I am not sure that we would always want 16-year-olds to do all the things they can do. I am afraid that I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman on the voting age. I think that it should remain as it is.

The spread of freedom is the best security for the free.

The socialism of centralised state control of industry and production, is dead. It misunderstood the nature and development of a modern market economy. It failed to recognise that the state and public sector can become a vested interest capable of oppression as much as the vested interests of wealth and capital. it was based on a false view of class that became too rigid to explain or illuminate the nature of class division today.

I always say, when they ask me about American politics, is for you guys to decide who you elect.

But as I always say to people I'm essentially a public service person.

I haven't come to the conclusion that centrist politics is wrong or dead. On the contrary. I think it's very much alive - but it needs to be given a renewal, a revival, and a muscularity which it presently lacks.

The problem with the old ideology was that it suppressed the individual by starting with society. But it is from a sense of individual duty that we connect the greater good and the interests of the community