When you’re taking the country through difficult times and difficult decisions you’ve got to take the country with you. That means permanently trying to make the argument that what you’re doing is fair and seen to be fair.

People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken further and further away from them mean their living standards are slashed through enforced austerity or their taxes are used to bail out governments on the other side of the continent.

The economies in Europe that will prosper, are those that are the greenest and the most energy efficient

The world economy is more stable than for a generation ... Our hugely sophisticated financial markets match funds with ideas better than ever before.

You do not have to be an economist to know that putting up the cost of employing someone is a pretty barking thing to do when you're trying to get out of a recession.

It would be wrong to suggest that Scotland could not be another such successful, independent country.

Corruption is one of the greatest enemies of progress in our time. It is the cancer at the heart of so many of the world's problems.