Francis Maude

If we want to change what people think of us, then we have got to change.

It always seemed to me a bit pointless to disapprove of homosexuality. It's like disapproving of rain.

For the most part our grassroots members are serious, nice, tolerant people.

I don't see any possibility of Britain and the U.S. allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that's almost inconceivable.

Recently, I was in Bernalda, my dad's ancestral home town in Italy. He has just refurbished a palazzo and turned it into a hotel, so we had my sister's wedding there. It was beautiful.

I trained in every form of dance - started as a tap dancer when I was a kid, then contemporary, ballet, ballroom, everything. Russian, Swedish.