercial pressure by my management or owner when running The Sun. In fact the reverse. Rupert Murdoch often felt the paper had gone too far under my editorship.

I was always astonished that a prime minister would want to meet a tabloid journalist with one GCSE.

I don't want the fat people in my eyesight. I get quite upset about the size of them. I don't like seeing great fat people walking down the road. It absolutely upsets me. However, I object to the idea of people being able to shout out "Oi, fatty" at them. I think that is wrong. I object to seeing them. I'd rather they stayed indoors, without a fridge, they're not allowed out until they're a size fourteen. It's a first-world issue, they are fat because they eat too many dough nuts. Cut out the dough nuts, they'd lose the weight.

Scotland believes not in entrepreneurialism like London and the south east... Scots enjoy spending money but they don't enjoy creating it, which is the opposite to down south.

My sense about England right now is that they wish Scotland to be independent. They want them, they want them to go out there and make their way in the world and see if they are as clever as they believe they are.

[on Hillsborough] All I did wrong there was tell the truth. There was a surge of Liverpool fans who had been drinking and that is what caused the disaster. The only thing different we did was put it under the headline "The Truth". I went on The World at One the next day and apologized. I only did that because Rupert Murdoch told me to. I wasn't sorry then and I'm not sorry now because we told the truth.