A politician can go out and speak for him or herself, but actually for the family it's difficult - although it does bind you.
Trade deal negotiations are highly complicated and take a long time.
I'm really keen to see a Labour government because there are many things to be done, not least pursuing a sensible Brexit and not one that damages our economy and jobs.
I grew up in a household where we talked about the state of the world over breakfast, lunch and dinner.
When your father loses his job you're not sure what the future is going to be. I was conscious that people were interested in what was happening to my father.
We are looking at how you change the relationship between central and local government and how to use public resources to the best effect at the local level.
The thing that worries me more than anything else is losing faith in the capacity of politics to change things. I don't mean scepticism, criticism, querying, but I do mean cynicism.
People are yearning for a politics that tells it straight: that being in government is difficult, that there are tough decisions that we have to make sometimes.
Politics is a process, and there has to be a continual conversation between those who govern and those who give their consent to be governed.
We need to throw away less, recycle a lot more and turn much of the rest into energy.
Indeed, if all of humankind could cooperate, trade and work together as the nations of the EU have done, then there would be more peace, prosperity and progress on this earth.
And being in the EU has given Britain a stronger voice in the world. Britain leads in Europe, from trade to climate change, from good governance to debt relief for the poorest nations, and in turn Europe helps to lead the world.
I spent 20 years working for the trade union movement before becoming a Labour MP. I'm proud to have done both jobs.
The union movement has achieved a huge amount in the past century or so. It has secured important rights at work, tackled unfair discrimination and ensured that Britain is one of the safest places in the world in which to go to work.
Getting money out of Whitehall and down to the town hall is also essential if we are going to address the crisis of confidence - and alienation - in our politics.
The Tories claim that they have changed. Their stance on foxhunting makes it absolutely clear that they haven't. They know the public doesn't agree with them. They know that this is about animal cruelty, pure and simple.
All countries will feel the increasing effects of dangerous climate change and it is those least able to bear it who are already being hurt first and hardest.
Each year, about 45 million people are affected by war. Three hundred thousand people die looking down the barrel of a gun - and 200,000 of these are killed in countries ostensibly at peace.
People who feel alienated have little trust in the institutions of our society. This adds to the wider sense of disaffection and makes it more difficult for our politics to work.
We must not ignore the younger electorate in a fight for older swing voters who we can be confident will go to the polls.
