I’m old enough to have experienced the good and bad over the years. I witnessed the first moon landing and English World Cup victory in ‘66 on a tiny black and white TV screen. I remember the moment I heard of Kennedy’s assassination when living in Hong Kong where I also experienced devastating typhoons which drove merchant ships onto roads, and small fishing boats onto rail tracks. I remember the day I took 9 wickets for 1 run against a novice cricket team for my Kowloon based school.

I remember selling a Liden whitewood trolley to Paul McCartney for his movie projector while working at Harrods when the four Beatles visited for their Christmas shopping. The tabloids the following day shouted that Harrods had stayed open especially for the band which is untrue. Every Christmas Harrods invited blind children to play in the annual Toy Fair. They happened to be there when the band visited and when the Beatles heard of this went up to the Toy Fair and played with the children…

When living in Australia, I experienced frightening bush fires in both Sydney and Adelaide with gum trees exploding some distance away from the seat of the fires. In Sydney we escaped with just our passports expecting our new home to be destroyed before a wind change saved it.

Politically I’ve seen parties and prime ministers come and go. I remember Thatcher predicting Climate Change but, like those that followed her, doing nothing to mitigate or protect against its damaging effects. I remember miners’ strikes and Thatcher’s order to sink the Belgrano with hundreds of lost souls on a ship sailing away from the conflict. More recently Blair’s lies that led to the Iraq war and the loss of thousands of innocent lives, and the subsequent increase in Middle Eastern conflicts and terrorism (in line with authoritative predictions relating to the Iraq war but ignored by Blair and Bush). I remember the devastating outcome of the inspectors’ report that concluded there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and certainly no 45-minute threat. The parliamentary debate that sanctioned the war was like the blind leading the blind, and despite the largest anti-war protests ever through the streets of London (numbering over 1 million people).

I began to wonder some time ago whether politics worked. Then came Cameron and his needless, suicidal EU referendum and the coup that saw Boris Johnson lead a dishonest campaign to leave the EU and ultimately become prime minister installed effectively by the extreme right of the Conservative party. A massive election victory followed aided and abetted by Labour’s leader Jeremy Corbin who promised so much more than he could ever deliver to a disbelieving population.

The catch phrases ‘Get Brexit Done’ and ‘Taking Back Control’ struck a popular note with many voters who actually believed the marketing rhetoric. Johnson rid himself of all the wise and independent-thinking Tory MPs and surrounded himself with sycophantic loyalists including previously sacked ministers and Brexit fanatics. I warned Starmer that Johnson would strike an EU trade deal at any cost to cement his position. And with a majority of 80 ambitious MPs Johnson got a very free ride - even getting parliamentary support to prorogue parliament and mislead the Queen in the process.