On meeting an icon..............

At the moment the media are replete with the views of people who admire Mrs Thatcher. And it's their right to do so but I'm not one of them. Nevertheless, in the wee small hours of this morning, unable to sleep, I found myself pondering about who I do admire (and why).

I have always leant towards the iconoclastic and have never rated the rich and famous, sportspeople, celebrities, titles or position holders. Before Morpheus embraced me in her arms once more, I concluded that the criteria for inclusion on my list of people I admire are that the individual must have fulfilled one or more of the following. I have to:

• Respect work they’ve done
• Have learned something significant from them
• Respect the way they conduct themselves
• Respect the way they treat and care for others

I'm only going to mention one person who features on my list and that is Bruce Kent, senior statesman of the British CND movement. I've admired him from afar since I became interested in CND in the mid-60s. I'd never met him until I had the priviledge of spending a few hours with him last week reminding the good citizens of Tavistock of the perfidy that is Trident. I must admit that I was quite nervous about meeting him. What if he was not as I imagined? In the event, I was not disappointed. He was a gentle, pleasant man with an undiminished passion for the cause he has espoused so frevently for the last 50 years: 84 years old and as sharp as ever. To see him engage with and dispell hostility was a masterclass in action. He even got us a surprisingly sympathetic review in our local newspaper, the Tavistock Times (double click on the image to read it - should you wish. And the chap sitting down on the right? We've got no idea who he is - he just sat down when we were getting ready and he seemed so happy to have a chance to be in the shot that we didn't have the heart to tell him to push off. After all, we are the Tavistock Peace Action Group!)