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

So, what I say to people is that politics has got to be about principle and values above all. Of course, there are times when you have to make accommodations.

Anyone who supposed that when Margaret Thatcher left Number Ten she was going to take a Trappist vow did not know that formidable politician.

It is almost always wrong that the time isn't ripe to decide something. That is always said of difficult problems.

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

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.