Sloganeering and name-calling have been some of the most unsavoury aspects of Leave/Remain conflicts over the past few years.

Constantly referring to past wrongdoings can become a substitute for developing a deeper analysis of today's foreign-policy challenges, of understanding what is new and different.

I confess I had butterflies doing the first BBC 'Politics Live' of 2020. It felt like the first day back at school.

One thing we can be sure of is that Brexit will leave its mark on the E.U.

It has to be said that one of the most impressive aspects of the parliament are the brilliant unsung translators, who ensure that whatever language you speak, you are understood.

European civil society and NGOs that petition for favours and influence for their special interests are often themselves funded from E.U. coffers. This creates a system of patronage that encourages self-reinforcing group-think and a cloying sycophancy.

I am rather proud of my modest contribution to bringing democracy home.

The media are so key in a national emergency, especially when opposition parties in the U.K. are - let us say - largely in disarray, even leaderless.

Retreating to indefinite lockdown culture would mean surrendering what makes life worth living, a far more tragic cost than anything inflicted by a virus.

We already know that the experience of lockdown is a mixed bag. It is increasingly recognised that for many it can be hellish. Enforced leisure - if you are crippled with worry about debts, insecure job prospects, your family's health - is no holiday.

One lesson of the vote for Brexit was that citizens were fed up being treated as bystanders. One of the gains of Leave was the flourishing of a sense of agency and self-determination that it afforded to many.

You don't need to be a fan of wars or militarism to note that heroic action - whether being prepared to be jailed as a conscientious objector or putting your life on the line by joining the resistance - creates a sense of meaning when society faces a huge challenge.

If the widespread attempts to block Brexit gave us a glimpse into how fragile our commitment to democracy had become - reduced to a technocratic in-name-only veneer - reactions to Covid are a stark reminder that freedom cannot be assumed as a social norm that's deeply embedded into our institutions and our psyche.

I have no truck with the faintly conspiratorial argument that international governments are gleeful about a public-health emergency to enact authoritarian measures.

There were good-faith reasons to resort to extraordinary measures when confronting an unknown global pandemic. Most of us consented to the lockdown, even if reluctantly. However, that consent - freely given as an act of social solidarity - was not intended as a green light to giving up hard-won liberties, or a perpetual suspension of free society.

For me, normal means freedom to live life as we choose, from cramming into packed planes to go on holiday to crowding into pubs for birthday parties.

Many white people sense that they are being blamed for the sins of white slave owners and imperialists merely through some lineage of ethnicity. Activists' constant stress on white privilege can lead to an unhealthy defensive posture of white victimhood.

Those who politically theorise the artificial concept of 'whiteness' infer that anyone who has white skin cannot escape their unconscious bias. If you object, you are accused of failing to come to terms with your white privilege.

People conclude that if the famous can be dragged through the virtual public square and unceremoniously dumped, the fate of any random tweeter or the average man or woman on the street can seem even more precarious.

If you want to initiate a broader debate about racism, is it really healthy to create an atmosphere in which it is not only statues that are being toppled but a range of cultural artefacts, TV series, celebrities, columnists and controversial broadcasters?

I'm very interested in the new industrial revolution, what we do in terms of energy, developing the north, ensuring there are jobs and that kind of vision.

I think there's a presumption of a climate emergency which I don't think there is. I think there's a climate problem, I don't think there's an emergency.

I think that the European Union negotiators have gotten a shock. They were shocked when they realised the Brexit trade negotiations were not just going to be a continuation of those that happened under Theresa May.

I actually don't think we should ban Jihadi videos because I don't think that is what causes the issue of Islamist violence. We have to confront these things beyond banning them.