Separation and devolution are two completely different concepts which cannot be mixed together. One is not a stop on the way to the other.

I've got a very deep and abiding passion about education being far more than buildings and textbooks; it's what children bring into school with them.

Scotland cannot be the only 'something for nothing' country in the world.

We shall seek debate without division or rancour.

It's true across the U.K. that those who had least to do with causing the economic crisis are carrying the heaviest burden. That's unacceptable.

If I have learned one thing in life, it is never to take any man's own estimate of himself. He could very well be mistaken.

What I will say will not always please you, but what I say will always be honest and true and how I genuinely see it.