The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.

I will never retire.

I've never been one to sit around and eat my heart out. Life's too short.

Up until about 12 years ago we never, ever, wore flak jacket or helmets but now the nastiness has got worse.

On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.

Silence and secrecy has been the most frustrating component of this case. It just seems inhumane that information about this child can be forbidden on the theory that it's somehow protecting her privacy, when you consider that this child almost died under the state's care.