Suddenly, the idea of writing a book was like coming home. I didn't tell anyone except my wife, Clare. I just began.

Professional politicians will say anything, and they're always careful to leave themselves room to turn around and do the other.

In abandoning the understanding that things - services, goods, wars, and houses - have costs, we risk becoming infantilised, incapable of making decisions about government or finance, and perhaps above all about the environment, the wellbeing of the planet upon which we depend and which our children will inherit from us.

With true free speech has to come an understanding of when and when not to use it. But you can't legislate that. It must be voluntary - especially in a world where a whisper can reach a million people in an eye blink.