My approach is always to try to be straight with people, especially about what my party can achieve.

My health is good and it's up to me to keep it that way.

I will go out of this world feet first with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket.

My idealism has not abated, but I have witnessed it withering away nationwide, to the point where at least among the young, to have ideals is akin to being blinkered and oldfashioned.

We Liberal Democrats believe in dialogue. We believe in cooperation with both sides of industry and between both sides of industry. And we believe in the language of cooperation. We reject the language of confrontation.

The one thing we can all be sure about in politics is you are as well to expect the unexpected.

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….