My favourite sport at school was rugby. All sports are teamwork, but rugby particularly is about teamwork and I think teamwork is the essence of this.

Tony Blair is the best friend I've had in politics.

To be a teacher you must be a prophet - because you are trying to prepare people for a world thirty to fifty years into the future.

I am not going to make decisions based on barricades and blockades, nor am I going to make decisions based on the short-term volatility of the oil price.

Once government's objectives were economic growth and social cohesion. Now they are prosperity, fairness and environmental care

Each year India and China produce four million graduates compared with just over 250,000 in Britain.

We are entering an era in which national government, instead of directing, enables powerful regional and local initiatives to work, where Britain becomes as it should be - a Britain of nations and regions.