My father and I had a good relationship it was very relaxed. He had a lot of humour. He looked a little bit like me although he had no beard. He had the appearance of a very elegant British-looking man.

It has been argued that British girls are incapable of deep feeling or brilliant acting owing to their lack of temperament. This I am positive is not true.

The positive news is that the British economy is continuing to grow and is creating jobs. And it is positive news too that at a time of real international instability we are a safe haven in the storm.

Short of being prime minister there isn't a better job in British politics than running London.

I've committed myself to serve my constituents in South Shields and I have committed myself to British politics.

I'm highly political. I spend an awful lot of time in the U.S. trying to influence decision-makers. But I don't feel in tune with British politics.

There's a tradition in British intellectual life of mocking any non-political force that gets involved in politics especially within the sphere of the arts and the theatre.

One thing I have frankly decided is that when it comes to political reform we have two conservative parties in British politics. Both the Labour and Conservative parties have constantly and repeatedly failed to honour promises they have made about reforming cleaning modernising our clapped-out system.

I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.

As they say one thing led to another and ultimately the British and Irish governments asked me to serve as chairman of the peace negotiations which ironically began six years ago this week.