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Politicians often want to do it all. They want all the jobs. They want the maximum influence.

But there aren't many who actually achieve it. One who has is Lord Chris Patton.

The Conservative, the man who puts the grand, I think it's fair to say, into Grand D.

The thread of his career runs through British and even international public life over the last

half century. Conservative Cabinet Minister and thecher, a major, our last governor

of British Hong Kong, then back home, overseeing policing reform in Northern Ireland,

EU commissioner, chairman of the BBC, Chancellor of Oxford University. You name it, Patton has more

chance than anybody of having done it. His then is a unique vantage point

to consider the last half century of politics he has lived through and lived, not least because

in so many ways the politics he embodies, a moderate conservatism, has never felt weaker,

has never so sorely lacked a standard bearer.

So Patton has invited us to his home in gentle verdant barns in southwest London to discuss

his political life, a lost political world, and a political future which is home and abroad

has seldom felt so uncertain. Welcome to the newsagents.

The Newsagents. Well, Lord Patton, thank you so much for inviting us into your wonderful home

here in Barnes, surrounded by lots of photographs of your long and illustrious career, which we're

going to talk about. As I say, you've had an extraordinarily long and varied career,

perhaps more so than anyone I can think of in contemporary politics. You grew up in the post-war

1950s. You came of age politically in the 60s. I want to talk a lot about contemporary politics,

but just for a moment, when you look back at the politics of that time now, what do you think remains? Is there anything left of that politics and political

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