When a politician uses the word 'folks,' we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.

If a child from an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe comes to Boston, is raised in Boston, that child will be indistinguishable in language capacities from my children growing up here, and vice versa.

Growing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.

I don't join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn't have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying child in Heaven - that's none of my business, ultimately. I won't lecture her on the philosophy of science.

The problem with the United Nations is that while democracy within nations is the best available form of government, democracy among nations can be a moral disaster - especially if some nations are not democracies.

I grew up in a highly political home. My mother was the co-chair of the 300 Group, an organisation whose aim was to get more women MPs into parliament, and she herself stood in the 1987 election, the year before she died.

People have the right to protest - that's what democracy is all about. I have no problem with people exercising their democratic rights.

There is a role for government, but no matter how much money the government spends, it will never be able to take the place of parents and strong families.