I have a reputation for infamy.

There was such a sense of relief on the left when New Labour came to power that certain orthodoxies could not be challenged. People became desperate to hang on to the ascendancy of left ideas without really questioning what they were about.

If you challenge multiculturalism you are seen to be a racist. But it's a political philosophy that needs to be looked at. If you don't, you're taking it on trust, which is intellectually dishonest.

One thing I got from my parents was that they talked about politics all the time. They weren't educated or academic but they were interesting about and interested in the world.

I could be earning a lot of money as a consultant, or gone higher in education.

I joined the RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party) in the early '80s. I'd be in it still but it was wound up at the end of the nineties.

I still consider myself a liberal in the Enlightenment sense of the word. But I have to admit that being a liberal these days is confusing.

I continue to take inspiration from John Locke, John Stuart Mill and those more recent freedom fighters of the 1960s who challenged conformism and repression.

Free speech is carelessly tossed to one side in order to silence views and people that liberals label as intolerant.

A cursory look at coverage of the so-called 'Free Tommy' brigade, centered around the alleged censorship of Tommy Robinson, a notorious anti-Islam campaigner, reveals how liberals shun defending the free-speech rights of the unpalatable.

As a left-wing campaigner for 35 years, I've been arrested on picket lines, led anti-imperialist demonstrations and spoken at anti-deportation protests outside police stations. I've made speeches at street rallies, in prisons and universities and at pubs.

Without democracy, we are voiceless subjects. But with it, we are citizens armed with the power to change our destinies.

I've been inspired by the rank and file groups of Leavers that have sprung up from Warrington to Watford and beyond, organising pro-Brexit gatherings and marches. I stand in solidarity with their democratic spirit and determination to fight.

I am a passionate supporter of liberty, equality and popular sovereignty. These values have been championed by democratic giants for hundreds of years.

When Labour leadership challenger Jess Phillips urged men to 'pass the mic' to a woman on the top job, telling Sky's Sophy Ridge it would 'look bad' if Labour failed to elect a woman, she more or less admitted not being up to the job.

Are Labour members inherently bigoted against women, unable to objectively assess political attributes beyond the gender prism? This accusation seems particularly ludicrous when levelled at a party so much in thrall to identity politics that it sometimes feels more like a student union than an organisation set up to defend the working class.

Would it be preferable to argue for a fairer system whereby the unremarkable should be considered leadership material? With such an attitude, can we wonder why mediocrity is now a mark of Labour's hierarchy?

I think there is some kind of disillusionment in the West about the gains of modernity and of economic growth and it takes a form of skepticism about the gains of prosperity generally.

I think a lot of things have become associated with the Right. For example, an unapologetic commitment to progress and modernity is now almost always associated with neo-conservatism whereas it traditionally used to be associated with left-wing thinking and moving society forward.

I am generally enthusiastic about cities. Here in the West there is a panic. Every time we have a debate about cities, we talk about the problems of cities.

I am ever hopeful that there are generations of young Chinese people who are really thinking about the future and what kind of society they want.

Yes, we know that obesity is an issue, but it isn't the end of the world as is reported everywhere.

We have all had to deal with cruel remarks from other children, and it has made us stronger as a result. But today every minor slight is analysed to determine whether or not it is racist, sexist, homophobic and so on.

I think the influence of contemporary feminism has been very unhelpful to the current generation of girls. They are constantly being encouraged to speak out about how they feel victimised.

If you are a young, white, straight man in today's society, you are in trouble.

There is a strand of self-absorption and fragility running through this generation; all too ready to cry 'victim' at the first hint of a situation they don't like.

We need a younger generation that's prepared to grow a backbone, go out into the world, take risks and make difficult decisions. Otherwise the future doesn't bode well for any of us.

We tell children their wellbeing is paramount, but we are also guilty of mollycoddling them. There's a constant emphasis on their vulnerability, which is proving toxic.

Children are more restricted than ever when it comes to taking physical risks - one of the ways previous generations built resilience. Thanks to health and safety mania, leapfrog, marbles and conkers are now considered unsafe.

If a boy pings a girl's bra it may be unpleasant and annoying, but is it really assault?

An ever-widening definition of abuse can incite a culture of fear and complaint: encouraging teachers and girls to name and shame could mean labelling sexually awkward teenage boys as sex pests.

We've lost a lot of regard for straight forward news stories, and that has then been supplemented by comment, not even analysis, which has created a lot of celebrity journalists.

One of the great things about journalism, at its best I mean, is its forensic, investigative truth seeking instincts.

I think the idea of journalists being neutral is very important.

There has been far too much of journalists deciding they are on the side of something and going out to get the story, instead of truth seeking which is a different thing.

There's a palpable frustration with the assumption that everyone who's under the age of 25 has got the attention span of a gnat and isn't interested in events and ideas.

Often I go to book festivals and they just turn authors into celebrities.'

I don't want to be complacent.

I want politicians to be held to account for their politics and their principles, or lack of them, but I find it irritating that we have a culture where people are more interested in trivial gossip than substantive matters.

The idea of a private life has been eroded in the sphere of politics.

The notion that one's home is one's castle and you can pull up the drawbridge is not one that people in public policy circles believe in.

Sometimes, we just take too much glee in the downfall of people in power.

Public discourse degenerated. There's no longer a place for intelligent debate at universities, where people just work for degrees and careers. My own experience was how my trade union's lively branch debates dwindled to a few people round cups of coffee. There's a climate of people frightened to say what they think for fear of offending someone.

TV and radio debates seem inflamed, with all that shouting, but real disagreement is always avoided; they conceal their lack of content.

I've spent my whole life fighting for leftwing causes, so I can tell you, no one is more surprised than me to be standing as candidate for Nigel Farage's Brexit party.

The argument about the need to regulate the digital space has to be weighed against freedom of expression in our society, whether we are interacting in a virtual world or in the real world where we have the growth of so-called 'safe spaces.'

The first job of the Brexit Party is to make sure Brexit's delivered and if that involves electoral pacts, that might happen.

Maybe the Tory party might, instead of telling the Brexit Party what to do, make an approach to the Brexit Party and say I'll tell you what, we'll stand aside in certain areas. That would be a very positive thing for me, let's work together for a new kind of politics.

Whenever excessive regulation is on the horizon, you can guarantee our kids will be wheeled out as a battering ram against adult opposition.

I have fought for open immigration which is something I disagree with Nigel Farage on.