I trust the people.

In my view what you can’t argue for is a system that is neither decisive nor proportional and can be indecisive and disproportionate at the same time.

You have to have as many defences in place as you possibly can. But even then of course – and it’s important to stress this – you cannot guarantee being able to prevent every attack or every kind of attack.

It was inevitable the Titanic was going to set sail, but that doesn’t mean it was a good idea to be on it.

Wouldn’t it be better to have a watertight law designed to catch the guilty, rather than a press release law designed to catch the headlines?

I don’t think my principles change. I think the way in which you apply those principles to modern society changes.

The appalling crackdown that we witnessed in Hama and other Syrian cities on 30 and 31 July only erode the regime’s legitimacy and increase resentment. In the absence of an end to the senseless violence and a genuine process of political reform, we will continue to pursue further EU sanctions.

When you reduce taxes on higher earners it’s vital to be reducing them on lower earning people as well so the nation shares in the approach.

Well, if you’re looking for me to lead a normal representative life, well good luck finding a foreign secretary who’d be like that – totally dependant on the political system and has never earned any money. Then you’ll get the politicians you deserve.

I think the way things have been left after Iraq is that people won’t believe the Government of the day, so they have to know that lessons have been learnt and that all political parties and people, whether they were for or against the invasion of Iraq, have learnt lessons.