There Is Something In Me That Makes

My Closest Friend, Who Died Not Long Ago, Is Buried Near Marx's Grave In Highgate Cemetery, So I See The Gaggle Of Admirers Laying Roses At The Foot Of His Tombstone Regularly. I Have Never Been Tempted To Leave Flowers There Myself. Great Theories, Shame About The Practice. Marx Did Many Things. But Inventing Class Was Not One Of Them.

If You Look At The Other People Around At The Time - Charles Clarke, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw - They've All Gone. And They're Not Old. What's Happened Is That Someone Who Is Quite Old - Jeremy Corbyn - Is Now Leader. We Have To Take Some Responsibility For That.

May I Share With You My Earliest Memory Of A Political Row? It Was With My Mother, About The Queen - Classic Freudian Stuff, Shrinks Would Say. I Was Eight, And Refusing To Watch The Queen's Christmas Day Broadcast.

Tony's [blair] Convinced I'm Going To Find God. I Do Have Spiritual Moments, But I Don't Think It's God.

So Here Is One Of My Theories On Happiness: We Cannot Know If We Have Lived A Truly Happy Life Until The Very End. This View Of Life And Death Was Reinforced By My Close Witnessing Of The Buildup To The Death Of Philip Gould. Philip Was Without Doubt My Closest Friend In Politics. When He Died, I Felt Like I Had Lost A Limb.