Memories can't wait

Have been challenged by Tom Harris to participate in a chain blog thing instigated by Iain Dale, where I have to recall where I was, what I was doing and how I felt at certain key moments in history. So here goes...

Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997

Was still in bed, early-ish on a Sunday morning, (well, early for a Sunday) when the phone rang, Jonny Boy answered it - and then came in to tell me the news. We spent the rest of the day watching the television, like virtually everyone else, and being slightly embarrassed by the fact that we were so interested.

Margaret Thatcher's resignation - 22 November 1990

I would have been at law college at the time. But... if I'm honest, I really can't remember when or how I heard, which is a bit bizarre. I assume we celebrated, but I think it all felt like a bit of an anti-climax. I'd rather have seen her lose an election.

Attack on the twin towers - 11 September 2001

I was at the TUC conference in Brighton, in the visitors' gallery waiting for Tony Blair's speech. There'd been a fair bit of pre-publicity about how he was going to be given a hard time by the union delegates, with staged walk-outs and organised heckling, so the atmosphere was tense. Then the Chair, Bill Morris, announced that two planes had crashed into the Twin Towers. A few minutes later, Blair came in, said a few words - which was when we realised it was a suspected terrorist attack - and headed back to London. The conference was called-off, we headed out to the foyer where we watched repeat clips of the planes flying into the towers, and then a bunch of us ended up in Phil from Tribune's hotel room, watching the news coverage. I remember copious amounts of Jack Daniels being consumed by some people in the room, and the rumour that more than 50 planes were missing. Everyone was stunned, and some people were in tears.

England's World Cup Semi Final v Germany in - 4 July 1990

Watching it with a bunch of mates, because that's what we always do. I think this one was round my house, which would have put me in charge of keeping the supplies of veggie sausage rolls, potato wedges, Pringles, tortilla chips, chilli dips and other nutritious food coming. The lads - Dan, Ray, Bronek - would have been abusing the England players, especially Chris Waddle; I would have been telling them off for not cheering 'our boys' on (and also suggesting that Chris Waddle was perhaps a slighter better player than any of them); and Jonny Boy would have been pretending he knew something about football. Oh, and this was New Order's year, wasn't it - so I may have been doing my notorious version of the John Barnes rap.... 'You've got to hold and give but do it at the right time, you can be slow or fast but you must get to the line...' Yes, I know all the words.

President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963

I wasn't born.

I now have the task of nominating five other people to do the same. So - I nominate:

Hopi Sen

Mrs Blogs blogs

The Bristol Blogger

Fair Deal Phil

Paul Flynn MP

Over to you folks!

Conversation intercom

I've always enjoyed reading stuff by Sarfraz Manzoor, the some time Guardian/ Observer columnist - it's quite bizarre reading the memoirs of someone who went to the same Sixth Form College as you, got the same bus to town (the number 6), hung out in the same coffee shop (Greenfields, although in my case 'hanging out' meant working there, with my nan. And it was called the Golden Egg in my day).

He's got an interesting piece on the Guardian's Comment is Free site at the moment. I kind of know what he's saying, but I think Bochi and theloonyfromCatford hit the nail on the head.

Speaking of lovable Tories, here's an interesting extract from a recent Westminster Hall debate on Reconstructing Afghanistan. Interesting in that many people believe Hansard is a verbatim report of what is said in a debate. It's not: our incoherent outpourings are cleaned up, clarified, and generally reconstructed until they are fit for human consumption.

Robert Smith (Lib Dem): I also want to reinforce the issue of the status of women. Failing to engage the women of Afghanistan means denying half the resource of the country to its development and its future. We saw many positive things in that context. We visited the microfinance initiative in Kabul and saw women entrepreneurs. Women got the microfinance loans, because they could be trusted to repay them. The men were far too unreliable a business investment.
Nicholas Soames Nonsense
Robert Smith: Mr. Soames says from a sedentary position, "Oh, balls," but that was the practical reality on the ground that was discovered.
Tobias Ellwood I am not sure he said that.
Robert Smith Perhaps he did not; it was something to that effect.
Martyn Jones (the Chairman) Order. The hon. Gentleman must have misheard.
Robert Smith I must have misheard him, yes.

I was there for this debate. Robert Smith didn't mishear (and he knows he didn't). And what he was saying has been the case in every developing country I've visited. Take the leading microfinance institution Grameen Bank, for example; 97% of its customers are women and they're very reluctant to lend to men.

I've questioned this on my visits, and have been fascinated as to the impact it must have on gender relations - for example, I met a woman in Bangladesh who had started off with a small loan, bought some chickens, ended up buying a taxi, then some land, and proudly showed me the house she had built for her family - and then the one she had built for her son, and then the one she had built for her daughter. I asked what her husband thought about her being the breadwinner. Her response was a mixture of 'who knows' and 'who cares'!

The "Queen" is dead

About a week ago I had a very vivid dream, in which a radio announcer proclaimed "Margaret Thatcher has died". It was so vivid it woke me up, and I switched on the radio, only to get someone talking about pigs on Farming Today. But here's something to ponder.... Should Margaret Thatcher have a state funeral? You have a day left to vote.