My favourite novel is Frederick Forsythe's Day Of The Jackal, the story about the unproven case of this apparent Englishman who was hired to assassinate De Gaulle….

Further Education should be about the ability to learn, not the ability to pay - everyone who is able should have the opportunity, regardless of their family background. I don't want to see students struggling with huge debts or frightened off even going to university in the first place.

I do think there is a great deal of caricature around the House of Commons. It is just that kind of place.

There are hard choices to be made in balancing the country's security and an individual's liberties. But it is a choice that has to be faced.

We should have high expectations of our children, but politicians should not tell teachers how to meet them.

There stands no contradiction between giving voice to legitimate anxiety and at the same time, as and when exchange of fire commences, looking to the rest of the country, as well as all of us in the House, to give full moral support to our forces.

Yes, you need substance in politics - but I think your style also says something about how you arrive at some of your conclusions.