My own view is that if you filled every member of the parliamentary Labour party with a truth drug and lashed them to a polygraph lie detector, very, very few of them would support foundation hospitals.

I am not against Muslim schools. But as I believe in integration, I think we would be better off overall if we did not have denominational schools at all.

If you say someone is thrilled, it implies talk of an exciting project. I'm wary of such talk.

The present system of protecting NHS patients was a bit of a shambles.

It is more important for Labour to raise the reputation of politics than for the Tories, who are only in politics for the money.

The Government's enthusiasm for 24 hour drinking puzzles me... We want people to be responsible, yet we urge them to drink.

I don't think we can go into important local elections next year... with Tony Blair as leader and expect to keep many of the councillors we've got now.