Happy Birthday Mr President!

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As I sat in a traffic jam this morning, waiting for the police to clear a smushed up pick-up truck (a rare sight on Britain's roads) that had driven into the back of a bigger truck, the radio reminded me that today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela. As I sat waiting for traffic and life to start again, I couldn't help but reflect on greatness. At a time when presidents are either poisoning ex spies in my home town and swearing they had nothing to do with rigging elections, or revealing that they don't really know the difference between the words 'Would' and 'Wouldn't', it's good to take a moment to remember a president who changed his own country and changed the world. Mandela was one of a kind and I doubt we'll see his like again. A man who could put years of persecution and incarceration behind him and treat all people of all colours as equal in his 'rainbow nation' will be remembered long after Donald Trump is written off as one of life's political bad jokes, and Mr Putin takes his place along side Joseph Stalin on the list of baddies you try not to bring up in conversation. Happy Birthday Mr President - a long and good life and a man who is missed around the world.