When decisions on nuclear power stations and runways are delayed and the government dilly-dallies, people think they aren't important.
I'm not into politics but I am committed to a cause: ensuring design technology and engineering stays on the U.K. curriculum, alongside science and maths - grounding abstract theory, merging the practical with the academic.
The way the world is going, it's technology driven. And it isn't just driven by the old super powers, it's driven by the far east and new emerging economies.
I think if you have to pay for your education, you worry very seriously about you're going to do when you've got your degree.
Emerging markets are hugely important.
Engineers are behind the cars we drive, the pills we pop and the way we power our homes.
Now, we don't teach children in schools to be creative. We don't teach them to experiment. We want them to fill in the right answer, tick the right answer in the box.
One of the most fun inventions of my lifetime is the Mini.
I like living on the edge.
If you really want to improve technology, if you want things to work better and be better, you've got to protect the person who spends a lot of effort, money, and time developing that new technology.
Cordless vacuums are designed for quick jobs, but you need enough power to do the job; you don't want the power waning over time.
Everybody recognizes that if you can make very efficient electric motors, you can make a quantum leap forward.
Well, I'm rather attracted to rather prosaic things like vacuum cleaners and hand dryers. Where people haven't apparently made them with a great love for what they're doing.
I've obviously used fans - I wouldn't say all my life, because we couldn't afford them when I was young, but from my 20s and onwards we've had to use fans. And I've always loathed them. Everything about them. The way you adjust them, getting them at the angle you want. Carrying them. Cleaning them. The danger of putting your finger in them.
Well, air-conditioning is not a good thing.
I think people are realizing that engineering and science are extremely good degrees to get and you'll be very highly paid once you've got them.
The British judiciary needs to support intellectual property.
Companies are not ingenious, it's the people in them that are.
I grew up running miles of the Norfolk coastline. I'd think nothing of a six-mile run before breakfast. I still run, though not as far and not before muesli.
I was frustrated as a child when I had to use a vacuum. It had a screaming noise and the smell of stale dog and a lack of performance.
