At 61, he is not too old, but he insists that he is out of party politics, and is quite happy with his two professorships and an office in the central bank.

ECONOMIST: A Survey of Portugal

The language and imagery of politics, particularly coming out the GOP-Tea Party machine, is filled with inflammatory language and suggestions of violence.

FORBES: Question To Gabrielle Giffords' Alleged Shooter: Why'd You Do It?

In an interview with the BBC's Sunday Politics programme, Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps pointed out that Mrs Hutchings, her husband and two of their three children, had gone to state schools.

BBC: UK Politics

Instead, she said, she wanted to "take the politics out of aviation" and work with the government to come up with a cross-party aviation policy.

BBC: Labour scraps plan for third runway at Heathrow Airport

As the president rightly asserted, and as reasonable people in either party must acknowledge, playing politics with the debt ceiling must be put permanently out of bounds.

CNN: GOP holding U.S. economy hostage on debt

Geoffrey Vero, chairman of the Surrey Heath Conservative Constituency Association, who wants the bill to be delayed, told the BBC's Daily Politics it was costing the party votes, and some supporters were no longer prepared to help out with canvassing.

BBC: A gay wedding