A country of long shadows on county cricket grounds, warm beer, green suburbs, dog lovers, and old maids cycling to holy communion through the morning mist.

I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.

I don't have a shred of regret about entering the exchange-rate mechanism.

My mother was the center of the family.

Of course there are regrets. I shall regret always that I found my own authentic voice in politics. I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive. Later, too often on the back foot.

Tentacles of terrorism spread everywhere