Transparency in government, no less than transparency in choosing government, remains a vital national interest in a democracy.

It strains credulity to suggest that an agency charged with gathering intelligence affecting the national security does not have an 'intelligence interest' in drone strikes, even if that agency does not operate the drones itself.

My belief is that the nation-state remains the one entity that can function, the one entity that can demand sacrifice from its constituents in the national interest.

I wanted to put the national interest before my personal interests.

What governments and people don't realise is that sometimes the collective interest - the international interest - is also the national interest.

Tackling deprivation around the world is a moral imperative and firmly in Britain's national interest.