Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Lord William Waldegrave has released his account of one of the most exciting times in British politics' modern age.

Educated at Eton, Oxford and Harvard, and serving in Cabinet from 1990-97, Waldegrave's memoir reflects on the passing of an era.

A Different Kind of Weather is a memoir of political successes and failures, detailing all the drama of life in Westminster during a transitional period of power. Here we find out what he feels about the current political climate.

 Did you enjoy the writing process behind _A Different Kind of Weather_?

I did, I wrote it over four years and it changed quite a lot through that time. At the beginning there was probably too much immediate anger about things. That all disappeared and then I had to be careful not to go too far the other way and make it too impersonal. I did begin to enjoy it, and I had good advice from my daughters, Katie and Harriet, and my wife, Caroline, too.

Reflecting back, how has politics changed since you were in cabinet yourself?

Well some things have changed a lot, I mean the civil service that I wrote about really has changed, not always for the better I think; everybody seems to be on short term contracts and things now which is sad.

I think politics is in a pretty low state at the moment in terms of trust and it needs a lot of rebuilding.

Do you think there's always been a bit of an integrity problem with politics or is this a recent phenomenon?

We've tended to begin to import - and I'm afraid some of it from America - this sort of 'attack' kind of politics. There's always been competition in politics and there's always been tough politicians but ultimately I think there has to be a line drawn somewhere on how much attacking you can do.

Because of course, if all politicians say that all other politicians are liars, then in the end the public is going to say, 'well if they all say they are all liars, why shouldn't we believe them?'

Were you inspired by any other political memoirs when you were researching your own?

There were some other really good memoirs, I thought Ferdinand Mount's was a good one, and one from long ago by Jock Colville that was really good. However do you remember Spike Milligan wrote a really good take off of war memoirs called _Hitler and My Part in His Downfall_? I tried to get away from the ones that said that everything that had gone right was down to them and everything that went wrong was done by somebody else. We all make mistakes and the best thing is to try, difficult as it is, to be truthful.

Do you think you'll be reading Nigel Farage's autobiography?

I think I'll leave it for a few years probably and see where we get to [laughs]. Because you can't tell when things are too near, you've got to see the shape of things I think and let the dust settle a little bit.

Do you think UKIP is a danger to the Tories in the upcoming elections?

Curiously enough I think it's a danger to all parties including Labour and including the Liberals. Because I think it tries to say things which are not really realistic; they get people to say their prejudices and then vote for them whereas most people are wiser than that and I think it's a pity if people try and stir up the negative aspects of politics all the time. Churchill said trust the electorate and that's the best logo of all I think.

Why do you think young people aren't voting at the moment - does this need addressing?

I do think it is partly because most young people are hopeful and have some ideals and want to make things better and I think there is a danger of looking at politicians attacking each other all the time and thinking, I really don't find this very attractive. Lots of young people get involved in single campaigns, they do work for voluntary organisations, they go work abroad, they do all kinds of good things, but they don't seem to be joining political parties so much and I think the political parties ought to think about that carefully.

 Lord William Waldegrave is the author of _A Different Kind of Weather_, published by Constable, out now.