I just love biography, and I'm fascinated by people who have shifted our destinies or our points of view.

I'm a passionate trade unionist.

I was on my own union council for twenty-odd years.

I do not have a brain that I long for in dealing with matters of which I am ignorant, that don't come within my ken and a rationale, a reason, and argument and so on, and I can't do that and I'm not in that bracket at all.

I believe in trade unionism, and I believe in democracy, in democratic trade unionism.

I just love biography, and I'm fascinated by people who have shifted our destinies or our points of view.

When asked what attribute he most admired in human nature, Mahatma Gandhi replied, simply and immediately, 'Courage'. 'Nonviolence', he said, 'is not to be used ever as the shield of the coward. It is the weapon of the brave.