I'm afraid that's in the nature of modern politics - it's as much conducted by abuse as argument.

The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.

I have long believed this interdependence defines the new world we live in.

It is not an arrogant government that chooses priorities, it's an irresponsible government that fails to choose.

Genetic modification has many different areas, for example in medicine, and Britain is at the leading edge of this new technology. I don't know, but people tell me, it could indeed by the leading science of the 21st century. All I say to people is: 'Just keep an open mind and let us proceed according to genuine scientific evidence.'

I'm an avowed centrist, and I believe that - centrism is often - it's almost the wrong word to use, because it's often seen as sort of splitting the difference between right and left.

I think the people like myself who are in the center ground of politics and who think that center left and center right can cooperate and work together. Who don't like this sort of insurgent populism because we think it's not really going to deliver for the people, I think there's a big responsibility on us in the center to get our act together. And to work out radical but serious solutions to the problems people face.