Systems governed by only one set of rules are more vulnerable than those with variety.

Huge sums are invested globally in medical research and development - and with good reason.

Economies are complex beasts that need people to do an extraordinary range of tasks.

In Britain, polls show large majorities in favour of mansion taxes and higher taxes on the finance sector.

One of the lessons of history is that even the deepest crises can be moments of opportunity. They bring ideas from the margins into the mainstream.

On the environment and climate change, I suspect that future generations will think there was too much timidity, too much fear of upsetting business. Basically, New Labour was very nervous about regulating business, or requiring it to do anything, even when there was a very clear social or environmental case for doing so.

Computing should be taught as a rigorous - but fun - discipline covering topics like programming, database structures, and algorithms. That doesn't have to be boring.