Red Ron

One of the good things about August in Edinburgh is that pals who were previous residents tend to return for the festivals. Ron and I were at university here in the seventies, and as I've previously blipped, we manned the barricades together, protesting about anything and everything, but especially Margaret Thatcher. Ron was the furthest left of us all, and while the rest of us have backslid over the years, surreptitiously sending our kids to fee-paying schools and having our gammy knees fixed privately, he has remained true to the cause. He's still a big cheese in UNISON, and more pertinently, he's a pal of Billy Bragg. Who is playing in Edinburgh soon - I'm counting on bribery still being an acceptable currency of the far left.

For the avoidance of doubt, Ron was twice my age when we were students. Just as I'm roughly three times as old as my new college pals.