Human progress has never been shaped by commentators, complainers or cynics.

I mean, you can agree or disagree with Iraq or Afghanistan, but by the way, now the great campaigning cause out there is the absence of intervention in Syria. And then in Libya, it's partial intervention. And that doesn't really explain why some countries that have literally nothing to do with the interventions in the Middle East end up getting targeted.

Yes, I feel I've got something to say. If people want to listen, that's great, and if they don't, that's their choice.

Look, I am very competitive.

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

My view always is that we should learn the lessons, both of the last sort of 50 years of policy-making and it is possible to get to a foreign policy that is engaged and active without going back to where we were in the post-9/11 world.

Leaders lead but in the end it's the people who deliver.