Nelson Mandela - A Personal Tribute

Nelson Mandela commanded an enormous degree of respect from leaders across the world and will be a great loss to us all.

He truly was one of the great souls of the last century along with Mahatma Gandhi who he credited for being a major source of inspiration in his life, especially with his philosophy of non-violence. Both Gandhi and Mandela were leaders who were imprisoned for years by oppressive regimes and now their statues share a place on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, South Africa.

While Gandhi influenced Mandela, a young Gandhi himself was mentored by Dadabhai Naoroji who was the first British Indian MP elected for Finsbury Central in July 1892. He was a Liberal and 112 years later, the second British Indian Liberal MP was elected in Leicester. A city where even Winston Churchill failed to win when he stood as a Liberal Parliamentary candidate.

And where did I derive a great deal of my political inspiration from, none other than Nelson Mandela, having spent my student years along with countless others campaigning for a free South Africa.

Nelson Mandela was highly critical of the decision that Tony Blair took to attack Iraq so when the world's media descended on Leicester in July 2004 to witness the historic Leicester South by-election, referred to as the British referendum on Iraq, I was proud to play my part in delivering a defeat on Tony Blair and his Labour government. One of the few defeats that he endured during his 13 years of leadership. That was how far Nelson Mandela's reach could extend.