Yes. I think London is grossly overheated and other parts of the country under-resourced and supported. We will only be a happy nation when the north and West Midlands of England are properly buzzing again.

Ever since the Luddites, there have been predictions of mass unemployment caused by automation, and so far, overall, we have mostly found new ways to employ ourselves. But I think this may be about to change. I'm particularly concerned with the effect of driverless vehicles, on the million-plus people who currently drive for a living. For a lot of people, this has been the default employment, and it may be coming to an end quite soon. Automation needn't be a problem, so long as the huge profits it brings are usefully and widely distributed... so we are back to politics again.

As I have argued in the new book, I think the 2008 crisis continues to reverberate very loudly everywhere except for a small group at the top. I think the combination of the financial elites disgracing themselves, and then the political elites doing likewise (MPs expenses; wars, various etc) by and large explains why the Brexit vote happened. That – and a completely unprecedented level of immigration, particularly into communities which already felt economically forgotten. I think populisms around the word - from Trump to Hungary, Italy's Five Star, to Le Pen – are connected with a failure of the system to deliver for enough people, as vast amounts of manufacturing were outsourced to the east. In general, capitalism works well in delivering new goods and services, but only when there are strong countervailing forces from government/politics to clear up the mess and mitigate its unfairnesses. That's been lacking. And that's why we are in a bit of state, though, at least on several days a week, I am not expecting world war three.

I can't remember how it started. I always wanted the show to be a mixed, general, serious conversation, rather than an annexe or garden shed for political obsessives. The music allows moments of pleasantly understated surrealism which I much relish. There was a glorious early occasion when the entire political lineup were made to shake maracas and tambourines; and then there was the moment when Squeeze ambushed David Cameron. For myself, my tastes run to Nick Cave and Shostakovich - that kind of thing. Screaming violins and lurching arpeggios.

First, don't give up on the state: every area in the country ought to have NHS physiotherapy to which you should be entitled. Second, find a local gym – I now go three times a week and it is central to my recovery. Third, get in touch with ARNI – Action on Rehabilitation for Neurological Injuries. This is a private charity which offers excellent physical support at a lower price that your average neuro-physiotherapist. Google it!

The late 18th century – the period of the Scottish Enlightenment, and the American and French revolutions, completely fascinates me. It was a period of enormous intellectual optimism when the old aristocratic world was visibly falling apart; it's also where our modern ideas about truth and progress really come from. The music wasn't bad, either.

We are desperate to interview other candidates – Fillon and Macron (who I have interviewed before) again. But so far our pleas are falling on deaf ears. We take who we can get. Because Marine le Pen has a chance of becoming the next French president, I thought it was right to interview her, and challenge her, for instance, about her views on French Muslims. I thought Le Pen was steely, and has left behind her father's more extreme verbiage... We've been criticised for putting the interview out on Remembrance Sunday. Given that many people fear she is a fascist, I can't think of a more appropriate time. But we certainly want all sides – it's an election which may put Brexit in the shade.

I don't patronise and denigrate - I hope I don't. I don't feel that I do. It's been a really rough time for the Labour left, and when a party is fighting amongst itself, that will be reflected, inevitably, in conversations with its leaders. But, for the record, I like Jeremy Corbyn, and much enjoy our encounters; and so far as I'm aware, he hasn't complained about any of them. I like his frankness, I like his ability to listen to a question and genuinely try to answer it.

Yes! We remain an essentially pluralistic, socially liberal, law-abiding and prosperous country. Our party political system may seem pretty skewed at the moment, but a sense of history reminds us that nothing is forever. I can remember very vividly the feeling during the Thatcher years that the Conservatives would be power for ever - and a very similar, deluded sense that "political history is over" during the Blair ascendency. When things go wrong in this country, we tend to find a way of kicking them out pretty hard and fast.

There are some really important economics and political thinkers around at the moment – such as Kate Raworth's "doughnut economics" – and I get the sense that a major period of new thinking and political creativity is coming, in terms of our approach to turbo-charged capitalism. I have no idea how this will break out in concrete political terms, but generally, when there are big new ideas and a sense of urgency around, they find a way.

They pretend to enjoy them.

During the referendum, both sides said some pretty incredible things - note, so far, rarely "lies", but implausible-sounding predictions about events we haven't yet lived through. So, when it comes to that very cheering extra money for the NHS once we leave the EU, we all noted what was said, and haven't forgotten it. Similarly, we have noticed that the ferocious austerity-max "emergency punishment budget" predicted by the remainers didn't turn out to be necessary after the vote. All I can say now is that I have a long memory. Take, some of the "lies" - a lot of this is simply premature. For instance, we were told EU immigration would come down. We were told we could do great new trade deals around the world. We can't tell whether either of those things are true or false until we have left.

All I can say is that I am not party political biased. Of course, I have plenty of strong and private views of my own. But my circle of friends touches at least as many people on the left as on the right. It's no secret that I came from the left and there is always a danger of overcompensating, of course - but as it happens, the most aggressive interviews I have done over the past few years have been with Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and one Theresa May (on immigration, when she was home secretary). As you all know, this timeline of questions, like all others, includes attacks on the BBC for being liberal-left propagandists, as well as right wing stooges.

Sometimes, I confess, we struggle to maintain a proper perspective. In the hottest vortex of the Iraq war, in the context of broadcasting live every day, there were certainly things I put badly and wish I hadn't said quite that way: about Blair being a bigger man. That was a live broadcast, immediately after Baghdad had fallen with a relatively little loss of life - like many, I had expected a military bloodbath, and had predicted this. So I was perhaps overreacting to my earlier overreaction.

I have painted or drawn all my life, but I've only taken it seriously since my stroke – there was a sense that time was now short and that it was the most important thing I could spend any spare time doing. It has completely changed the way I think about life. Basically, I think there are two things that are true about our lives that painting relates to - one, that they are very brief, life is very short. And that life is very beautiful. And the more we focus on the truth of those two things, then by and large, the happier we will be. Painting is about those two things: brevity and beauty.

I remember this interview very well. I was – quite rightly – nervous of Chomsky, who is a formidable intellect. When he suggested that "if you believed something different, you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting", I immediately realised that this was not so much brilliant, as unanswerable. He comes quite close to the position that the propaganda model means "everybody who disagrees with me". And the conversation was taking place in the context of me expressing disbelief, in his view, that all mainstream journalists were essentially the same - I had said that it seemed to me the Guardian and the Telegraph posed very different world views. And that journalists varied hugely in their own politics and temperament. He is brilliant, but he is a brilliant conspiracist, so therefore no, it wasn't a matter of the proverbial penny dropping, still less an epiphany.

The single most important thing about recovering from a stroke, is realising that you can't do many of the things you used to be able to do; and therefore replacing them with new things you can do and still enjoy. It's all about not dwelling on your disabilities, but on your abilities. For instance, I can't run, I can't cycle, I can't swim, I can't ski and I can't paint outside. And so now what I do is paint in the studio, go to the gym, I do physio, and I'm learning to enjoy long, albeit rather slow, walks. Give him all my best.