Life Of An Ex-MP

How would you sort out gun crime?

I would say there are short term answers to gun crime, and long term answers. Short term answers are around the availability of weapons, that goes to the trade that is coming from the various parts of the country, it's about border control. It's then about on the ground - why are guns available so freely in certain areas? It's about whether you can make guns amnesties realistic. How do you actually get through to the fourteen year old that is packing a weapon? Do you really think they're all going to watch Crime Watch and say, "Oh, yeah. I'll turn up and hand my piece in." And so I think on a short term level there are things you can do. Personally, I believe the long term approach is much more important. It's about education, it's about ensuring that young people aren't so disaffected to start with, that they feel they've got no other solution than to have a weapon on them. And that means reducing the amount of insecurity that young people have, and insuring that there are more youth services on the ground.

Do you think the Olympics are going to be worth the cost?

I definitely think the Olympics will be worth the cost in the long run, but I know that's not a popular view. It was popular when we wanted to win it. You know, when we thought we weren't going to win the Olympics. Then everyone's like 'yeah we won again' or a lot of people were. As soon as you do get it, real life is really complicated and of course it costs money, and of course it's difficult, but I really believe. We have so many reasons why Britain should be a great sporting nation for a start, not just because we want trophies, but because we want healthy communities and the Olympics are a fantastic way to actually get kids interested in sport. And you know people that don't agree with that, my god do people understand that apparently this is going to be the first generation where kids start dying before the parents, because we're so obese and never do anything except watch reality and vote on Big Brother? I say vote for the Olympics instead, it's worth the money.

Why don't people trust politicians?

People don't trust politicians because often they don't give a straight answer. Why do politicians not give a straight answer? Because when they do, they get crucified. I can tell you, from experience, the numbers of times when I have been asked something by a journalist, and I give a really honest answer, and they will take one tiny section of that answer completely out of context, use it as the headline, and crucify you again and again. Why are politicians like that? Because the media has to grab a bit. If a politician ever says, "Oh, I was wrong about such and such," then you turn, "They're rubbish, they're stupid, and don't vote for them." It's not just about politicians. It's the relationship between politicians and people, politicians and the media. It has to change.

Why don't people vote?

People don't vote for a variety of reasons, the main one being that they don't think it will make a difference, or that they think all the politicians are the same, political parties are the same, politicians just want to line their own pockets, they're in it for themselves. I think what people don't understand is actually how precious our democracy is, and that if you don't vote, you're eroding the democratic mandate. And it gets to a point beneath which you start losing democratic legitimacy. And actually our democracy is precious, and even if you're going to go and scribble out and make a protest vote, that is better, that will be recorded as a spoiled vote, rather than us having a spoiled democracy, which is the way we're going.