They tell me that I am now a good example of 'Portfolio' Man. I think this means that I have the freedom to allocate my time as I wish and in directions that interest me. I know this means that I can no longer tell where work stops and play begins and that with commitments spread from India to California, I have been stretching the concept of a 24-hour day.

For the record, I am happy to turn my hand to any of the following:

• Writing - I contribute articles and commentaries to a range of publications.

• Lecturing - I have spoken extensively and on a wide range of topics for many years and continue to accept invitations on various speaking circuits.

• Chairing - I seem to have spent much of my adult life chairing events of various size, complexity and interest. Liz Dowdeswell and I keep threatening to set up a specialist agency, called Empty Chair, offering to sell our abilities to chair anything, anywhere, anytime!

• Consulting - I undertake consultancy projects across the range of my interests and have a particular passion for brainstorming new ideas and new solutions to old problems.

• Broadcasting - For someone who spent most of his political career avoiding press microphones unless I thought I had something useful to say, I find to my surprise that the microphone still has its charms.