I first learned the power of a Labour government to transform lives growing up in my hometown of Stockport.

We can't have children growing up feeling unloved - the price is too high for that.

Growing up without love, without being cared for, might be the worst type of poverty.

My mother suffers mental health problems and has a learning deprivation.

I had been born a Republican. My dad was an active Republican, but he was not active in politics and I really never was either. It's true that I did belong to that party, but it really had very little impact on my public work or my private views.

Part of the core information that I've been purveying is that identity politics is a sick game. You don't play racial, ethnic, and gender identity games. The Left plays them on behalf of the oppressed, let's say, and the Right tends to play them on behalf of nationalism and ethnic pride. I think they're equally dangerous.

Personally, I can't see the appeal in trekking down to D.C. for a networking extravaganza, even if it is built around a special moment in American history. While I find the election of Barack Obama inspirational, I don't have a desire to memorialize it with overly effusive celebration.

In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.