Tuesday 2nd May
In my teens I was certain that I was going to change the World. Quite how was not clearly defined; maybe a as pop-star, though I was tone deaf; an artist was an idea & I did continue drawing and painting for years but was hardly breaking new ground; a film actor was a definite possibility – I just had to be discovered…
But as my twenties arrived it was Politics my ambitions coalesced around. I joined Finchley Labour Party and soon became heavily involved; constituency secretary and standing as a candidate for the local council (failed). I met Thatcher a couple of times, she was my local M.P. I went to Conference twice and met and invited both Tony Benn and Michael Foot to Finchley where they both spoke. I had dreams of becoming an M.P. myself, and could possibly have got that far if I had stayed the course. But the personal tragedy of the break-up of my marriage to Joy so overwhelmed me that I withdrew into myself and left active Politics in the early eighties.
I never quite lost that dream though. But I am now no longer sure that the biggest changes come from conventional Politics. It is people’s ideas and convictions that have to change first. Mine have never really faltered, though I am often disappointed that the very disadvantaged people I and my party are desperate to help are so easily seduced by personal greed, perceived self-interest and celebrity.
I watched an interview on Sky with Blair, he was saying that the old divisions of left and right were meaningless in the 21st Century. Maybe he is right. At times it is easy to get despondent; Brexit and Trump and all – but we all change the world every day in everything we do. Those ideas forged in the Summer of Love are still potent 50 years later. And you reading this blog has changed the World a little bit. But most dangerous is doing nothing which allows others to change the World at your expense.