We’ve heard plenty about the [Conservative leadership] candidates’ views on which taxes to cut and when. But what I’d really like to hear is how each of them intends to create a healthy culture, first in Downing Street and then beyond, and what values and what behaviours we can expect from them to embed it in place. Get that right, and much else will follow

David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, Thought for the Day, Radio 4, 18 July

What did [Penny Mordaunt] . . . mean in her excruciating launch video which, to the strains of “I vow to thee, my country”, grandly concludes that you should choose a leader “not because you agree with everything they say, but because you trust their motives”? Just motives? How about competence, intelligence, experience, steadiness, depth, conscientiousness, attention to detail? I cannot remember a British premiership where the big problem has been motives. It tends to be not being any good at the job

Matthew Parris, columnist, on Penny Mordaunt’s leadership campaign, The Times, 16 July

Boris Johnson is a venal, lying, corrupt, narcissistic, inept, totally money-grabbing evil man who should never have been allowed near power. Never! That man should be publicly horse-whipped once a week, every week touring the towns and cities of the UK. He has brought shame and disrespect to our country. He has increased racism, violence, and division

Mark Thomas, speech accepting an honorary doctorate from the University of Kent, in Canterbury Cathedral, 17 July

That brings me to the importance of data. We are extraordinarily blessed in this country to have more than 250 years of amateur scientific data-gathering. We have baselines against which we can say, with real confidence, that 41 per cent of all UK species have declined in the past 52 years, since 1970; but under-employed Church of England vicars and other gentlefolk going back to Georgian England provide us with a database that other countries can only dream of

Barry Gardiner MP, House of Commons debate, Hansard, 14 July

Anyone struggling to keep cool might find relief in a nearby church. There are thousands across the country, entry is free and if ours is anything to go by, complaints about the temperature never relate to excessive heat

Catriona Chase, letter, The Daily Telegraph, 19 July

I’m not a practising Catholic, but I still like popping into churches to offer one up, light a candle, do all that stuff. I’m certainly one of the only people in my family who would ever unironically go into a church

Martin Freeman, actor, The Guardian, 16 July

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