The Daily Novel

Went back to my computer after dinner. Never a good idea. This evening discovered that Holly has labelled me the oldest participant at the first UK Word Camp 2008 held in Birmingham last weekend. I think she is probably right. But how does she know? Participants were not required to state their date of birth when they booked their tickets. And how old people look is very different from their actual age. It is not only me who gets it wrong in guessing people’s ages.

This fact was brought home to me very vividly recently when on Saturday, 12 July, I had a front stand at the Durham Miners’ Gala. I got to my position, struggling breathless through the crowds, directly opposite the Royal County Hotel, where various dignitaries with gold chains were waving to the marchers in the early afternoon.

Just after I arrived one section of the Miners came by, with a banner showing a picture of that hero of the British working classes, Tony Benn. To my amazement, there leading the march with the zest of a fifteen year old was the man himself. No doubt about it, because I met him several times during my journalistic life. Sadly the crowd was so dense that I could not get out my mobile phone soon enough to take his picture.

Benn is now 83, which is seven years older than me, looks young in limb and young at heart. Much younger than the chaps in their mobility carts, who plague the pavements of Charmouth and Camden Town. Who probably took early retirement from their highly paid management jobs at around fifty. And are still not old enough to get their Senior Railcard.

So how come he looks so young? Is it because he has been addicted to tea all his life (he needs at least 25 cups a day to keep going)? Contrast me who is seriously addicted to cigarettes and drinks far more than the recommended glass of the doctors.

Or is it because that this workers’ champion had an extremely priviledged upbringing amongst the English upper middle classes. He inhaled the fresh country air whereas I inhaled the stink of the Black Country.

Or is it because he always stood up for what he believed in? Even though he was labelled as the leader of the loony left by the media. Today he does not seem so loony. Even moderate British Conservatives are not all sure that the Iraq war was a good idea.

This is just a short taster. I hope to be around to write Benn’s obituary. But I would not bet on it.

Below are the most recent pic I can find of Tony Benn, date unknown, and the other pic of me taken by Holly last weekend.

Who looks the oldest? You decide.