Our determination to defend our values and way of life is greater than their (terrorists) determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism upon the world.

This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today

Make the wrong choices now and future generations will live with a changed climate, depleted resources and without the green space and biodiversity that contribute both to our standard of living and our quality of life

I cannot think of any circumstances in which a government can go to war without the support of parliament.

The first rule in politics is that there are no rules, at least not in the sense of inevitable defeats or inevitable victories. If you have the right policy and the right strategy, you always have a chance of winning. Without them, you can lose no matter how certain the victory seems.

The thing always is to go to where people really are and what they're really feeling about life.

My dad was a militant atheist, or is a militant atheist. My mum was sort of bought up in a religious family because she was a Protestant from Ireland but wasn't especially religious.