Many Americans, we know, are horrified by the posture of their government but seem to be helpless.

I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept. I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights.

Things like Abu Ghraib and even Guantanamo are not new things: there are many precedents.

The whole brunt of the media and the government is to encourage people to be highly competitive and totally selfish and uncaring of others.

There was one man in the Labour government, Robin Cook, whom I had a very high regard for. He had the courage to speak out and to resign over Iraq. He was an admirable man. But resignation over a matter of principle is not a very fashionable thing in our society.

George W. Bush is always protesting that he has the fate of the world in mind and bangs on about the 'freedom-loving peoples' he's seeking to protect. I'd love to meet a freedom-hating people.