What I'm interested in is Britain projecting itself abroad, and through that its values and the things it holds dear. And I don't think you do that by refusing to talk to the world's second-largest economy [China]. In fact, that is positively counter-productive in my view.

Britain is China's best partner in the West.

Put on top of that the fact that the whole world is looking at Britain and saying how is this country going to pay its way in the future. They are looking at other countries like Greece who can't pay their way in the future and you see savage spending cuts, big cuts in pay.

Even a China growing at 7% or indeed less is still adding to the world economy an economy equivalent to the UK or more.

We need to think deeply about whether we can sustain banks that are not only too big to fail, but potentially too big to bail.

I understand the damage the expenses crisis has done to Parliament, and the paramount importance of restoring trust in our politics.

British taxpayers should not bear the costs of problems in the Eurozone.