I did maths for a year at university. I don't think I was very good at it. And some people would say it shows.

We had lost the art of communication - but not, alas, the gift of speech.

Boom and bust is a term that applied to the Conservative years and two of the worst recessions in history.

I believe there is a moral sense and a global ethic that commands attention from people of every religion and every faith, and people of no faith. But I think what's new is that we now have the capacity to communicate instantaneously across frontiers right across the world.

Britain can be proud of its response to the tsunami appeal.

America knows it has got to deal with its deficit problems so that it, too, can promise it is making its proper and best contributions to the world economy.

I think that's a bit unfair. I'm a father with a 2-year-old child and I feel pretty young, actually.