There is a sort of exotic preposterousness about a lot of elections, the way arguments are made even cruder.

I think that if politics is just about getting your backside on important seats, then it's a pretty worthless endeavor.

It'd make a wonderful change to have the leader of a pluralist democracy who acted on that, who told people just how tough things are going to be, just what's going to have to be done - and, maybe, ran all the risks on the side of honesty, rather than spinning stories and trying to win the headlines every day.

In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.

It is a sort of great Victorian truth that actually, trying to do the right thing is pretty good for you and pretty good for business as well, by and large.

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by "unbridled" you mean unregulated.

I think that what most surprises anybody who goes into politics from even a modestly cerebral background is the vulgarity of much of the cut and thrust of politics.