A business is good if it gives a decent day’s reward for a decent day’s work, treats people decently, and gives them a voice at the top.

I want a society that provides decent jobs for those who can work and decent security for those can’t.

I think being a mother helps keep your feet on the ground. There’s very little dignity in parenthood. It’s a great leveller.

When I look at my daughter, who’s 24, she is much more confident than I ever was and her expectations are higher. But I worry that there is a backlash brewing against progress on equality.

There is this sense of David Cameron leading a Government that’s badly out of touch with ordinary people’s lives. I’d absolutely welcome the opportunity to show all political leaders what life is like for most people.

Each day more coalition MPs in seats outside the South East come out against George Osborne’s regional pay cut plans, and Vince Cable now claims they are dead.

Although there’s a lot of focus on the Lib Dems, we need to keep our eyes on the far right of the Tories, who I suspect will become increasingly impatient in their appetite for tax cuts, deregulation and shrinking the state even further.

I’d be happy to have regular face-to-face meetings at Downing Street with David Cameron to argue the case for alternative economic policies.

I came from a family where joining a union was the expected thing to do. I’ve always believed that the relationship between an employer and an individual worker is fundamentally unequal.

I cherish the creation of public space and services, especially health, housing and the comprehensive education system which dared to give so many of us ideas ‘above our station.’