I came into politics because of my opposition to what a Tory Government was doing to the community I grew up in.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.
I'm definitely a Tory. My dad was a Conservative councillor, and I spent years as a child knocking on doors with him. I'm a Tory because I'm passionate about business and enterprise. But I am also a compassionate Conservative. There should always be a net through which no one should fall.
I had no intention of entering politics, but then the force of events led me to become involved in politics.
I got into politics a little bit by chance, as a person from the first generation of the Solidarity movement.
There were days when I hated politics. But I fought against hating the people on the other side because we were all in the same business - the business of building our country's future.
When New Labour came to power, we got a Right-wing Conservative government. I came to realise that voting Labour wasn't in Scotland's interests any more. Any doubt I had about that was cast aside for ever when I saw Gordon Brown cosying up to Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street.
I didn't come from a traditional Tory background; it was urban and metropolitan.
I came into politics because I wished to change things. You can't do that by lying to people; you have to educate, and persuade, and carry them with you - and it's often a long haul.
I became a Conservative in the late 1980s because I could see that the Conservative party had transformed Britain's economy and our standing in the world compared to Labour in the 1980s.
If I went into politics, it's because I grew up in a political atmosphere.