To the hard-working people who set a little bit aside each month, to provide for their children, or to fund their own retirement, I say: you should be rewarded not punished.

The EU is not a country and it's not going to become a country, in my view, now or ever in the future. It is a group of countries working together.

I'm not, nor is anybody I know in government part of a nasty right wing clique.

Egypt is a sovereign nation.

One day I will go back to my books and piano, but not yet.

Spending only what the country can afford, rewarding savings, encouraging independence, supporting marriage: people know that these things are common sense.

I have found that I get a better reaction from people once I am less bothered about their reaction.