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I rarely meet a politician that I don't like personally. They are generally well endowed with charm. Therein lies the danger.

It's always an interesting experience for a politician to be heard in silence, I have to say.

To be honest, I find most politicians very untrustworthy. When I listen to them talking - or rather, lying - I just feel there are very few politicians with integrity, so I never know who to bat for.

You have to keep a strong sense of who you really are - and I have a pretty strong sense of myself. It gets me in trouble when I say this, but I don't think of myself as a politician. I've always tried to be honest when communicating with people.

There's a great public disinclination toward politicians.

Politicians are very experienced - maybe too experienced - at using body language to signal power and competence. But what these politicians are much more likely to struggle with, or just neglect to do altogether, is communicate warmth and trustworthiness.

There are numerous bugbears in the profession of a politician. First, ordinary life suffers. Second, there are many temptations to ruin you and those around you. And I suppose third, and this is rarely discussed, people at the top generally have no friends.

The best time to listen to a politician is when he's on a stump on a street corner in the rain late at night when he's exhausted. Then he doesn't lie.