The only reason to be in politics is public service. There's no other reason. Frankly if that's the best job you can get in terms of money that's too bad you know. Because frankly it's not well paid everyone knows that. So for most people it's a big sacrifice.

Does politics have to be injected into everything?

London in the '70s was a pretty catastrophic dump I can tell you. We had every kind of industrial trouble we had severe energy problems we were under constant terrorist attack from Irish terrorist groups who started a bombing campaign in English cities politics were fantastically polarized between left and right.

That is why everyone in politics and we do it must make sure that they do not depend on one single interest group. A good compromise is one where everybody makes a contribution.

Local politics like everything else are not what they used to be. But the fact is that our political system - like our physical existence - still breaks down along geographical lines.

Regardless of Bill Clinton's politics or personal life he grew up in obscurity and was elected to the presidency - twice. Don't take that away from him because then you take it away from every other kid in America sitting out there in a school bus with a big dream.

In almost every country there are elements of opinion which would welcome such a conclusion because they wish to return to the politics of the balance of power unrestricted and unregulated armaments international anarchy and preparation for war.

Talk of citizenship today is often thin and tinny. The word has a faintly old-fashioned feel to it when used in everyday conversation. When evoked in national politics it's usually accompanied by the shrill whine of a descending culture-war mortar.

Clinton and Obama practice this politics known quaintly as the Richard Speck strategy: if you cannot take on everyone in the room at once take them out of the room one at a time.

I'm an independent. I'm a centrist. A new generation is arriving that has grown up with a multiplicity of choice in every aspect of their lives and yet politics is the last place that they are told that they should be satisfied with a choice between brand A and brand B. It doesn't fit the way they think. It doesn't fit the way they live.