When a country has the skill and self-confidence to take action against its biggest problems, it makes outsiders eager to be a part of it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.
When you're taking the country through difficult times and difficult decisions you've got to take the country with you. That means permanently trying to make the argument that what you're doing is fair and seen to be fair.
Lives that are so conspicuous have a claustrophobic feeling. Once you're in charge of running a country, you're under scrutiny all the time. That's a trap.
Every country has their problems.
Sometimes good countries are so traumatized by events that they lose their bearings and embrace bad leaders.
People are finding it harder and harder to relate to foreign policy.
The popular tendency is to listen approvingly to the most extreme statements and claims of politicians and orators who seek popularity by declaring their own country right in everything and other countries wrong in everything.
How can a country that is impoverished, humiliated and beaten defend its national interests?
When a country is strong... it accepts any dose of pessimism from its writers.
One always likes to think that other countries are not like one's own.