I am ever hopeful that there are generations of young Chinese people who are really thinking about the future and what kind of society they want.

I am generally enthusiastic about cities. Here in the West there is a panic. Every time we have a debate about cities, we talk about the problems of cities.

I think a lot of things have become associated with the Right. For example, an unapologetic commitment to progress and modernity is now almost always associated with neo-conservatism whereas it traditionally used to be associated with left-wing thinking and moving society forward.

I think there is some kind of disillusionment in the West about the gains of modernity and of economic growth and it takes a form of skepticism about the gains of prosperity generally.

Would it be preferable to argue for a fairer system whereby the unremarkable should be considered leadership material? With such an attitude, can we wonder why mediocrity is now a mark of Labour's hierarchy?

Are Labour members inherently bigoted against women, unable to objectively assess political attributes beyond the gender prism? This accusation seems particularly ludicrous when levelled at a party so much in thrall to identity politics that it sometimes feels more like a student union than an organisation set up to defend the working class.

When Labour leadership challenger Jess Phillips urged men to 'pass the mic' to a woman on the top job, telling Sky's Sophy Ridge it would 'look bad' if Labour failed to elect a woman, she more or less admitted not being up to the job.

I am a passionate supporter of liberty, equality and popular sovereignty. These values have been championed by democratic giants for hundreds of years.

I've been inspired by the rank and file groups of Leavers that have sprung up from Warrington to Watford and beyond, organising pro-Brexit gatherings and marches. I stand in solidarity with their democratic spirit and determination to fight.

Without democracy, we are voiceless subjects. But with it, we are citizens armed with the power to change our destinies.

As a left-wing campaigner for 35 years, I've been arrested on picket lines, led anti-imperialist demonstrations and spoken at anti-deportation protests outside police stations. I've made speeches at street rallies, in prisons and universities and at pubs.

A cursory look at coverage of the so-called 'Free Tommy' brigade, centered around the alleged censorship of Tommy Robinson, a notorious anti-Islam campaigner, reveals how liberals shun defending the free-speech rights of the unpalatable.

Free speech is carelessly tossed to one side in order to silence views and people that liberals label as intolerant.

I continue to take inspiration from John Locke, John Stuart Mill and those more recent freedom fighters of the 1960s who challenged conformism and repression.

I still consider myself a liberal in the Enlightenment sense of the word. But I have to admit that being a liberal these days is confusing.

I joined the RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party) in the early '80s. I'd be in it still but it was wound up at the end of the nineties.

I could be earning a lot of money as a consultant, or gone higher in education.

One thing I got from my parents was that they talked about politics all the time. They weren't educated or academic but they were interesting about and interested in the world.

If you challenge multiculturalism you are seen to be a racist. But it's a political philosophy that needs to be looked at. If you don't, you're taking it on trust, which is intellectually dishonest.

There was such a sense of relief on the left when New Labour came to power that certain orthodoxies could not be challenged. People became desperate to hang on to the ascendancy of left ideas without really questioning what they were about.

I have a reputation for infamy.

And every day that I spend as Charlotte and Aiden's mother, I think about my own mother, my wonderful, thoughtful, hilarious mother.

I never once doubted that my parents cared about my thoughts and my ideas. And I always, always knew how deeply they loved me. That feeling of being valued and loved, that's what my mom wants for every child.

My earliest memory is my mom picking me up after I had fallen down, giving me a big hug and reading me 'Goodnight Moon.' From that moment, to this one, every single memory I have of my mom is that regardless of what was happening in her life, she was always, always there for me.