Stirring is OK. It just depends what happens in the end.

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

In government you carry each hope; each disillusion. And in politics it's always about the next challenge.

One thing I'm not sure of - and it's a very open question - is whether the type of politics that I represent really has had its day or not. Now I obviously believe passionately it hasn't, that it's still the answer and not the problem, and, you know, the evidence points both ways.

Do I know I'm right? Judgements aren't the same as facts. Instinct is not science. I'm like any other human being as fallible and as capable of being wrong. I only know what I believe.

I think I made the wrong career choice

If we are going to carry on growing, and we will, because no country is going to forfeit its right to economic growth, we have to find a way of doing it sustainably.