Politics is much too serious to be taken too seriously; equally, there are many aspects of it so laughable as to be lamentable.

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

Paddy Ashdown is the only party leader who's a trained killer. Although, to be fair, Mrs Thatcher was self taught.

I am genuinely not an over-the-top kind of person about politics or anything else.

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

To run an effective political party you need a degree of tribalism, it's the glue that holds everyone together.

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….