We need quantitative assessments of the success of education. We need certification and qualifications both for teachers and for pupils. It is not a choice between quantity and quality, between access and excellence. Both of these will happen together if people really do believe in the importance of education to change lives.
When I lost the sight of my eye and faced the prospect of going blind, my sight was saved by the NHS.
I want to do something for Kirkcaldy and Fife. I am a full-time MP, not a businessman.
Meet the challenges of the time.
I think it's important that people know who you are and... can ask any questions they like about you.
When things are difficult, you have to be sure of who you are and what you want to achieve.
The extraordinary summer heatwave of 2003 in Europe resulted in over 35,000 extra deaths.
People have now got the ability to speak to each other across continents: to join with each other in communities that are not based simply on territory, streets, but networks; and you've got the possibility of people building alliances right across the world.
It is not a mistake to want power.
It will not be a surprise to you to learn I'm more interested in the future of the Arctic Circle than the future of the Arctic Monkeys.
Every country is going to have to face up to globalisation, but Scotland has got a unique capacity because of its history as part of a multinational state to help us deal with that problem.
To my astonishment, everything that I had assumed was now questioned by the findings. What started off as a search for identity that appeared to be purely Scottish in origin ended up as a discovery of my migrant roots - indeed an understanding that almost all of our families, at some stage, have been migrants - and my European roots.
Higher energy prices are requiring industry and commerce to examine the costs and efficiency of energy use.
Britain should be the world's number one center for genetic and stem cell research, building on our world leading regulatory regime in the area.
It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe's history and not Europe's present.
I once wrote a book on courage and what made people courageous. I found it was a strength of belief matched by a strength of willpower.
Collective European Union action could mean no hiding places for evaders, no safe haven for tax avoiders, and no treasure islands for money launderers.
If you look at the question of expenditure in Iraq, you have got to start from the one fundamental truth: that every request that the military commanders made to us for equipment was answered. No request was ever turned down.
I have to say that if our global alliances are going to be alliances with Hezbollah and Hamas and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and Vladimir Putin's Russia, there is absolutely no chance of building a world-wide alliance that can deal with poverty and inequality and climate change and financial instability, and we've got to face up to that fact.
Making the desirable possible requires us to make the desirable popular, electable, credible, and something that people want to hold on to.
