Economists who studied in the '80s tend to have a pretty crude neoclassical view that's just about freeing up prices and markets, and then you'll get the growth and everybody benefits. And they'll just repeat that, because if you're a minister or a senior civil servant, you don't have time to read anything anymore. You get very fixed in your views.

In the end, that's a blind alley - we have to get back to being able to think on our feet and react.

Somewhere like Russia or China, decision-makers have far fewer constraints on acting than in more open systems.

I sound like a church nut, but look at the role of the churches in the civil rights movement in the States. People are brought together in other ways that can become drivers of change.

You have a huge number of people who spend their time writing papers which show that migrants pay more to the country than they take out in benefits, and they say, "Why don't you approve of migration? Why don't you open up borders?" They're not able to empathize with how people feel about migration.

The magic formula is there is no magic formula.

I have to be sure of myself - in a conditional way, always being open to the possibility that I'm wrong.