Very few conflicts in the history of the world have been satisfactorily concluded according to a published timetable, because you lose all flexibility in dealing with your opponents.

• You do have to do business with and to try to influence people you don't agree with, or find disagreeable, so it's important to stress that balance.
• The message I take all round the world is Britain is open for business.
• I gave up lots of things I love doing: writing, and business, and playing the piano and so on.
• I don't think my principles change. I think the way in which you apply those principles to modern society changes.
• We have to face the reality of climate change. It is arguably the biggest threat we are facing today.
• Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.
• People feel that the EU is a one-way process, a great machine that sucks up decision-making from national parliaments to the European level until everything is decided by the EU. That needs to change.
• I believe we should reframe our response to climate change as an imperative for growth rather than merely being a way of being green or meeting environmental commitments.
• As far as I'm aware, everybody in the shadow cabinet accepts that there's a compelling case on climate change and a strong scientific case.
• I believe we should reframe our response to climate change as an imperative for growth rather than merely being a way of being green or meeting environmental commitments.