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I'm a minister, and I serve as a minister in addition to being a university professor.

Of course I'd have loved to be Prime Minister. But I'm not nursing a grievance.

I grew up thinking that if I wanted to go be prime minister, I could.

Before I became a chief minister, I never thought that one day I'd be the chief minister.

I very much wanted to be editor of the 'New Statesman!' But I never wanted to be prime minister, except maybe as a little boy.

I thought I could do something different from any Conservative prime minister before me. But I couldn't.

I will do what the Prime Minister asks me to do; that is my consistent approach to politics and to service.

My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done.

I now know what to do; I know how decisions can be made. I know how you can drive ministers and their departments to actually make decisions and bring results.