I'm committed to winning. The leadership of the Liberal Party is always the gift of the parliamentary Liberal Party, and I never make any presumptions on it.

I served as the chairman of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group for three years, during which I also had the pleasure of visiting Israel.

I was elected to the Diet in the same way as at every parliamentary election.

I joined the SDP as a founder member a few days after my 18th birthday in 1981. I was a councillor, activist and parliamentary candidate for the SDP and its successor party, the Liberal Democrats, for 14 years before joining Labour when Tony Blair became leader and abolished Labour's old clause IV - committing to general nationalisation - in 1995.

Some people suggest that the problem is the separation of powers. If you had a parliamentary system the struggle for power would not result in such complex peace treaties that empower so many different people to pursue so many contradictory aims.

I was elected to the Diet in the same way as at every parliamentary election.

We as conservative intellectuals should not be in the business of making excuses for bad parliamentary decisions by Republican leaders in Congress.