I'm not into politics but I am committed to a cause: ensuring design technology and engineering stays on the U.K. curriculum, alongside science and maths - grounding abstract theory, merging the practical with the academic.

I just want things to work properly.

We have to change our culture so you can create wealth from making things and don't just try to make money out of money

If you want to do something different, you’re going to come up against a lot of naysayers.

There's nothing wrong with things taking time.

Exactly 5,126 attempts to make the first bagless vacuum cleaner were failures-some catastrophic disappointments, some minor defects. It took 15 years. Prototype 5,127 was the success ... Failure is painful, but it spurs on improvement like nothing else.

Nobody wants the expenditure of a lease on a factory which lasts 21 years. You can't plan 21 years ahead.