On treating voters as grown-ups:

“On the road signs (with) a diamond-studded black banana with the word "Curve" beneath, I would have the word "Curve" removed. By this and other small tokens, I would proclaim that the English people are no longer babies and that, after forty years of universal education, I propose to deal with the citizens as if they were in fact universally educated.”

On self respect:

“I would try and stop people being ashamed of themselves. In the United Kingdom we have a basically non-conformist conscience and the fact that taxation, controls and certain features of the Welfare State have turned the majority of us into petty criminals, liars and work-dodgers, is I am sure, having a very bad effect on the psyche of the kingdom.”

On stamping out the abuse of company cars:

“Motor cars, whether Rolls Royces or Fords, owned by a company, would have the name of that company displayed in half-inch letters in a prominent position so that if a company's car was seen disgorging a load of mink and cigar smoke in theatreland in the evening, any of the company's shareholders who happened to be a witness, could, if he wanted, ask the company to justify this use of a company vehicle. But the real deterrent would be snobbery. I think everyone would gain morally by this legislation and no real harm would be done to anyone.”

On sex and gambling:

“I would consult with my Minister of Leisure about the possibility of turning the Isle of Wight into one vast pleasure ground which would be a mixture between Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, pre-war Paris and Macao. Here there would be casinos ... and the most luxurious maisons de tolerance in the world...This would be a world where the frustrated citizen of every class could give full rein to those basic instincts for sex and gambling which have been crushed through the ages.”

On traffic:

“Our present internal combustion engine is a ridiculous steam-age contraption which turns only a modest proportion of fuel into energy and spews the rest out in the form of petrol vapour of a more or less solid consistency. When there is no wind, this lies in a dense layer in our streets and we breathe it in day and night. It then rises into the upper atmosphere where, I am told, it forms a kind of envelope round the world which has the effect of interfering with the beneficial rays of the sun. Whether that is so or not, the petrol engine is obviuosly a noxious and noisy machine and I would gradually abolish it and replace it by some form of electric motor.”

From "If I Were Prime Minister", (c) Ian Fleming Will Trust, is taken from "Talk of the Devil," a volume of little-known or unpublished writing by Ian Fleming which is published in October by Queen Anne Press as part of a limited edition of Fleming's complete works. www.queenannepress.clara.co.uk

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• Vincent van Gogh’s letters show the soul of the artist