I happen to consider myself a Highlander even before a Scot; I am proud to be British yet feel comfortable as a European citizen.
Useful lessons can be learned from our more successful local authorities - as you move into government, it is even more imperative to communicate speedily and persuasively with your members and your voters.
In my view, nations together are stronger than when they are isolated. And because they are stronger, their people are more free, not less.
We need a liberal agenda in which government resists the temptation to interfere in the lives of individuals but is equally determined to play an active role where creative action can advance the liberties of all.
In my view, as a country we need to rediscover some of that skepticism about government and revisit that libertarian agenda.
Speaking to numerous teachers and nurses, I am consistently struck by the sense of mission they have about their work.
No government body is more notorious for over-legislation than the Department of Trade and Industry.
New Labour needs to realise that family life and the way we raise our children are private matters.
When power is exercised exclusively at the centre, the result is rigidity of rules and alienation of the people subject to those rules.
Soon after the 1997 election, I argued that there was no inverse law of political gravity which said that everything which went down had to come back up.
We actually believe in hope. But hope requires purpose. And purpose requires direction.
The most special relationships, in my experience, are based on a combination of trust and mutual respect.
Decentralisation is controversial - but that's fine. We should be fearless about having a debate.
Those who use our public services should be able to deal directly with those who manage and deliver them.
When human rights are systematically abused, it raises the question whether it may be legitimate in some circumstances for the international community to intervene within individual states as well as in conflicts between states.
Liberals have been committed to the principles of human rights, international stability, and international justice. They have also sought international solutions to those problems which have demanded collective attention.
I want our party to step up its efforts to reflect and champion the concerns of everybody who has reached the second half of their lives.
Politics means facing up to hard choices and facing down prejudice, short-termism, the easy, tempting court of knee-jerk public reaction.
Fair votes - fundamentally - are about the rights and the interests of the people.
Many people want to scale back their working hours as they near the end of their careers, but not necessarily to give up work altogether.
