Really each era has its own false nostalgia. We all put a picket fence up around something. For my generation it was the '50s and for other generations it will be something else. Change is scary for everyone as is complexity contradiction and an uncertain future.

We have the character of an island nation: independent forthright passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel. And because of this sensibility we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional.

What breadth what beauty and power of human nature and development there must be in a woman to get over all the palisades all the fences within which she is held captive!

When I was in my 20s it did occur to me that there was something perverted about an attitude that thought that killing somebody was a minor offence compared to kissing somebody.

Some of us may just in one-on-one conversations with our family with our friends over the back fence with our neighbors talk about the reality of our lives and realize that we're not alone that we have a right to be physically safe and emotionally safe in our own homes.

Hungary is in a word in a state of WAR against the Hapsburg dynasty a war of legitimate defence by which alone it can ever regain independence and freedom.

This is my 20th year in the sport. I've known swimming and that's it. I don't want to swim past age 30 if I continue after this Olympics and come back in 2016 I'll be 31. I'm looking forward to being able to see the other side of the fence.