Some people play the piano, some do Sudoku, some watch television, some people go out to dinner parties. I write books.

The job of mayor of London is unbelievably taxing, particularly in the run-up to the Olympics.

I'm a one-nation Tory.

I lead a life of blameless domesticity and always have done.

The volunteering spirit of Londoners is part of what makes this the best big city on earth.

Churchill decides from very early on that he will create a political position that is somehow above left and right, embodying the best points of both sides and thereby incarnating the will of the nation. He thinks of himself as a gigantic keystone in the arch, with all the lesser stones logically induced to support his position. He has a kind of semi-ideology to go with it - a leftish Toryism: imperialist, romantic, but on the side of the working man.

We need to look at our nannying, mollycoddled, politically correct culture in my view, which stops kids from going out and playing competitive sport. I also think we need to look at the shear fatness of the regulations which control people who want to help kids play sport.